Very simple question: Connecting GPIB instrument

[Andreas]

Here's a very simple question:

I used to switch all computer´s power off before connecting any new instruments to the GPIB bus, just for running no risk.
Is this really necessary?
Could somebody give me a link to where I can read about? (It seems to be a too simple question, because I didn't find anything about it so far...

Thanks,

Andreas, Germany

[NI-488.2 master]

Andreas,

You really do not need to worry like this. You do not risk damaging your equipment by not turning your machine off. The GPIB signaling voltage is fairly low(I forget offhand), and your GPIB instrument has trancievers to handle the voltage that would be on the GPIB. For more information about the electrical specifications of GPIB, you may want to refer to the IEEE 488.1 standard, available from the IEEE website(for a small fee):
http://standards.ieee.org/catalog/olis/im.html