*********************** **** Read Me First **** *********************** Version 1.0.3.0 Dec 20, 2007 Introducing the Agilent L44XX IVI-COM Driver for the L4400 Series LXI Modules ------------------------------------------------------- The instrument driver provides access to the functionality of the Agilent L4400 Series LXI Module through a COM server which also complies with the IVI specifications. This driver also presents an IVI-C driver via the agl44xx.dll. This driver works in any development environment which supports COM programming including Microsoft® Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft .NET, Agilent VEE Pro, National Instruments LabVIEW, National Instruments LabWindows, and others. Supported Instruments --------------------- The L4400, L4490A, and L4491A mainframes are supported. Modules for the L4400: L4421A L4433A L4437A L4445A L4450A L4451A L4452A Installation ------------- System Requirements: The driver installation will check for the following requirements. If not found, the installer will either abort, warn, or install the required component as appropriate. Supported Operating Systems: Windows NT® 4.0 (SP6 or later) Windows® 2000 Windows XP Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit (32-bit applications only) Windows 8 32-bit and 64-bit (32-bit applications only) Disc Space: IVI Shared Components: 8.4 Mb Driver: 12.26 Mb The shared components are installed with the first driver installed. Shared Components Before this driver can be installed, your computer must already have several components already installed. The easiest way to to install these other components is by running the IVI Shared Components installation package available from the IVI Foundation as noted below. It installs all the items mentioned below. IVI Shared Components version 1.2.1.0 or later. The driver installer requires these components. They must be installed before the driver installer can install the driver. The IVI Shared Components installer is available from: http://www.ivifoundation.org/Downloads/SharedComponents.htm To install, open or run the file: IviSharedComponents.msi If the driver installer exhibits problems with installing the IVI Shared Components, find the program IviSharedComponents.msi and Run the program. It is able to install many of the required system components, including Windows Installer 2.0. Windows Installer Version 2.0 or later. The IVISharedComponents.exe program will install version 2.0 of the Windows installer. It is also available from: http://microsoft.com/downloads Enter "windows installer" as keywords. Use the one appropriate for your Operating System. Microsoft XML 4.0 The Configuration Server, an IVI Shared Component, uses Microsoft's XML 4.0 parser. The IVI Shared Components will install the XML 4.0 parser. You can download the parser and its associated SDK from: http://microsoft.com/downloads Enter "xml 4.0" as keywords. Microsoft HTML Help Viewer (Win98, WinNT) Version 1.32 or later The driver will install without the help viewer, but you will not be able to use the help file for the driver. You can download the help viewer from: http://microsoft.com/downloads Enter "html help workshop" as keywords MS Windows® Script Typically, wscript.exe is installed as part of the operating system or with Internet Explorer. If you see an error about wscript.exe, you need to install the Windows Script. Download from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads Enter "windows script" as keywords. Use the one appropriate for your Operating System. VISA-COM Any compliant implementation is acceptable. Typically, VISA-COM is installed with VISA and other I/O library modules. The latest version of Agilent's IO Libraries is recommended and includes VISA-COM. I/O Libraries Agilent IO Libraries Suite, version 14.0 or later is recommended. You can download the latest version from: http://www.agilent.com/find/iolibsforivicom If you are using National Instruments I/O libraries, use NI-VISA version 3.0.1 or later and NI-488.2 version 2.2 or later. Sending commands directly to the instrument (bypassing the driver) via Direct IO using the System.IO interface will not work with Agilent IO Libraries prior to Agilent IO Libraries Suite 14.0. Note: This driver does not support simulation at this time. National Instruments Switch Executive If you intend to use the driver with NI Switch Executive, then you must use version 2.0 or greater of that product. Additional Setup ---------------- .NET Framework The .NET Framework itself is not required by this driver. If you plan to use the driver with .NET, Service Pack 2 is required. Download from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/updates/sp/default.asp The .NET Framework requires an interop assembly for a COM server. A Primary Interop Assembly, along with an XML file for IntelliSense is installed with the driver. The driver's PIA, along with IVI PIAs are installed, by default, in: :\Program Files\IVI\Bin\Primary Interop Assemblies The PIA is also installed into the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) if you have the .NET framework installed. If you install the .NET framework later, you can run the driver installer again to put the driver's PIA into the GAC and properly register it. Help Files and Examples ------------------------ The IVI COM help file and IVI-C help are both combined into a single help file, AgilentL44XX.chm, located in the directory: :\Program Files\IVI\Drivers\AgilentL44XX Some getting started example programs are contained in the help files. For more examples on programming the instrument, please see the instrument Web page at www.agilent.com/find/L4400. MSI Installer ------------- The installation package for the driver is distributed as an MSI 2.0 file. You can install the driver by double-clicking on the file. This operation actually runs: msiexec /i AgilentL44XX.msi You can run msiexec from a command prompt and utilize its many command line options. There are no public properties which can be set from the command line. You can also install this driver from another installation package. Uninstall --------- This driver can be uninstalled like any other software from the Control Panel using "Add or Remove Programs". The IVI Shared Components may also be uninstalled like any other software from the Control Panel using "Add or Remove Programs". Note: All IVI-COM drivers require the IVI Shared Components to function. To completely remove IVI components from your computer, uninstall all drivers and then uninstall the IVI Shared Components. Source Code ----------- Driver source code is available by choosing "Complete" option when installing the driver. This code is provided as is for informational purposes only. Modification of this code is not supported. Using a New Version of the Driver --------------------------------- New versions of this Agilent IVI-COM