README.TXT for Agilent E1476 Multiplexer 

Contents:

1    Introduction

2    VISA Specific Information
2.1    Instrument Addresses
2.2    Executing the Soft Front Panel without VISA

3    Using the Agilent E1476 Driver in Application Development Environments
3.1    Microsoft Visual C/C++
3.2    Borland C/C++
3.3    Microsoft Visual Basic


4.0  WINDOWS 7 x64 Installation. Additional upgrade needed.

5.0  Online Information

6.0  Revision History

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1.   Introduction

The help file included with the Agilent E1476 VXIplug&play driver contains
instrument and programming information. This readme file contains
additional information for the Agilent VXIplug&play programmer.

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2.   VISA Specific Information

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

2.1    Instrument Addresses

When using Agilent VXIplug&play instrument drivers, 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"

2.2  Executing the Soft Front Panel without VISA

The VISA dynamic link library provides a communication library
between your program and the instrument.  If you receive a message
that VISA.DLL cannot be found when executing the soft front panel
(hpe1476.exe), VISA is not installed on your system. To communicate
with the Agilent E1476, you must install VISA from discs supplied
with your computer or I/O card.  However, it is still possible to
execute the soft front panel in a demonstration mode without VISA
and/or the Agilent E1476.  Simply press 'ok' when the dialog boxappears and the soft front panel will then become available.

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3.   Using the Agilent E1476 Driver in Application Development Environments

This section offers suggestions on using the hpe1476.dll within
various application development environments.

3.1    Microsoft Visual C/C++

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

Rebuilding the driver requires header files located in the
~\winnt\hpe1476 or ~\win95\hpe1476 directory.  The ~ refers to the
directory in the VXIPNPPATH variable.  By default this is set to
C:\VXIPNP on Agilent I/O Libraries revisions prior to J.01.00; or
to C:\Program Files\VISA on revisions J.01.00 or later.

3.2    Borland C/C++

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

3.3   Microsoft Visual Basic

Refer to the Microsoft Visual BASIC manual for information on calling DLLs.
The BASIC include file is hpe1476.bas, which is contained in the directory
~\winnt\include or ~\win95\include. The ~ refers to the directory in the
VXIPNPPATH variable.  By default this is set to C:\VXIPNP on Agilent I/O
Libraries revisions prior to J.01.00; or to C:\Program Files\VISA on
revisions J.01.00 or later.

Note that Microsoft Visual BASIC does not support instrument callback
features.  Therefore, these functions have been omitted from the
include file.

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4.0  WINDOWS 7 x64 Installation. Additional upgrade needed.

Version  A.02.09 consists of an upgrade to the Installation software for 
installing the E1476A driver on Windows 7 systems. You must also install 
the following software upgrade:

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


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5.0  Online Information

The latest copy of this instrument driver and other Agilent instrument
drivers are available at the Agilent Technologies customer WWW site:

            http://www.agilent.com/find/inst_drivers

The hpe1476 is located in a self-extracting archive file called 
e1476.exe.

If you do not have Internet access, the drivers can be obtained by
contacting your country support organization.  In the US, the phone
number is 800-452-4844.  A list of contact information for other
countries is available on the Access Agilent Technologies website:

          http://www.agilent.com/find/assist

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6.0  Revision History

  A.01.00  March 1, 1996  Initial Release.
  A.02.00  August 26, 1996 Windows 95/NT Release

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.00
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.08.01
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.08.01
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.02.02

  A.02.01  November 1997   Fixed timer defect which prevented the driver
                           from working properly on 200 MHz Pentium Pro
                           systems.

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.00
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.08.01
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.08.01
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.01

  A.02.02  April 3, 1998   Fixed more High-Speed computer problems.

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.02
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.02
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.09.00
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.09.00
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.01

  A.02.03  June 12, 1998   Switchbox dll update

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.02
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.02
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.09.01
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.09.01
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.01

  A.02.05  November 4,1998 Switchbox dll update

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.02
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.02
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.10.01
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.10.01
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.01

  A.02.06  July 9,1999     Switchbox dll update

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.06
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.02
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.10.02
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.10.02
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.03
                           visaext.dll        H.01.00.01

  A.02.07  January 21, 2000   Updated readme.txt with Agilent names

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.06
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.02
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.10.02
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.10.02
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.03
                           visaext.dll        H.01.00.01

  A.02.08  October 31, 2001   Agilent rebranding

                           hpe1476_32.dll     A.02.07
                           hps1476.exe        A.02.03
                           hpeswit32v.dll     G.11.02
                           hpescan32v.dll     G.11.02
                           hpvscp32.dll       G.03.04
                           visaext.dll        K.01.00.00

   A.02.09  June 2012 - WINDOWS 7 x64 Installation InstallShield Update

                          This release updates the InstallShield for
                          installations 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.02.08.

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