Installation

Notice Ground loops create an electric shock hazard and can cause damage to your GPIB-USB hardware, your computer, and other system components. A ground loop can occur when your computer and one or more connected instruments do not share the same ground potential.

To prevent damage to your GPIB-USB hardware and other system components, do any of the following:

  • Ensure that your system and all instruments connected to it share the same ground potential. This eliminates the possibility of voltage differential running through your system.
  • Use a GPIB-120B Bus Isolator/Expander to isolate GPIB systems and expand the GPIB interface up to 28 devices.
  • Use a pair of GPIB-140A High-Speed Fiber-Optic Bus Extenders. This transforms the GPIB signals at each end into fiber optic signals, allowing each unit to reside at a different ground potential.
  • Use an isolated USB hub.

Complete the following steps to install your interface:

  1. Connect the USB connector from the GPIB-USB interface to an available USB Type A port on your computer.
  2. Before connecting the GPIB-USB interface to GPIB devices, ensure that the computer and the GPIB devices are at the same ground potential. The GPIB-USB interface connects directly to most GPIB devices without requiring a GPIB cable.
  3. If your computer is already running, the operating system automatically detects the GPIB interface. Otherwise, the GPIB interface is detected when you start your computer.
    Figure 1. Installing the GPIB-USB Interface

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    1 Computer

    2 USB Connector

    3 GPIB-USB Interface

    4 To GPIB Devices

    The GPIB hardware installation is now complete.