Remote Control Via Interfaces - Hameg HMC8012 User Manual

General Instrument Settings
Device Name
In this menu, you can select an instrument name. Pressing
the soft menu key DEVICE NAME opens a keypad. Use the
knob to select the letters. You can confirm each letter via
ENTER key (SHIFT). Press the soft menu key ACCEPT to
confirm the entered instrument name.
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9 Remote Control
via Interfaces
As a standard feature, the HMC8012 is equipped with a
built-in interface card which includes an Ethernet and a
USB connection.
To enable communication, the selected interface and the respec-
tive settings in the instrument must be identical to the selections
for the PC.
9 .2 USB
All currently available USB drivers have been fully tested and
released for Windows XP™, Windows VISTA™ and Windows 7™
(32 + 64 bit).
In addition to a LAN interface, the HMC8012 includes a
USB device port. For this interface, the user can select
if the instrument is accessed via virtual COM port (VCP)
or via USB TMC class. The traditional version of the VCP
allows the user to communicate with the HMC using any
terminal program via SCPI commands once the corres-
ponding Windows drivers have been installed. These com-
mands are generally compatible with the Agilent multime-
ters 34401A and 34410A. In addition, you may use the free
HAMEG software „HMExplorer". This Windows application
offers HMC8012 instruments a terminal function, the op-
tion to create screenshots and to sort the measured data
storage.
A modern alternative to the virtual COM port (VCP) is the
control via USB TMC class. TMC stands for „Test & Mea-
surement Class" which indicates that the connected
measurement instrument can be recognized without
special Windows drivers if VISA drivers are installed and
that it can be used directly in corresponding environments.
The GPIB interface serves as model to the structure of the
TMC design. A major benefit of the USB TMC class is that
by sampling specific registers the user can determine if
commands have been terminated and if they have been
processed correctly. However, the communication via VCP
requires analysis and polling mechanisms within the cont-
rolling software which may significantly strain the interface
of the measurement instruments. The TMC status registers
solve this problem with the USB TMC in the same manner
as is the case with the GPIB interface for the hardware,
namely via corresponding control lines.
9 .1 Ethernet
In addition to the USB interface, the interface card includes
an Ethernet interface. Select Ethernet as interface and
press the soft menu key Parameter to then determine the
settings for the necessary parameters directly within the