README.TXT for HP E1418 D/A Converter
Contents:
1 Introduction
2 VTL/VISA Specific Information
2.1 Instrument Addresses
2.2 Executing the Soft Front Panel without VTL/VISA
3 Using the HP E1418 Driver in Application Development Environments
3.1 C/C++
3.2 Microsoft Visual Basic
4.0 Known Defects
5.0 Online Information
6.0 Revision History
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1. Introduction
The help file included with the HP E1418 VXIplug&play driver contains
instrument and programming information. This readme file contains
additional information for the HP VXIplug&play programmer.
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2. VTL/VISA Specific Information
The following topics refer to instances when the driver is used with
different versions of VTL.
2.1 Instrument Addresses
When using HP VXIplug&play instrument drivers, instrument addresses must
be all uppercase letters. Implementation of the addressing scheme is
vendor specific and some vendors support mixed cases. However, for
maximum portability, the instrument address should use uppercase
characters only.
For example: use "VXI0::56::INSTR" instead of "vxi0::56::instr"
2.2 Executing the Soft Front Panel without VTL/VISA
The VTL/VISA dynamic link library provides a communication library
between your program and the instrument. The SFP may be executed without
VISA or without the HPE1418.dll present. It will do a partial emulation
of the hardware for demo purposes.
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3. Using the HP E1418 Driver in Application Development Environments
This section offers suggestions on using the hpe1418.dll within
various application development environments.
3.1 C/C++
Refer to your C/C++ manuals for information on linking
and calling .DLLs.
Rebuilding the driver DLL should be done in a different directory than
the one the driver was installed in order to differentiate the changes.
3.2 Microsoft Visual Basic
Refer to the Microsoft Visual BASIC manual for information on calling DLLs.
The BASIC include file is hpe1418.bas, which is contained in the directory
~vxipnpwinXXinclude. The ~ refers to the directory in the VXIPNP variable.
By default this is set to C:. winXX refers to the operating system -- win95
or winNT.
4.0 Known Defects
This driver does not work on the National Instruments MXI 1 interface.
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5.0 Online Information
The latest copy of this instrument driver and other HP instrument
drivers are available at the Agilent Technologies customer WWW site:
http://www.agilent.com/find/inst_drivers
The HP E1418 driver is located in a self-extracting archive file named
hpe1418.exe.
NOTE: If you are using an HP Command Module, you may also need to
download a new SCPI driver into your command module in addition to
downloading the most recent VXIplug&play driver.
If you do not have Internet access, the drivers can be obtained by
contacting your country support organization. In the US, the phone
number is 800-452-4844. A list of contact information for other
countries is available on the Access Agilent Technologies website:
http://www.agilent.com/find/contacts00 (two zeros at the end)
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6.0 Revision History
A.01.00 May 1, 1996 Initial Release.
A.02.00 Aug 1996
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.00
hpe141832v.dll G.01.00
hpvscp32.dll G.03.00
A.03.01 November 1997
Fixed a timer defect which prevented the driver from working
properly on 200 MHz Pentium Pro systems.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.00
hpe141832v.dll G.01.00
hpvscp32.dll G.03.01
A.03.02 4/1998
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.01
hpe141832v.dll G.01.00
hpvscp32.dll G.03.02
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.03 6/1998
The hpe141832v.dll was modified to accommodate the new
HP E8491 controller.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.01
hpe141832v.dll G.01.03
hpvscp32.dll G.03.02
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.04 7/1999
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.04
hpe141832v.dll G.01.04
hpvscp32.dll G.03.03
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.05 10/1999
hpe141832v.dll -- selftest was modified to eliminate occasional
failures due to error 258.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.04
hpe141832v.dll G.01.05
hpvscp32.dll G.03.03
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.06 9/2000
hpe1418_32.dll -- hpe1418_close had a defect that caused multiple
closes and opens of instrument to error. hpe1418_cmdString_Q
had an incorrect termination of return string. hpe1418_outpArray
on non-E1406A interfaces could open/close incorrect output relays
due to uninitialized variable.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.05
hpe141832v.dll G.01.05
hpvscp32.dll G.03.03
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.07 11/2000
hpe1418_32.dll -- selftest was still failing on fast PC's with
the E8491.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.05
hpe141832v.dll G.01.06
hpvscp32.dll G.03.03
hps1418.exe A.01.01
A.03.08 11/2000
hpe141832v.lib -- .lib file was built in Visual C++ 6.0 format
instead of 5.0 format.
hpe1418_32.dll A.02.05
hpe141832v.dll G.01.06
hpvscp32.dll G.03.03
hps1418.exe A.01.01