September 2018
This file contains important information about NI-488.2, including installation instructions, new features, and a partial list of bugs fixed for NI-488.2.
If you plan to use LabVIEW NXG, refer to LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations.
This readme contains the following main sections:
Product Security and Critical Updates
LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1
NI-488.2 supports the following operating systems:
Note Support for Windows 32-bit operating systems may require disabling physical address extension (PAE). To learn how this might affect your system and what actions you might need to take, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code PAESupport.
1 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.
2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
NI-488.2 has known compatibility issues with the Fast Startup feature introduced in Windows 8. Leaving Fast Startup enabled can cause GPIB hardware and NI-488.2 driver software to function improperly. To prevent problems with installing or removing hardware, National Instruments recommends disabling Fast Startup. The NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 15.5 installer disables Fast Startup by default. For more information about this issue, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code Win8FastStartup.
Upgrading Windows on a system with NI-488.2 already installed renders DOS Support unusable. To fix this issue, run installation repair. If the driver cannot attach to GPIB hardware, run installation repair a second time.
Win16 and DOS support are available on 32-bit Windows operating systems.
The following table lists the application software versions, including service packs, that NI-488.2 supports. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.
| Application Software | Versions Supported by Product |
|---|---|
| NI-VISA | 18.51 |
| LabVIEW | 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 |
| LabVIEW NXG | 3.0 |
| LabWindows™/CVI™ | 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 |
| Measurement Studio | 2012, 2013, 2015 |
| 1 Any version of NI-VISA prior to 5.1 on your system may cause NI-488.2 usability issues. Upgrade to NI-VISA version 5.1 or later before using any NI-488.2 devices. | |
Note: NI I/O Trace 17.0 and later support NI-488.2 17.0. Previous versions of NI I/O Trace do not support NI-488.2 17.0 or later.
If you are using the NI-488.2 .NET Class Library, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The NI-488.2 .NET Class Library can be used with Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET in any Visual Studio version that can target .NET Framework 4.0 or .NET Framework 4.5.
To use the .NET API, you must install the .NET class libraries or the .NET wrapper in addition to the NI device driver. For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, as well as the download location of the installer files, refer to the National Instruments .NET Driver Support document at ni.com/info and enter Info Code NETAPIdriversupport.
NI-488.2 supports 32-bit Visual Basic 6.0 application development. For more information, refer to the Language-Specific Programming Instructions topic in the NI-488.2 Help.
NI-488.2 supports 32-bit and 64-bit GPIB applications using Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 and later. Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.0 and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 only support 32-bit GPIB applications. For more information, refer to the Language-Specific Programming Instructions topic in the NI-488.2 Help.
The following list contains the NI hardware supported by NI-488.2 on Windows:
1 This hardware is end-of-life and not recommended for new designs.
You can install all of your LabVIEW products—including NI-488.2—using the LabVIEW Platform media.
To request additional LabVIEW Platform media, refer to the NI website.
Note
NI automates LabVIEW NXG installation using NI Package Manager. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the NI website for an up-to-date list of known issues in NI-488.2.
373478: In a multicontroller application, all controllers used in the application would report EPWR error if one of the controllers lost power resulting in an EPWR error.
568289: Removing GPIB USB controllers from the system while saving configuration in MAX resulted the GPIB USB controllers not being removed in MAX.
670170: A hang might occur during an I/O operation if a Service Request is stuck when Autopolling is happening.
647895: As a result of an issue introduced in a previous version of NI-488.2, ibnotify for a Service Request may cause a hang when the service request event occurs.
Support for HLK signing for Windows 10.
Support for Borland C dropped.
582112: In rare cases, connecting a GPIB-USB-HS+ interface to a system could cause the computer to crash.
569142: Installer indicates that NI I/O Trace is required for NI-488.2.
433395: Extra delay on ibwait and ibstop was removed for GPIB Ethernet-based hardware.
538997: An NI4882 API call in a multithreaded or multiprocess application results in an unexpected error due to unprotected API calls when opening a device handle.
542306: When an application exits while there is asynchronous IO pending on ENET interfaces, the application crashes.
557236: GPIB Analyzer crashes when exporting a large capture to a text file.
The configuration experience in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) has been updated to improve consistency with other NI products. Significant changes include:
GPIB interfaces are now fully configurable through the NI Web Configuration interface. Self-Test has also been added.
The NI-488.2 Troubleshooting Utility has been removed. GPIB interfaces may be tested using the Self-Test feature in Measurement & Automation Explorer, or programmatically through the System Configuration API.
506688: The NI-488.2 driver is unable to recover from certain types of USB errors. These errors may occur on some systems when other USB devices are added or removed from the system while a GPIB operation is in progress. In prior versions of NI-488.2, this could lead to a hang in the process using a USB-to-GPIB interface. It could also result in a hang or blue screen error on system shutdown. This scenario now results in an EDVR error when an unrecoverable USB error occurs. To restore operation, the USB connection to the GPIB interface should be removed and reinserted, and the GPIB handle should be closed and re-opened.
