GPIB Installation/Configuration Troubleshooter

Launching It

There are several ways to launch the GPIB Analyzer:

1. In the Measurement & Automation Explorer, select Tools » NI-488.2 Utilities » GPIB Analyzer.

2. Right-click on a GPIB board listed in the Measurement & Automation Explorer and select "GPIB Analyzer" from the pop-up menu:

   

   
   
3. Click on a GPIB board listed in the Measurement & Automation Explorer to select it and then press the GPIB Analyzer button that appears in the tool bar.

What It Does

The GPIB Analyzer allows you to monitor, capture, and participate in bus activity on the GPIB. You can capture bus transactions on user command or in response to a predefined trigger event on the bus. You can also use the GPIB Analyzer to emulate a simple Talker/Listener device during application program development. It opens in its own window and looks like this:

The GPIB Analyzer is similar to NI Spy in that it lets you spy on the activity on your General Purpose Interface Bus and "capture" it for review. The major difference is that the GPIB Analyzer requires that your board be equipped with the corresponding analyzer hardware, while NI Spy accomplishes essentially the same thing in software, but in a much more limited capacity. NI Spy is only able to monitor calls to the GPIB driver that machine, so it is more of a troubleshooting tool; while the GPIB Analyzer can monitor calls to the driver, it can also interact with all of the bus lines, making it a very useful development tool.

The key aspects of the GPIB Analyzer are the:

• Action Window
  Start or stop a capture session.

• Bus Monitor Window
  View the current status of the bus management lines, data lines, and handshaking lines.

• Capture Display Window View the captured calls to the GPIB driver, including the timing information between calls.

See the GPIB Analyzer Help program for more information.