Instrument Control Toolbox

Communicating with a GPIB-VXI Instrument

This example illustrates how to communicate with a VXI instrument via a GPIB controller using the VISA standard provided by Agilent Technologies.

The GPIB controller is an Agilent E1406A command module in VXI slot 0. The instrument is an Agilent E1441A Function/Arbitrary Waveform Generator in VXI slot 1, which is outputting a 2 volt peak-to-peak signal. The GPIB controller communicates with the instrument over the VXI backplane.

You should modify this example to suit your specific instrument control application needs. If you want detailed information about communicating with an instrument using the VISA standard, refer to Controlling Instruments Using the VISA Standard.

1. Create an instrument object -- Create the VISA-GPIB-VXI object v associated with the E1441A instrument located in chassis 0 with logical address 80.

• v = visa('agilent','GPIB-VXI0::80::INSTR');
  

2. Connect to the instrument -- Connect v to the instrument.

• fopen(v)
  

3. Configure property values -- Configure v to complete a read operation when the line feed character is read from the instrument.

• set(v,'EOSMode','read')
  set(v,'EOSCharCode','LF')
  

4. Write and read data -- Change the instrument's peak-to-peak voltage to three volts by writing the Volt 3 command, query the peak-to-peak voltage value, and then read the voltage value.

• fprintf(v,'Volt 3')
  fprintf(v,'Volt?')
  data = fscanf(v)
  data =
  +3.00000E+00
  

5. Disconnect and clean up -- When you no longer need v, you should disconnect it from the instrument, remove it from memory, and remove it from the MATLAB workspace.

• fclose(v)
  delete(v)
  clear v
  

Communicating with a GPIB Instrument

Communicating with a Serial Port Instrument