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Chapter 3
Developing Your Application
Programming with VXI and GPIB
VXI-1394 Interface for Windows NT/98
•
Receive data from your GPIB device
•
Troubleshoot problems with your application
Advanced Communication
For advanced interactive communication with GPIB instruments, use the
Interactive Control utility, as follows:
1.
Select Start»Programs»National Instruments NI-488.2»Explore
GPIB to start Measurement & Automation Explorer.
2.
Expand the Devices and Interfaces directory by clicking on the + next
to the folder.
3.
Right-click on your GPIB interface and select Interactive Control
from the drop-down menu that appears.
4.
At the command prompt, type NI-488.2 API calls to communicate
interactively with the your instrument. For example, you might use
,
,
ibdev
ibclr
ibwrt
To view the online help for Interactive Control, type
Control command prompt.
National Instruments provides three different programming interfaces for
accessing your instruments: NI-VISA, NI-VXI, and NI-488.2. NI-VISA is
the National Instruments implementation of the VISA API as defined by
the VXIplug&play standard. It is very useful in situations where you have
different types of instruments in your system—such as VXI, VME, GPIB,
and serial devices—because the NI-VISA functions have the same
interface.
NI-VXI is the National Instruments proprietary interface for programming
VXI/VME instruments. Both NI-VXI and NI-VISA grant you register-level
access of VXI instruments as well as messaging capability to
message-based devices. With either interface you can service asynchronous
events, such as triggers and signals, and also assert them.
NI-488.2 is the National Instruments industry-standard implementation of
the ANSI/IEEE Standards 488.1-1987 and 488.2-1992. The original GPIB
(General Purpose Interface Bus) specification, known as ANSI/IEEE
Standard 488.1-1987, describes a standard interface for communication
between instruments and controllers from various vendors. It contains
information about electrical, mechanical, and functional specifications.
,
, and
ibrd
ibonl
3-4
.
at the Interactive
help
www.ni.com
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