Utility to send text file over GPIB, one line at a time?

[TheWaterbug]

We are developing instrumentation that receives data and commmands over GPIB as plain text, and returns them as well. I'd like to create GPIB "batch" files and send them over the bus, one line at a time, so I can debug the instruments' behavior. I'd also like to be able to read back responses, one line at a time.

Is there such a utility? I've got our programmer working on something like this, but I'd hate to have him re-invent an existing wheel.

Thanks!

[Ryan_M]

Apart from NI-SPY, I have not heard of such a utility. This may be simple to implement using proper termination. If the instrument is capable of sending line feeds or carriage return, you should be able to easily create a document. Also, using IBWRTF, you could write the ASCII file (containing the termination characters) to the bus. Depending on how you have your timeouts specified, this may be ideal.

Alternately, if you read a static amount of data, you could IBRD chunks of data. the result may need editing for broken words at the end of a line but would achieve such a result.

Ryan Mosley
National Instruments, Applications Engineer
http://www.ni.com/exchange