518983: As a result of an issue introduced in NI-488.2 14.0, GPIB-USB-B or GPIB-USB-HS I/O bus communication can hang until the handle to the GPIB interface is closed when all of the following conditions are true:
507376: Installer hang might occur during installation of NI software on systems with NI-488.2 14.0 already installed.
478063: GPIB-USB-HS+ might become unresponsive upon rebooting in a virtual machine.
121091: Calling ibonl when a board level ibwait is in progress could result in application crash.
121181: A deadlock might occur when attempting to use a board handle with pending ibonl call on another thread.
476357: GPIB Ethernet Wizard can incorrectly add GPIB-ENET/1000 with hostname even if it is not reachable.
476487: GPIB Ethernet Wizard icon does not appear on Windows task bar.
This release adds support for the GPIB-USB-HS+ GPIB controller and Analyzer. Along with this, the NI GPIB Analyzer utility has undergone changes to allow it to work with the new analyzer hardware. The NI GPIB Analyzer utility allows simultaneous use of multiple GPIB-USB-HS+ analyzers, along with up to one non-USB GPIB analyzer.
This release adds support for Windows Server 2012 R2. Refer to the Supported Hardware section for the list of supported hardware.
The integer types used in the NI4882 API (ni4882.h) have been updated. All uses of unsigned long have been replaced with unsigned int. These types are functionally identical with all supported compilers, and this change improves the portability of 64-bit GPIB applications to other platforms. Users of ibnotify will need to update the function prototypes for callback functions. In most other cases applications will compile cleanly. This change is fully binary-compatible with applications built against previous versions of NI-488.2 and does not impact users of the GPIB-32 API (ni488.h).
NI-488.2 for Windows is now available in a smaller Runtime form. The NI-488.2 Runtime is a minimal installation which does not include many of the utilities and supporting software included with the full NI-488.2 distribution. When building installers from LabVIEW or other NI development environments, you will now have the option of including this smaller subset of NI-488.2 in your distribution.
319093: Attempting to bring a non-existent device online after setting the IbcSendLLO board configuration option causes an ENOL error instead of EBUS. This problem impacted all USB based GPIB interfaces. This has been fixed.
122997: The EOIP status bit could remain set incorrectly if an ibwrta or ibrda call returned an EDVR error.
171688: An ibnotify callback could fail to be triggered by END if the notify condition included END but not CMPL.
205182: Asynchronous transfers could sometimes report EABO even though the transfer completed successfully.
372832: A callback from ibnotify might not be invoked after an asynchronous transfer was completed if the notify mask only contained END.
374822: Calling ibonl while ibnotify is pending could cause the process to crash under some circumstances.
380705: Aborting an ibrda very quickly after starting it could allow a PCI-based GPIB interface to receive data when addressed as a listener, without a read in progress. This data was lost, and could not be recovered.
404267: In some situations, the GPIB-ENET/1000 could hang while performing asynchronous transfers. This included fixes in both the NI-488.2 driver and the GPIB-ENET/1000 firmware. Users of the GPIB-ENET/1000 should update the GPIB-ENET/1000 firmware to version 1.1.0 to receive the full benefit of this fix.
405414: In some cases the DCAS bit was not correctly cleared after being reported, causing it to be reported with subsequent calls.
418661: In some situations, when an ibnotify callback function was triggered due to the completion of an asynchronous transfer, the ibcnt and ibcntl variables would be incorrect.
425931: Calling ibstop with an asynchronous operation in progress would sometimes not report an EABO error as expected.
464114: When using a GPIB-USB-B controller, the call immediately following an ibstop call could be incorrectly aborted.
463966: Severe performance degradation when performing large writes to GPIB-USB-HS hardware through USB 3.0 ports on Windows 7.
332479: On GPIB-USB-B and GPIB-USB-HS controllers, the first I/O operation after device insertion could be terminated prematurely.
240000: On GPIB-USB-B and GPIB-USB-HS controllers, ibwait and ibnotify could fail to detect the CIC, LACS, and TACS bits.
191044: The GPIB Analyzer did not automatically append the correct file extension when saving a capture.
87073: The GPIB Analyzer did not prompt to save if the application is closed while capturing data.
Refer to the NI-488.2 Help, accessible by selecting National Instruments»NI-488.2»GPIB Help from the Windows menu bar.
The following sections detail considerations for using LabVIEW NXG with NI-488.2.
Software support for LabVIEW NXG differs in the following ways:
Support differs for the following devices in LabVIEW NXG:
View context help in LabVIEW by pressing <Ctrl-H> and hovering over an object.
Search for items using the search bar in the upper right corner of the LabVIEW window. You can also view context help for the search results.
Additional documentation is available online at ni.com/manuals.
Launch LabVIEW and click the Learning tab.
LabVIEW lessons are located in the Lessons tab, and LabVIEW Examples are located in the Examples tab. Follow the instructions in the lessons and examples.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.
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