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what do i need to do simple control?
DaveK
Member
08-14-2002 04:03 PM
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I am getting a HP 8656B signal generator. I want to be able to control it thought GPIB-488 and write simple vb programs to change freq, etc. I see an overwhelming amount of info here but no clear path. I need to do this CHEEP! No $500 software packages or anything.. is there an easy way to do this? Thanks!
DiegoF
NI Employee (retired)
08-15-2002 10:37 AM
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Hi,
You don't need any other software to program your application. The NI-488.2 driver (your GPIB board driver) provides the appropriate language interface files for Visual Basic. You can find the .bas files, along with some example programs in "Program files\National Instruments\NI-488.2\languages" (assuming that your have the driver installed).
You can also download the instrument driver for the 8656B from www.ni.com/idnet. The driver is written in C, but since it uses the same gpib functions, you can use it as a guide for your application.
So if you already have the board, you can start programming for $0!.
Hope this helps.
Diego F.
National Instruments.
You don't need any other software to program your application. The NI-488.2 driver (your GPIB board driver) provides the appropriate language interface files for Visual Basic. You can find the .bas files, along with some example programs in "Program files\National Instruments\NI-488.2\languages" (assuming that your have the driver installed).
You can also download the instrument driver for the 8656B from www.ni.com/idnet. The driver is written in C, but since it uses the same gpib functions, you can use it as a guide for your application.
So if you already have the board, you can start programming for $0!.
Hope this helps.
Diego F.
National Instruments.
08-15-2002 12:11 PM
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Thank you for your comment Diego. In the drivers section, I see drivers for the device for Labview, but no C source that would help me determine the instruction set for the device, can you explain further? ALso, I see you have a product for $95 called NI-488.2 software, what does this do?
DiegoF
NI Employee (retired)
08-15-2002 01:16 PM
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Hi,
NI-488.2 is the driver software for the GPIB board. This software should come with your GPIB board. I'm assuming you have a PCI-GPIB, but any GPIB interface will have with the driver (NI-488.2). The NI-488.2 also provide language interface files that allow you to access the driver functions for different programming languages (Visual Basic, C, labview).
The NI-488.2 driver and the GPIB interface allow you to send bytes to the instrument. None of the functions is specific to your instrument. With the GPIB interface you would send characters (such as *IDN?) and wait for a response. Every instrument has its own set of instructions depending on its functionality. The instrument drivers, which are often provided by the instrument menuf
acturers, provide a set of high level, instrument specific functions for a particular instrument. Each of this functions is implemented sending the apropriate commands using the GPIB interface and the NI-488.2 software.
You can get the instrument driver for your instrument going to www.ni.com/idnet and filling the appropriate fields. Download the instrument drivers for CVI, which have the C source code.
For more info and examples on GPIB go to www.ni.com click on support, then in Option 2 click on GPIB. That's the GPIB support web site.
Diego F.
National Instruments
NI-488.2 is the driver software for the GPIB board. This software should come with your GPIB board. I'm assuming you have a PCI-GPIB, but any GPIB interface will have with the driver (NI-488.2). The NI-488.2 also provide language interface files that allow you to access the driver functions for different programming languages (Visual Basic, C, labview).
The NI-488.2 driver and the GPIB interface allow you to send bytes to the instrument. None of the functions is specific to your instrument. With the GPIB interface you would send characters (such as *IDN?) and wait for a response. Every instrument has its own set of instructions depending on its functionality. The instrument drivers, which are often provided by the instrument menuf
acturers, provide a set of high level, instrument specific functions for a particular instrument. Each of this functions is implemented sending the apropriate commands using the GPIB interface and the NI-488.2 software.
You can get the instrument driver for your instrument going to www.ni.com/idnet and filling the appropriate fields. Download the instrument drivers for CVI, which have the C source code.
For more info and examples on GPIB go to www.ni.com click on support, then in Option 2 click on GPIB. That's the GPIB support web site.
Diego F.
National Instruments
08-15-2002 01:50 PM
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Thank you very much. I downloaded both the card driver package and the CVI driver for the device and see all the info and samples I will need! You've been very helpful.
