Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Matthew Otis
Texas A&M University
Instructor’s Portion
Summary
The purpose of this experiment is to teach students about General Purpose
Interface Bus (GPIB) communication and how it is implemented in real
world systems.
This lab will teach students what GPIB is, what it is used for, why it came
into play as a communication protocol, how to communicate with GPIB
instruments, how to find instrument drivers and how to easily call the
instrument by using instrument drivers. Students will learn the basic
theory of GPIB, the differences between the transmission lines, and how
to connect the instrument to the GPIB Board so that National Instruments’
LabVIEW software can communicate with the instrument. This
experiment will also show the how VISA commands can be used so that
programs need only be written once to work on many devices.
Uses
This experiment has uses in any course that requires the use of
communication with instruments.
Equipment List
A computer with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Sun, or HPUX
(individual system requirements can be found at:
http://www.ni.com/labview/lv_sysreq.htm).
LabVIEW 6i or better (ie LabVIEW 6.1 PDS part number 776678
03).
GPIB Communication 1
GPIB Interface (ie PCIGPIB part number 77803201).
GPIB Cable (ie 1 meter cable part number 76306101).
NI Instrument Simulator (part number 77736901) or another
GPIB Instrument.
Setup
This lab is intended to give students a workable model of how to use GPIB
communication. You may want to spend more time in the classroom on
some of the specific details about GPIB such as the details of the IEEE
488 paper. Some of the other topics regarding details on workstation
configurations, specific instruments, etc. could be broached in a more
encompassing manner within a classroom setting.
This lab is written under the presumption that there will be one NI
Instrument Simulator for each workstation. However you may be able to
work around this and have fewer than one NI Instrument Simulator per
station. The students could build the VIs on one computer, transport the
VI via disk, and then attempt to run it on another computer that is
connected to the NI Instrument Simulator.
While the lab procedure could be fairly easily adapted for use with another
instrument, it is designed for the NI Instrument Simulator. Most of the
basic procedures and concepts will remain the same regardless of the
instrument, however many of the specifics will vary with use of a different
instrument.
In Step 5 the students will be required to design a VI on their own. One of
the possible outcomes for the VI they will create is shown in Figure 1.
GPIB Communication 2
Figure 1: Possible block diagram for Step 5 of the Lab Procedure (to be seen only by
professor).
Note: Most of the manuals that are referred to ship with National
Instruments hardware and software. If you can’t find your hardcopy of the
manuals, you can get them online at www.ni.com/manuals.
Before the Day of Lab
1. Install LabVIEW (see the LabVIEW Release Notes for your
version of LabVIEW).
2. Install the GPIB Interface (i.e. PCIGPIB board, part number
77803201) (see the PCIGPIB User Manual).
3. Connect the GPIB Interface and NI Instrument Simulator with a
GPIB Cable (see the NI Instrument Simulator User Manual).
4. Obtain the Instrument Driver for your instrument. Instrument
Drivers can be found at www.ni.com/idnet. To install the instrument
driver follow the loading instructions in the Lab Procedure (Step 3).
5. Ensure that the NI Instrument Simulator has power and that the
power light is lit when turned on.
6. Conduct a runthrough of the lab procedure the students will
perform.
If there are any problems associated with the setup of your GPIB system,
then you can find additional help at www.ni.com/support/gpibsupp.htm
On the day of Lab
7. Make sure everything is powered on before commencing the lab.
References
Bishop, Robert H. (2001), LabVIEW Student Edition 6i, Prentice
Hall Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ., Section 10
GPIB Communication 3
Student’s Portion
Introduction
A typical laboratory setup will use multiple instruments to conduct an
experiment. Some common examples of instruments are oscilloscopes,
digital multimeters, and function generators, but an instrument can be
anything used to record, measure, or control. While the functionality of
each instrument is different, most instruments have two common
components:
User Interface The user interface is commonly made up of dials, buttons,
or knobs for the user to provide input to the instrument, and display
screens or digital readouts for the user to see the output from the
instrument.
Communication Protocol The communication protocol provides a means
for the instrument to talk to other devices. Two common ways to
communicate with instruments is a serial connection or the General
Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB).
This laboratory will focus on communicating with instruments a serial
connection.
For more information on GPIB communication see the GPIB
Communication Experiment.
Objective
To learn how to setup your GPIB instrument.
To learn how GPIB communicates with your computer.
To use LabVIEW to interact with that instrument.
