Keithley
Instruments
24XX-850CV2.0
Release Note for Version 2.0
VXIPnP Driver for the Model 2400 Family of instruments
6/03/2003
IMPORTANT:
To work properly with the driver, your instrument must have a compatible
version of firmware. Refer to section 2
(System Requirements) below for specific
details regarding the required firmware version for your instrument.
Visit www.keithley.com for upgrade instructions if
your instrument’s firmware is not a compatible version. The instrument’s firmware version is shown
on the display when the instrument is first powered up, immediately to the
right of the model number.
This
document provides additional information for the installation and use of the
24XX-850CV2.0 Ke24xx driver for LabView and LabWindows CVI, Visual Basic, and
C/C++.
Table of
Contents
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2.1 Supported Operating Systems and System Software
3.1 GPIB Controller Installation
3.1.1 Keithley and INES PCMCIA Controller Installation
3.2 Connecting your Computer to your Instrument
3.3 Upgrading from a previous version of the Instrument Driver
3.4 Instrument Driver Installation
3.4.1 Installing the driver from the Web
4.2.2 Example of using VISA resources:
4.3 Using the Example Programs
4.4 Using the driver with LabView
Not supported in the Ke24xx driver:
5.1.2 Assumptions made in the Model 2400 driver
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The
components described below are provided as part of the Ke24xx VXIPnP Driver for
the Model 2400 instruments. Some
shortcuts for them are added to the Keithley Instruments folder on your Start
Menu.
Version
2.0 of the Ke24xx driver supports the following instruments:
2400,
2410, 2420, 2425, 2430, 2440
2400-C,
2410-C, 2420-C, 2425-C, 2430-C, 2440-C
2400-OSRAM
The driver
uses VISA to communicate with your instrument. This software driver supports
many Application Development Environments under Windows, such as Visual Basic,
C/C++, LabView, LabWindows/CVI. Examples and an on-line help utility are
provided to help programmers build their custom applications.
Pentium-class
PC.
2400 firmware
release C22 or later. For the 2400-OSRAM you will need release C25 or later.
Supported
communication buses are GPIB and RS232.
NOTE: It
is strongly recommended that your computer and instrument be powered by an
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) when running a critical application.
Windows XP
Professional service pack 1 or later
Windows
2000 Service pack 3 or later
Windows NT
Service pack 6a or later
Windows 98
Second edition only
Note:
Windows 95 is not supported.
If you
will be using GPIB to communicate with your instrument, you must have a
compatible GPIB controller card and associated software driver installed in
your computer before installing the Instrument Driver.
The driver
is compatible with the following GPIB controller cards:
Keithley Instruments GPIB cards (ISA, PCI, PCMCIA)
CEC GPIB cards (ISA, PCI)
National Instruments GPIB cards (ISA, PCI, PCMCIA)
INES GPIB cards (PCMCIA)
When using
Keithley Instruments or CEC ISA or PCI GPIB cards, you must have driver
software version 5.14 or later. The
latest driver for these cards is available from the CEC WEB site: www.cec488.com.
Follow the
manufacturer's instructions for installing the controller card and software,
and for verifying correct operation of the card and software driver.
When
installing the INES driver software, do NOT install the HP I/O libraries or
select HP SICL emulation.
When
installing the INES driver software, DO select NI compatibility mode.
When
installing the INES driver software, if the hardware test fails, change the
Interrupt selection to none.
Connect
your instrument to your computer using a standard GPIB interface cable or using
a DB9 to DB9 straight through cable (not Null modem) for RS232 communication.
For GPIB
communication you just need to set the instrument to a unique GPIB address so
it doesn’t clash with any other instrument connected to the same bus.
For RS232
communication the 2400 Family of instruments default to a carriage return (CR)
for the terminating character. You should change this to line feed (LF) on the
instrument. The driver also defaults to 9600baud and with flow-control set to
Xon/Xoff. If you want to change this then call the VISA attributes that set
these parameters with the handle you get back from the Ke24xx_init function.
If you
have an earlier version of the driver software installed on your computer,
uninstall it by following the steps below before installing this version.
First of
all backup the file visaconf.ini, which is located in the VXIPnP\Win95\NiVisa
directory or the VXIPnP\WinNT\NiVisa directory. The path varies depending on
what operating system you are running.
Using the
Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel, uninstall the following components:
Keithley 24XX SourceMeter Driver Or Keithley 24XX Driver
Keithley I/O Layer
Reboot
your computer.
When you
install the new driver put the backed up copy of the visaconf.ini back in its
original location.
If you
have a previous version of the Instrument Driver installed on your computer,
uninstall it as described above before installing the new version.
