starting gpib with 4156A

[Lab Student]

I have used a lot of Labview but never with GPIB. I used MAX and have communicated with the instrument but all of a sudden feel really out of it when it comes to start writing a program that will communicate with the instrument in labview. It is an HP 4156A Semiconductor Parameter Analyser
. Could someone jump start me???????? Thanks

[TongY]

There is a instrument Driver for your HP instrument from the link below:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E93D2659CE034080020E74861

This driver is designed for use in LabVIEW and it should ease the programming for you since every function of the instrument is already written in the driver vis, all you need to do is configure your application.

The driver also comes with examples, after installation, you can find the driver vis on the Functions Palette >>Instrument I/O>>Instrument Drivers, look for the "Getting Started with..." vi to open the example. Make sure you follow the instructions on the download page to complete the installation.

Besides using instrument driver, you can use GPIB functions or NI-VISA to talk to your instrument directly. There are several shipping examples in LV that demonstrate how to use these functions.