1MA153 15e Hints Using Instrument Drivers

Development Hints and Best
Practices for Using Instrument

Drivers
Application Note
Products:
| Instrument Drivers
This document answers frequently asked

questions regarding Rohde & Schwarz
instrument drivers and their programming
environments.
15-Feb-16-1MA153_15e
Application Note
Miloslav Macko
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1 Preface .................................................................................... 3
2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ...................................... 4

2.1 What Is an Instrument Driver? ....................................................................4
2.2 Why Should I Use an Instrument Driver Instead of SCPI Commands? ..4
2.3 VISA and Physical Interfaces ......................................................................6
2.4 Which 64-bit operating systems are supported by Instrument Drivers?6
2.5 Where Do I Find the VXIplug&play Installation Directory? ......................6
2.6 How Do I Install an Instrument Drivers? ....................................................7
2.7 How Do I Determine the VISA Resource Identifier?..................................7
3 Best Practices for Software Development ........................... 9

3.1 Getting Started..............................................................................................9
3.2 How to Start to Develop my Own Application ...........................................9
3.3 How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio ..10
3.3.1 C# and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started ............................................10
3.3.2 VB.NET and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started ...................................12
3.3.3 C++ and Instrument Drivers: General Hints ............................................14
3.3.4 C++ and SCPI Commands: Getting Started .............................................16
4 General Programming Hints................................................ 18

4.1 How to Disable Option Checking ..............................................................18
4.2 How to Disable Error/Status Checking ....................................................18
4.3 How to Disable Range Checking ..............................................................19
4.4 How to Speed up the Driver Execution ....................................................19
5 Hints on How to Get Started with Attribute-Based

Instrument Drivers ............................................................... 20
5.1 What Are Attribute-Based Instrument Drivers? ......................................20
®
5.1.1 How to Run a Scan Measurement with the R&S ESL EMI Test Receiver
and the rsspecan Instrument Driver .........................................................20
6 Related Document................................................................ 21
7 Resources ............................................................................. 22
1MA153_11e Rohde & Schwarz Development Hints and Best Practices for Using Instrument Drivers 2
Preface
What Is an Instrument Driver?
1 Preface
The aim of this application note is to provide information regarding Rohde & Schwarz
instrument drivers. This paper shall help application engineers and software
developers to easily get an understanding of advanced techniques to develop test and
measurement (T&M) applications by utilizing ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers.
Furthermore the nomenclature used for ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers will
be explained.
It does not describe any programming languages or how to develop software in any
programming language.
® ®
Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
® ® ®
NI , LabVIEW , LabWindows/CVI are U.S. registered trademarks of National
Instruments.
®
R&S is a registered trademark of ROHDE & SCHWARZ GmbH & Co. KG.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What Is an Instrument Driver?
2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
2.1 What Is an Instrument Driver?

An instrument driver, in the context of T&M application development, is a set of
software routines that simplify the remote control of a measuring instrument. Input and
1
output (I/O) abstraction by means of hiding the SCPI commands makes programming
much easier.
ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers are based on Virtual Instrument Software
2
Architecture (VISA ), which enables a physically independent connection between the
host PC and the instrument.
Instrument drivers generally allow greater system flexibility and accelerate

development time, for example through the possibility of reusing software. A major
advantage is the reduction of the development time for any kind of T&M application by
using a high-level programming language as opposed to implementing an application
with SCPI commands. For instance, all string formatting which is necessary when
using SCPI commands is already done by the instrument driver. Also a commonly
3
used term is command completion of integrated development environments (IDE).
This feature is not available for SCPI commands.
2.2 Why Should I Use an Instrument Driver Instead of

SCPI Commands?
Writing an application can take a lot of time. But writing the application is not the end of
the story, since the T&M instrument must also be driven. That is not so simple with
complex equipment, since just the description of the command set may comprise
several hundred pages. Applying yourself to this task can be time-consuming. Which is
why ROHDE & SCHWARZ provides ready-to-use software instrument drivers, relieving
designers of these efforts to a great extent. You no longer have to search through
manuals looking for commands; this has already been done when developing the
instrument driver.
1
Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) is a command set for
remote-controlling T&M instruments. Further information is available on
http://www.scpiconsortium.org/.
2
Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) as host PC software is a well-defined
hardware abstraction layer and I/O programming interface for various interfaces, e.g.
General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB, IEEE 488.2) or Ethernet (VXI-11).
3
"Command completion" of current integrated development environments offers the
possibility to save time and avoid typing errors during programming (e.g. in C++ or C#).
Why Should I Use an Instrument Driver Instead of SCPI Commands?
Drawbacks of programming with SCPI commands:

