C# Visual Studio GPIB Commands

Question

What commands do you use to talk to a GPIB instrument in C#, visual studio? I need to be able to write commands to the instrument and read the output.

Answer 1

You can use NI Visa. If you are using Vb or C# use Visa32.bas or Visa32.cs from the sample programs disk

int DefaultSessionId= 0;
int SessionId= 0;
int LastStatus = 0;
string Address = "GPIB0::6" ; //any address

//Session Open
LastStatus = visa32.viOpenDefaultRM(out DefaultSessionId);

//Connection Open
LastStatus = visa32.viOpen(DefaultSessionId, Address + "::INSTR", 0, 0, out sessionId);
LastStatus = visa32.viSetAttribute(SessionId, visa32.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR, 13);// Set the termination character to carriage return (i.e., 13);
LastStatus = visa32.viSetAttribute(SessionId, visa32.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN, 1);// Set the flag to terminate when receiving a termination character
LastStatus = visa32.viSetAttribute(SessionId, visa32.VI_ATTR_TMO_VALUE, 2000);// Set timeout in milliseconds; set the timeout for your requirements

//Communication
LastStatus = visa32.viPrintf(SessionId, command + "\n");//device specific commands to write
StringBuilder message = new StringBuilder(2048);
LastStatus = visa32.viScanf(SessionId, "%2048t", message);//Readback

//Session and Connection Close
visa32.viClose(SessionId);
visa32.viClose(DefaultSessionId);

Reference