I am new to using GPIB and the GPIB-USB-HS. I'm writing a C# application, and it's surprisingly tough because the NI4882 help file only says "see the example code" and the three example programs are pitiful.
Anyway, after half a day doing web research and using Visual Studio's IntelliSense to scope out what the docs should've told me, I now know how to instantiate NI4882.Board objects, ask them to enumerate listener addresses, and then instantiate NI4882.Device objects and use them to collect *idn? information from all listeners. I'm almost cookin' with gas!
The thing is, one of the devices returns this string: HEWLETT-PACKARD,34401A,0,10-5-2.
It's an Agilent DMM, and that 0 is the serial number. Is this normal? Am I supposed to somehow load its serial number into nonvolatile memory so it can answer up properly in the future; or are all GPIB devices expected to have proper serial numbers already?
My application will use a database to match device calibration dates and capabilities against what it detects on the bus, so I'm frankly a little worried if there's no way to get a device to return a unique ID.
Is there any other command you might normally use to get a GPIB device to uniquely identify itself?