When I connect my U2352A to Command Expert the connection process shows an IVI-C and IVI.net command set available. I have successfully connected using IVI-C and issued some commands.
When I connect my U2352A to VeePro 9.33 (Windows 10) I can open the Advanced Instrument Properties box and go to the IVI-Com driver tab. However there the IVI-COMDriver/Session Name is showing "Unknown". The pull down has nothing else available.
Should the driver be visible in this drop down?
I assumed that IVI-C was an abbreviation of IVI-COM. Is your post stating that this is not the case.
Correct. IVI-C, IVI-com, IVI-net are all different beasts. "C" has a C function interface. "COM" has com interface. "NET" has dotnet interface. Stan
PS- as for the "command expert sequence" menu pick/object in the VEE example video you referenced, that's not part of VEE but would appear to be an EVO that has been added. That EVO may have been added as part of Command Expert or it was created otherwise. If you have a command expert install poke around and see if you can find a ".xmnu" or ".mnu" file in that install. If so that's likely where the menu pick comes from- and the EVO itself is likely nearby. If not, well, it may well be that whoever made that video added the EVO.
Thank you Stan, That clears a few things up. I'll report back on how I go.
I was curious so did a little poking, and sure enough the "command expert sequence" menu pick in VEE comes from Command Expert. Wander by your Command Expert install and find the addons\VEE directory. In there you'll find the .xmnu I suspected along with bitmap\ and lib\ directories. After a quick perusal the menu file, it would appear that copying these three to your VEE install should get you going. This does create a dependncy as the EVO is sitting in your Command Expert install, but if that's not an issue you should see the menu pick and object over in VEE.
Yes. I found them too. I'll pop them into the Vee directory. I assume that as the EVO is an addon to the functionality of the development environment the dependency you mention above does not carry through to a Vee executable used with the runtime environment. However I might be wrong.
Maybe. Depends upon what the object does and how you use it. If it stays in the program then it runs at runtime and the dependency is there.
Stan
Hi Stan,
I have made some progress on the Command Expert EVO.
By reference to
https://www.keysight.com/au/en/assets/7018-03238/application-notes/5990-9437.pdf
and some experimentation in file placement I have got this far.
CommandExpert.vee is in fact a text file.
and line 16 looks like the final line of a structure dealing with the dlls.
Oh dear! you write all this out and the answer leaps out. The dlls are still named Agilent.
Well, I'll do some renaming and see how I go.
Unfortunately no progress. I renamed the dll to "Keysight.CommandExpert.Addons.VEE.dll" and tried placing it at every level of the Vee installation directory structure. The result is unchanged from above.
I notice that "Keysight.CommandExpert.Addons.VEE.CommandExpertEvo" is not present in the original Command Expert directories were we found the files. I will try and make it by reference to Appendix B in
And no luck. Parse error above unchanged.
I put a copy CommandExpert.evo at each level of the Vee install directory.
<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-16” standalone=“no”?>
<Extensibility xmlns=“http://www.Keysight.com/Schemas/AutomationExtensibility”>
<HostApplication>
<Name>Keysight VEE</Name>
<!-- Change to appropriate VEE version, i.e. 9.3 -->
<Version>9.33</Version>
</HostApplication>
<Addin>
<!-- EVO default name displays in Device menu -->
<FriendlyName>Command Expert Sequence</FriendlyName>
<!-- Text in status bar when the EVO menu item is highlighted in VEE -->
<Description>Command Expert Sequence</Description>
<!-- The full path of the EVO assembly -->
<!-- In the example below, VEE will search ExpressionGraph.dll in
Addins folder -->
<!-- If full absolute path e.g. C:\MyProject\ExpressionGraph.dll is specified, VEE will search for the
assembly in the path specified. -->
<Assembly>Keysight.CommandExpert.Addons.VEE.dll</Assembly>
<!-- The full class name of the EVO -->
<FullClassName>Keysight.CommandExpert.Addons.VEE.CommandExpertEvo</FullClassName>
<!-- Currently not in use, leave it as 0 -->
<StartUp>0</StartUp>
<!-- Display icon picture when EVO is minimized in VEE -->
<!-- In example below, VEE will look for info.gif in VeeInstallDir\bitmaps\myIcon folder-->
<!-- If full absolute path is specified e.g. C:\MyIcon\info.gif, VEE will search for the icon in the path
specified. -->
<Icon>CommandExpert\CommandExpertSequence.gif</Icon>
<!-- Set to 1,to add EVO into the Device menu. If 0, the EVO will not be visible -->
<CreateMenu>1</CreateMenu>
</Addin>
</Extensibility>
In my final experiment I renamed the .evo file to Keysight.CommandExpert.Addons.VEE.CommandExpertEvo so as to match the contents of commandExpert.vee.