For simple applications such as setting frequency/RF level and reading out simple
measurement values (e.g. for digital multimeters), SCPI programming can be sufficient.
However, for more sophisticated applications this approach reaches its limits quite fast.
Example: simple spectrum analysis

Even for simple spectrum analysis, the use of SCPI commands becomes quite
complicated and error-prone. For instance, all data formatting of a read-out data
stream has to be done manually when using SCPI commands. This formatting is
already done by the instrument driver, so the read-out data can be easily processed
within the T&M application.
As one can imagine, for more complex T&M applications – such as generating or
measuring a mobile standard signal, e.g. for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
(WCDMA) – using SCPI commands is quite time-consuming. Therefore, using
instrument drivers to set up your instrumentation avoids a lot of string formatting and
other data parsing. Moreover, the local grouping of functions within the provided
compressed HTML help file (chm file) offers you all configuration possibilities at a
glance.
Development, maintenance and software reuse

Instrument drivers speed up your application development process. This can be
achieved because debugging and error diagnostics are well supported by the
instrument driver. As a result, you can easily get rid of wrong configurations as well as
commands that are not understood by the instrument. This is done by extensively
using the instrument’s error-reporting functionality. For further details, please refer to
section 4.
Requirements can change during the lifetime of T&M applications. This is another
reason why instrument drivers can help you to modify an application. The logical
grouping of your instrument’s functionality makes it easy to extend or modify your
application on an abstract and logical level.
The described arguments in favor of simplifying your T&M task are a further reason for
reusing already written software. Due to the concept of instrument family drivers,
software written for research and development reasons on a high-end instrument such
®
as the R&S SMW or SMU200A vector signal generator can easily be reused for
®
production lines equipped with e.g. the mid-range R&S SMBV100A vector signal
generator. The instrument driver abstracts the instrument, so this software can often be
reused without any changes. Of course, the functionality needs to be supported on
both instruments.
VISA and Physical Interfaces
2.3 VISA and Physical Interfaces

All ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers use VISA to avoid an individual driver for
every different device interface. The VISA I/O software is generally an application
programming interface (API) providing an input and output low-level API to
communicate with measuring instruments. This standard was defined by the
VXIplug&play Systems Alliance, with National Instruments, ROHDE & SCHWARZ and
other companies represented in the consortium.
These I/O functions are independent of the used device interface.
An initialization string (so-called VISA resource identifier) in the relevant application

program defines which device interface (IEEE 488.2 (GPIB), RS-232, LAN (VXI-11,
raw socket), USB (USB-TMC)) to use. The subsequent program routine is completely
independent of the interface used.
All ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers require at least National Instruments
4
VISA (NI-VISA) revision 4.0 or later. For Linux it is strongly recommended to use the
5
latest version of NI-VISA. It is also possible to use the Agilent I/O Library Suite .
2.4 Which 64-bit operating systems are supported by

Instrument Drivers?
Yes, the most recent ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers are build to support 64-
bit operating systems. Only 64-bit operating systems with a support for an VISA
installation are supported by instrument drivers.
Are 32-bit Application supported on 64-bit Operating Systems?

Yes, there is the possibility to use the instrument drivers together with 64-bit
applications, was well as an 32-bit application on 64-bit operating systems.
2.5 Where Do I Find the VXIplug&play Installation

Directory?
This path is defined by the environment variable VXIPNPPATH on your operating
system.
For Windows-based operating systems, this variable can be easily read out via
Windows command prompt using the command "set".
4
For further information please visit http://www.ni.com/visa.
5
For further information please visit http://www.agilent.com.
How Do I Install an Instrument Drivers?
Note: With NI-VISA Version 4.2, the default installation path changed from C:\VXIPNP
to C:\Program Files\IVI Foundation\VISA, respectively C:\Program Files (x86)\IVI
6
Foundation\VISA for WoW64 .
64-bit support of National Instruments VISA

On 64-bit Windows operating systems, the 64-bit environment variable is called
VXIPNPPATH64.
2.6 How Do I Install an Instrument Drivers?

For installation instructions, please use the driver-specific "How to use…", which can
be downloaded from the instrument's driver download page:
http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/drivers.
Further specific steps and instructions for installing instrument drivers are available on
the driver download site available at the product Internet site.
2.7 How Do I Determine the VISA Resource Identifier?

