Start Here: Connectivity Guide

This section of the Keysight IO Libraries Suite Help covers connectivity – connecting instruments to your PC and establishing communication. The basic process for connecting an instrument is:

If you are creating a new test system, the Keysight IO Libraries Suite should always be installed first – before connecting instruments, installing instrument drivers, etc. Download the latest version of Keysight IO Libraries Suite from www.keysight.com/find/iosuite.

  1. Determine what connections you need. If your host PC and instruments are connected by LAN, you don't need any additional connections. If your instruments are not on a LAN, or if the LAN connection does not suit your needs, you'll need to decide what interface (connection type) to use. See Choosing the Interface for Your Instrument for more information.

    If necessary, install interface hardware (such as a GPIB card or USB/GPIB interface converter).

  2. Install instrument software.

    Install any instrument-specific software that you require. This may include instrument drivers, soft front panels, and application software. For Keysight instruments, you will probably get this software on a disk with your instrument or from the Keysight Web site.

  3. To use remote interfaces connected to a remote PC server, configure and run the remote IO server software. For more information: Remote IO Server Options.

  4. Connect your instruments. See your instrument documentation for information on making the connection.

  5. If necessary, configure the instrument (for example, to set its address) from the instrument front panel. For more information, refer to the documentation for your instrument(s) and for your interface hardware (GPIB card, USB/GPIB converter, etc.).

If you turned your host PC off in order to install interfaces or make physical connections in the previous steps, turn the PC back on.

Most instruments are automatically discovered and displayed in the Connection Expert with no configuration required. LAN instruments on a local subnet are discovered by Connection Expert but may not be automatically added . They must be manually added.

Start Keysight Connection Expert from IO Control.
Once Connection Expert establishes a connection to each instrument, you can use either Interactive IO or the instrument's Soft Front Panel (SFP) to send commands to and receive data from the instrument.

Interactive IO

Interactive IO is a software utility that lets you interactively send commands to instruments and read the responses without writing any program code. You can use Interactive IO to:

  • Quickly verify connectivity to your instrument
  • Troubleshoot communication problems
  • Become familiar with the instrument's command set
  • Rapidly prototype commands and check the instrument's responses before writing code

Interactive IO contains a number of commonly used commands to simplify communicating with instruments.

Select the instrument that you want to configure. Click the Interactive IO icon in Connection Expert.

Alternately, you can start Interactive IO from Keysight IO Control.

See the Interactive IO Help for usage instructions.

Interactive IO does not operate with PXI (modular) instruments. Windows users with PXI instruments, use the instrument's soft front panel instead of Interactive IO.