No success, result the same.
Device type: EXVEEOBJECT
Filename: C:\Program Files (x86)\Keysight\VEE Pro 9.3\lib\CommandExpert\CommandExpert.vee
Line number: 16
Can you identify the U2352A serial number for us? I'm checking if we can get some help from Keysight support teams directly.
Have you tried reading the U2352A programming manual and using direct IO in VEE to send the same commands?
https://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/U2351-90202.pdf?id=893273
Direct IO to the U2352A in Vee has worked with the 64bit driver.
Steven; This is the assessment of one of our VEE support team members.
I included the images from his reply at the bottom. Drew
I don’t think we need to make use of the Extensible VEE. It will make it overly convoluted.
Going back to what Steven was doing; He was using Command Expert and he downloaded the IVI-COM driver for U2532A within Command Expert, and after installing it, he manages to send a few commands through it. Then he goes over to VEE and then he cannot find it in the drop-down list in the Advanced Instrument Properties à IVI-COM Driver tab. Then he tries to get it out by using the EVO, so on and so forth.
These are my findings:
Hope this can help
While using the 32-bit IVI-COM driver would seem the obvious way to go, the question regarding the EVO remains unanswered. My guess would be that the Command Expert's EVO was written for a previous version of VEE (whatever one was used in Keysight's video) but that it wasn't updated to work with the current VEE. From the thread it would seem to maybe be as simple as branding ("agilent" vs "keysight"). In any case it would appear that the Command Expert team needs to update their code.
Drew- any chance you can track down the CE team and see if they will take care of this?
Stan
Drew & Stan, thank you for your excellent support. I have Sharon in Singapore booked for a online face to face today. She will remote desktop my PC and have a shot at sorting this out. I will alert her to your findings beforehand.
I viewed the driver issue has having two facets.
Firstly the U2352A is a USB device so it needs some sort of driver. The 64 bit driver works with Command expert and BenchVue. The 64 bit driver seems to consolidates the USB hardware driver into an IVI driver.
Secondly it would be nice to have the IVI driver work in Vee. However I might not need this. I have observed the 64 bit driver enable simple SCPI interaction with the U2352A in Vee.
After noting the absence of the IVI driver from Vee I did some experiments at Sharon's direction. These were downgrades to older versions and trying the old hardware(only) driver. The process of uninstalling drivers and trying others has rendered communication to the U2352A permanently impossible with any driver. Clearly the Win10 driver registration process is untidy and a thorough purge of all old driver remnants needs to take place.
I will be happy with the 64 bit driver for Command Expert and the a fixed Command Expert EVO. I will compose sequences in Command Expert and "import" them as per the EVO technique.
If the Command Expert EVO requires the 32 bit IVI driver I'm in trouble.
If my preferred scenario is not possible I will fall back to using version 2.0.12.1 and learn the IVI way.
Hi Folks,
I have followed Sharon's instructions exactly and re-established contact with the instrument. I started by uninstalling everything to do with Agilent/Keysight equipment and software.
The result was immediate connection to Connection Expert and Vee. We then created an IVI connection to the U2352A. I requested they fix the Command Expert Vee Object. One of the engineers on the video call pointed out the the U2352A is not officially supported in Command Expert. I will probably be proceeding in the IVI manner as it seems less cumbersome that the Direct IO Object.
All's well that ends well.
Sharon's instructions.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As per requested by our division, kindly ensure you have the followings installed before meeting:
1) Ensure PC is install with latest Keysight IO Libraries version IO Libraries Suite:
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=2175637&lc=eng&cc=AU&nid=-33330.977662&id=2175637&pageMode=CV
2) Install the latest version AMM/KMM:
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=883008&lc=eng&cc=US&nid=-32544.1150117&id=883008
Our software installation need to run as administrator. Right click on the installer and run as administrator.
3) Install the Hardware Driver for Keysight USB Modular DAQ and U2781A USB Modular Chassis Version 2.01. This is the link to the driver:
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=1772072&lc=eng&cc=US&nid=-32544.1150117&id=1772072
4) Install the IVI Instrument Drivers:
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?cc=MY&lc=eng&nid=-33239.384458&id=1540216&pageMode=CV
5) Install previous version of IVI-COM from:
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?cc=MY&lc=eng&nid=-33239.384458&id=1540216&pageMode=PV
Kindly uninstall the unnecessary current driver/software [which is not related to above from 1) to 5)] from the Control Panel of your PC.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well, you more or less answered your own question. Note that your investigation found IVI-C and IVI-net drivers. However over in VEE you are asking for an IVI-com driver, so unless you find and download such a driver you really can't expect VEE to do much for you. So- poke around Keysight (or NI if you can't find anything at Keysight) and find the IVI-com driver, install it and then go back to VEE and you should be able to proceed more successfully.