Section 2: General operation
Models 707B and 708B Switching Matrix Reference Manual
2-34
707B-901-01 Rev. B / January 2015
For the KUSB-488A GPIB controller from Keithley Instruments, the configuration utility is called
TrTest. It is available from the Windows Start Menu at
Keithley Instruments > GPIB-488-CEC >
TrTest
.
For National Instruments GPIB controllers, you can use NI-MAX. Start NI-MAX. If your hardware is
installed correctly, you should see the controller in the GPIB section of the tree control on the left
side. Select it and right-click to see an option to communicate with the instrument.
If you want to use the GPIB controller with instrument driver (such as VXIPnP or IVI) or high-level
software, you must also install I/O software, which installs the VISA layer. See
(on page 2-59).
Terminator
When receiving data over the GPIB, the instrument terminates messages on any line feed character
or any data byte with EOI asserted (line feed with EOI asserted is also valid). When sending data, it
appends a line feed character to all outgoing messages. The EOI line is asserted with the terminating
line feed character.
However, if you want your program to communicate with all I/O buses on the instrument (GPIB, USB,
LAN (VXI-11 and raw socket)), it is good practice to add a line feed to the end of the outgoing
command. Use VISA and the same program will work with all the I/O buses by changing the resource
string in the VISA Open method.
GPIB reference
Configure the GPIB controllers
Each instrument on a GPIB bus needs a unique address from a range of 0 to 30. Generally, the GPIB
host controller is on address 0. However, there are GPIB controllers that adopt the address of 21. To
be safe, do not configure any of the instruments for 21 or 0.
If you do need to change the host controller address, consult the controller documentation.
For the KPCI-488LPA and KUSB-488B GPIB controller from Keithley Instruments, the configuration
utility is called the KI-488 Diagnostic Tool. It is available from the Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Start menu at
Keithley Instruments > KI-488 > KI-488 Diagnostic Tool
.
For the KUSB-488A GPIB controller from Keithley Instruments, the configuration utility is called GPIB
Configuration. It is available from the Windows Start Menu at
Keithley Instruments > GPIB-488 >
GPIB Configuration
.
For National Instruments (NI
TM
) GPIB controllers, you can use NI-MAX. Start NI-MAX. If your
hardware is installed correctly, you will see the controller in the GPIB section of the tree control on the
left side. Select it and right-click to see an option to configure the controller. Do not forget to save
your settings.