USB Interface
The USB interface allows the instrument to be controlled using RS232 protocol via a computer's
USB port. This is useful where the computer's standard RS232 COM ports are fully utilised or
non-existent.
The instrument is supplied with a disk containing drivers for various versions of Windows,
including Win98 and 2000. Any driver updates are available via the TTi website, www.tti-test.com.
The disk also contains a text file with information and details of the software installation
procedure.
Installation of the interface driver is achieved by connecting the instrument to a PC via a standard
USB cable. The Windows' plug and play functions should automatically recognise the addition of
new hardware attached to the USB interface and if this is the first time the connection has been
made, prompt for the location of a suitable driver. Provided that the standard Windows prompts
are followed correctly Windows will install the appropriate driver and establish a virtual COM port
within the PC. The number of the new COM port will depend upon the number of co-existing
COM ports within the PC. The virtual COM port can be driven by Windows applications in exactly
the same way as a standard port.
Note that it is necessary to set the virtual COM port to the same Baud rate as the instrument
being controlled in exactly the same way as with a standard RS232 connection.
The driver will remain installed on the PC so that the establishment of a virtual COM port is done
automatically each time the instrument is connected to the PC via USB in the future.
Further virtual COM ports are created for each additional instrument connected to the PC via
USB. Each instrument is assigned a separate virtual COM port when it is first connected and the
same COM port will be assigned each time that instrument is subsequently connected; the PC
software makes use of the unique code embedded in each instrument to link it to the same virtual
COM port irrespective of which physical USB port it is connected to.
Use can also be made of the ADDRESS? command to easily identify which instrument is being
controlled by a particular COM port. Although the addressing capability is ignored in USB
operation the address can still be set and used as an identifier; set each USB-connected
instrument to a different address and send the ADDRESS? command from each virtual COM port
to confirm which instrument is connected to that port.
The supplied disk contains an uninstall program should this be required.
GPIB Interface
The GPIB interface 24-way connector is located on the instrument rear panel. The pin
connections are as specified in IEEE Std. 488.1-1987 and the instrument complies with IEEE Std.
488.1-1987 and IEEE Std. 488.2-1987.
GPIB Subsets
This instrument contains the following IEEE 488.1 subsets:
Source Handshake
Acceptor Handshake
Talker
Listener
Service Request
Remote Local
Parallel Poll
Device Clear
Device Trigger
Controller
Electrical Interface
SH1
AH1
T6
L4
SR1
RL1
PP1
DC1
DT0
C0
E2
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