Keithley
Instruments
2700-852-B01.1
Release Note for Version B01.1
IVI Instrument Driver for the Model 2700/2701/2750
5/09/2003
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 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
2700-852-B01.1 2700/2701/2750 driver for LabView and LabWindows CVI, Visual
Basic, and C/C++.
Table of
Contents
----------------------------------------------
1.1.2 Keithley Configuration Panel and
Wizard
1.2 Additional available software
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 CD
3.4.2 Installing the driver from the Web
3.4.3 Installing only the Keithley I/O
Layer
4.2 Create your own Virtual Instruments
4.3.3 Ethernet (Socket connection)
4.3.4 Example of using VISA resources:
4.5 Using the Example Programs
4.6 Using the driver with LabView
5.4 KE2700_ConfigureApertureTimeInfo
5.5 Fetching data back when the
Real-Time Clock is enabled
5.7 KE2700_ConfigureAperatureTimeInfo
----------------------------------------------
The
components described below are provided as part of the KE2700 IVI Instrument
Driver for the Integra Model 2700, 2701, and 2750 instruments. Some shortcuts for them are added to the
Keithley Instruments folder on your Start Menu.
Version
B01.1 of the KE2700 driver supports the Integra Model 2700, 2701, and 2750
instruments.
The
Instrument driver conforms to the IVI DMM Class specification. The driver uses
the Keithley I/O layer (VISA) to communicate with your instrument. IVI
(Interchangeable Virtual Instruments) and VISA (Virtual Instrument Software
Architecture) provide a common foundation for application development across
multiple communication buses and multiple instrument vendors. This software driver supports many
Application Development Environments under Windows, such as Visual Basic,
C/C++, LabView, LabWindows/CVI, and TestPoint. Numerous examples and an on-line
help utility are provided to help programmers build their custom applications.
The
Keithley Configuration Panel is provided to allow you to setup or modify the
communications between the driver and your instrument.
For an IVI
driver to be truly interchangeable you need to create a virtual instrument
configuration which points to the VISA resource to use, the name of the DLL to
use and the prefix for the function calls in the DLL. The Configuration Panel
and Wizard allow you to do this.
The
installation pre-configures instruments for Serial ports COM1 and COM2, and for
a GPIB instrument at GPIB address 16. If you are using one of these, you may
skip the configuration panel. Otherwise, you must create a new instrument
configuration using the Keithley Configuration Panel and Wizard. See
instructions below.
ExceLINX-1A
is a Microsoft Excel add-in for the 2700, 2701, and 2750 systems. Within
minutes of installing ExceLINX-1A on a PC, users can acquire data dynamically
within Excel, and then employ the familiar Excel graphics, charting, and
analysis capabilities. No Programming is required to use ExceLINX - a few mouse
clicks are all it takes to configure channels, set parameters, triggers, scan
lists, etc. ExceLINX is sold separately.
Check www.keithley.com or call
1-888-KEITHLEY (534-8453) for more information.
TestPoint
Professional Development System is a complete package for creating test &
measurement applications, including support for GPIB and serial instruments,
control, math, graphing, A/D and many more features.
Pentium-class
PC.
2700
firmware release B03 or later.
2701
firmware release A01 or later.
2750
firmware release A02 or later.
Supported
GPIB controller (see section 3.1),
RS-232 Serial, or Ethernet (2701 only) port for communications with the
instrument.
KE2700 now
supports 7700, 7701, 7702, 7703, 7705, 7706, 7707, 7708, 7709, 7710, 7711, and
7712 Switch Cards.
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.
The driver
has been tested with a variety of International versions of Windows, including
Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, German, and French.
Note that
Windows 95 is not supported in any language.
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 a
"straight through" (not null-modem) serial RS-232 cable.
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.
Using the
Add/Remove Programs Wizard in Control Panel, uninstall the following
components:
Keithley 2700 IVI Driver.
Keithley I/O Layer.
NI-VISA x.x.x Runtime (If present) (x.x.x will be the VISA
version)
Reboot
your computer.
The
Instrument Driver is included on the Software CD provided with the Instrument,
or it can be downloaded from www.keithley.com.
If you
have a previous version of the Instrument Driver installed on your computer,
uninstall it as described above before installing the new version.
Before
installing from the CD, it is recommended you visit www.keithley.com to see if a newer version
of the driver is available.
Insert the
Software CD in your computer. The
installation utility should start automatically. If it does not start automatically, run the setup.exe file in the
root directory of the CD.
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.
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.
Installing
the Instrument Driver automatically installs the Keithley I/O Layer and NI-
VISA runtime. If you wish to install
only the I/O Layer and not the instrument driver, run the setup.exe file in the
KeithleyIOLayer subdirectory of the CD.
