Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.5

Table of Contents

What Is Agilent IO Libraries Suite?

System Requirements

Installing the Software

What's Changed?

Known Issues

Uninstalling the Software

License Grant

Agilent Open System Developer Community

What Is Agilent IO Libraries Suite?

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Agilent IO Libraries Suite is a collection of libraries and utility programs. The IO libraries (SICL, VISA, and VISA COM) enable instrument communication for a variety of development environments (Agilent VEE Pro, Microsoft Visual Studio, etc.) that are compatible with GPIB, USB, LAN, RS-232, and VXI test instruments from a variety of manufacturers. Several utility programs help you quickly and easily connect your instruments to your PC.

Establishing communication between your instruments and your PC is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Install the IO Libraries Suite: Get all the software you need to connect via GPIB, USB, LAN, and other standard interfaces.

2. Connect Your Instrument: Connect cables and apply power.

3. Run Agilent Connection Expert to Configure Your Connection: See your system graphically and send commands to your instruments.

If you received two CD-ROMs with your Agilent product, install the IO Libraries Suite first. Then browse the second CD to find instrument drivers, documentation, and other application software, depending on the product you have purchased.

Notes on Version Numbering:

Agilent IO Libraries Suite version 15.5 is the upgrade from version 15.1. Versions 15.2, 15.3, 15.4 were skipped.

Agilent IO Libraries Suite is an enhanced, improved successor to the Agilent IO Libraries product. Agilent IO Libraries versions began with A.01.00 and ended with M.01.01. Agilent IO Libraries Suite versions began with 14.0, which is a higher version than M.01.01 for purposes of determining compatibility with other software and hardware products.

System Requirements for Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.5

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The following table lists the system configurations that we tested IO Libraries 15.5 on and are therefore guaranteed to work. In general, any x86 or x64 (except Itanium) should work but there may be a decrease in performance.

Operating System	Windows XP, Service Pack 2 or later	Windows Vista, SP1 and SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit), Business, Ultimate, Enterprise, Home Basic, and Home Premium	Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, Enterprise
Processor speed	600MHz or higher required 800MHz recommended	1Ghz 32-bit (x86), 1GHz 64-bit (x64), no support for Itanium64	1Ghz 32-bit (x86), 1GHz 64-bit (x64), no support for Itanium64
Available Memory	256 MB minimum (1 GB or greater recommended)	1 GB minimum	1 GB minimum
Available Disk Space¹	1.5 GB available hard disk space, includes: 1GB available for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP2² 65MB for Agilent IO Libraries Suite	1.5 GB available hard disk space, includes: 1GB available for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1² 65MB for Agilent IO Libraries Suite	1.5 GB available hard disk space, includes: 1GB available for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1² 65MB for Agilent IO Libraries Suite
Video	Super VGA (800x600) 256 colors or more	Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB graphics memory recommended (Super VGA graphics is supported)	Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB graphics memory recommended (Super VGA graphics is supported)
Browser	Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater	Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or greater	Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or greater

¹ Note: because of the installation procedure, less memory may be required for operation than is required for installation.
² .NET Framework Runtime Components are installed by default with Windows Vista. Therefore, you may not need this amount of available disk space.

You may want the Adobe Reader, which will allow you to read Agilent IO Libraries Suite manuals in PDF format. It can be obtained at http://www.adobe.com.

Who is licensed to install IO Libraries Suite 15.x?

See the License Grant at the end of this file to determine whether you are licensed to install this software.

What if I need support for an older operating system?

It is generally best to use the current version of the Agilent IO Libraries Suite. This version will support the newest interfaces and operating systems, and will have the most advanced features. However, you may need to install an earlier version of the IO Libraries Suite to support an older interface or operating system. Refer to http://www.agilent.com/find/iosuite to locate the version you need.

Installing the Software

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To install Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.x:

First, disconnect any USB instruments, USB/GPIB converters, and FireWire® (IEEE 1394)-VXI interfaces that are connected to your PC.

Shut down all other applications that are running on the PC.

If you have the Automation-Ready CD in your CD-ROM drive:

1.      Click this link, which opens a Windows File Explorer for the CD.

2.      Browse to the Autorun folder and double-click to execute auto.exe.

        If you are downloading Agilent IO Libraries Suite from the Web:

1.     Go to http://www.agilent.com/find/iosuite.

2.      Download the IO Libraries Suite self-extracting zip file (*.exe) to any location on your hard disk.

3.      Double-click the .exe file to extract all files and start the installation process.

After the installation is complete, re-connect any devices that you disconnected prior to installing.

