README.TXT for HP E4419 Power Meter.
Driver Revision A.02.00
14th July 1999
Contents:
1 Introduction
2 VTL/VISA Specific Information
2.1 Instrument Addresses
2.2 Using Callbacks and Soft Front Panel Timeouts
2.3 Read Status Byte
3 Using the HP E4419 Driver in Application Development Environments
3.1 Microsoft Visual C/C++
3.2 Borland C/C++
3.3 Microsoft Visual Basic
3.4 HP VEE 3.2
3.5 LabWindows/CVI
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 E4419 driver contains
instrument and programming information. This readme file contains
additional information for the HP VXIplug&play programmer.
The HP E4419 Windows 95 and Windows NT drivers are actually a single 32-bit
driver. All of references which follow assume Windows 95. For Windows NT,
change references from win95 to winnt.
This HP E4419 driver conforms to all portions of the VXIplug&play driver
standard which are applicable to conventional GP-IB and other non-VXI
instruments (that is, rack and stack instruments). The formal VXIplug&play
standard only covers VXI Instruments, and two elements of the standard do not
apply to the HP E4419 since it is not a VXI instrument. First, there is no soft
front panel, as the HP E4419 can be controlled from it's hardware front panel.
Second, there is no knowledge base file, which is primarily a physical
description of a VXI board.
Aside from these exceptions, you'll find the same features in this driver as
in HP's other VXIplug&play drivers.
1. Conformance with the VXIplug&play standard. The only exceptions are that
it does not have a soft front panel or a knowledge base file.
2. It is built on top of, and uses the services provided by VISA. VISA
supports GP-IB and VXI protocols. The driver can be used with any
GP-IB card for which the manufacturer has provided a VISA DLL.
3. It includes a "Function Panel" (.fp) file which allows it to be used
with visual programming environments such as HP-VEE, LabWindows, and
LabVIEW.
4. It includes a comprehensive on-line help file which complements the
instrument manual. The help file presents application programming
examples, a cross-reference between instrument commands and driver
functions, and detailed documentation of each function, with examples.
5. Source is included so that the driver can be modified if desired. The
source conforms to VXI Plug & Play standards. Modifications should only
be done by people who are familiar with the VXIplug&play standard.
6. It includes a Visual Basic include file (.bas) which contains the function
calls in Visual Basic syntax, so that driver functions can be called from
Visual Basic. If you use Visual Basic with this driver, you should be
familiar with C/C++ function declarations. In particular, care must be
taken when working with C/C++ pointers.
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2. VISA Specific Information
The following topics refer to instances when the driver is used with
different versions of VISA.
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 "GPIB0::22" instead of "gpib0::22"
2.2 Using Callbacks
Callbacks are not supported with this driver.
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3. Using the HP E4419 Driver in Application Development Environments
This section offers suggestions on using the hpe4419_32.dll within
various application development environments.
3.1 Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 (& higher) and Borland C++ 4.5 (& higher)
Refer to your Microsoft Visual C++ or Borland C++ manuals for information
on linking and calling .DLLs.
A.) The driver uses Pascal calling conventions.
B.) 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 4.0 (& higher)
Refer to the Microsoft Visual BASIC manual for information on calling DLLs.
The BASIC include file is hpe4419.bas, which is contained in the directory
~vxipnpwin95include. The ~ refers to the directory in the VXIPNP variable.
By default this is set to C:. You may also need to include the visa.bas
file that comes with your VISA DLL.
3.3 HP VEE 3.2 (& higher)
Your copy of HP VEE for WINDOWS contains a document titled "Using
VXIplug&play Drivers with HP VEE for Windows." This document contains
the detailed information you need for HP VEE applications.
3.5 LabWindows CVI/(R) 4.0 (& higher)
The HP E4419 driver is supplied as both a source code file and as a dynamic
link library file (dll). There are several advantages to using the dll
form of the driver. These include:
1. Transportability across different computer platforms
2. A higher level of support from Hewlett-Packard for the compiled driver
3. Faster load time for your project
Labwindows/CVI (R) by default will attempt to load the source version
of the instrument driver. To load the dll you must include the file
hpe4419.fp in your project. This file can be found in the vxipnpwin95hpe4419
directory. Do not include hpe4419.c in your project. You must also provide
an include path for hpe4419.h. This is done by adding the directory
~vxipnpwin95include to the include paths (CVI Project Option menu) if you
have not already done so. The ~ refers to the directory in the VXIPNP
variable. By default this is set to C:.
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4.0 Known Defects
The self-test command will not work when initiated remotely via the serial port.
The driver will report an error if this is attempted.
The Read Status Byte command will not work over the serial link as it does not
terminate the commands to the meter properly.
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5.0 Online Information
The latest copy of this driver and other HP VXIplug&play drivers are
available on the Internet at
http://www.hp.com/go/inst_drivers
The HP E4419 driver is located in a self-extracting archive file called
e4419.exe.
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 HP website:
http://www.tmo.hp.com/tmo/contacts/English/callcenters.html )
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6.0 Revision History
A.01.00 29th May 1998 Initial Release.
A.02.00 14th July 1999 Update for firmware revisions A2.02.00 to A2.04.00
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