README.TXT for Agilent Technologies E1418A D/A Converter Contents: 1 Introduction 1.1 Viewing the Help on Windows 10 Systems 2 VISA Specific Information 2.1 Instrument Addresses 2.2 Executing the Soft Front Panel without VISA 3 Using the E1418A Driver in Application Development Environments 3.1 C/C++ 3.2 Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Known Defects 5.0 WINDOWS 7 x64 Installation. Additional upgrade needed. 6.0 Online Information 7.0 Revision History - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction The help file included with the E1418A VXIplug&play driver contains instrument and programming information. This readme file contains additional information for the VXIplug&play programmer. 1.1 Viewing the Help on Windows 10 Systems The old WinHelp does not run by default on Windows 10 Systems...at least when this driver was updated. A solution was found in the third message on this web site: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/winhlp32exe-windows-10/5971eda3-3a07-4156-af2a-926c65eb5a0c The following steps came from the above web site and allow older Winhlp to run on Windows 10 systems: To enable Winhlp to work in Windows 10, follow these simple instructions. a) Download the updated Winhlp32 installation files, which are compressed into a zip file (winhlp32-windows-7-10-x86-64.zip) from the following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_tSrOg4FLp1T0dyTEppaW9SYm8 b) Extract the contents of of the file you just downloaded (winhlp32-windows-7-10-x86-64.zip) c) Run the Install.cmd as Administrator by right-clicking on Install.cmd, then select Run as Administrator. d) Acknowledge any privilege warnings and allow Install.cmd to proceed. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Agilent 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 VISA The 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. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Using the E1418A 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 ~\winnt\include or ~\win95\include. The ~ refers to the directory in the VXIPNPPATH variable. By default this is set to C:\VXIPNP on Agilent I/O Libraries revisions prior to J.01.00; or to C:\Program Files\VISA on revisions J.01.00 or later. 4.0 Known Defects This driver does not work on the National Instruments MXI 1 interface. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 WINDOWS 7 x64 Installation. Additional upgrade needed. Version A.03.10 consists of an upgrade to the Installation software for installing the E1418A driver on Windows 7 systems. You must also install the following software upgrade: In Windows 7, the update WinHlp32.exe is required to display 32-bit Help files that have the ".hlp" file name extension. The update is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 Online Information The latest copy of this instrument driver and other Agilent instrument drivers are available at the Agilent Technologies customer WWW site: http://www.agilent.com/find/inst_drivers The Agilent E1418A driver is located in a self-extracting archive file named e1418.exe. NOTE: If you are using an 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 Agilent Technologies website: http://www.agilent.com/find/assist - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 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 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 A.03.09 5/2001 Agilent rebranding hpe1418_32.dll A.02.06 hpe141832v.dll G.01.07 hps1418.exe A.01.02 hpvscp32.dll G.03.04 A.03.10 2/2012 This release updates the InstallShield for installations only on XP, WIN 7 x86 and WIN 7 x64 operating systems.The driver itself has not changed. For Win 95 or Win NT support, utilze version A.03.09. A.03.10 September 2019 Keysight rebranding of SFP and Help; installer updated to support Windows10