GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus) is an interface standard for connecting computers and peripherals, which supports the following international standards: IEEE 488.1, IEC-625, IEEE 488.2, and JIS-C1901. The GPIB interface allows you to control the Keysight E4991B from an external computer. The computer sends commands and instructions to the E4991B and receives data sent from the E4991B via GPIB.
Use GPIB cables to connect between the E4991B, the external controller (computer), and peripherals. The following figure shows the overview of the system configuration of the GPIB remote control system.
Configuration of the GPIB remote control system
While the E4991B is turned OFF, the SRQ status of the E4991B is active. To prevent an incorrect operation on the SRQ of the GPIB remote control system, disconnect the E4991B from the system when the E4991B is turned OFF.
E4991B
External controller (PC or workstation that can be connected to LAN and Keysight I/O Library is installed into)
Other devices (other instruments and/or peripherals that serve your purpose)
GPIB cables
You can connect up to 15 devices in a single GPIB system.
The length of cables to connect between devices must be 4 m or less. The total length of connecting cables in a single GPIB system must be 2 m × the number of connected devices (including the controller) or less. You cannot construct the system in which the total cable length exceeds 20 m.
The number of connectors connected to an individual device must be 4 or less. If you connect 5 or more connectors, excessive force is applied to the connector part, which may result in failure.
You can choose the device connection topology from star, linear, and combined. Loop connection is not supported.
The device selector is a unique value assigned to each device that is used by the controller to select the control target (to send/receive messages) among devices connected on the GPIB remote control system.
The device selector consists of a select code (usually, 7) and a GPIB address. For example, when the select code is 7 and the GPIB address is 17, the device selector is 717. The select code must be set for each system. The GPIB address must be set to a unique value for each device, which is used to identify devices on the same system. In the description and sample programs in this manual, it is assumed that the device selector is set to 717.
To set the GPIB address for talker/listener mode, See Setting talker/listener GPIB address of E4991B.