GPIB Pass-Through Example

The SCPI SYSTem commands used in this example allow you to send GPIB commands to another GPIB device through the PNA. The other device would typically be connected to the PNA through the System Controller GPIB port on the PNA rear-panel or alternatively be connected using a USB/GPIB interface. Uncomment the line in Blue text in the example to open a session for a USB/GPIB interface.

This VB Script example uses the COM SCPIStringParser object. However, this is not critical to the use of these commands; they can be sent using the normal syntax of your programming environment. Using the SCPIStringParser over LAN allows you to communicate with GPIB devices without requiring your remote PC to have a GPIB interface card installed.

Although this method of pass-through works for most applications, there are a couple of limitations:

• All data is transferred using ASCII format. Therefore, transferring large blocks of data is very slow.

• Only read and write functions are possible. Service Interrupts are not supported.

See Other SCPI Example Programs

option explicit
dim app
set app = CreateObject("AgilentPNA835x.Application")

dim p
set p = app.ScpiStringParser

' Open a new GPIB session on Bus:0 Device:14 Timeout: 100ms
p.Parse "SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:OPEN 0,14,100"
' The following commented-out line shows opening the same session but
' for a USB/GPIB interface with VISA interface number GPIB4
'p.Parse "SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:OPEN 4,14,100"
dim handleAsStr

' Retrieve the handle (ID number)
handleAsStr = p.Parse ("SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:OPEN?")

' Convert the handle to an integer
dim handleAsInt
handleAsInt = CInt(handleAsStr)

' Send the "*IDN?" query
p.Parse "SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:WRITE " & handleAsInt & ",'*IDN?'"

' Read its results
dim idn
idn = p.Parse("SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:READ? " & handleAsInt)
msgbox idn

' Close the GPIB session
p.Parse "SYST:COMM:GPIB:RDEV:CLOSE " & handleAsInt

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