To be able to find and use instrument drivers.
Theory
What is GPIB?
GPIB Communication 4
GPIB stands for General Purpose Interface Bus. It is also commonly
referred to as IEEE 488 and HPIB. A standard GPIB setup has one
controller, at least one instrument (such as an oscilloscope, multimeter,
etc.), and as many GPIB cables.
Figure 2: National Instruments PCIGPIB Board with GPIB cable.
The controller can be a specific standalone device, however it usually
refers to a PCIGPIB board (Figure 2) or similar interface that is
connected to a PC computer. This controller will allow the user to interact
with the instrument, and will communicate and call upon the instrument(s)
connected to the controller. The instrument can be anything that has a
GPIB connection. The GPIB Cable simply connects the instrument and the
controller.
Instruments Computer
Figure 3: Computers are used to communicate with benchtop instruments.
These three elements are all combined so as to produce a GPIB system
(Figure 3) that will allow scientists and engineers to utilize the versatility
of their instruments with the power of their computers.
GPIB Communication 5
Why GPIB?
GPIB exists due to the need for a standard to communicate with benchtop
instruments. GPIB offers the best way to communicate and control
multiple instruments. GPIB is easily adaptable to control from a PC, this
aids in the use of analysis of the retrieved information further
strengthening the protocols hold on its place both within industry and
educational environments. GPIB also provides fast data transfer rates that
allow large quantities of information to be sent at a time. Many benchtop
instruments are already equipped to be able to support GPIB
communication, therefore little is required to have an interactively
controlled instrument other than obtaining a GPIB controller board for the
computer and a cable for connecting the computer and the instrument.
GPIB also has proven to be relatively easy to program enabling
communication to be readily established. GPIB instruments offer test and
manufacturing engineers the widest selection of vendors and instruments
for generalpurpose to specialized applications.
How does it work?
Figure 4: Star Configuration Figure 5: Linear Configuration
GPIB is a digital, 8bit parallel communications interface with data
transfer rates of 1Mbyte/s and higher, using a threewire handshake. The
bus supports one System Controller, usually a computer, and up to 14
additional instruments. These instruments can either be arranged in a Star
configuration (Figure 4) or in a linear configuration (Figure 5).
GPIB Communication 6
Figure 6 GPIB Port with pinout specifications
The GPIB is a 24conductor parallel bus that consists of eight data lines,
five bus management lines (ATN, EOI, IFC, REN, and SRQ), three
handshake lines, and eight ground lines (Figure 6). GPIB uses a byte
serial, asynchronous data transfer scheme. This means that whole bytes are
sequentially handshaked across the bus at a speed that the slowest
participant in the transfer determines. Because the unit of data on the
GPIB is a byte (eight bits), the messages transferred are frequently
encoded as ASCII character strings.
All GPIB devices and interfaces must have a unique GPIB address
between 0 and 30. Address 0 is normally assigned to the GPIB interface.
The instruments on the GPIB can use addresses 1 through 30. GPIB
devices can be talkers, listeners, or controllers. A talker sends out data
messages. Listeners receive data messages. The controller, usually a
computer, manages the flow of information on the bus. It defines the
communication links and sends GPIB commands to devices. The GPIB
VIs automatically handle the addressing and most other bus management
functions.
You can terminate a GPIB data transfer in the following three ways:
• The GPIB includes a hardware line (EOI) that can be asserted with
the last data byte. This is the preferred method.
• Place a specific endofstring (EOS) character at the end of the
data string itself. Some instruments use this method instead of or in
addition to the EOI line assertion.
GPIB Communication 7
• The listener counts the bytes handshaked and stops reading when
the listener reaches a byte count limit. This method is often used as
a default termination method because the transfer stops on the
logical OR of EOI, EOS (if used) in conjunction with the byte
count. Thus, you typically set the byte count to equal or exceed the
expected number of bytes to be read.
To achieve the high data transfer rate that the GPIB was designed for, you
must limit the number of devices on the bus and the physical distance
between devices. The following restrictions are typical:
• A maximum separation of 4 m between any two devices and an average
separation of 2 m over the entire bus
• A maximum total cable length of 20 m
• A maximum of 15 devices connected to each bus, with at least
twothirds powered on
For highspeed operation, the following restrictions apply:
• All devices in the system must be powered on.
• Cable lengths must be as short as possible with up to a maximum of 15m
of cable for each system.
