Installation guide

Chapter 3 59
Using IO Configuration Utilities
Using IO Config
5 If you want IO Config to automatically configure new interfaces,
click the
Auto Add button. However, Auto Add will not add an
82341 ISA GPIB card, nor will it remove any interfaces that are no
longer installed.
6 In most cases, you can use the automatic defaults. However,
if you need to change a value, click the arrows next to the value’s
field. If there are no arrows, click the field and type in the value you
want.
7 Note the name of the interface (such as hpib7, etc.) and the
logical unit number of the interface for use in SICL applications,
and the device address for use in VISA applications.
8 When you have finished configuring interfaces, click
OK to store the
changes.
Example: Using IO Config
An IO interface can be defined as both a hardware interface and as a
software interface. The purpose of the IO Config utility is to associate a
unique interface name with a hardware interface.
The IO Libraries use an
Interface Name or Logical Unit Number to identify an
interface. This information is passed in the parameter string of the
viOpen
function call in a VISA program or in the
iopen function call in a SICL
program. IO Config assigns an Interface Name and Logical Unit Number to
the interface hardware, as well as other necessary configuration values for
an interface when the interface is configured.
The GPIB interface system in the following figure consists of a Windows PC
with two 82350 GPIB cards connected to three GPIB instruments via GPIB
cables. For this system, the IO Config utility has been used to assign GPIB
card #1 a VISA name of “GPIB0” and a SICL name of “hpib7”. IO Config has
also been used to assign GPIB card #2 a VISA name of “GPIB1” and a SICL
name of “hpib8”. With these names assigned to the interfaces, the
VISA/SICL addressing is as shown in the figure.
Since unique names have been assigned by IO Config, you can use the
VISA viOpen command to open the IO paths to the GPIB instruments as
shown in the above figure. Or, you can use the SICL iopen command to
open the IO paths shown. See the Agilent VISA User’s Guide for details
on VISA commands. See the Agilent SICL User’s Guide for Windows for
details on SICL commands.