Stanford Research Systems DS345, Manual

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Arbitrary Waveform Composer
7-1
ARBITRARY WAVEFORM COMPOSER SOFTWARE
Introduction The Arbitrary Waveform Composer (AWC) is a program that allows the user to
create or import arbitrary waveforms and then download the waveform to the
DS345. AWC has the ability to create arbitrary waveforms, store waveforms to
disk, edit stored waveforms, and download waveforms to the DS345. AWC can
edit and download waveforms that it has created or waveforms created from
other sources and then stored as an ASCII text file.
AWC is designed to run on Windows systems running XP/2000/Me/98.
Monitor resolution should be set at 800x600 or higher. AWC communicates
with the DS345 though the RS232 interface or a National Instruments
hardware implementation of the GPIB interface.
Installing AWC Install AWC ZIP file, which you can download from the SRS website,
www.thinksrs.com . Use unzip software to extract the contents of the ZIP
archive. Install as follows:
1) The AWC software requires National Instruments (NI) VISA version 2.6 or
higher installed on your computer. If you have version 2.6 or higher, skip to
step 3 below.
2) Inside the unzipped temporary directory, navigate to the VISA Run-Time
Engine 2.6 folder. Inside this folder, run NIvisa260runtime.exe and follow
the on-screen instructions.
3) If you have LabView version 6.1 installed on your computer, skip step 4
below. Just run Arbitrary Waveform Composer.exe. If you have any other
version of LabView installed on your computer, or do not have LabView
installed at all, continue with step 4 below.
4) Inside the unzipped temporary directory, navigate to the INSTALLER
directory. Inside this folder, run SETUP.EXE and follow the on-screen
instructions.
Getting Started With AWC This section gives a quick introduction to using AWC. The details of the menus
and other functions are explained in succeeding sections.
1) Double Click on the AWC icon
The AWC display should appear. This display consists of a menu
bar and a graph screen. The menu bar allows selection of various
program options and functions. The graph display shows the
current arbitrary waveform with voltage on the vertical axis and
point number on the horizontal axis.
2) Select the
Waveform menu Select a menu by placing the arrow cursor on that menu title and
clicking the left mouse button. Some of the menus are "grayed"
and may not be selected because there is no waveform to edit and
the communications parameters have not been set.
3) Select
Sine The arbitrary function will be a sine wave. AWC will ask for the
number of points in the waveform.