To verify communication with an instrument and test a typical programmatic instrument operation, open an instrument driver example VI. Look over each of the controls and set them appropriately. Generally, with the exception of the resource name control, the defaults for most controls will be sufficient for the first run. You will need to set the resource name appropriately.

Use the NI Example Finder to search or browse for project-style instrument driver examples. You can find non-project style instrument driver examples in the Instrument Drivers palette and subpalettes.

After running the VI, check to see that the VI returned reasonable data and did not report an error in the error cluster. Instrument driver examples most commonly fail for one of the following reasons:

• NI-VISA is not installed. You install NI-VISA from the National Instruments Device Drivers DVD.
• The resource name is incorrect. The instrument driver example VI requires you to specify the correct resource for the instrument. Instruments that are powered on at LabVIEW launch time appear in the VISA resource name pull-down menu. If the instrument does not appear in this list, launch Measurement & Automation Explorer to configure the device.
• The instrument driver does not support the exact model you are using. You might need to double-check that the instrument driver supports the instrument model you are using.

After you have verified basic communication with the instrument using the example VI, you might want to customize instrument control for your application. If the application requirements are similar to the example VI, the simplest means of creating a customized VI is to save a copy of the example VI by selecting Save As from the File menu. You can change the default values in the front panel window by selecting Edit»Make Current Values Default. Block diagram changes might include changing the constants wired to the instrument driver subVIs.