• There must be at least one equivalent device load per meter of cable.
Note Refer to the National Instruments GPIB support Web site at
www.ni.com/support/gpibsupp.htm for more information about GPIB.
Communicating with Instruments
You can use LabVIEW to communicate with GPIB instruments in one of
the following two main ways:
• The Instrument I/O VIs and functions communicate with the driverlevel
software for the GPIB interface. Therefore, you can build VIs that use
these VIs and functions directly. However, the instruments each have a
specific command set or protocol for sending and receiving data. Learning
and using these commands and protocol can be difficult.
• An instrument driver is a set of modular software functions that use the
instrument commands or protocol to perform common operations with the
GPIB Communication 8
instrument. The instrument driver also calls the appropriate VIs and
functions for the instrument. LabVIEW instrument drivers eliminate the
need to learn the complex, lowlevel programming commands for each
instrument.
Instrument Drivers
Instrument drivers receive, parse, and scale the response strings from
instruments into scaled data that you can use in test applications.
Instrument drivers help make test applications easier to maintain because
the drivers contain all the I/O for an instrument in one library, separate
from other code. When you upgrade your hardware, it is easier to upgrade
your application because all the code specific to that instrument is
contained in the instrument driver.
All instrument drivers in the library have the same basic VI hierarchy.
Figure 7: This illustration shows the typical hierarchy of an instrument driver.
The highlevel functions are built from the lowlevel functions. For the
most control over the instrument, use the lowlevel functions. However,
the highlevel functions, such as the Getting Started VI in Step 3e are
easy to use and have changeable front panels that resemble the instrument.
Instrument drivers have VIs in the following categories:
GPIB Communication 9
• Initialize—Initializes the communication channel to the instrument.
This VI also can perform an identification query and reset operation, and
it can perform any necessary actions to place the instrument in its default
poweron state or other specified state.
• Configuration—Configures the instrument to perform operations, such
as setting up the trigger rate.
• Action/Status—Contains two types of VIs. Action VIs cause the
instrument to initiate or terminate test and measurement operations.
Status VIs obtain the current status of the instrument or the status of
pending operations. An example of an action VI is Acquire Single Shot.
An example of a status VI is Query Transfer Pending.
• Data—Transfers data to or from the instrument, such as reading a
measured waveform from the instrument or downloading a waveform to
the instrument.
• Utility—Performs a wide variety of functions, such as reset, selftest
error query, and revision query.
• Close—Terminates the communication channel to the instrument and
deallocates the resources for that instrument.
All National Instruments instrument drivers are required to implement the
following functions: initialize, close, reset, selftest, revision query, error
query, and error message.
When you initialize the communication channel to an instrument, you
must know the resource name or instrument descriptor. A resource is an
instrument or interface, and the instrument descriptor is the exact name
and location of a resource in the following format:
Interface Type[board index]::Address::INSTR
For example, GPIB::2::INSTR is the instrument descriptor for a GPIB
instrument at address 2.
GPIB Communication 10
Figure 8: VISA is used to call lower level drivers for the instrument that you specify.
After you initialize an instrument, the Initialize VI returns a VISA session
number. The VISA session is a connection or link to a resource, such as
the instrument. You do not need to display this value. However, each time
you communicate with that device, you must wire the VISA session input
on the instrument driver VIs. After you finish communicating with the
instrument, you use the Close VI to close all references or resources for
the instrument.
The VISA functions you use to communicate with a GPIB instrument
most often are the VISA Write and VISA Read. Most GPIB instruments
require you to send information in the form of a command or query before
you can read information back from the instrument. Therefore, the VISA
Write function is usually followed by a VISA Read function.
Pre-Lab Preparation
Read the introduction, theory, and lab procedure portions of this
experiment.
Bring with you:
Pen or Pencil.
A formated 3.5inch floppy disk.
This experiment.
Workstation Details
Computer with LabVIEW Software
GPIB Communication 11
At least one GPIB Cable
NI Instrument Simulator or another GPIB Instrument
GPIB Card (inside computer)
Lab Procedure
This lab will require you to communicate with an instrument or instrument
simulator thru the GPIB port on your computer. The following procedures
will help you learn how to design your software so that you can do the
most possible with your GPIB device by communicating to it thru the
GPIB port.
