National Instruments GPIB-PC - Manual (Page 242)

©National Instruments Corp. D-1 GPIB-PC User Manual
Appendix D - Using your Printer with
the GPIB-PC
The Serial/Parallel port redirection feature in the GPIB-PC software
allows you to replace default printer drivers so that output can be
redirected to a GPIB printer or plotter. After the appropriate
configuration, these GPIB devices can be accessed through system calls
and other language printer commands (e.g.,
LPRINT , LPRINT USING ,
PRINT# , LLIST , COPY , and PRINT ).
Installation
When installing the GPIB-PC software, run an interactive program
IBCONF which allows you to change predefined device names and
addresses. Your software internally calls a DOS device driver which
corresponds to the port where it expects to find the printer. If you
define, in
IBCONF , the device name your software expects, this should
"fool" DOS and send the data to the GPIB device. The following
examples demonstrate the use of parallel port redirection (LPT1) but
could also be used for serial port redirection (COM1).
PRN, LPT2, LPT3
To install the software follow these steps:
• Run IBSTART as explained in Section Two.
• Run IBCONF and follow all instructions.
• In IBCONF , define dev1 :
- Change the name dev1 to LPT1 ;
- Change the primary address to the GPIB address of your
printer.
• Exit IBCONF .
• Reboot the system.
• Run IBTEST to verify correct software installation.