Agilent Technologies E6432A manual Initializing the Instrument, Soft Front Panel

National Instruments has two ver- sions of the MXI interface that are usable in a host controller. The older VXI-MXI-1 slot 0 controller and its host card (the AT-MXI interface) do not operate correctly with E6432A, due to the AT-MXI interface’s inabili- ty to access more than 64k of A24 address space. (Remember, a mini- mum of 256k is required.) The newer MXI interface from National Instruments (the VXI-MXI-2 inter- face) and its host controller card (the PCI-MXI interface) work properly with all of the application programs listed.

A new serial interface for VXI based on IEEE-1394 is available from Agilent (the E8491A). This interface has nearly the same performance as MXI-2 in many applications. The E8491A is supported for use with the E6432A.

Embedded controllers are available from both Agilent and National Instruments. Those controllers that contain the Intel Pentium® processor and run Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 are supported for use with the E6432A.

Initializing the Instrument

After installing the interfaces and drivers using the procedures given in the user documentation, it is time to apply power to the VXI mainframe and check out the system.

Register-based devices typically do not contain a processor and firmware that perform bootstrap and self-test functions at power on. These functions are jointly executed by the host controller and the device. For the E6432A, the functions are per- formed when the host controller issues the ViInitialize function call through the plug&play driver. When power is first applied to the E6432A, the red FAIL LED is lit. This LED remains lit until a successful completion of the ViInitialize function call. Within this function call are commands that:

●issue the bootstrap commands to initialize the onboard assist processor

●perform a comprehensive digital self-test

●perform a limited analog self-test

●preset the instrument to a known state

●query the error buffers for any error conditions

●issue the command to extinguish the red FAIL LED after a successful completion

In the programming examples shown later, we will show that in VEE,

the ViInitialize function call is sent automatically at the first call to the instrument. In NI LabView, the ViInitialize function call must be sent explicitly as the first call to the instrument.

The Soft Front Panel

All functions of the E6432A are represented in the soft front panel (SFP). The online help system docu- ments the SFP and the plug&play driver completely. The E6432A SFP is accessed through the Start menus of Windows NT. If no VXI interface is installed on the computer, or the hardware is not present, the SFP may be run in Demo Mode as a learning and demonstration tool. The online help system will be fully functional.

Pentium is a U.S. registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

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