NAME¶
visa - Virtual Instrument Software Architecture
SYNOPSIS¶
#include <visa.h>
DESCRIPTION¶
The Virtual Instrument Software Architecture provides a generic interface for
communication with test and measurement equipment.
Resource Names¶
Each device is identified by a resource name that specifies the type of
connection used, location information and the device type.
- USB Devices
- USB[bus]::manufacturer::product::serial[::type]
The manufacturer and product identifiers must be given as
hexadecimal numbers prefixed with 0x. The serial number is
mandatory, even if the device would be unique otherwise.
- Ethernet/VXI-11 Devices
- TCPIP[interface]::host[::type]
Resource Manager¶
Access to resources is mediated through a resource manager; while technically
there could be multiple instances, usually only the default resource manager
is used.
A handle to the default resource manager can be obtained from the
viOpenDefaultRM(3visa) function.
Finding Devices¶
If the resource name is not known in advance, the resource manager can be
queried for a list of known devices by using the
viFindRsrc(3visa)
function.
This function returns a
ViFindList object (along with the first known
resource), and further resource names are then queried from the find list
using
viFindNext(3visa) before finally freeing the list using
viClose(3visa).