The VXI command modules E1300/1/6, and E1405/6 support using a RS232 terminal as a human interface. This human interface is very useful for debugging a system. The HP 700 series of RS232 terminals are the preferred terminal. A terminal emulator on a PC may be used instead of a actual terminal. It is prefered to use a terminal emulator that emulates a HP terminal. If such a termial emulator program is not available then the terminal emulator that comes with windows on a PC may be used. The Terminal emulator in windows works well enough to be used as a occational debugging tool for the E1300/1/6 or E1405/6 command module, however, it should not be used as a standard development tool. The Windows Terminal Emulator in Windows 3.X is located at C:\windows\terminal.exe It emulates a vt 100 terminal. In Windows 95 the terminal emulator is installed by Start Control Panel Add/Remove Programs Windows Setup Communications Hyperterminal When it is installed it is then located at: Start Accessories HyperTerminal Hyperterm.exe When the Connection Description dialog box appears you must type in a name. Do not enter a phone number. Set the port settings to: Bits per second 9600 Data bits 8 Parity none Stop bits 1 Flow control Xon/Xoff The File Properties Settings Emulation=TTY will give you no softkeys Emulation=VT100 will give you 4 softkeys (8 will display but only four work) Connect a 9 pin to 9 pin RS232 cable from the command module to the PC. Use cable P/N 24542U or connect two cables together 24542H and 24542M to form a equivalent cable. The numeric key pad keys will not work, instead, you need to use the number keys above the alphabet keys on your PC''s keyboard. You may use the terminal either with or without menus. It is recommended that you use the terminal emulator without the menus, because of bugs and the fact that 8 softkeys will display but only four will work. To use the terminal without menus follow the instructions in the E1300/1/6 or E1405/6 manual under "Using a Terminal Without Menus". i.e. control D gets you to the select a instrument prompt. SA <address> select the logical address of the instrument or SI <instrument_name> select instrument i.e. SI SWITCH Then type SCPI commands and the reponses will appear on the screen. To use with menus in Windows 3.X requires that the softkeys available in the Windows Terminal emulator be loaded with the proper escape sequences. In Hyperterminal in Window 95 this is not done. The softkeys at the bottom of the Terminal Emulator Window are enabled by picking from the menu: file settings show function keys To edit the softkey definitions do from the menu: file settings function keys Then fill in the key definitions Key Name Command f1 ^[OP f2 ^[OQ f3 ^[OR f4 ^[OS f5 ^[Ow f6 ^[Ox f7 ^[Oy f8 ^[Om When the E1300/1 is booted it will query the terminal and find out that it is a vt100 and then establish the HP softkeys on the screen area. If you start the terminal emulator after the E1300/1 has booted then you must do: control D st vt100 Now when you use the system the key labels will be displayed HP style near the bottom of the terminal screen. Below these labels will be labels that we just defined. Thus two sets of labels will be seen on the screen. With your mouse you can click on the labels f1-f8 and they will perform the definition that is displayed on the HP style of labels. You will have to make the mental connection that the first HP style key is f1, the second HP style key is f2, etc. One bug that I have observed in the Windows 3.X Terminal Emulator is that when the menus are used and after several menu picks the scrolling on the screen does not scroll properly. This bug was observed on Windows 3.11.