Instrument Control Toolbox

Creating an Array of Instrument Objects

In MATLAB, you can create an array from existing variables by concatenating those variables together. The same is true for instrument objects. For example, suppose you create the GPIB objects g1 and g2:

• g1 = gpib('ni',0,1);
  g2 = gpib('ni',0,2);
  

You can now create an instrument object array consisting of g1 and g2 using the usual MATLAB syntax. To create the row array x:

• x = [g1 g2]
  Instrument Object Array
  
     Index:   Type:        Status:      Name: 
     1        gpib         closed       GPIB0-1
     2        gpib         closed       GPIB0-2
  

To create the column array y:

• y = [g1;g2];
  

Note that you cannot create a matrix of instrument objects. For example, you cannot create the matrix

• z = [g1 g2;g1 g2];
  ??? Error using ==> gpib/vertcat
  Only a row or column vector of instrument objects can be created.
  

Depending on your application, you might want to pass an array of instrument objects to a function. For example, using one call to the set function, you can configure both g1 and g2 to the same property value.

• set(x,'EOSMode','read')
  

Refer to Function Reference, to see which functions accept an instrument object array as an input argument.

Configuring Properties During Object Creation

Connecting to the Instrument