National Instruments GPIB-PCII Getting Started

Also see for GPIB-PCII: Getting started

Contents

National Instruments GPIB-PCII Getting Started Manual pdf 27 page image

© National Instruments Corp. B-1 GPIB-PCII/IIA for GraphicsAppendix BChanging Board and DeviceCharacteristicsThis appendix contains instructions for changing the default board and devicecharacteristics of the NI-488.2 handler for MS-DOS/Windows.Note: Most graphics application software is written to use the defaultconfiguration of the NI-488.2 handler. Do not change the defaultparameters of the NI-488.2 handler unless your graphics applicationmanual instructs you to do so.Board and Device CharacteristicsTwo groups of features can be changed in the handler file or configuration file.The first group consists of the characteristics of the devices attached to your GPIB-PCII/IIA. The second group consists of the characteristics of each GPIB-PCII/IIAinstalled in the computer. The following sections describe the characteristics ofeach group.Characteristics of the Graphics DevicesEach device used with the GPIB-PCII/IIA has the following characteristics:• A symbolic name of each device on the GPIB (such as DEV5 or SCANNER).• A primary and, if used, a secondary address for each device.• A time limit imposed when executing certain functions. This time limitensures that transfers do not hang up the GPIB indefinitely.• A way to terminate I/O transmissions to and from the device. Some devicesrequire or append an end of string (EOS) character, such as the ASCII linefeed character, to data strings. Others use the GPIB END message, which issent or received via the EOI signal line. Still others use both. Some terminateI/O only when a predetermined number of bytes are sent or received.