LabVIEW Drivers
NEW - Project Style Drivers for the models
7230, 7270, 7280, 7265 and 7225
We are pleased to offer free LabVIEW drivers for most of the computer controllable instruments in our product range, suitable for use with LabVIEW version 8.2 and later.
What's Included?
In accordance with National Instrument's
recommendations, all drivers that operate instruments via GPIB, RS232,
USB, or Ethernet interfaces use the NI VISA software extensions. The advantage of
this is that they are portable to any platform supported by LabVIEW and
NI VISA, not only the PC, and that it is possible to build systems using
multiple instances of the same instrument. For example, two model 7230's
used for ratiometric spectroscopy can be operated from the same program.
Note, though that the drivers for the models 3820, 3830, Eclipse and FastFlight-2 use an
underlying ActiveX control for instrument communication, and hence will
only work on computers running Windows.
Each driver includes a basic VI to handle communications to and from the instrument. This generally takes the form of a VISA Write/Read VI that will write any of the commands listed in an instrument's instruction manual to the instrument and handles the response, if any. Complex responses, such as curve downloads and responses to compound commands are decoded correctly, and the VI operates via any of the interfaces supported by the instrument (Ethernet, USB, RS232, or GPIB). It also generally determines the instrument's status (e.g. overload and reference lock) and makes these available as Boolean outputs. Other basic VI's are supplied to open and close VISA sessions, to determine the instrument's status, firmware revision and perform a reset operation.
The next level of VI's support the different instrument controls and read the required outputs. These VI's save the last setting sent to the instrument so that if called repeatedly they do not generate unnecessary commands over the interface, thereby speeding up programs that use them. At the top level the drivers include some Application Examples and a Getting Started VI. The latter operates essentially as a "static interface" routine, and is a good template to use for building your own program, while the Application Examples generally take the form of a soft front panel and show how the lower level VIs can be combined to yield a useful program.
The new Project Style drivers are suitable for LabVIEW 2014 and later. When installed they populate LabVIEW's instrument driver palette with VIs for the selected instrument, making it much simpler to choose the VI your project needs. The VIs are stored in a folder hierarchy, rather than a single library file, which makes it easier to see which files are in use. A new instruction manual is also available and included with the driver download to make it even simpler to get started with with LabVIEW control of our products. It is also available by clicking the link below.
| Description | Rev | P/N |
| NEW | A | MNL-A-12102020 |
Drivers are supplied in either WinZip (.zip) or LabVIEW library file (.llb) formats. The former may be read directly by PC's running Windows while LabVIEW library files can be opened directly from within LabVIEW and are also suitable for use on platforms other than the PC.
To download a driver, click on the required file name and, when prompted, choose to save it to your computer.
Project Style Drivers suitable for use with LabVIEW 2014 and later
| Model Number | WinZip File (.zip) for Windows |
| 7220, 7225, 7225BFP, 7260 or 7265 | |
| 7230 (requires installation of NI-VISA USB driver if using USB for communications - click here to locate) |
|
| 7270 (requires installation of NI-VISA USB driver if using USB for communications - click here to locate) |
|
| 7280 or 7280BFP |
Legacy Drivers suitable for use with LabVIEW 8.2 and later
| Model Number | WinZip File (.zip) for Windows | Uncompressed LabVIEW Library file (.llb) or Virtual Instrument file (.vi) for Mac, Sun, Unix, etc |
| 3820 | ||
| 3830 | ||
| 5113 | ||
| 5105 or 5106 | ||
| 5109 or 5110 | Not Available | Not Available |
| 5209 or 5210 | ||
| 5302 | Not Available | Not Available |
| 7220, 7225, 7225BFP, 7260 or 7265 | ||
| 7230 (requires installation of NI-VISA USB driver if using USB for communications - click here to locate) |
||
| 7270 (requires installation of NI-VISA USB driver if using USB for communications - click here to locate) |
||
| 7280 or 7280BFP | ||
| 7124 (requires installation of NI-VISA USB driver if using USB for communications - click here to locate) |
||
| 7310 | ||
| 9650A | ||
| 4100 (2 x 4161A plus, optionally, 1 x 9650A) | ||
| Eclipse | ||
| FastFlight-2 |