Lab::VISA::Installation - Installation guide for Lab::VISA

Lab::VISA has been tested to work on Linux and Windows, both with ActiveState Perl and the Microsoft VC++ Compiler, and Strawberry Perl with the included gcc compiler.

Work with administrator account during installation.

Install VISA (and GPIB drivers) if necessary.

• Download current VISA release from NI (tested with 4.4.1, 4.5.0)
• Run installer
• Check location of visa32.lib (eg. C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib) and remember for later.

Install Microsoft Visual C++ from http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/

From now on run all commandline programs during installation only from the "Visual Studio Command line", which can be found in the Start menu.

Install Perl.

• Tested with ActivePerl from http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/index.mhtml
• Make sure to include Perl Package Manager.
• Make sure to activate the check box to include perl directory in PATH variable.

Install gnuplot (not mandatory)

• Download from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055 (gp425win32.zip)
• Extract and put it somewhere
• Add directory containing pgnuplot.exe to path: My Computer => Properties => Advanced => Environment Variables

Install dependencies of our perl modules. Depending on how familiar you are with the perl infrastructure, the easiest might be to use PPM, the Perl Package Manager included with ActivePerl.

Lab::Tools needs

 XML::Generator (PPM would write it as XML-Generator)
 XML::DOM
 XML::Twig
 YAML

Install Lab::VISA

• Unzip/copy sources
• In file Makefile.PL adapt the LIBS and INC settings according to your installation (the location looked up above). This is what worked for me:
  
  

      'LIBS' => ['-"lC:\\Programme\\IVI Foundation\\VISA\\WinNT\\lib\\msc\\visa32.lib"']
      'INC'  => '"-IC:\\Programme\\IVI Foundation\\VISA\\WinNT\\include"'
  
  

  
  
  You can find the LIBS folder by checking the registry key "InstDir" in folder "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\National Instruments\NI-VISA for Windows 95/NT".
• Run the following commands in the source directory
  
  

      perl Makefile.PL
      nmake
      nmake install
  
  

Install Lab::Instrument and Lab::Tools

• Unzip/copy sources
• Run the following commands in the source directory
  
  

      perl Build.PL
      perl Build
      perl Build install
  
  

Have fun!

Strawberry Perl is a Perl distribution for Windows that most closely mimics a Perl installation under Linux. It comes with gcc compiler, dmake and the other relevant tools included.

Lab::VISA should in principle install out of the box with just the command

	cpan Lab::VISA

executed on the commandline. Unfortunately there is a bug in ExtUtils::MakeMaker (see here) that prevents this. Two possible workarounds are explained below.

Have Windows and Strawberry Perl installed

Install NI-VISA

Download 361mb file visa462full.exe from NI's website

Install only 'Run Time Support' (I chose all items below that; it's not much)

Locate msc version of visa32.lib and visa.h and adjust Makefile.PL. This is what worked for me:

    'LIBS' => q("-lC:/Programme/IVI Foundation/VISA/WinNT/lib/msc/visa32.lib"),
    'INC'  => q("-IC:/Programme/IVI Foundation/VISA/WinNT/include"),

Work around the bug (known to be present in ExtUtils-MakerMaker-6.56)

Option 1: Patch ExtUtils::MakeMaker

Apply the change described at https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=49026 to the file Kid.pm of your installation of ExtUtils::MakeMaker

perl Makefile.PL

Option 2: Edit generated Makefile

If you don't like to modify the installed version of ExtUtils::MakeMaker, you can edit the generated Makefile. These changes will be lost after executing perl Makefile.PL again though. This option is recommended if you just want to install Lab::VISA.

perl Makefile.PL

In the generated file Makefile:

Find the two lines containing the words EXTRALIBS and LDLOADLIBS. Add the "C:\path\to\visa32.lib" to each of of these lines. On my system they read:

 EXTRALIBS = "C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib" C:\strawberry\c\lib\libmoldname.a ...
 LDLOADLIBS = "C:\Programme\IVI Foundation\VISA\WinNT\lib\msc\visa32.lib" C:\strawberry\c\lib\libmoldname.a ...

dmake

dmake install

As a Linux user you will probably be able to figure out things yourself. Here is a rough outline:

Before you start, you must have the VISA library by National Instrument installed. If you plan to use GPIB connections (which is very likely), you must also have the necessary drivers (NI-488.2) for your GPIB adapter card installed. Refer to National Instruments' very good documentation for additional information:

http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/webcategories/85256410006C055586256BBB002C0E91?opendocument&node=132060_US

In file Makefile.PL adapt the LIBS and INC settings according to your installation. This is what worked for me:

    'LIBS'         => ['-lvisa'],
    'INC'          => '-I/usr/local/vxipnp/linux/include/',

Then do the usual

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make install

Here is a quick test program that you can run with perl -Mblib test.pl:

    #!/usr/bin/perl

    use Lab::VISA;

    my ($status, $sesn) = Lab::VISA::viOpenDefaultRM();

    printf "status: %x (%s)\n", $status, (($status == $Lab::VISA::VI_SUCCESS) ? "success" : "no success");
    print "sesn: $sesn\n";

    my ($status, $findList, $retcnt, $instrDesc) = Lab::VISA::viFindRsrc($sesn, "ASRL1::INSTR"); 

    printf "status: %x (%s)\n", $status, (($status == $Lab::VISA::VI_SUCCESS) ? "success" : "no success");
    print "findList: $findList\n";
    print "retcnt: $retcnt\n";
    print "instrDesc: $instrDesc\n";

    __END__

This is $Id: Installation.pod 660 2010-04-25 20:31:56Z schroeer $

(c) 2010 Daniel Schröer, Andreas Hüttel, Daniela Taubert, and others.