To connect
to the instrument via the driver you need to first call KE2700_init or
KE2700_InitWithOptions. 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 Virtual Instrument name, a Logical Name, or a VISA Resource
string. We recommend that you do not
use the VISA resource string form, since it builds hardware and bus
dependencies into your code. If you use
the Virtual Instrument Name or the Logical Name form, the Keithley
Configuration Panel can be used to select a different bus or address with no
code changes required.
The Keithley
I/O Layer installer creates several virtual instruments that you can use to
automatically connect to an instrument.
If you are
using a National Instruments GPIB card, select KE2700_GPIB16 as your device.
If you are
using a Keithley Instruments or CEC ISA or PCI GPIB card, select
KE2700_GPIB1_16 as your device.
If you are
using a Keithley Instrument or INES PCMCIA GPIB card, select KE2700_GPIB2_16 as
your device.
If you are
using COM Port 1, select KE2700_COM1 as your device.
If you are
using COM Port 2, select KE2700_COM2 as your device.
An example
of using a Virtual Instrument Name to connect to an instrument connected to COM
Port 1 is:
KE2700_init("KE2700_COM1",
VI_TRUE, VI_TRUE, handle)
If you
want to create your own virtual instruments then use the Configuration Panel or
Wizard. Open the Configuration Panel by selecting Start> Programs>
Keithley Instruments> Keithley Configuration Panel, and wait for the Wizard
to start. Follow the Wizard
instructions to create a new configuration or modify an existing one.
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.
For RS232
instruments, the VISA resource string has the following format:
"ASRLx::INSTR" where x is the COM Port number.
For
Ethernet instruments, such as the 2701, use the following VISA resource string
format:
"TCPIPx::IP::Port::SOCKET".
x is the Ethernet card number.
IP is the IP address of the instrument.
Port is the port number of the instrument (1394 for the 2701).
KE2700_init("TCPIP0::10.12.90.115::1394::SOCKET",
VI_TRUE,
VI_TRUE,
handle)
would connect to a 2701 on IP address "10.12.90.115".
Using the
KE2700_InitWithOptions function there is a parameter, called OptionString,
where you can enable/disable certain features of an IVI driver.
If this
feature is enabled the driver will query the instrument after every function
call to see if there where any errors. This is useful while you are writing
your application but once it is finalized then you can disable this feature to
gain extra performance.
If enabled
the IVI engine will check to see if the parameters you are passing in are
within range. Disabling this feature in the final application will also gain
some performance increase.
The driver
has the option of caching all the settings it sends to the instrument so that
it doesn't send a setting to the instrument a second time if it hasn't changed.
By default this is enabled.
The KE2700
Driver includes a number of example programs written in Visual Basic, LabView,
and C. The examples demonstrate how to
perform common functions using the driver. The example programs are hard coded
to use a 2700 at GPIB address 16 using a National Instruments GPIB interface
card for communications. If you are
using a different bus, address, or interface card, you must edit the example
programs to change the address, bus, or interface.
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\KE2700
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.
Where ever
you see the following data types in the Visual BASIC help file: ViChar,
ViChar[], ViString or ViConstString use the VB data type STRING. If you use one
of these data types your VB program will run but when the code executes it will
generate an error, "Invalid data type for automation". All the VB
examples use the correct data type.
(PR19585)
Fetch
Buffer Data.vi & example Read_Buffer.vi
- Max time exceeded before operation completed. If using large buffers
then increase the timeout value.
(PR19573
KE2700_ConfigureFixedRefJunction
and KE2700_ConfigureSimRefJunction are duplicate functions. Use KE2700_ConfigureFixedRefJuntion.
(PR18886)
When using
the KE2700_ConfigureApertureTimeInfo() function to configure multiple channels
by using a channel list, all the channels in the list must be configured for
the same measurement function (e.g. DC Volt) or a -221 Settings Conflict error
will occur. You may use multiple
KE2700_ConfigureApertureTimeInfo() function calls to configure channels with
different function settings.
In
addition, the KE2700_ConfigureAperatureTimeInfo() must precede any
KE2700_ConfigureMultiPoint() function calls in your program or the same error
will occur. (PR21832)
If the
real-time clock is enabled then you shouldn’t use the KE2700_ FetchMultiReading
that returns an array of doubles. The real-time clock data has colons in it,
which confuses the formatting routines. You need to use the function that
returns strings KE2700_FetchMultiReadingChar.
(PR21852)
FetchMultireading does not list the valid
parameters for the 2701 in the help file.
It lists them for the 2700 and the 2750 but not the 2701. The parameters are the start and also the
count.
For a 2701 the valid start parameter values
are 0 to 449,999 and for the count parameter valid values are 1 to 450,000.
(PR21853)
This function should take values as low as 0.002 NPLC for the Model 2701. It is limited to 0.01 as the help file reflects. (PR21854 & PR21855)
The VISA
software supplied with the Instrument Driver is Copyright (c) 2001 National
Instruments Corporation. All Rights
Reserved.
The KE2700
Series instrument driver is Copyright (c) 2001-2003 Keithley Instruments. All Rights Reserved.
End of
Release notes.