1. First you need to configure the NI Instrument Simulator for use with
GPIB communication and you will need to verify that the device is
properly installed on your computer.
a. Make sure that the power is off on the NI Instrument
Simulator.
b. Flip the switches to the positions shown in Figure 9. If the
GPIB Cable is not already connected to the instrument and the
GPIB Board, do so at this time.
Figure 9: Switch configuration for GPIB communication with the NI
Instrument Simulator.
c. Power on the NI Instrument Simulator (the Power and Ready
LEDs should light up).
d. Open up National Instruments’ Measurement and Automation
Explorer (MAX). This can be reached by opening:
i. The icon on your desktop
GPIB Communication 12
ii. Start > Programs > National Instruments >
Measurement & Automation
iii. Open a VI in LabVIEW, then go to Tools >
Measurement & Automation Explorer
e. Once in MAX we need to check for the GPIB Interface.
i. Go to Devices and Interfaces, and look for GPIB0 (PCI
GPIB) or a similar interface. Your screen should look
similar to Figure 10. (If you do not see that make sure
that your screen has been refreshed (F5), or ask for
assistance from your instructor in getting the device
properly installed.)
ii. If GPIB0 (PCIGPIB) or a similar interface it appears,
then it is installed, so exit out of or minimize MAX.
Figure 10: Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) allows you to see if the GPIB
Board is installed
2. Now you will build a VI that is able to communicate with the GPIB
Instrument. You will use VISA commands, all of which are very
simplistic and general by nature. In fact, this program could even be
used for communicating with a serial, PXI, or VXI Device simply by
changing the VISA Resource Name. (If you completed the previous
GPIB Communication 13
experiment you can see that the structure is virtually the exact same as
for Serial, this is one of the advantages that is made possible by VISA)
Figure 11: Possible Front Panel design for GPIB Basic Communication.vi
Figure 12: Block Diagram for GPIB Basic Communication.vi
a. Open LabVIEW, create a new VI and go to the block diagram
(CtrlE).
b. Build the block diagram as seen in Figure 12.
c. To place the appropriate VIs right click on the block diagram
and go to Functions > Instrument I/O > VISA place VISA
Write and VISA Read on the block diagram.
d. VISA Open and VISA Close can be found under Functions >
Instrument I/O > VISA > VISA Advanced.
GPIB Communication 14
e. VISA resource name, write buffer (“”), read buffer, return
count, and byte count can all be created by right clicking on
their respective nodes with the wiring tool and either creating
an indicator, a constant, or a control depending upon what is
needed.
a. The byte count must be large enough to allow all of the
data points, yet small enough so that the device will not
take too long to read.
f. On your front panel type GPIB::2 into the VISA resource
name.
g. Save the VI onto your 3.5inch floppy disk as Basic GPIB
Communication.
h. This VI does the following:
1. VISA Open prepares a session of communication between
LabVIEW and the instrument that is specified in VISA
Resource Name.
2. VISA Write then triggers the proper handshaking lines,
signals to the desired device that a transmission is about to
occur, breaks the ASCII text into 8 bit binary code, and
sends 1 bit along each DIO line to the instrument.
3. VISA Read then awaits the impending signal transmission
that is signaled by the appropriate handshaking lines, reads
up to the number of bytes specified in the byte count
constant, converts the binary data of received from each of
the DIO lines into ASCII text, and returns the total size of
the received string array.
4. VISA Close closes the VISA session.
5. If an error occurs the Simple Error Handler displays what
error occurred and where within the VI it occurred.
i. On the front panel put *IDN? in the write buffer (“”). This is a
standard command that asks an instrument to identify itself.
Run the VI. The device should answer with National
GPIB Communication 15
Instruments GPIB and Serial Device Simulator Rev B.1 (or the
name of the device in use).
j. Type FORM:DATA ASC; SOUR:FUNC SIN; SENS:DATA?
in the write buffer (“”), and run the VI. Once the VI has run,
make a screenshot of both the front panel with the waveform
and block diagram.
k. Type FORM:DATA ASC; SOUR:FUNC SQU;
SENS:DATA? In the write buffer (“”), and run the VI. Once
the VI has run, make a screenshot of both the front panel with
the new waveform.
l. Look at the front of the NI Instrument Simulator and look at
some of the various commands. What are the other commands
that you can make?
m. Save and Close the VI then exit LabVIEW.
