Instrument Driver Examples

This section shows you how to create an IVI driver. The following examples are designed to serve as models for instrument driver development.

• Example 1—Creating driver files with the Instrument Driver Development Wizard
• Example 2—Editing instrument driver attributes
  
  
  • Modifying attributes that the wizard creates
  • Modifying attribute callback functions
  • Deleting attributes that the instrument does not use
• Example 3—Editing high-level instrument driver functions
  
  
  • Editing instrument driver functions the wizard creates
  • Deleting instrument driver functions that the instrument does not use
• Example 4—Adding new attributes and functions
• Example 5—Creating the instrument driver documentation
• Example 6—Modifying an existing IVI driver to work with a new instrument

Examples 1 through 5 build on each other. Together, they illustrate all the steps to create a complete IVI driver. These examples use the Fluke 45 Digital Multimeter—a GPIB message-based device. For simplicity, these examples implement only a subset of the capabilities of the Fluke 45. The examples show how to create the following functions and attributes:

• All the functions that IVI and VXIplug&play require
• The FL45_Fetch function
• The FL45_ConfigureHold function
• The attributes for the measurement function, hold enable, and hold threshold

You do not always have to start with the procedure that Example 1 illustrates. In many cases, you can modify an existing driver for a similar instrument. Example 6 shows how to use the wizard to generate new instrument driver files from an existing driver.