AMETEK BPS Series Programming Manual - Manual (Page 22)

AMETEK Programmable Power BPS / MX / RS Series SCPI Programming Manual
22 Manual P/N 7003-961 Rev AA
3. System Considerations and Interface Setup
This chapter addresses some system issues concerning programming. These are AC/DC
Source addressing and the use of the following IEEE-488 system interface controllers:
• National Instruments PCI-GPIB controller with the Windows ®
gpib-32.dll driver.
• Agilent 82350 PCI GPIB Controller using the SICL driver library.
3.1 Assigning the IEEE-488 Address
The AC/DC source address can be set remotely or localy. All MX/RS/BPS Series AC/DC
source are shipped with the IEEE-488 address set to 1 from the factory. Once the address is
set, you can assign it inside programs. Note that some PC IEEE-488 controller interface
cards may require you to run a setup utility to assign the AC/DC source address. In most
cases however, the instrument address can be set from the application program.
For systems using the National Instruments driver, the address of the IEEE-488 controller is
specified in the software configuration program located in the Windows 95
® control panel.
This is not the instrument address. The controller often uses 0 as its own address so the use
of 0 as an instrument address should be avoided. The AC/DC source address can be
assigned dynamically in the application program. (see the National Instruments GP-IB
documentation supplied with the controller card).
3.2 GPIB Controllers
The HP 82350 and National Instruments PCI-GPIB are two popular GPIB controllers for the
PC platform. Each is briefly described here. See the software documentation supplied with
the controller card for more details.
3.2.1 Agilent 82350 Driver
The Afilent 82350 supports either the VISA or SICL instrument driver I/O library which
provides software compatabilty accross all Agilent GPIB controllers. We recommend you
use this driver to develop your code.
3.2.2 National Instruments GP-IB Driver
Your program must include the National Instruments header file for C programs or the
VBIB.BAS and VBIB-32.BAS modules for Visual Basic. If you are using LabView™ or
LabWindows™, make sure to select the correct controller when installing the IDE program.
Prior to running any applications programs, you must set up the GPIB controller hardware
with the configuration program located in the Windows Control Panel. For plug and play
versions of the AT/GPIB-TNT, the setup will be performed when the card is first detected.
Regardless of the GPIB interface controller used, the power supply expects a message
termination on EOI or line feed, so set EOI w/last byte of Write. It is also recommended that
you set Disable Auto Serial Polling.
All function calls return the status word IBSTA%, which contains a bit (ERR) that is set if the
call results in an error. When ERR is set, an appropriate code is placed in variable IBERR%.
Be sure to check IBSTA% after every function call. If it is not equal to zero, branch to an
error handler that reads IBERR% to extract the specific error.
Error Handling