For detailed discussion of installation options, refer to the Agilent IO Libraries Suite Connectivity Guide. You will need Adobe Reader (available at www.adobe.com). You can also find the Connectivity Guide at http://www.agilent.com/find/iosuite.

What's Changed in Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.5?

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Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.5 includes defect fixes and makes various improvements and additions. Some of the changes are:

IO Libraries 15.5 retains the functionality of IO Libraries 15.1 and adds support for 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista 64-bit. It also adds support for Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

E8491B VXI IEEE 1394 Slot 0 (FireWire) has 32-bit support only (no 64-bit support).

Microsoft Windows 2000 is no longer supported.

Agilent IO Libraries version 15.5 installs version 2.0.0.0 of the IVI Shared Components (see http://www.ivifoundation.org/) and .NET Framework version 2.0 (SP1 on Windows Vista and Windows 7, SP2 on Windows XP). If you are developing .NET programs, the development environment that you are using must support .NET 2.0. For example, if you are using Visual Studio to develop C# or VB.NET applications, you must use Visual Studio 2005 or higher. (Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 does not recognize .NET Framework 2.0, and as a result, Visual Studio 2003 may not be used to develop .NET solutions with IO Libraries Suite 15.5.)

Caution: Once you have installed version 2.x of the IVI Shared Components (for example, by installing Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.5), you will not be able to build IVI drivers and applications developed with earlier versions. You will need to upgrade those drivers/applications to the new IVI Shared Components (and to build on Visual Studio 2005 or higher, or you will need to build those drivers/applications on a different machine that does not have version 2.x of the IVI Shared Components.

If you are installing IO Libraries on a 64-Bit operating system, use the VISA 64 Conflict Manager to change default interface configurations. From Agilent Connection Expert, select I/O Configuration > VISA 64 Conflict Manager.

The VISA resource string format for USB devices has changed. In previous versions of the Agilent IO Libraries Suite, the VendorId and ModelCode fields were displayed as decimal numbers. In IO Libraries Suite 15.5, they are displayed as 4-digit hexadecimal numbers:

Old format: USB0::1234::5678::0::INSTR
New format: USB0::0x04D2::0x162E::0::INSTR

In a viOpen call, either format can be used, but the behavior of viFindRsrc has changed.

If you use a regular expression to return USB instruments and you specify a VendorId and/or ModelCode, you can use either hexadecimal or decimal format. Matching resources will be returned from viFindRsrc in the format you use to specify them. If decimal is used, the decimal format of the resource string will be returned. If hexadecimal is used or the VendorId and/or ModelCode is not specified in the regular expression, the hexadecimal format resource string will be returned. This behavior applies to both 32-bit and 64-bit applications using Agilent VISA.

Note: If another vendor’s 32-bit VISA is installed and Agilent VISA is the secondary 32-bit VISA, the parsing rules for regular expressions in viFindRsrc called from 32-bit programs are determined by the other vendor’s VISA. NI-VISA, for example, requires the 4-digit hexadecimal form for USB devices.

Location of Agilent Connection Expert log changed: As part of the migration to Vista, we moved the location of the Ace.log file out of:
C:\Program Files\Agilent\IO Libraries Suite
to the standard Windows location for program data. In Windows XP it is:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Agilent\Agilent IO Libraries
and in Windows Vista it is:
C:\ProgramData\Agilent\Agilent IO Libraries

Location of programming samples changed: The default installation location for programming samples is now:

C:\ProgramData\Agilent\Agilent IO Libraries Programming Samples on Windows Vista and Windows 7
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Agilent\IO Libraries Suite Programming Samples on Windows XP

Power management on Windows Vista and Windows 7: On Windows XP, the Agilent IO Libraries Service prevents transition to standby mode, meaning that if the computer attempts to “sleep” or “hibernate” when the Agilent IO Libraries Service is running, it will not be able to do so. On Windows Vista and Windows 7, services cannot prevent the transition to standby, so the PC will sleep even during I/O activity. If you run the IO Libraries Suite on a Vista PC, we suggest that you configure it not to enter sleep mode, because you may lose I/O events during sleep. However, the IO Libraries Suite will function correctly when normal PC operation resumes.

