GPIBLab

IEEE-488 Instrument Control Module

Originally developed by Hewlett-Packard, the General Purpose Interface Bus, GPIB, is a digital interface standard for connecting electronic test and measurement equipment to "controllers" such as personal computers. The bus was standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as the IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation, IEEE-488.1.

A typical GPIB setup requires a computer, a GPIB control card, driver software for the card, a GPIB cable and instrument. GPIBLab makes it easy to control and transfer data from these instruments without requiring in depth knowledge of the IEEE-488 protocol or the GPIB card driver software.

Fully Integrated

Data collected from your instruments via GPIB is displayed automatically in DADiSP's multi-window graphical analysis Worksheet. Because GPIBLab operates within DADiSP's graphical Worksheet environment, all of the DADiSP analysis and graphics functionality is available to reduce, analyze and output your data.

Standard Instrument Drivers

GPIBLab is available for Windows 9X/2000/NT/XP. It supports IOtech, National Instruments and compatible device controller cards that adhere to the IEEE-488 standard. The GPIBLab product includes a wide range of menu-driven drivers for popular IEEE-488 compatible laboratory instruments, including oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers.

No Programming Required

GPIBLab requires no programming or messy configuration. GPIBLab and DADiSP provide a full range of instrument control and data collection options through the easy-to-understand menu interface. Once the IEEE-488 driver software is installed, GPIBLab users can begin immediately collecting and analyzing data within the DADiSP Worksheet. The size of the data transfer supported by DADiSP/GPIBLab is limited only by the memory on your instrument.

Let Your Instruments Do The Talking

Users can customize the DSP-supplied ASCII menu drivers to their particular applications, adding additional instrument query, control, and collection functions to the instrument menus. Because GPIBLab menus and command scripts can include standard GPIB functions, GPIBLab eliminates programming in low level languages. All acquisition and analysis operations are accomplished interactively via easy-to-follow menus or through automated DADiSP sessions.

GPIBLab Instrument Control, Query and Collection Features

Control

• Set Time Range, Volt Range, Time Delay, Offset
• Measurement, Sampling Rate
• Send ASCII commands or binary data to the device
• Setup Service Requests
• Change instrument display screen
• Set interrupt detection on/off
• Operate bus locally or remotely
• Disable instrument front-panel control

Data Collection

• Transfer ASCII data directly to a DADiSP window
• Transfer binary data directly to a DADiSP window (Size of data transfers limited only by instrument memory)
• Specify terminators between values & end-of-line
• Set Timeout length for data transfers
• Specify data collection triggers
• Specify optional data header
• Specify ASCII data value size

Query

• Query Time Range, Volt Range, Time Delay, Offset, Measurement, Sampling Rate
• Query number of bytes in a buffered transfer
• Query status of bus interface

Requirements

GPIBLab requires DADiSP 6.0 B07 or higher. Contact us for information about updating your current version of DADiSP.