3. There are however easier ways of dealing with individual instruments.
Instrument Drivers communicate with the device by using the same
protocol as seen above, but they are prewritten with all of the syntax
required for that particular instrument.
a. First obtain the instrument driver.
i. Go to www.ni.com/idnet or www.ni.com > NI
Developer Zone > Instrument Driver Network.
ii. Once there go to Downloads > type “NI Instrument
Simulator” in the search field > select the NI Instrument
Simulator.
iii. Read and then follow the install instructions for the
instrument driver.
iv. To install the LabVIEW instrument drivers,
decompress the instrument driver file to get a directory
of instrument driver files. Place this directory in
labview\instr.lib.
GPIB Communication 16
v. The next time you open LabVIEW, you can access the
instrument driver VIs on the Functions > Instrument
I/O > Instrument Drivers palette.
b. Launch LabVIEW, create a new VI, and go to the empty block
diagram
c. Right click and go to Functions > Instrument I/O >
Instrument Drivers
d. Record all the names of the different instrument drivers on
your computer (you should have at least one for the NI Device
Simulator).
e. Go to the NI Device Simulator subpalette (or the subpalette of
the name of the instrument with which you wish to
communicate) and place Application Example > Getting
Started on your block diagram.
Figure 13: Front Panel for Getting Started.vi.
GPIB Communication 17
Figure 14: Block Diagram for Getting Started.vi
f. Double click on the Getting Started VI and look at the front
panel and block diagram.
g. Note in particular the structure of the calls, how the instrument
drivers use a VISA reference, that the device is first initialized,
then assessed and finally closed every time the program is run.
h. Run the VI once for a Sinusoid Waveform and once for a
Square Waveform. Note: Doing this results in the same data as
received in Section 2j and 2k respectively; however this data
is then formatted into an array that populates the Waveform
Graph.
i. Close and do not save the VI.
All instrument drivers contain an example (such as this Getting
Started.vi) you can use to test that the instrument driver VIs are
communicating with the instrument. Specify the correct GPIB
address for the instrument as was configured in Measurement &
Automation Explorer.
An appreciation can be gained for the instrument drivers, in
contrast to Step 2 where only the raw unformatted data was
utilized and received. Instrument drivers have been created so that
all the data is formatted properly, and all of the read strings are
broken down into the necessary format that is easy to use with any
other desired operations. Often it is difficult to remember the
specific queries required for each different device, and the output
format. The instrument driver solves all of these problems.
4. Build a VI using some of the instrument driver VIs. The VI will be
used to look at the voltage history of the random DC signal output by
the Instrument Simulator, and then record the maximum and minimum
voltages, and also allow you to set the initial voltage range. The VI
will show how greater versatility can be had by using more specific
instrument driver VIs.
GPIB Communication 18
Figure 15: Front Panel for Voltage History.vi. Shows a graph with recorded
points, allows adjustment of voltage range, and it shows the maximum and
minimum recorded voltages.
Figure 16: Block Diagram for Voltage History.vi.
a. Open a new VI, go to the empty block diagram, right click to
get the functions palette, go to Functions > Instrument I/O >
Instrument Drivers.
b. Go to the NI Device Simulator subpalette and place NI
DEVSIM Initialize.vi and NI DEVSIM Close.vi on the
Block. Diagram.
GPIB Communication 19
c. From the Configuration subpalette select NI DEVSIM
Multimeter Configuration.vi.
d. From the Data subpalette select NI DEVSIM Measure DC
Voltage.vi.
e. Go to Functions > Array to find Build Array and Array Max
& Min.
f. To add a Shift Register simply right click on the while loop and
click Add Shift Register.
g. Once the Build Array is wired to the Shift Register then you
can place an empty array constant by right clicking the Shift
Register Create > Constant (make sure you do not assign any
values to this empty constant, or that will be an initial value for
the Graph and Array).
h. All other indicators and controls can be created by right
clicking on their respective nodes with the wiring tool and
either creating an indicator or a control depending upon what is
needed.
i. Save the VI onto your 3.5inch floppy disk as Voltage
History.vi.
j. This VI does the following:
1. NI Devsim Initialize.vi initializes the device for
communication and prepares the software for the
instrument type as indicated in the VISA resource name.
2. NI Devsim Multimeter Configuration.vi configures the
multimeter range to either the default, minimum or
GPIB Communication 20
maximum levels (0 to 10 VDC, 0 to 1 VDC, or 0 to 100
VDC).