As VISA supports a wide range of interfaces to the instrument (GPIB, LAN with
different protocols, USB, etc.), there must be a way of telling VISA which interface to
use.
This is done by the resource descriptor/name/identifier. This is a string which is passed
when calling the init function of an instrument driver (or viOpen()) and configures the
interface to use.
The table below shows all relevant VISA resource identifiers if operating with
Rohde & Schwarz instrument. Optional string segments are shown in square brackets
([ ]).
VISA resource identifier

Interface Descriptor Descriptor parameters (in blue)
GPIB instrument GPIB[board]:: GPIB board number (optional – typically

primary address skipped)
[::secondary address] Instrument primary GPIB address (0 to 31)
[::INSTR]
Instrument secondary address (optional;
R&S®CMU200 only)
6
Windows 32-bit On Windows 64-bit; A subsystem of the Windows operating system
to execute 32-bit applications on 64-bit Windows operating systems.
How Do I Determine the VISA Resource Identifier?
VISA resource identifier

Interface Descriptor Descriptor parameters (in blue)
LAN TCPIP[board]:: TCP/IP board number (optional – typically

HiSLIP protocol 7 host address skipped)
[::LAN device Host address as TC/IP address or computer
name/address] name
::HISLIP0
Device name, mandatory for HiSLIP

VXI-11 protocol host address skipped)
[::LAN device Host address as TC/IP address or computer
name/address] name
[::INSTR]
Device name (optional, default: inst0)

raw socket host address:: skipped)
port:: Host address as TCP/IP address or computer
SOCKET name
Port to use (typically: 5052)
Indicate connection is socket connection
USB USB[board]:: USB board number (optional – typically

TMC protocol manufacturer ID:: skipped)
model code:: Manufacturer ID (0xAAD for ROHDE &
serial number SCHWARZ)
[::USB interface
number] Model ID (refer to instrument manual for
[::INSTR] details)
Serial number (e.g. 100117)
Interface number (optional – typically skipped)
Table 1: List of VISA resource identifiers.
7
This feature requires support by the VISA library as well as support of the instrument
firmware. Please consult the operation manual to get further information on the HiSLIP
support of your ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument.
Best Practices for Software Development
Getting Started
3 Best Practices for Software Development
3.1 Getting Started

To get started please download one of the provided application examples from the
driver download site
http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/drivers
to get an idea of what a remote-control application can look like.
It is recommended to use the provided instrument driver compressed HTML help files
(chm files) for getting started.
3.2 How to Start to Develop my Own Application

To get started, it is helpful to use the Instrument Driver Help file (rsXYZ[_vxi].chm) in
your instrument driver's installation directory in combination with the remote-control
command section of your instrument’s operating manual.
A good approach is to use the provided application examples as a skeleton for new
applications.
The easiest way to find the proper driver function call is to find the SCPI command (in
the long version) in the instrument operating manual and to look for the command in
the Instrument Driver Help file using the index or search functionality.
For developing more complex applications, it is helpful to identify the manual operation
steps and utilize the "Instrument Driver Tree Structure" to find your driver function calls
for the manual configuration steps in this logical structure.
Information contained in the Instrument Driver Help file, also Driver Attribute Help
(rsXYZ[_vxi].chm)):
● Mapping of SCPI command and driver calls (and vice versa) via the search and
index functionality
● Grouped driver functions to easily identify all functions for a specific 3GPP
standard (Instrument Driver Tree Structure)
● For attribute-based drivers (with rsXYZ_attr.chm): mapping of attributes and driver
calls (see Fig. 1)
How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio
Figure 1: Mapping of attributes and driver calls within the Driver Attribute Help section.
This feature is not available in all ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers.
3.3 How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into

