National Instruments PXI-GPIB Getting Started

Also see for PMC-GPIB: Getting started Installation guide Installation guide Hardware guide Installation guide

Contents

National Instruments PXI-GPIB Getting Started Manual pdf 26 page image

Chapter 4 Begin to Use the GPIB Software©National Instruments Corporation4-3PXI-GPIB/PMC-GPIB for Windows NTIntroduction to the NI Spy UtilityIncluded with the GPIB software is NI Spy, a Win32 utility that monitorsand records multiple National Instruments APIs (for example, NI-488.2and VISA). You can use NI Spy to monitor Win32, Win16, and DOS GPIBapplications. Use NI Spy to do the following:• Capture information about NI-488 functions and NI-488.2 routines asyour GPIB applications invoke them.• Display captured information, including, but not limited to, input andoutput parameter values, I/O buffer contents, and return values.• Save, restore, and print captured information.To run NI Spy, select the NI Spy item under Start»Programs»GPIBSoftware.For more information about the NI Spy utility, refer to Chapter 5, NI SpyUtility, in the GPIB User Manual for Windows 95 and Windows NT, or useits built-in, context-sensitive online help.Running Existing GPIB ApplicationsYou can run existing Win32, Win16, and DOS GPIB applications underWindows NT.Win32 and Win16 GPIB applications run without any specialmodifications. To run an existing DOS GPIB application, complete thefollowing steps.Load the special GPIB device driver gpib-nt.com instead of gpib.com,which you normally use with DOS. When you install the GPIB software,the GPIB setup program copies gpib-nt.com into a new subdirectorycalled doswin16. To use gpib-nt.com, you must modify yourconfig.nt file to load gpib-nt.com whenever a DOS application runs.The config.nt file is located in yourwinnt\system32 directory, wherewinnt is your Windows NT directory, for example, c:\windows. TheGPIB setup program modifies the config.nt file by adding the followinglines:REM *** To run DOS GPIB applications, uncomment theREM *** following lineREM device=path\doswin16\gpib-nt.com