Download
the driver software from the Keithley Web site, www.keithley.com. The software is a single compressed file, approximately 24 MB in
size, and should be downloaded to a temporary directory.
Run the
downloaded file from the temporary directory.
Follow the
instructions on the screen to install the software. Note: during the early part of the installation, the installation
utility may appear to stop for a minute or so.
This is normal and the utility will continue running in a short while.
When the
installation is complete, reboot your computer.
To connect
to the instrument via the driver you need to first call Ke24xx_init. The first
parameter for either function is a VISA resource string, which indicates to the
I/O layer which communication device you want to use to connect to the
instrument and in most cases the address of the instrument. This can be specified using a VISA Resource
string.
Error codes are returned as the return value
of each instrument driver function. A program should examine this value after
each call to an instrument driver function to determine if any error occurred.
Possible error codes and their meanings are listed with the corresponding
instrument driver function in the Windows help file.
For GPIB
instruments, you would use a resource string of the following format:
"GPIBx::yy::INSTR".
x is the GPIB card number.
yy is the GPIB address of the instrument.
Ke24xx_init("GPIB0::24::INSTR ",
VI_TRUE,
VI_TRUE,
handle)
would connect to a 2400 on GPIB address 24.
Ke24xx_init("ASRL1::INSTR ",
VI_TRUE,
VI_TRUE,
handle)
would connect to a 2400 on COM Port1
The Ke24xx
Driver includes an example program written in Visual Basic. The example demonstrates how to perform a
Source Current and Measure Voltage linear sweep, using the driver. The example
program is hard coded to use a 24xx at GPIB address 24 using a Keithley or CEC
GPIB interface card for communications.
If you are using a different bus, address, or interface card, you must
edit the example program to change the address, bus, or interface.
There is no Ke24xx.bas file for the Visual BASIC user. The preferred way to access the Dll is to go to the References menu selection under the Project menu. Use the "Browse" button and select the Ke24xx.dll, which is in the VXIPnP bin directory. Refer to the online help or use the "Object Browser", under the View menu to view the Ke24xx library, to get a list of the function calls and defined constants.
Just a reminder that any VI that has an output parameter requires that you assign a control (UINT32) to the size of the parameter otherwise it will crash. If it is outputting a single value then the size should be 1 where as if it is and array of data then you will need the correct size of the array.
If LabView
is already installed on your computer when the driver is installed, the LabView
VIs will be installed in the proper subdirectory of the LabView directory so
that they are directly accessible from within LabView.
If LabView
is not installed on your computer when the driver is installed, the LabView VIs
will placed in a subdirectory of the Keithley Instruments directory. Once LabView has been installed, the VIs
must be copied to the proper subdirectory under LabView before they can be
used. This directory is typically:
C:\Program
Files\National Instruments\LabView X\inst.lib\Ke24xx
Depending
on the particular driver, there may be separate versions of the VIs for LabView
5.x and 6.x, in which case they will be installed into separate
directories. Copy the appropriate
version of the VIs into the National Instrument directory tree.
The following is a list of functionality that is in the 2400 family of instruments but Version 2.0 of this VXIPnP driver doesn't support. The user can use the Ke24xx_WriteInstrData and Ke24xx_ReadInstrData functions to send and receive commands/data to the instrument.
Ke24xx_Configure_DC_IV
Ke24xx_Perform_DC_IV
Ke24xx_Configure_DC_VI
Ke24xx_Perform_DC_VI
Ke24xx_Configure_Sweep_IV
Ke24xx_Perform_Sweep_IV
Ke24xx_Configure_Sweep_VI
Ke24xx_Perform_Sweep_VI
Ke24xx_Configure_List_IV
Ke24xx_Perform_List_IV
Ke24xx_Configure_List_VI
Ke24xx_Perform_List_VI
The
Sweep and List functions return both voltage and current so the array you pass
in for the returned data should be twice as long as the number of points or samples
taken. The DC functions return just a single element. If it’s sourcing current
then it returns voltage and if sourcing voltage then it return current.
If you enable bits in the *SRE register to generate a SRQ then on RS232 it doesn’t work correctly due to a firmware bug. All versions of the 2400 firmware up to C25 have this bug. The VB example, Model2400ex1, shows this problem. If you use it to connect to a 2400 on RS232 then you can run the sweep once but when you run it twice a timeout error is generated. There is no known work a round at present. Check the Keithley Web site to see if we have a FAQ on a work around or have fixed the firmware. – PR22327
The VISA
software supplied with the Instrument Driver is Copyright (c) 2001 National
Instruments Corporation. All Rights
Reserved.
The Ke24xx
instrument driver is Copyright (c) 2003 Keithley Instruments. All Rights Reserved.
End of
Release notes.