driver may have a new ProgId. If you use the version dependent ProgId in CoCreateInstance, you will need to modify and recompile your code to use the new ProgID once you upgrade to the next version of the driver. Doing a side-by-side installation of the driver to use multiple versions of the driver is not supported. If you need to go back to an older version of the driver, you need to uninstall the later version and install the older version. If you use the version independent ProgId in CoCreateInstance, you will not need to modify and recompile your code. The new version of the driver has been tested to be backwards compatible with previous versions. To access the new functionality in a new version of the driver you will need to use the latest numbered IAgilent[n] interface rather than the IAgilent interface. The IAgilent[n]. property will return a pointer to the new IAgilent[n] interface. The IAgilent[n] interface contains the methods and properties for the new functionality. The new interfaces were introduced rather than modifying the existing interfaces for backwards compatibility. The interfaces that were previously shipped have not been changed. Known Issues ------------ The L44XXa has a lot of commands. Not all of them are incorporated into the IVI-COM or IVI-C driver. Both IVI-C and IVI-COM have special methods which allow you to send SCPI commands and read responses from the instrument. In the IVI-COM driver, in the "Core" interface, the "IAgilentL44XXSystem.IO Property" is used to send commands and read responses. The following two lines of code show an example of how to use the IO property: myL44XX.System.IO.WriteString("*IDN?",true); String respStr = myL44XX.System.IO.ReadString(); In the IVI-C driver, there are two routines that may be used to pass SCPI to the instrument and read the response. The following two lines show an example of how to do this in the IVI-C driver: ViInt32 respSize; ViChar respStr[50]; status = agl44xx_SystemWrite(vi, "*IDN?"); status = agl44xx_SystemRead(vi, 50, respStr, &respSize); A partial list of known commands that were not implemented in the IVI-COM driver is as follows: ROUTe:CHAN:LABel:CLEar:MODule ROUT:OPEN:ABUS ROUT:OPERation:OVERlap ROUT:SCAN:ADD ROUT:SCAN:REMove SYST:CDES? SYST:MOD:PFAil:JUMPer:AMP5? -- used by the 34937A and 34938A General-Purpose Switch Modules SYSTem:COMMunicate:GPIB:ADDRess SYSTem:COMMunicate:GPIB:ADDRess? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:AUTOip SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:AUTOip? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:BSTatus? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:CONTrol? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DHCP SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DHCP? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DNS SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DNS? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DOMain SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:DOMain? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:GATEway SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:GATEway? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:HISTory? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:HISTory:CLEar SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:HOSTname SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:HOSTname? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:IPADdress SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:IPADdress? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:KEEPalive SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:KEEPalive? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:MAC? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:SMASk SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:SMASk? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:TELNet:PROMpt SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:TELNet:PROMpt? SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:TELNet:WMESsage SYSTem:COMMunicate:LAN:TELNet:WMESsage? Revision History ---------------- Version Date Notes ------- ------------ ----- 1.0.1.0 Jun 02, 2006 Initial release. 1.0.2.0 Jul 26, 2007 Fixed problem related to binary reads using TCPIP connections. Removed VISA IEventManager support => AsyncEventsEnabled now returns an error. 1.0.3.0 Dec 20, 2007 Re-implemented IviSwtch logic to address numerous issues. Added support for L4490A and L4491A mainframes. IVI Shared Component Revisions ------------------------------ 1.3.2.4 IviConfigServer.dll 1.0.7.0 IviConfigServerCAPI.dll 1.1.0.0 IviCShared.dll 1.0.237.0 IviCSharedSupport.dll 2.0.0.0 IviDCPwrTypeLib.dll 3.0.0.0 IviDmmTypeLib.dll 1.0.0.0 IviDriverTypeLib.dll 1.1.1.0 IviEventServer.exe 1.1.1.0 IviEventServerDLL.dll 1.1.1.0 IviEventServerDLLps.dll 1.1.1.0 IviEventServerps.dll 3.0.0.0 IviFgenTypeLib.dll 1.0.236.0 IviFloat.dll 1.0.0.0 IviPwrMeterTypeLib.dll 1.1.0.0 IviRfSigGenTypeLib.dll 3.0.0.0 IviScopeTypeLib.dll 1.0.1.0 IviSessionFactory.dll 1.1.3.0 IviSharedComponentVersion.dll 1.0.0.0 IviSpecAnTypeLib.dll 3.0.0.0 IviSwtchTypeLib.dll IVI Compliance -------------- (The following information is required by IVI 3.1 section 5.21.) IVI-COM Ivi Switch IVI Instrument Class: IVI-4.6_Swtch_v3.0 Group Capabilities: Supported: Unsupported IviSwtchBase IviSwtchScanner IviSwtchSoftwareTrigger Optional Features: This driver does not support Interchangeability Checking, State Caching, or Coercion Recording. The driver supports simulation support ONLY for the IviSwtch interfaces. The simulation capabilities are designed primarily to support NI Switch Executive (version 2.0 or greater). Driver Identification: (These three strings are values of properties in the IIviIdentity interface.) Vendor: Agilent Technologies. Description: IVI-COM Driver for Agilent Technologies L44XX Multifunction Switch/Measure Unit. Revision: 1.0 Component Identifier: AgilentL44XX.AgilentL44XX (The component identifier can be used to create an instance of the COM server.) Hardware: This driver supports instruments manufactured by Agilent Technologies. The supported model numbers are: L4490A L4491A L4421A L4433A L4437A L4445A L4450A L4451A L4452A This driver supports communicating with the instrument using either GPIB or LAN. Software: See the section on installation in this document for information on what other software is required by this driver. Source for this driver is not available. More Information ---------------- For more information about this driver and other instrument drivers and software available from Agilent Technologies visit: http://www.agilent.com/find/adnivicominfo A list of contact information is available from: http://www.agilent.com/find/assist Microsoft, Windows, MS Windows, and Windows NT are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. © Copyright Agilent Technologies, Inc. 2004-2006