Connecting a HP3497A with a NI PCI GPIB card.

[Mbugua]

Hello, I would like to be able to connect the above mentioned HP product with a NI PCI GPIB card. As I have no prior experience with this equipment, I wanted to know what basic important steps I would have to take to achieve this?

[Alan_L]

Mbugua,

On the hardware end you'll need a GPIB cable to connect the card with your instrument. On the software side, you'll need the NI-488.2 driver. Please follow this link to download the proper driver version for your OS. I highly recommend that you use LabVIEW 7.0 to communicate with the instrument. If you prefer text-based programming LabWindows/CVI 7.0 would be a great choice. You can check out www.ni.com/idnet to download a library of functions to even further ease communication with t
he HP3497A (currently there is a download designed for CVI).

There are a great deal of manuals available online. Please navigate to www.ni.com and choose "support" to search through them as well as our Knowledge Base.

Please follow the following procedure of installation:
1) Install LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI (or both)
2) Install NI-488.2 (hardware driver for the PCI-GPIB)
3) Insert the PCI-GPIB into your computer

Regards,
Alan
Applications Engineer
National Instruments