
README.TXT for HP E8311A Pulse Generator

Contents:

1    Introduction

2    VTL/VISA Specific Information
2.1    Instrument Addresses


3    Using the HP E8311A Driver in Application Development Environments
3.1    C/C++
3.2    Microsoft Visual Basic

4.0  WINDOWS 7 Installation. 
       Additional upgrade needed.

5.0  Known Defects

6.0  Revision History

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.   Introduction

The help file included with the HP E8311A plug&play driver contains
instrument and programming information. This readme file contains
additional information for the programmer.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.   VTL/VISA Specific Information

The following topics refer to instances when the driver is used with
different versions of VTL.

2.1    Instrument Addresses

When using the E8311A plug & play instrument driver, instrument addresses 
must be all uppercase letters. Implementation of the addressing scheme is
vendor specific and some vendors support mixed cases. However, for
maximum portability, the instrument address should use uppercase
characters only.

For example:  use "VXI0::56::INSTR" instead of "vxi0::56::instr"

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.   Using the HP E8311A Driver in Application Development Environments

This section offers suggestions on using the hpe8311a_32.dll within
various application development environments.

3.1    C/C++

Refer to your C/C++ manuals for information on linking
and calling .DLLs.

Rebuilding the driver DLL should be done in a different directory than
the one the driver was installed in order to differentiate the changes.


3.2   Microsoft Visual Basic

Refer to the Microsoft Visual BASIC manual for information on calling DLLs.

The BASIC include file is hpe8311a.bas, which is contained in the directory
~vxipnp\winXX\include. The ~ refers to the directory in the VXIPNP variable.  
By default this is set to C:\, XX may be '95' or 'NT' depending on the 
operating system.


- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


4.0 WINDOWS 7 Installation. Additional upgrade needed.  

Version A 1.0.3.0 consists of an upgrade to the Installation software for 
installing the E1463 driver on Windows 7 systems.This release updates
the InstallShield for installation only on XP, WIN 7 x86 and WIN 7 x64
operating systems.The driver itself has not changed. 

For Win 95 or Win NT support, utilze version  A 1.0.2.0. 

With this driver, You must also install the following software upgrade:

	   
	   In Windows 7, the WinHlp32.exe update is required to display
           32-bit Help files that have the ".hlp" file name extension.
           The update is available for free from Microsoft at
           http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607.



- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


5.0  Known Defects

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

6.0  Revision History

  A.01.00  May 1, 1999  Initial Release.
   hpe8311a_32.dll:  A.01.00
   
  A 1.0.2.0  Sept. 1999
    Features Added:     Transactions;
                        Consecutive commands can be automatically queued 
                        by the driver and sent to the instrument at one time.
                        This prevents errors caused by dependencies between
                        different commands.

     Improvements:      Various error-handling issues resolved.

 A 1.0.3.0  March 2012  WINDOWS 7 Installation Upgrade.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
