Programming Instruments

Once you have connected to your instrument and verified your connection with Connection Expert, you are ready to program the instrument. The Keysight IO Libraries Suite provides several tools to help you do this.

Interactive IO

To send individual commands to an instrument and see its responses, the Keysight IO Libraries Suite provides the Interactive IO utility. With Interactive IO, you can solve simple problems without programming, and try out specific instrument commands before using them in your program.

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

The Keysight IO Libraries

• Windows and Windows on ARM- The Keysight IO Libraries Suite provides five I/O libraries: VISA, VISA.NET, VISA COM, SICL, and Keysight 488. The IO Libraries Suite also provides support for the use of instrument drivers to make your programming easier.
• Linux - The Keysight IO Libraries Suite provides two I/O libraries: VISA and SICL.

Support for VISA Aliases

VISA aliases (programming aliases) are symbolic names for your devices that you can define in Connection Expert and then use in programs. VISA aliases hide the complexities of addressing from your program; they allow you to change the address and even the bus on which your instrument resides without changing your program code. In Connection Expert, you create aliases in the Connection Settings area of Instrument View.

In Windows and Windows on ARM, manage existing aliases by selecting , Tools and then Alias Manager... to start using this powerful feature. (In Linux, aliases are added per-instrument.)

See Aliases and Alias Manager for more information.

Sample Code for Your Instrument

To access sample code that demonstrates basic instrument I/O, go to http://www.keysight.com/find/iosuite.

See Finding Programming Samples for information on other sources of sample code.

For PXIe/AXIe Module Developers: The Keysight Modular Driver Wizard

This section contains information specific to the Windows product.

The Keysight Modular Driver Wizard generates device-specific .ini, .inf The .inf file created by the PXI Driver Wizard specifies use of a Keysight generic kernel driver. This driver works for hardware with either a PCI or PCIe(R) endpoint. This driver, together with Keysight IO Libraries Suite, enables applications to call a VISA API and communicate with the device. , and .sys files for a PXIe or AXIe device. These files enable the Keysight IO Libraries Suite to communicate with the device. You can start the wizard from C:\Program Files\Keysight\IO Libraries Suite\bin\Modular\ModularDriverWizard.exe.

Important: The Keysight Modular Driver wizard is intended for use by modular hardware development engineers. It requires knowledge of hardware interrupts and the hardware memory map. If you are an end user (not a module designer) and need a driver for a module, refer to the installation software that came with your modular device instead of using the wizard. If, however, you need to regenerate installation files for the device, you can import the device's vendor-supplied .ini file in the first step of the wizard. After importing, the wizard can generate and install the files for that device.

See Also

Documentation for VISA, VISA.NET, VISA COM, SICL, and Keysight 488 (Contact Us)