Microsoft Visual Studio
The following examples are referring to the rsspecan instrument driver. The described
procedures are all adaptable to other ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers, only
the naming of the files can be different. The naming convention is rsXYZ, where XYZ is
the abbreviation of the instrument's (-family) driver.
3.3.1 C# and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started
A wrapper is necessary to enable a direct access to the driver dynamic linked library
(dll). This wrapper is automatically installed in the ~VXIplug&play\WinNT\include (or
~VXIplug&play64\Win64\include) directory, where VXIPNPPATH (or VXIPNPPATH64)
is the VXIplug&play environment variable pointing to your VXIplug&play installation
directory. Please note, that for the instruments that in the meantime have a IVI.NET – a
native .NET instrument driver available, the *.cs C# wrapper file is no more available in
the VXIplug&play driver installation. We encourage the user to switch to the native
.NET instrument driver.
Creating a new application project in Microsoft Visual Studio:
Create a new project, e.g. File -> New -> Project.
Figure 2: Creating a new project in Visual Studio.
Select your programming language and the template type, e.g. Visual C# Windows
Application or Console Application.
Figure 3: Selecting your desired template.
To access the instrument driver, you have to include the provided VXIplug&play
wrapper for C#, e.g. Project->Add Existing Item…
~VXIplug&play\WinNT\include\rsspecan.cs or
~VXIplug&play64\Win64\include\rsspecan64.cs for 64-bit applications.
Note: It is very important to explicitly specify the target platform for the solution using
the Configuration Manager. Either x86 for 32-bit application or x64 for 64-bit
applications.
Also the driver’s namespace has to be added to the current source code file, for
example via the directive "using InstrumentDrivers". The result is shown in Fig. 4:
Figure 4: Adding the rsspecan driver to your current project.
Now the development environment is configured in a proper way. For getting your
application development started, please refer to the examples provided on your
instrument's driver download site:
3.3.2 VB.NET and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started
A wrapper is necessary to enable a direct access to the driver’s dynamic linked library
(dll). This wrapper is automatically installed in the ~VXIplug&play\WinNT\include (or
~VXIplug&play64\Win64\include\) directory, where VXIPNPPATH (or VXIPNPPATH64)
is the VXIplug&play environment variable pointing to your VXIplug&play installation
directory. Please note, that for the instruments that in the meantime have a IVI.NET – a
native .NET instrument driver available, the *.vb Visual Basic.NET wrapper file is no
more available in the VXIplug&play driver installation. We encourage the user to switch
to the native .NET instrument driver.
How to create a new application project in Microsoft Visual Studio 20xy:
Create a new project, e.g. File -> New -> Project
Figure 5: Creating a new project in Visual Studio.
Select your programming language and your template type, e.g. Visual Basic Windows
Application or Console Application.
Figure 6: Selecting your desired template.
To access the instrument driver, you have to include the provided VXIplug&play
wrapper for VB.NET, e.g. Project->Add Existing Item…
~VXIplug&play\WinNT\include\rsspecan.vb or
(~VXIplug&play64\Win64\include\rsspecan64.vb)
Note: It is very important to explicitly specify the target platform for the solution using
the Configuration Manager. Either x86 for 32-bit application or x64 for 64-bit
applications.
Also the driver’s namespace has to be added to the current source code file via the
directive "Imports WindowsApplication1.rsspecan" (where rsspecan can be seen as an
example driver). The result is shown in Fig. 7:
Figure 7: Adding the rsspecan driver to your current project.
Now the development environment is configured in a proper way. For getting your
application development started, please refer to the examples provided on your
instrument's driver download site:
3.3.3 C++ and Instrument Drivers: General Hints
Problem: The header file rsXYZ.h was not found while compiling
Solution: Set your VXIplug&play include directory in your Visual Studio Project
properties (see Fig. 8). The include directory is the ~VXIplug&play\WinNT\include (or
~VXIplug&play64\Win64\include\), where VXIPNPPATH (or VXIPNPPATH64) is your
VXIplug&play environment variable pointing to your VXIplug&play installation directory.
Figure 8: C++ Compiler settings for instrument driver header files.
Problem: Linker error while building your software project.

Solution: Specify your VXIplug&play libraries in your Visual Studio Project properties
(see Fig. 9). Your specific library rsXYZ.lib can be found in
~VXIplug&play\WinNT\library\msc, where VXIPNPPATH is your VXIplug&play
environment variable pointing to your VXIplug&play installation directory.
Figure 9: C++ Linker settings for instrument driver libraries.
Problem: The library rsXYZ.lib was not found while building your software
project.
Solution: Set your VXIplug&play library path in your Visual Studio Project properties
(see Fig. 10). Your library directory is the ~VXIplug&play\WinNT\library\msc, where
VXIPNPPATH is your VXIplug&play environment variable pointing to your
VXIplug&play installation directory.
Figure 10: C++ Linker settings for instrument driver libraries.
Problem: The instrument was not found and VISA resource string in NI-Spy has
only the size of one character
Solution: Correct your character settings in your Visual Studio Project properties (see
Fig. 11).
Figure 11: Correct character settings for Visual Studio 2008
3.3.4 C++ and SCPI Commands: Getting Started
This section will help developers set up their development environment for easily
getting started without using instrument drivers.
After creating a new project, it is important to enable your development environment's

linker to access the VISA library. The following figures show a possible configuration.
Note that this depends on your host PC VXIplug&play installation.
Figure 12: Setting up the "Additional Library Directory".
Figure 13: Setting up linker parameter "Additional Dependencies".
General Programming Hints
How to Disable Option Checking
4 General Programming Hints

