GDS-806/810/820/840 Programming Manual
8
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:
zResults of the status word (ibsta) in hexadecimal notation
zMnemonic constant of each bit set in ibsta
zMnemonic value of the error variable (iberr) if an error exists (the ERR bit is
set in ibsta)
zCount value for each read, write, or command function
zData 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 <function> at the prompt,
where <function> 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:
1. Select Tools→I-488.2 Utilities→Interactive Control.
2. 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.
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