National Instruments NI-488.2 Chapter 5 wibicWindows Interface Bus Interactive Control Utility

© National Instruments Corp. 5-1 NI-488.2 User Manual for Windows
Chapter 5
wibic–Windows Interface Bus Interactive
Control Utility
This chapter introduces you to wibic, the interactive control program that you can use
to communicate with GPIB devices interactively.
Overview
With the wibic program, you communicate with the GPIB devices through functions
you enter at the keyboard. For specific information about how to communicate with your
particular device, refer to the manual that came with the device. You can use wibic to
practice communicating with the instrument, troubleshoot problems, and develop your
application program.
One way wibic helps you to learn about your instrument and to troubleshoot problems
is by displaying the following information on your screen whenever you enter a
command:
• The results of the status word (ibsta) in hexadecimal notation
• The mnemonic constant of each bit set in ibsta
• The mnemonic value of the error variable (iberr) if an error exists (the ERR bit is
set in ibsta)
• The count value for each read, write, or command function
• The data received from your instrument
Example Using NI-488 Functions
This section shows how you might use wibic to test a sequence of NI-488 device
function calls. You do not need to remember the parameters that each function takes. If
you enter the function name only, wibic prompts you for the necessary parameters.