NAME

Lab::VISA::Installation - Installation guide for Lab::VISA

Introduction

This library has been tested to work on Linux and Windows.

Installation on Windows XP with ActiveState Perl

• Work with administrator account during installation.

• Install VISA (and GPIB drivers) if necessary.

  • Download current VISA release from NI (tested with 4.4.1, 4.5.0)

  • Run installer

  • Check location of visa32.lib (eg. C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib) and remember for later.

• Install Microsoft Visual C++ from http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/

  From now on run all commandline programs during installation only from the "Visual Studio Command line", which can be found in the Start menu.

• Install Perl.

  • Tested with ActivePerl from http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/index.mhtml

  • Make sure to include Perl Package Manager.

  • Make sure to activate the check box to include perl directory in PATH variable.

• Install gnuplot (not mandatory)

  • Download from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055 (gp425win32.zip)

  • Extract and put it somewhere

  • Add directory containing pgnuplot.exe to path: My Computer => Properties => Advanced => Environment Variables

• Install dependencies of our perl modules. Depending on how familiar you are with the perl infrastructure, the easiest might be to use PPM, the Perl Package Manager included with ActivePerl.

  Lab::Tools needs

  XML::Generator (PPM would write it as XML-Generator)
  XML::DOM
  XML::Twig
  YAML

• Install Lab::VISA

  • Unzip/copy sources

  • In file Makefile.PL adapt the LIBS and INC settings according to your installation (the location looked up above). This is what worked for me:

    'LIBS' => ['-"lC:\\Programme\\IVI Foundation\\VISA\\WinNT\\lib\\msc\\visa32.lib"']
    'INC'  => '"-IC:\\Programme\\IVI Foundation\\VISA\\WinNT\\include"'

    You can find the LIBS folder by checking the registry key "InstDir" in folder "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\National Instruments\NI-VISA for Windows 95/NT".

  • Run the following commands in the source directory

    perl Makefile.PL
    nmake
    nmake install

• Install Lab::Instrument and Lab::Tools

  • Unzip/copy sources

  • Run the following commands in the source directory

    perl Build.PL
    perl Build
    perl Build install

• Have fun!

Installation on Windows XP with Strawberry Perl

Strawberry Perl is a Perl distribution for Windows that most closely mimics a Perl installation under Linux. It comes with gcc compiler, dmake and the other relevant tools included.

Lab::VISA should in principle install out of the box with just the command

cpan Lab::VISA

executed on the commandline. Unfortunately there is a bug in ExtUtils::MakeMaker (see https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=49026) that prevents this. Two possible workarounds are provided below, making installation still easy.

• Have Windows and Strawberry Perl installed

• Install NI-VISA

  • Download 361mb file visa462full.exe from http://sine.ni.com/psp/app/doc/p/id/psp-411

  • Install only 'Run Time Support' (I chose all items below that; it's very little)

  • Restart Windows

• Locate msc version of visa32.lib and visa.h and adjust Makefile.PL. This is what worked for me:

  'LIBS' => q("-lC:/Programme/IVI Foundation/VISA/WinNT/lib/msc/visa32.lib"),
  'INC'  => q("-IC:/Programme/IVI Foundation/VISA/WinNT/include"),

• Work around the bug

  • Option 1: Patch MakeMaker

    Apply the change described at https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=49026.

  • Option 2: Edit generated Makefile

    If you don't like to modify the installed version of ExtUtils::MakeMaker, you can edit the generated Makefile. These changes will be lost after executing perl Makefile.PL again though. This option is recommended if you just want to install Lab::VISA.

    • perl Makefile.PL

    • Edit generated Makefile:

      Find the two lines containing the words EXTRALIBS and LDLOADLIBS. Add the "C:\path\to\visa32.lib" to each of of these lines. For me they read:

      EXTRALIBS = "C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib" C:\strawberry\c\lib\libmoldname.a ...
      LDLOADLIBS = "C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib" C:\strawberry\c\lib\libmoldname.a ...

• dmake

• dmake install

Installation on Linux

As a Linux user you will probably be able to figure out things yourself. Here is a rough outline:

• Before you start, you must have the VISA library by National Instrument installed. If you plan to use GPIB connections (which is very likely), you must also have the necessary drivers (NI-488.2) for your GPIB adapter card installed. Refer to National Instruments' very good documentation for additional information:

  http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/webcategories/85256410006C055586256BBB002C0E91?opendocument&node=132060_US

• In file Makefile.PL adapt the LIBS and INC settings according to your installation. This is what worked for me:

  'LIBS'         => ['-lvisa'],
  'INC'          => '-I/usr/local/vxipnp/linux/include/',

• Then do the usual

  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  make install

Testing the installation

Here is a quick test program that you can run with perl -Mblib test.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Lab::VISA;

my ($status, $sesn) = Lab::VISA::viOpenDefaultRM();

printf "status: %x (%s)\n", $status, (($status == $Lab::VISA::VI_SUCCESS) ? "success" : "no success");
print "sesn: $sesn\n";

my ($status, $findList, $retcnt, $instrDesc) = Lab::VISA::viFindRsrc($sesn, "ASRL1::INSTR"); 

printf "status: %x (%s)\n", $status, (($status == $Lab::VISA::VI_SUCCESS) ? "success" : "no success");
print "findList: $findList\n";
print "retcnt: $retcnt\n";
print "instrDesc: $instrDesc\n";

__END__

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This is $Id: Installation.pod 656 2010-04-23 20:09:05Z schroeer $

(c) 2010 Daniel Schröer, Andreas Hüttel, Daniela Taubert, and others.