We have a big system with several bus, talking to many units and racks. We still use GPIB on some older units. We now have newer versions of the units that have ethernet and we were considering switching and dropping gpib.
The issue is we have to calibrate our units every year and so they get swapped often. With gpib we set the address in Visa and it talks to all the (same type) units we have, new or old. No changing the program just swap and go. With an ethernet Inst:: once I set coms up in Max it will only talk to that one unit and swapping is another trip through Max, setting it in the program and saving it as default...
Is there a way to have a universal tcip connection to a single type of instrument? In my case it is a waveform generator model that has been around 40 years with updates like ether port.
If the answer is no, how can I get all the instruments to show in the Visa address pull down and or Max, not just the units that are hooked up today?