Using the Pickering IVI-C Driver
For full details of the functions provided by the API, the user should refer to one of the programming documents provided in the installation folder, or available from the Pickering web site. The pi40iv compiled help file may also be downloaded here
PI40IV.chmDetails Download 159 KB |
Opening Cards
Cards must be opened using the pi40iv_InitWithOptions call. This function includes a parameter, OptionString, in which the model number of the card is specified, if this parameter is not correctly formatted, then the card will not open correctly
The standard release of pi40iv, since version 2.5, is capable of controlling both Pickering PXI and LXI devices. This is determined by the combination of resource string and model code. The following examples show the 3 main cases.
Case 1 - Local PCI or PXI card
To open a local PCI/PXI card the call will look something like this:
pi40iv_InitWithOptions("PXI4::15::INSTR", VI_FALSE, VI_FALSE,
"Simulate=0,RangeCheck=1,QueryInstrStatus=1,Cache=1,DriverSetup=Model:40-999-999;", &session);
It is essential to know the PCI bus and device number of the required card that are coded into the resource string, eg PXI4::15 refers to PCI bus 4, device 15. This information may be obtained using any of the tools provided for inspecting PCI/PXI instrumentation such as NI MAX, or from the output of the Pickering Diagnostic program.
Case 2 - Dedicated LXI chassis
To open a remote LXI product the call will look something like this:
pi40iv_InitWithOptions("TCPIP::192.168.1.100::INSTR", VI_FALSE, VI_FALSE,
"Simulate=0,RangeCheck=1,QueryInstrStatus=1,Cache=1,DriverSetup=Model:60-550-001;", &session);
Case 3 - Modular LXI chassis
To open a remote LXI card on a modular chassis containing multiple PXI cards the call will look something like this:
pi40iv_InitWithOptions("TCPIP::192.168.1.100::1.5::INSTR", VI_FALSE, VI_FALSE,
"Simulate=0,RangeCheck=1,QueryInstrStatus=1,Cache=1,DriverSetup=Model:40-999-999;", &session);
In this last case it is essential to know the PCI bus and device number of the required card that are encoded into the resource string as an extra field eg 192.168.1.100::1.5 refers to bus 1, device 5 at the specified IP address. This information may be obtained using some of the LXI discovery tools Pickering provide for this purpose. Note that "Model:" string is not model of chassis, but model of card in chassis being opened.
