Installing the 82357A

 

Step 6: Programming via the 82357A

Accessing VISA and

You can access .pdf copies of the Agilent VISA User’s Guide and the

SICL Manuals

Agilent SICL User’s Guide for Windows from the blue IO icon on the

 

Windows taskbar. Adobe Reader is required to view these manuals.

 

To access the Agilent VISA User’s Guide, click the IO icon and then click

 

Documentation VISA Users Guide. To access the Agilent SICL User’s Guide

 

for Windows, click the IO icon and then click Documentation SICL Users

 

Guide. To access VISA COM information, and function references for VISA,

 

VISA COM, and SICL, click the IO icon and then click Documentation IO

 

Libraries Suite Help.

Introduction to IO

An IO interface consists of a hardware interface and a software interface.

Interface

One purpose of the Connection Expert utility is to associate a unique

Configuration

software interface ID with a hardware interface.

 

The Agilent IO Libraries Suite uses an Interface ID or Logical Unit Number to

 

identify an interface. This information is passed in the parameter string of

 

the viOpen function call in a VISA program or in the iopen function call in

 

a SICL program.

 

Connection Expert assigns an Interface ID and Logical Unit (LU) Number to

 

the interface hardware, as well as other necessary configuration values for

 

an interface when the interface is configured. Typically, the LU Number is

 

automatically assigned and you can ignore its setting. The LU Number is

 

used internally as a unique identifier. When the IO interface is configured,

 

you can use Agilent VISA, VISA COM, or SICL to program assigned

 

instruments.

Example: IO

For example, the GPIB interface system in the following figure consists of

Interface

a Windows PC with an 82357A USB/GPIB Interface Converter connected

Configuration

between a USB port and three GPIB instruments with GPIB primary

 

addresses of 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The instruments are connected via

 

GPIB cables.

 

For this system, the Connection Expert utility has been used to assign a

 

VISA name of “GPIB1” and a SICL name of “hpib7”. With these names

 

assigned to the interfaces, the VISA/SICL addressing is as shown in the

 

figure.

 

Since unique names have been assigned by Connection Expert, you can

 

use the VISA viOpen command to open the IO paths to the GPIB

 

instruments as shown in the figure. Or, you can use the SICL iopen

 

command to open the IO paths.

Chapter 1

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Agilent Technologies 82357A manual Accessing Visa Sicl Manuals, Introduction to IO, Interface, Configuration, Example IO