User`s guide

Easy Ways to Control Instruments Chapter 3
VEE User’s Guide 129
Overview
In this chapter, you will learn how to use VEE to control
instruments. With VEE, you can control instruments in several
ways:
•“Panel” drivers give you a simple user interface (or “front
panel”) to control an instrument from your computer screen.
When you change parameters in the VEE panel driver, the
corresponding state of the instrument is changed. Panel
drivers are provided by Agilent Technologies with VEE and
cover over 450 instruments from different vendors.
• The Direct I/O object allows you to transmit commands
and receive data over many supported interfaces.
•I/O libraries can be imported to control PC Plug- in boards
and then call functions from that library using the Call object.
These libraries are usually shipped as Dynamic Link
Libraries (DLLs).
•VXIplug&play drivers can be used to call C functions to
control instruments. These are provided by Agilent
Technologies and other vendors with their supported
instruments.
This chapter is designed to give you the fundamentals of
controlling instruments to cover most situations. For more
complete information, refer to the VEE Pro Advanced Techniques
manual.
Panel Drivers
Agilent VEE includes over 450 panel drivers for different
instrument vendors. A panel driver works by using a display in
the VEE program that controls the settings in the corresponding
physical instrument. Panel drivers provide maximum
ease- of- use and save the most development time. Figure 78
shows an example of a panel driver.