The following is referring to the rsspecan instrument driver. The described procedures
are all adaptable to other ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument drivers, only the naming of
the files can be different. The naming convention is rsXYZ, where XYZ is the
abbreviation of the instrument's (-family) driver.
4.1 How to Disable Option Checking

In the LabWindows/CVI instrument driver the command is called:
e.g. rsXYZ_setCheckOption(ViSession instrumentHandle,

ViBoolean optionChecking);
In the LabVIEW instrument driver the command is called:
e.g. rsXYZ Option Checking.vi
where XYZ is instrument driver-specific. Please note that this function is not available
in all instrument drivers.
Note: In the Instrument Driver Tree Structure->Utilities folder of the instrument driver's
chm help file, you can check whether the command is available.
4.2 How to Disable Error/Status Checking

In the LabWindows/CVI instrument driver the command is called:
e.g. rsXYZ _setCheckStatus (ViSession instrumentHandle, ViBoolean state);
In the LabVIEW instrument driver the command is called:
e.g. rsXYZ Instrument Status Checking.vi
where XYZ is instrument driver-specific. Please note that this function is not available
in all instrument drivers.
chm help file, you can check whether the command is available.
General Programming Hints
How to Disable Range Checking
4.3 How to Disable Range Checking

While initializing a driver session, the range checking functionality can be disabled
using an option string. Further details can be found inside the driver’s chm help file.
Instead of using the rsXYZ_Init (…) function to initialize a driver session, a second
function is available. In the LabWindows/CVI instrument driver the function is called:
e.g. rsXYZ_InitWithOptions (ViRsrc resourceName, ViBoolean idQuery, ViBoolean

resetDevice, ViString optionString, ViSession* instrumentHandle);
where XYZ is instrument driver specific.
In the LabVIEW instrument driver the express VI rsspecan_core_attribute_express

Source.vi can be used to set the attribute RS_ATTR_RANGE_CHECK. How to modify
attributes in LabVIEW is described in
http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/appnote/1MA170.html.
chm help file, you can check whether the command is available. This function is not
available in all instrument drivers.
4.4 How to Speed up the Driver Execution

In normal operating mode a status check is performed after every command. It is
strongly recommended to utilize this functionality to identify errors fast and reliably.
To improve execution time in many drivers, error status checking can be disabled. To
do so, disable error/status checking; see section 4.2 for details.
Hints on How to Get Started with Attribute-Based Instrument Drivers
What Are Attribute-Based Instrument Drivers?
5 Hints on How to Get Started with Attribute-

Based Instrument Drivers
5.1 What Are Attribute-Based Instrument Drivers?

The concept of attribute-based drivers is that nearly every SCPI command is
accessible via an attribute. Its modularity and the possibility to access almost every
instrument property via attributes provides a very sophisticated way of programming
T&M applications.
Attribute-based drivers can easily be identified: All attribute-based instrument drivers

have an additional Driver Attribute Help file (rsXYZ_attr.chm) within the driver’s
installation directory.
It is important to realize that not every ROHDE & SCHWARZ instrument driver is an
attribute-based driver.
Further information about attribute-based instrument driver can be found here:

1MA170: Introduction to Attribute Based Instrument Drivers.
5.1.1 How to Run a Scan Measurement with the R&S®ESL EMI Test
Receiver and the rsspecan Instrument Driver
Find the necessary commands in the rsspecan_vxi.chm help file. Crucial for a
continuous reading of the scan trace is the following function:
rsspecan_ConfigureReceiverTraceFeedControl
(instrSession, RSSPECAN_VAL_TRAC_FEED_ALWAYS);
For LabVIEW applications the command is called:
rsspecan Configure Receiver Trace Feed Control.vi
For further information, please refer to the scan measurement example application on
the instrument's driver download site.
Related Document
What Are Attribute-Based Instrument Drivers?
6 Related Document
 Application Note 1MA170: Introduction to Attribute Based Instrument Drivers
http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/appnote/1MA170.html
 Application Card: Simplify software development for measurement applications

