Instrument Control Toolbox

What Is the Instrument Control Toolbox?

The Instrument Control Toolbox is a collection of M-file functions built on the MATLAB® technical computing environment. The toolbox provides you with these features:

• A framework for communicating with instruments that support the GPIB interface (IEEE-488), the VISA standard, the TCP/IP or UDP protocols, and the serial port interface (RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485). Note that the toolbox extends the basic serial port features included with MATLAB.
• Functions for transferring data between MATLAB and your instrument:
• The data can be binary (numerical) or text.
• Text data can be any command used by your instrument such as a command given by the Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) language.
• The transfer can be synchronous and block the MATLAB command line, or asynchronous and not block the MATLAB command line.
• Event-based communication
• Functions for recording data and event information to a text file
• Tools that facilitate instrument control in an easy-to-use graphical environment

Exploring the Toolbox

A list of the toolbox functions is available to you by typing

• help instrument
  

You can view the code for any function by typing

• type function_name
  

You can view the help for any function by typing

• instrhelp function_name
  

You can change the way any toolbox function works by copying and renaming the M-file, then modifying your copy. You can also extend the toolbox by adding your own M-files, or by using it in combination with other products such as the MATLAB Report Generator or the Data Acquisition Toolbox.

Preface

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