Communicate by NI-GPIB card with an instrument that was designed especially for HP-GPIB

Question

I have an instrument (Data Link Test Set by Apogee Labs) that has GPIB interface and a book of commands.
I have a NI-488.2 card and I try to send commands with the MAX. The device is identified but it respond to the commands by blinking its display and strange hex answer.
The manufacturer said they have no problem like that, but they tested their GPIB interface only with a HP card and not NI card. This is a big problem for me, because it's all part of a deal, and the customer want to have it with NI.
What possible solutions do I have in order to communicate this instrument with NI card, though it was designed only for HP card.

Answer 1

Hi Toti,
GPIB and HPIB are the same thing. They are different names for the IEE 488.2 communication standard. The 488.2 specification is an extension of 488.1 and it is backwards compatible. IEEE 488.2 uses the same electrical specs and low-level states machines. You are probably refering to IEEE 488.1 as HPIB.
IEEE 488.2 defines a set of required commands. MAX uses the ID query command *IDN? to retrieve the instrument ID string. With a non-488.2 compliant instrument the interface is capable of sending and receiving information to the device, but in the particular case of the MAX 'scan for instruments' option the instrument won't recognize the *IDN?. This is way you are getting a error message in the instrument. In MAX you are detecting the instrument
, but it says that it didn't respond to the *IDN? query.
To test the device, review the instrument's documentation and determine the ID query command (if any). It might be something like 'ID?'. Then use the MAX 'communicate with instrument' utility or the interactive control (ibic) to send the correct command to the instruments.
The botton line: you should be able to communicate with this instrument.
DiegoF
National Instruments.