http://cdn.rohde-
schwarz.com/dl_downloads/dl_driver/remote_control/Remote_Control_Drivers
_Simplify_software_development_en.pdf
Resources
7 Resources
● ROHDE & SCHWARZ Instrument Driver Download Site: http://www.rohde-
schwarz.com/drivers
● ROHDE & SCHWARZ Remote Control Knowledge Base: http://www.rohde-
schwarz.com/rckb
● National Instruments VISA: http://www.ni.com/visa/
● National Instruments LabVIEW: http://www.ni.com/labview/
● National Instruments LabWindows/CVI: http://www.ni.com/lwcvi/
● IVI Foundation: http://www.ivifoundation.org/
Accessed: August 18, 2010
About Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz is an independent
group of companies specializing in
electronics. It is a leading supplier of
solutions in the fields of test and
measurement, broadcasting,
radiomonitoring and radiolocation, as well
as secure communications. Established
more than 75 years ago, Rohde &
Schwarz has a global presence and a
dedicated service network in over 70
countries. Company headquarters are in
Munich, Germany.
Environmental commitment
● Energy-efficient products
● Continuous improvement in
environmental sustainability
● ISO 14001-certified environmental
management system
Regional contact
USA & Canada
USA: 1-888-TEST-RSA (1-888-837-8772)
from outside USA: +1 410 910 7800
[email protected]
East Asia
+65 65 13 04 88
[email protected]
Rest of the World
+49 89 4129 123 45
[email protected]
This application note and the supplied

programs may only be used subject to the
conditions of use set forth in the download
area of the Rohde & Schwarz website.
R&S® is a registered trademark of Rohde &

Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG. Trade names are
trademarks of the owners.
Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG

Mühldorfstraße 15 | D - 81671 München
Phone + 49 89 4129 - 0 | Fax + 49 89 4129 – 13777
www.rohde-schwarz.com

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Development Hints and Best

Practices for Using Instrument

This document answers frequently asked

2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ...................................... 4

3 Best Practices for Software Development ........................... 9

4 General Programming Hints................................................ 18

5 Hints on How to Get Started with Attribute-Based

What Is an Instrument Driver?

What Is an Instrument Driver?

2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

2.1 What Is an Instrument Driver?

Instrument drivers generally allow greater system flexibility and accelerate

2.2 Why Should I Use an Instrument Driver Instead of

Why Should I Use an Instrument Driver Instead of SCPI Commands?

Drawbacks of programming with SCPI commands:

Example: simple spectrum analysis

Development, maintenance and software reuse

VISA and Physical Interfaces

2.3 VISA and Physical Interfaces

These I/O functions are independent of the used device interface.

An initialization string (so-called VISA resource identifier) in the relevant application

2.4 Which 64-bit operating systems are supported by

Are 32-bit Application supported on 64-bit Operating Systems?

2.5 Where Do I Find the VXIplug&play Installation

How Do I Install an Instrument Drivers?

64-bit support of National Instruments VISA

2.6 How Do I Install an Instrument Drivers?

2.7 How Do I Determine the VISA Resource Identifier?

VISA resource identifier

GPIB instrument GPIB[board]:: GPIB board number (optional – typically

How Do I Determine the VISA Resource Identifier?

VISA resource identifier

LAN TCPIP[board]:: TCP/IP board number (optional – typically

LAN TCPIP[board]:: TCP/IP board number (optional – typically

LAN TCPIP[board]:: TCP/IP board number (optional – typically

USB USB[board]:: USB board number (optional – typically

Table 1: List of VISA resource identifiers.

3 Best Practices for Software Development

3.1 Getting Started

to get an idea of what a remote-control application can look like.

3.2 How to Start to Develop my Own Application

How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio

3.3 How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into

3.3.1 C# and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started

How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio

Creating a new application project in Microsoft Visual Studio:

Create a new project, e.g. File -> New -> Project.

Figure 2: Creating a new project in Visual Studio.

Figure 3: Selecting your desired template.

Figure 4: Adding the rsspecan driver to your current project.

How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio

3.3.2 VB.NET and Instrument Drivers: Getting Started

How to create a new application project in Microsoft Visual Studio 20xy:

Create a new project, e.g. File -> New -> Project

Figure 5: Creating a new project in Visual Studio.

How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio

Figure 6: Selecting your desired template.

Figure 7: Adding the rsspecan driver to your current project.

How to Integrate an Instrument Drivers into Microsoft Visual Studio