README.TXT for Agilent E1422 Remote Channel Multi-function DAC Contents: 1 Introduction 2 Downloading Driver Into Agilent E1406 Command Module 2.1 Installing Agilent VIC on the Local Hard Drive 2.2 Copying Driver Files to Floppy 2.3 Downloading the Driver 3 VISA Specific Information 3.1 Instrument Addresses 3.2 Executing the Soft Front Panel without VISA 4 Using the Agilent E1422 Driver in Application Development Environments 4.1 C/C++ 4.2 Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Examples 6.0 Known Defects 7.0 Obtaining New and Updated VXIplug&play Drivers 8.0 Revision History - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction The help file included with the Agilent E1422 VXIplug&play driver contains instrument and programming information. This readme file contains additional information for the Agilent VXIplug&play programmer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Downloading Driver Into Agilent E1406 Command Module The following steps will need to be taken to install your SCPI (downloaded) driver into an E1406 command module. NOTE: The E1422 driver is too large for the E1405 command module. You will need an E1406 command module with the expanded memory option (Option 11) to download this driver successfully. 2.1 Installing VIC on the Local Hard Drive Insert the Instrument Drivers CD ROM and let Install Shield run. Proceed with the install until you get to the "Choose Type of Installation" screen. Select "INSTALL DRIVERS" (the first choice) and then select "VXIInstallation Consultant (32-bit Agilent VIC)". Proceed and install VIC onto your hard drive. After VIC is installed, exit the installation, but leave the Instrument Driver CD ROM in the drive. 2.2 Copying Driver Files to Floppy From the Windows menu, run Explorer ( to bring up Explorer, do a right mouse button click on the "Start" icon). Select the CD ROM drive. Go to the directory: dscpi\e1422\10302.dos Insert a floppy disk into either your A or B drive. Copy the files E1422.dba, e1422.du and e1422.dc to the floppy disk. 2.3 Downloading the Driver Keep the floppy disk containing the E1422.dba, E1422.du, and E1422.dc files from the previous step inserted into the floppy drive, but you may now remove the CD ROM from the CD drive. Run VIC from the local hard drive by double clicking on its Icon. VIC should automatically read your floppy disk and ask if there are more floppies to read -- click on "No". From the next screen select "Download". Configure your system by first selecting your E1406 from the "Mainframes/Resource Managers" tab, and press "Add". Now select your mainframe type from the list and press "Add". Next, select the "Instruments" tab, select the E1422 entry and press "Add". Press "Continue" and keep going for several more screens, pressing more "Continue" buttons, an OK (at GPIB screen), and "Ready" (to test the interface). Eventually you will arrive at a screen that is labeled "Copy Driver Files". The E1422 driver will show up listed in a box in the center of this screen. VIC is indicating the e1422.du file is not in VIC's database and is asking you where to find it. You must now double click on the E1422 entry in that center box to force VIC to browse to find the file. VIC should find it right away if it is on the A drive floppy (if not, you will have to use the browser to point to the location of the file); select "Open". VIC should now proceed with downloading the E1422 driver. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 VISA Specific Information The following topics refer to instances when the driver is used with different versions of VISA. 3.1 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" 3.2 Executing the Soft Front Panel without VISA The VISA dynamic link library provides a communication library between your program and the instrument. The SFP may be executed without VISA or without the HPE1422.dll present. It will do a partial emulation of the hardware for demo purposes. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Using the Agilent E1422 Driver in Application Development Environments This section offers suggestions on using the hpe1422.dll within various application development environments. 4.1 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. 4.2 Microsoft Visual Basic Refer to the Microsoft Visual BASIC manual for information on calling DLLs. The BASIC include file is hpe1422.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. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 Examples Some programming examples may be found on the CD-ROM in the directory "examples\hpe1422". Additionally, examples for a similar instrument (E1415) may be found on the CD ROM in directory "examples\hpe1415" -- these examples could be easily modified to work with a Agilent E1422 since the syntax and features of these two instruments is virtually the same. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 Known Defects This driver does not work on National MXI 1 interface. The 'hpe1422_configTemp' can generate multiple errors on the instrument if the channel list parameter is incorrect. The downloaded driver in the Agilent E1406 command module does not support the Agilent E1139 SCP (Special version of E1538 SCP) at this time. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 Obtaining New and Updated VXIplug&play Drivers 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 E1422 driver is located in a self-extracting archive file named hpe1422.exe. NOTE: If you are using an Agilent Command Module, you may also need to download a new SCPI driver into your command module in addition to downloading the most recent VXIplug&play driver. 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 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.0 Revision History A.01.00 May 1999 Initial release hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.00 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.00 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.02 A.01.01 June 1999 Fixed a problem in quarter bridge strain EU conversion (hpe142232v.dll). Also, there was a problem fixed regarding reading saved calibration constants from non-volatile Flash. Fixed hpe1422_reset function (hpe1422_32.dll) -- had a problem when hpe1422_errQueryDetect was enabled. Also the hpe1529_configStrainE1529 function did not work properly and was fixed. hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.01 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.01 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.02 A.01.02 August 1999 hpe1422_32.dll: Made certain of type cast in readFifo_Q (non E1406 path) Possibly not a problem, but had problems with similar type cast on Win95 built version. hpvscp32.dll: A problem was fixed with releasing handles when instrument session closed. After lots of opens and closes on NT platform, could use up available handles. hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.02 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.01 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.03 A.01.03 October 1999 (Internal release, copy to Boeing) hpe142232v.dll: Added trigger status to ALGorithm subsystem (S10220). This allows users to determine if any extra sample triggers occurred or if any sample triggers were dropped during a measurement. hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.02 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.02 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.03 A.01.04 January 2000 hpe142232v.dll: Fixed defect caused by last release which made first "init" cycle have one channel out of order in the scan list. Subsequent "init" cycles had correct scan sequence. Setting the filter was taking longer than necessary for multiple channels on same box, this was corrected. Meas:volt:exc and meas:volt:unst put incorrect data into fifo (stored data was correct however). Meas:volt:exc and meas:volt:unst altered channel list if different from rout:seq:def list. hpe1422_32.dll: Was missing some bridge types (like Q350,Q120) in hpe1422_configStrainE1529, due to I/O code copied from hpe1422_configStrainE1506 without proper modification. readme.txt file modified with "Agilent" web pages listed for driver updates. hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.04 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.03 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.03 A.01.05 April 2000 hpe142232v.dll: Fixed defect with meas:volt:unst which caused the unstrained value to apparantly have no effect on the converted strain value. The problem was compiler optimization of mixed mode arithmetic used in calculations of strain. hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.04 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.04 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.03 A.01.06 August 2000 hpe142232v.dll: Now includes newer E1538 SCP code. This is a don't care for almost all E1422 users. Revision number not modified because previous revision was not widely distributed. Also, this is same code shipped on Unix as B.01.04 revision. hpe1422_32.dll: Re-built with max. speed optimization; same bits as last revision, so rev. number not changed. Is now about 10K larger file, but faster (according to MSVC++ compiler options). hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.04 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.04 hps1422.exe : A.01.00 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.03 A.01.07 October 2001 Agilent rebranding hpe142232v.dll: fixed problem in calibrating multiple units hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.05 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.05 hps1422.exe : A.01.01 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.04 A.01.08 December 2001 hpe142232v.dll: fixed quarter bridge strain calculation error hpe1422_32.dll : A.01.05 hpe142232v.dll : G.01.06 hps1422.exe : A.01.01 hpvscp32.dll : G.03.04