GW Instek GDS-800 Series Programming Manual User Manual

Page 8

GDS-806/810/820/840 Programming Manual

The GPIB connection testing

If you want to test the GPIB connection is whether working or not, use the National

Instrument’s “Interactive Control utility” for instance, you communicate with the

GPIB devices through calls you interactively type in at the keyboard.

The Interactive Control can help you to learn about the instrument and to

troubleshoot problems by displaying the following information on your screen after

you enter a command:

z Results of the status word (ibsta) in hexadecimal notation

z Mnemonic constant of each bit set in ibsta

z Mnemonic value of the error variable (iberr) if an error exists (the ERR bit is

set in ibsta)

z Count value for each read, write, or command function

z Data received from your instrument

You can access online help in Interactive Control by entering help at the prompt, or

you can get help on a specific function by entering help at the prompt,

where is the name of the function for which you want help.

To start Interactive Control within National Instrument’s “Measurement &

Automation Explorer”, complete the following steps:

Select Tools→I-488.2 Utilities→Interactive Control.

Open either a board handle or device handle to use for further NI-488.2 calls.

Use ibdev to open a device handle, ibfind to open a board handle, or the set

488.2 command to switch to a 488.2 prompt.