IO Libraries 15.1 added the following features:

LAN instrument discovery and configuration is now significantly easier and faster and includes mDNS.
Support for the LXI 1.3 standard. Support for this standard includes IEEE 1588-2008 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) standard. IO Libraries 15.0 included a new Interactive LXI gui interface to test and experiment with both LAN/LXI events (to send and receive events) and the IEEE 1588 PTP.
IO Monitor has been significantly revised.
USBTMC driver for Windows Vista now supports the Microsoft-supplied WinUSB components. This also allows allows better interoperability with NI VISA.
On Agilent GPIB interfaces, the Agilent 488 board numbers now always track the VISA interface ID and the board number cannot be changed independently. E.g. GPIB1 has an Agilent 488 board number of 1; GPIB2 has a board number of 2; etc.
Duplicate VISA Interface ID’s, SICL Interface ID’s, Logical Unit numbers and Agilent 488 board numbers are now automatically resolved by renaming duplicate values.
Fixed a problem where loading sicl32.dll failed prematurely rather than waiting for the system to initialize after Windows startup or reboot.
Shortened the timeout while waiting to close an LAN instrument that is no longer present. The timeout now defaults to five seconds rather than 120 seconds.
LAN discovery in the LAN ‘Add Instrument’ dialog now discovers mDNS enabled instruments before doing its standard discovery.
Updated visa32.cs and visa32.vb to include a viEventHandler delegate definition plus new viInstallHandler and viUninstallerHandler definitions so event callbacks can be used from C# and VB.NET.
Reduced the ‘Reboot required’ occurrences when Agilent 8235x GPIB interface parameters are changed and when IO Libraries are installed or updated.
Allows changing the Logical Unit parameter on Agilent 82357 interfaces.
IO Libraries now detects and configures more than four NI-488.2 GPIB interfaces.

IO Libraries 15.0 added the following features:

VISA Open Reports added to help diagnose IO problems.
VISA 4.0 Compliance
Microsoft Windows VISTA support
The option to Enable Agilent GPIB cards for 488 programs is disabled by default if another vendor’s NI-488.2–compatible library is also installed. This reduces the likelihood of error messages from the third-party software. (You can always enable this option and your 488 programs will work correctly, regardless of the presence of third-party software.)
Location of Agilent Connection Expert log changed: As part of the migration to Vista, we moved the location of the Ace.log file out of:
    C:\Program Files\Agilent\IO Libraries Suite
to the standard Windows location for program data. In Windows XP it is:
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Agilent\Agilent IO Libraries
and in Windows Vista it is:
    C:\ProgramData\Agilent\Agilent IO Libraries
Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15 uses the new IVI VISA COM Standard Components. They install both the IVI VISA COM files, and create the VXIplug&play directory structure if it doesn't already exist. The default base directory for the VXIpnp components in this installer is:
    C:\Program Files\IVI Foundation\VISA
Note that if you already have a set of VXIpnp directories on your PC, the new installer will continue to use your current set of directories (probably either
    C:\Program Files\VISA
or
    C:\VXIPNP
and not create a new set in
    C:\Program Files\IVI Foundation\VISA.
The default board number for Agilent PCI-GPIB interfaces is now zero, to conform to hardcoded board numbers in many NI-488.2 programs.
The default board number for National Instruments PCI-GPIB cards in Agilent Connection Expert is now 0 (it was 21). This makes Connection Expert more compatible with the NI-MAX default value. However, one or more of the following situations may occur:
1) An additional device appears in the VISA Open report at the board GPIB address specified in Agilent Connection Expert. The device is shown as configured in NI-MAX.
2) Agilent Connection Expert shows a real device on the interface as 'OK' but Interactive IO returns a VI_ERROR_IO when doing a *IDN?
3) NI-MAX reports an error on the real device when scanning for instruments.
4) Agilent Connection Expert shows the real device in the error state.

