Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding the capabilities of NI-VISA, but first I would like to give you an overview of what the end goal is.
I work in a Biomedical Engineering lab, and we do a lot of work with EEG. We currently are using an EEG amplifier system which has dedicated digitial input lines. These I/O lines are accessible through a 10 pin plug (8 inputs + digital ground + Vcc) on the back of the amp. The included cable to access these lines is the 10-pin connector on one end and a DB25 connector on the other. Unfortunately, the PCs we are using do not have a DB25 port, so we bought this DB25 to USB adapter in hopes of being able to configure it to interface with LabVIEW in sending digital lines.
When I plug the device into the computer and open device manager, I see it listed under the "Universal Serial Bus Controller" as "USB Printer Support". I followed the guidelines found in the USB Instrument Control Tutorial to create a driver for the device, and can now see it in MAX and VISAIC.
After researching how to send data (ideally TTL triggers) through the NI-VISA, the only thing I am finding is how to send hexidecimal information through VISA.
Therefore, I have three main questions:
1. Is it possible to send TTL triggers through NI VISA?
2. Do I need a device that is assigned a COM port on the PC?
3. Is it possible to reconfigure my "USB printer service" device to be assigned a COM port?
I've never done any kind of device/serial interfacing, so a little help from someone with some expertise would be greatly appreciated!