Chapter 1
Introduction
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National Instruments Corporation
1-5
VXI-1394 Interface for Windows NT/98
The NI-VXI/VISA software includes an interactive configuration and
troubleshooting program, libraries of software routines for test and
measurement (T&M) programming, interactive control programs for both
NI-VXI and NI-VISA, a logging utility you can use for debugging your
applications, and a VXI Resource Manager. You can use this software to
seamlessly program multiple-mainframe configurations and have software
compatibility across a variety of controller platforms.
If your VXI-1394 model is the VXI-1394/G, it includes a GPIB port on its
front panel, as well as the National Instruments NI-488.2 software kit,
NI-488.2 is industry-standard software for controlling external GPIB
instruments. Any GPIB application using either NI-488.2 or NI-VISA will
run on the VXI-1394/G. Use the GPIB Configuration Utility to examine or
modify the configuration of the NI-488.2 software.
Note
You must run the GPIB Configuration Utility before you use the NI-488.2 software
for Windows NT. For more information, refer to Chapter 2,
Installation and Configuration
Once your GPIB board is configured you can access additional GPIB
utilities and help through T&M Explorer. Use T&M Explorer to view your
entire T&M system and configure various components, whether they are
Serial, GPIB, VXI, or VME devices. It is easy to add VME devices using
T&M Explorer and view them on a screen display along with the rest of
your system. This utility also adopts the functionality of the NI-DAQ
Configuration utility so you can configure National Instruments VXI-DAQ
cards.
T&M Explorer also features various options of how to run the VXI
Resource Manager (Resman). You can still execute Resman independently
to configure your instruments after a power cycle, but you can also perform
resource manager operations directly from T&M Explorer or configure it
to run Resman automatically at Windows startup.
The NI Spy utility tracks the calls your application makes to National
Instruments T&M drivers, including NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and NI-488.2.
NI Spy helps you debug your application by clearly highlighting the
functions that return errors. You can let NI Spy keep a log of your
program’s calls to these drivers so that you can check them for errors
at your convenience.
