Chapter 2 Measurement & Automation Explorer (Windows)
NI-488.2 User Manual 2-6 ni.com
Communicate with Your Instrument
To establish basic or advanced communication with your instruments,
refer to the following sections.
For more information about instrument communication and a list of the
commands that your instrument understands, refer to the documentation
that came with your GPIB instrument. Most instruments respond to the
*IDN? command by returning an identification string.

Basic Communication (Query/Write/Read)

To establish basic communication with your instrument, use the NI-488.2
Communicator, as follows:
1. Start Measurement & Automation Explorer as described in the
Starting Measurement & Automation Explorer section.
2. Expand the Devices and Interfaces directory by clicking the + next
to the folder.
3. Select your GPIB interface.
4. If you have not already done so, scan for connected instruments.
Right-click on your GPIB interface and select Scan for Instruments
from the drop-down menu that appears. Refer to the Scan for GPIB
Instruments section for more information.
Measurement & Automation Explorer displays the connected
instruments below your GPIB interface.
5. Right-click on your GPIB instrument in the left window pane and
select Communicate with Instrument from the drop-down menu that
appears.
The NI-488.2 Communicator dialog box appears, as shown
in Figure 2-3.