3. NI Devsim Read Measure DC Voltage.vi asks the device
what its current VDC is, and then reads the instrument’s
response to the question. It then formats the response into a
single numeric value.
4. Build array.vi assimilates the individual numeric values
into an array of values.
5. The array is plotted on a Waveform Graph.
6. Array Max & Min.vi searches the array for the maximum
and minimum values, and then displays these in the
appropriate indicators.
7. Wait (ms) causes there to be a slight delay in the while loop
so as to allow the user to see each individual point
displayed.
8. The while loop stops when the user presses the stop button
on the front panel or when an error occurs.
9. Once out of the while loop NI Devsim Close.vi closes the
VISA session with the device.
10. Any errors are reported by the Simple Error Handler.vi.
k. Look at the front panel and run the VI.
l. Take a screenshot of both your front panel and block diagram.
m. Save the VI and leave open, for use as a guide on the next step.
5. You will now build a VI that will do the same as the Voltage
History.vi, but without the use of an instrument driver.
a. Create the same VI above, but try to do it without the
instrument driver.
b. You will only need to use the VISA commands that were
present in Step 2.
GPIB Communication 21
c. It might help you to look at the basic string commands located
deeper within the individual instrument driver VIs.
i. To look at these, simply click on the individual VIs and
then look at their block diagrams to see how the
operations are completed.
d. Save the VI onto your 3.5inch floppy disk as Voltage History
without drivers.vi.
e. Take a screenshot of your completed block diagram.
f. Close LabVIEW.
g. Have your instructor verify that you have completed the lab.
h. Log off of your computer.
Lab Report
This lab report should be an informal report. The lab report will consist of
the normal contents of an informal report: title, introduction, results, and
discussion. The report must be typed. You should include the following in
your lab report:
Staple your data sheet to the back of your report.
All screenshots should be included in your report.
If there were any problems in the lab, discuss them. Why do you think
they occurred?
Write about how you think that this communication can be improved
upon, and what merits you think it currently has.
Data Sheet
1. Set NI Instrument Driver switches and checking for GPIB Board in
MAX.
a. If the 4 switches on the right represent binary characters which
start with the least significant digit on the left (closest to the GPIB
cable) and where on = 1 and off = 0, what would be the GPIB
Address for the device?
GPIB Communication 22
b. What was the name of your GPIB Board?
2. Basic GPIB Communication.vi.
a. What other options are there under VISA resource name?
b. Why would you want to use VISA commands when writing a VI
for use with GPIB?
c. If one bit is sent for every DIO line, how many bits are there for
each byte sent along GPIB?
d. Can you remember the syntax for asking for identification of the
instrument?
i. If so, what is the string?
e. In Step 2j, what are the first five data points returned?
i. What is the maximum value for any data point?
f. In Step 2k, what are the first five data points returned?
i. What is the maximum value for any data point?
GPIB Communication 23
g. Do you think it would be easy to remember the correct syntax for
every possible case?
h. How would you propose making a better system than remembering
the syntax for every command?
3. Downloading and using an instrument driver.
a. What does installing the instrument driver into the instr.lib folder
allow you to do?
b. List here the names of all of the different instrument drivers on
listed on your computer:
Is there one for every instrument attached to the GPIB board?
If not which instruments still need instrument drivers?
c. Is the Interface Select set to True or False?
d. What instrument driver VI is used to initialize the instrument?
Take the various measurements?
Close the session?
GPIB Communication 24
e. Which instrument driver VI takes the most time to run?
f. Which data is easier to recognize, that of 2j or that of 3h?
What about between 2k and 3h?
g. Which would you prefer to use; the getting started example or the
regular VISA commands?
Why?
4. Building a workable VI using instrument driver VIs.
a. What values being built within the while loop?
b. ______ V and ______ V were the maximum and minimum
voltages recorded by this VI.
c. What is happening to the Xaxis as the VI is allowed to run?
Is this expected? Why?
5. Building Voltage History without drivers.vi.
a. Which appears to run faster Voltage History.vi or Voltage History
without driver?
b. Which is easier to build?
GPIB Communication 25
c. Are there any other noticeable differences?
d. If development time is a costly part of making a product, why do
you think program developers might choose to use instrument
drivers?
e. Describe how you completed this VI.
f. What do each of the strings do?
g. What is going on every time you complete the loop?
h. Is the final output from Voltage History without driver.vi any
different than Voltage History.vi?
GPIB Communication 26