Interactive Control Overview

NI-488.2

Interactive Control Overview

With the Interactive Control utility, you communicate with the GPIB devices through calls you interactively type in at the keyboard. For specific information about communicating with your particular device, refer to the manual that came with the device. You can use the Interactive Control utility to practice communication with the instrument, troubleshoot problems, and develop your application.

The Interactive Control helps you to learn about your instrument and to troubleshoot problems by displaying the following information on your screen after you enter a command:

  • Results of the status word (Ibsta) in hexadecimal notation
  • Mnemonic constant of each bit set in Ibsta
  • Mnemonic value of the error variable (Iberr) if an error exists (the ERR bit is set in Ibsta)
  • Count value for each read, write, or command function
  • Data received from your instrument

You can access help in Interactive Control by entering help at the prompt, or you can get help on a specific function by entering help <function> at the prompt, where <function> is the name of the function for which you want help.

To start Interactive Control within Measurement & Automation Explorer, select Tools»NI-488.2»Interactive Control or click on the following button.

 Start Interactive Control.


Related Topics:

Auxiliary Functions in Interactive Control

Count Return in Interactive Control

Error Information in Interactive Control

Getting Started with Interactive Control

Status Reporting in Interactive Control

Syntax Rules in Interactive Control.

Using Interactive Control.