Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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Visual C# measurements from Keithley instrument

Hi

In our laboratory we have a National Instrument GPIB card which we would like to use in order to get data from various experiments we conduct. For this purpose we connect the card to various instruments over GPIB. I would like to develop, in Visual C#, programs that will retrieve the data the instruments collect but I have some difficulties. For example in one experiment we use a Keithley 6487 (picoammeter) which is used to retrieve data and store them in files. The program we use is written in GW Basic and uses the command Transmit (the pc in which the program runs is quite old and has a CEC card) to write to the instrument. Reading the tutorials and using the examples I can by using the .NET drivers (and examples) NI provides to communicate with the instrument with simple write and read commands. I use the device class and write and read methods. The problem is that although I can send for example *idn? and get a  response I cannot write 50 meaning 50 volts to be given to the transistor the instrument is connected to.

The question is this: How do I write and read from the instrument via .NET? I mean about mesurements not just queries like idn?

Thanks for any help.
Andreas
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You should be able to read and write the same way you are with the *IDN? command. You just have to get the right syntax. For example, just sending the string 50 would not be correct. You would need something like 'SET:VOLT 50'. You need to look at the programming manual for the instrument and determine the exact command. You can test all of the commands in MAX.
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