Section 5: Introduction to TSP operation
Models 707B and 708B Switching Matrix Reference Manual
5-18
707B-901-01 Rev. B / January 2015
LabVIEW drivers
Native LabVIEW drivers
A native LabVIEW
TM
driver is a LabVIEW driver that is created using entirely built-in LabVIEW VIs —
it does not make any calls to external DLLs or Library files. This makes the driver portable to all the
platforms and operating systems that LabVIEW and VISA supports (currently, Linux
®
on x86, Mac
OS
®
X, and Microsoft
®
Windows
®
).
National Instruments (NI
TM
) maintains a native
(
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3271
).
LabVIEW driver wrappers
All IVI-C drivers have a function panel file (.fp) that shows a hierarchy of the function calls into a DLL.
It is a tool that guides a user to select the correct function call in the driver, since a DLL only has a flat
API entry point scheme (unlike COM or .NET). Any CVI-generated .fp file can be imported into
LabVIEW and LabVIEW will generate a wrapper for the DLL. The drawback here is that the driver is
dependent on the DLL, which is not portable and is therefore Windows-specific.
Getting instrument drivers
To see what drivers are available for your instrument:
1. Go to the
Keithley Instruments support website
http://www.keithley.com/support
).
2. Enter the model number of your instrument.
3. Select
Software Driver
from the list.
For LabVIEW
TM
, you can also go to the National Instrument website and search their instrument
driver database.
Instrument driver examples
All Keithley drivers come with examples written in several programming languages that show you how
to do the most common things with the instruments.
Install the driver. The examples are in the Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Start menu, under
Keithley
Instruments > Model Number
(where Model Number is the instrument model number).