Agilent Technologies 34980A, 3499A/B/C manual User Interface, Instrument Control Programming

User Interface

The 34980A offers the most modern instrument I/O options for interfacing a controller PC with the switch system: GPIB, USB and LAN. All three Input/Output interface connections come standard with the 34980A mainframe. If you choose to modify or upgrade your test system I/O, the 34980A is system ready.

You can also easily control the 34980A without connecting to a PC by pressing the front-panel buttons, an advantage when first setting up or troubleshooting a system.

Upgrading your test system from using the 3499A/B/C GPIB to the 34980A GPIB, or newer USB or LAN is quick and easy. If you have used I/O Config from the Agilent I/O Libraries to set your GPIB instrument connection, you would use the same I/O Config to set up your LAN or “TCPIP” instrument connection. Retrieve the LAN, TCPIP address from your instrument and enter it into I/O Config. When you address your instrument in a program, it will look similar to; TCPIP0::9::INSTR. For more information on

connecting to Agilent instruments you can access the Agilent Technologies USB/LAN/GPIB Interfaces Connectivity Guide at www.agilent.com/find/connectivity With LAN, the instrument can be located closer to the device under test without worrying about the distance to the PC. A USB to instrument connection is even easier. The computer automatically detects instruments that are USB ready. If you are currently using the 3499A/B/C RS232 interface, it is recommended to upgrade to the 34980A GPIB, USB or LAN interface to achieve optimal data transfer rates.

Instrument Control (Programming)

The 34980A and 3499A/B/C can both be controlled locally from the front panel, or by sending either instrument or driver commands from a PC for remote control. The 34980A’s instrument commands and drivers are based on modern standards such as SCPI (standard commands for programmable instruments) and IVI-C and IVI COM drivers. The SCPI instrument commands of the 34980A are

similar to the 3499A/B/C’s but they are not interchangeable. A comparison of the commands is provided in appendix A. The 34980A's IVI-C and IVI-COM drivers are similar to Plug & Play drivers, the 3499A/B/C's Plug & Play driver for example, but include improvements. The IVI (Interchangeable Virtual Instruments) driver specification was built upon the Plug&Play driver specification but adds the capabilities provided by the Microsoft ActiveX technologies which simplify instrument interchangeability, and product performance. The 34980A also includes many new commands for the operation of the embedded DMM. A 34980A Web interface provides a new easy way to communicate via LAN with the instrument.

Table 3 shows a summary of the programming control options available for the 3499A/B/C and the 34980A. There is similarity between the instrument commands, however, the 34980A has evolved to use the most modern and widely accepted instrument command standards.

Table 3. Control Options for 3499A/B/C and 34980A
		3499A/B/C	34980A
	Front Panel Buttons	●	●
	3488 Legacy Commands	●
	SCPI Commands	●	●
	Plug & Play driver	●
	IVI COM driver	●	●
	IVI-C driver		●
	LabVIEW driver		●
	Web Interface		●

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