How to Run an IO Configuration Containing Waveform from Instrument Studio in TestStand?

Updated Aug 15, 2025

Reported In

Software

  • InstrumentStudio
  • TestStand

Issue Details

I am using an IO configuration I exported from InstrumentStudio (IS) into TestStand (TS).

This is the waveform I created, when I run in IS it works fine:

enter image description here

Then I exported the configuration to TS and this is my sequence:

enter image description here

On the LabView "DC Power Run" step I have tried calling "niDCPower Commit" + "niDCPower Initiate", or only calling "niDCPower Initiate"

On the LabView "DC Power Stop" step I call "niDC Power Abort"

When I run the sequence and open IS in debug mode to observe, I only see a 3 step sequence being executed:
enter image description here

I checked the attributes of the IO configuration step in TS, and I see the voltage list I expect:

enter image description here

Running the TS sequence I expected the SMU to execute the same waveform I configured in IS multiple times.
What my I be missing on the configuration or sequence? What else should I check? Or what is the expected behavior in this case?

Solution

  1. The driver API for DCPower does not offer the ability to query the sequence configuration (or at least did not at the time this panel was originally created). So in the case where you are monitoring an external session that is running in sequence mode, InstrumentStudio has no way to actually know what the sequence is, only the driver internals and the application that configured the session know. It's showing up as a 3 step sequence in monitor mode because the default sequence is 3 steps. The UX here is probably trying to convey that the exact sequence is unknown by displaying the voltage and durations as "--.---", but it's not completely clear.

  2. The other thing to note is that monitoring uses the "charting mode" in the panel, which works by taking 1 measurement at a time at set time intervals. This mode is going to be dropping a lot of information if your sequence runs faster than the time interval. It is much less precise than waveform mode which will grab the data points essentially as fast as possible as a waveform.

Suggestion is that validate that the signal is what you expect by measuring the output with an oscilloscope if you have access to one.

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