Connecting to an Instrument

When you use Interactive IO, the first thing you have to do is connect to an instrument.

There are two ways to connect:

• Selecting from the list of connected instruments.

  

• Manually entering the Resource Name.

Connection Strings (Resource Names)

The Resource String acts as a unique address to locate an instrument on the network. When configuring an instrument's connection details using Connection Expert, you'll see a generated VISA address, which includes all the necessary information to locate the instrument on a specific I/O interface.

A connection string consists of the interface name and number, address, and optionally "INSTR." Here are some examples:

• GPIB[board]::primary address[::secondary address][::INSTR]
• ASRL[board]::[INSTR]
• TCPIP[board]::host address[::LAN device name]::[INSTR]

If you're connecting to a serial instrument, start Connection Expert, ensure the port is recognized, adjust settings as needed, close Connection Expert, and restart Interactive IO.

Other examples of connection strings (Resource Names) include:

• GPIB0::22
• TCPIP0::jetscrm3::gpib0,22::INSTR (E5810A LAN/GPIB Gateway)
• TCPIP::portal6::hpib,10 (E2050 LAN/HP-IB Gateway)
• USB0::2391::1031::0000000123::0::INSTR

As you can see, USB connection strings can be quite long, but you can simplify this by using Connection Expert to assign aliases to your instruments.