Known Issues

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IO Monitor in T&M ToolKit: Agilent IO Monitor installed as part of Agilent T&M ToolKit will cease to function after IO Libraries Suite 15.x is installed. IO Libraries installs a newer, revised version of IO Monitor.
IO Monitor should only be used when one user is logged in. With more than one user logged in, it may malfunction or cause I/O programs to stall.
- When monitoring for long periods of time when message volume is high, IO Monitor may lose messages.
- If one user logs off while another user is monitoring, I/O may stall and will not restart until message capture is stopped and then restarted in the IO Monitor.
- IO Control in one of the user sessions may crash when message capturing is enabled or disabled.
- The above issues can occur whenever more than one user is logged in even if only one user is doing I/O and running IO Monitor.
Instruments disappear in Connection Expert: When you install IO Libraries Suite 15 and one or more of your LAN instruments no longer appears in the Connection Expert, it may be because those instruments have incorrect subnet masks. Refer to the instrument's documentation.

VISA Assistant help file does not work in Vista OS: WinHlp32.exe is required to display 32-bit Help files that have the ".hlp" file name extension. To view .hlp files on Windows Vista, you need to install the WinHlp32.exe. If you click on Help > Help Topics, an error message pops up stating the problem and providing the following link to install WinHlp32.exe:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6EBCFAD9-D3F5-4365-8070-334CD175D4BB&displaylang=en

Windows Vista, PTP and LXI C samples may not run the first time from Visual Studio 2005. If you attempt to open the C sample projects for LXI and PTP by double clicking on the solution file in the Windows Explorer after starting the IO Libraries install from that same explorer, the projects will compile, but the resulting sample programs will not run from Visual Studio. The symptom is a dialog box saying that the PtpManagerC.dll (PTP sample) or LxiEventManagerC.dll (LXI sample) cannot be found. The error is caused by a Vista defect that fails to refresh the environment variables passed to programs started based on file associations.
Workaround: Close all instances of Windows Explorer after completing installation of IO Libraries. Thereafter, the environment variables seen by Visual Studio reflect the additions made by the IO Libraries install and the C samples will find PtpManagerC.dll or LxiEventManagerC.dll and run successfully.
Configuring a remote USB1. Note: NI corrected this problem in their VISA version 4.4 and later. If you are using NI VISA prior to version 4.4 and you configure a remote USB1 device, NI-VISA will find it and report it correctly if NI Passport for VISA is enabled. But when you try to open the USB1 device, NI appears to ignore the board number on the USB interface and attempts to open it on their USB0 interface. This process fails. Agilent's VISA Open Report correctly shows the USB1 device and indicates that it is managed by Agilent Connection Expert and that the device is available to a VISA program. This device can only be accessed by VISA programs that use an Agilent Connection Expert configured alias to the USB1 device.
IO Control may fail when two users are running I/O programs: In some cases, Agilent IO Control may fail when the PC is running a test program as one user and monitoring IO messages with IO Monitor as a different user, especially if the volume of messages is high. In this case, we recommend that you run both programs as the same user, in order to avoid the overhead of user context switches.

Uninstalling the Software

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Use the Windows Control Panel ("Add or Remove Programs" in Windows XP or "Programs and Features" in Windows Vista) to remove the Agilent IO Libraries Suite. Do not delete files directly.

Removing the IO Libraries Suite does not delete the standard VISA directory, standard VISA COM files, standard IVI (Interchangeable Virtual Instrument Foundation) files, and IVI Shared Components. There is no reliable way for the IO Libraries Suite uninstaller to be sure that no other installed product (whether from Agilent or another vendor) is using these files and directories.

License Grant

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For every individual Agilent instrument, Agilent hardware I/O product (including Agilent GPIB cards and Agilent I/O converters), and development copy of Agilent T&M Toolkit or Agilent VEE Pro that you legally own or have a valid, legal license from Agilent to use, Agilent grants you one non-exclusive license of the Software at no charge pursuant to the terms of the License Agreement. The License Agreement is displayed when you install the software and is available in the IO Libraries Suite Online Help. You may download one copy of the Software, and store or run that copy of the Software for internal use and purposes in accordance with this Agreement and the documentation provided with the Software. Such documentation may include license terms provided by Agilent's third party suppliers, which will apply to the use of the Software and take precedence over these license terms. In the absence of documentation specifying the applicable license, you may store or run one copy of the Software on one machine or instrument. If the Software is otherwise licensed for concurrent or network use, you may not allow more than the maximum number of authorized users to access and use the Software concurrently.

Agilent Open System Developer Community

Thank you for your interest in Agilent IO Libraries Suite 15.x. As you use IO Libraries Suite, we also invite you to join the Agilent System Developer community at www.systemcomponents.tm.agilent.com for additional test & measurement connectivity resources and information free of charge.

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