- Communicate with more than 5,000 FREE instrument drivers from more than 225 vendors
- Easily control instruments in LabVIEW, LabVIEW SignalExpress, C#, C++, C and Visual Basic. NET
- Increase direct I/O performance and portability with industry-standard device driver software
- Easily integrate GPIB, USB, serial, PXI, Ethernet/LAN, and VXI instruments into your test application
Whether you simply need to connect to and acquire data from your instrument at a design station or need to automate and control your entire manufacturing test line, National Instruments provides an extensive assortment of instrument control hardware and software products to create your application. You may choose from a host of NI software development environments optimized for instrument control:
- LabVIEW - Graphical development environment for test, measurement and control applications
- LabVIEW SignalExpress - Interactive, nonprogramming environment for controlling instruments and analyzing results
- LabWindowsTM/CVI - ANSI C based development environment
- Measurement Studio - A suite of measurement and automation productivity tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
Each of these environments has built-in capabilities for direct I/O communication through interfaces including Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA), GPIB, Serial, and Ethernet. National Instruments provides thousands of instrument drivers for more sophisticated, full-featured instrument control and connectivity. You have a variety of instrument communication tools from which to choose based on ease of development, functionality, and performance.
Learn more:
Instrument Control Software Fundamentals
View in-depth tutorials and multimedia presentations detailing how to create your instrument control applications.
Instrument Control Software Options
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ANSI C |
Visual Basic, C#, C++ |
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| Serial Connectivity |
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| Ethernet Connectivity |
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| USB Connectivity |
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| PXI Modular Instrument Connectivity |
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| Native Plug and Play Instrument Drivers |
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| IVI Instrument Drivers |
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| Database Connectivity Tools |
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| Signal Processing Analysis |
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| Mathematical Analysis |
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| PID Control |
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| Cross-Platform Compatibility |
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| Integrated Data Management Tools |
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| Ease-of-Use Programming |
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Instrument Drivers
LabVIEW Plug and Play instrument drivers are the key to rapid development of test and measurement applications. By providing high-level and modular VIs for easy programming, they eliminate the need for end users to learn complex communications protocols. Visit ni.com/idnet to search more than 5,000 FREE instrument drivers from more than 225 instrument vendors.
Direct I/O Options
If you cannot find an instrument driver you need, you can easily communicate with your instruments through direct I/O functions in the LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio for Visual Studio environments. You can also use the interactive Instrument I/O Assistant to quickly establish communication and automatically parse your data. See a quick demo of the Instrument I/O Assistant in LabVIEW.
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