Keithley
Instruments
622X-855B01
Release Note for Version B01
IVI Instrument Driver for the Model 6220/6221
11/23/2004
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
622X-855B01 6220/6221 driver for LabView and LabWindows CVI, Visual Basic, and
C/C++.
Table of
Contents
----------------------------------------------
2.1 Supported Operating Systems and
System Software
3.1 Keithley I/O Layer Installation
3.2 Instrument Driver Installation
3.2.1 Installing the driver from the Web
4 Using the 622X IVI Instrument
Driver
4.2 Create your own Virtual Instruments
4.4.3 Ethernet (Socket connection)
4.4.4 Example of using VISA resources:
4.6 Using the Example Programs
4.7 Using the driver with LabView
----------------------------------------------
The
components described below are provided as part of the KE622X IVI Instrument
Driver for the 6220 Precision Current Source and the 6221 DC and AC Current
Source. Some shortcuts for them are
added to the Keithley Instruments folder on your Start Menu.
Version
B01 of the KE622X driver supports the 6220 Precision Current Source and the
6221 DC and AC Current Source.
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.
Important
note: The Keithley Configuration Utility and Keithley I/O Layer software are no
longer bundled with the driver as a single installation package. The Keithley I/O layer may be downloaded
from the Keithley Web site along with the driver. The Keithley I/O software should be installed before the driver
itself is installed, if possible.
Version
B01 will try to detect the presence of the IVI Shared Components and the
National Instruments IVI Engine. Depending upon the versions it finds the
installer could put the driver files in either of two locations, listed below.
If the installer finds the IVI shared components but no NI IVI engine then it
will abort the installation and ask the user to install the NI IVI Compliance
package first.
If the
installer finds there is no IVI shared components on the system then the
following files will be installed to the following locations:
Ke622x_32.dll C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\bin
Ke622x.fp C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\Ke622x
Ke622x.sub C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\Ke622x
Ke622x.txt C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\Ke622x
Ke622x.h C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\include
Ke622x.lib C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\lib\bc
Ke622x.lib C:\VXIPnP\WinNT\lib\msc
* Win95
would replace WinNT on Windows 9X systems.
If the IVI
shared components are found on the system then the following files get
installed to the following locations:
Ke622x
_32.dll C:\Program Files\IVI\bin
Ke622x.fp C:\Program
Files\IVI\Drivers\Ke622x
Ke622x.sub C:\Program
Files\IVI\\Drivers\Ke622x
Ke622x.txt C:\Program
Files\IVI\\Drivers\Ke622x
Ke622x.h C:\Program
Files\IVI\include
Ke622x.lib C:\Program
Files\IVI\lib\bc
Ke622x.lib C:\Program
Files\IVI\lib\msc
Pentium-class
PC.
6220
firmware release A02 or later. DDC Mode is not supported by the driver.
6221
firmware release A02 or later. DDC Mode is not supported by the driver.
Keithley
I/O Layer software KIOL-850 version B02.3 or later.
NOTE:
Keithley strongly recommends that you power your computer and instrument from
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.
Chinese
Windows 98 (Second Edition), 2000, and XP Pro are supported.
Japanese
Windows 98 (Second Edition), 2000, and XP Pro are supported.
LabVIEW
versions 5.1 through 7.1 are supported.
Before
installing the KE622X instrument driver, download and install the Keithley I/O
Layer, KIOL-850, following the instructions in the I/O layer readme file to
install and configure the software, and to connect your instrument to your
computer.
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 622X 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.
Download
the driver software from the Keithley Web site, www.keithley.com. The software is a single compressed file 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.
When the
installation is complete, reboot your computer.
To connect
to the instrument via the driver you need to first call KE622X_init or
KE622X_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 KE622X_GPIB12 as your device. By
default, the logical name KE622XExampleInstr is also assigned to this
device. This logical name is used by
the example programs but can also be used by user programs.
If you are
using a Keithley Instruments or CEC ISA or PCI GPIB card, select
KE622X_GPIB1_12 as your device.
If you are
using a Keithley Instruments or INES PCMCIA GPIB card, select KE622X_GPIB2_12
as your device.
If you are
using COM Port 1, select KE622X_COM1 as your device.
If you are
using COM Port 2, select KE622X_COM2 as your device.
If you are
using Ethernet to connect to a 6221, you will need to use the Keithley
Configuration Utility to add a device with the proper IP address.
An example
of using a Virtual Instrument Name to connect to an instrument connected to COM
Port 1 is:
KE622X_init("KE622X_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.
You can
also define logical Names for your devices using the configuration panel. One logical name is created by default:
KE622XExampleInstr. This default
logical name is used by the example programs supplied with the driver, and is
associated with the KE622X_GPIB12 device by default.
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 6221, 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 6221).
To connect
to a 622X at GPIB address 12 via GPIB1:
KE622X_init("GPIB1::12::INSTR", VI_TRUE, VI_TRUE,
handle)
Using the
KE622X_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 were 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 KE622X
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 the logical name: KE622XExampleInstr for the device identifier. By
default, this logical name is associated with the KE622X_GPIB12 device, which
is a 622X at GPIB address 12 using a National Instruments GPIB interface card
for communications. If you are using a
different bus, address, or interface card, you must reassign the logical name
to the correct device using the Keithley Configuration Panel. For example, if you are using a CEC GPIB
card instead of a National Instrument GPIB card, you would use the Keithley
Configuration Panel to reassign the logical name from the KE622X_GPIB12 device
to the KE622X_GPIB1_12 device.
LabVIEW
versions 5.1 through 7.1 are supported.
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\instr.lib\KE622X
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 6.x VIs are
compatible with versions 7 and 7.1.
The examples were
built on a system where the VXIPnP directory was installed on the d: drive. If
VXIPnP is on the C: drive then you may see a warning dialog when you open up
the example project in LabWindows/CVI. It has detected this mismatch and is
asking if you want to switch to the correct location. Select yes and the
project should compile and link. If not see the following issue.
The
LabWindows/CVI examples have the Ke622x.fp and Ke622x.lib files referenced in
the project files. These files could be installed under the VXIPnP folder or
the Program Files/IVI folder. See issue 1.1.2 about this.
When you
compile these examples if there is an error that these files can’t be found
then replace them in the project. Right-mouse-click
on the ke622x.lib or ke622x.fp file in CVI and then select "Replace File
in Project” and browse for the file. Refer to 1.1.2 for the correct location.
When using this function you must append a linefeed character to the end of the command that you send to the instrument. In LabVIEW and C add a “\n” whilst in Visual BASIC add the “Chr(10)” or “vbLf” command to the end of the string.
The VISA
software supplied with the Instrument Driver is Copyright (c) 2001-2004
National Instruments Corporation. All
Rights Reserved.
The KE622X
Series instrument driver is Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Keithley Instruments. All Rights Reserved.
End of
Release notes.