Find instrument drivers online
You can find plenty of drivers and free software for instrumentation if you know where to look.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2001 2:00:00 AM
|
The Internet holds plenty of resources that can help you get the most from computers and instruments. We’ve scanned the Web and found sites that provide instrument drivers, ActiveX controls, I/O port drivers, electronics and math resources, and software that can help you solve engineering problems.
For this list, we selected the sites we felt were the most valuable. Although we did not list application notes, you can easily find them on sites from instrument makers. Application notes are often included in the technical support areas of a site.
Instrument drivers
If you’re looking for a driver for a plug-in card, start with the card manufacturer’s Web site. Many instrument makers provide free downloads of their latest drivers. If you use a language such as Agilent VEE, LabView, LabWindows/ CVI, or TestPoint, check the software publisher’s Web site for drivers.
Sometimes, though, you need a driver for an obscure instrument. You believe a peer has written a driver for that instrument, but you don’t know where to look for it. Software publishers Agilent Technologies and National Instruments let you download user-supplied drivers. You take your chances with these drivers, though, as the authors may not have written every instrument function into their drivers.
Many instrument makers give you easy paths to their drivers and other free software. Look for links labeled “Software,” “Downloads,” or “Support” from a site menu. Some sites give you direct links to the company’s ftp site where you can download drivers.
We’ve provided the most direct links we could find to pages that contain links to instrument drivers. Web sites constantly change, so if a link no longer works, go to the company’s home page and drill down from there. Many sites use one page for links to drivers, application notes, and manuals.
Windows-based instrument drivers
Agilent Technologies provides instrument drivers for Agilent and other instruments.
http://www.agilent.com/adn .
Anritsu supplies test and measurement drivers for LabView. www.us.anritsu.com. (Click on “Downloads.”)
Ascor provides drivers for its VXI and PXI instrument modules. www.ascor-inc.com/products_vxi.html and www.ascor-inc.com/products_pxi.html.
Capital Equipment offers free TestPoint drivers for Keithley data-acquisition cards. www.cec488.com/tpupgrd.htm.
Data Translation’s ftp site contains drivers for data-acquisition and imaging boards.
Dataq Instruments lets you download data-acquisition card drivers for LabView, TestPoint, Visual Basic, and Agilent VEE. The site also contains links to updates for the company’s WinDaq recording software.
Gage-Applied supplies drivers for digitizer cards. www.gage-applied.com .
Gould Instrument Systems has oscilloscope instrument drivers for LabView. www.gouldis.com/docs/download.php.
ICS Electronics supplys drivers for IEEE 488 interface cards and VXIbus prototyping cards for LabView and Agilent VEE. www.icselect.com. (Click on “Support.”)
IOtech provides drivers for data-acquisition cards and systems as well as IEEE 488 interface cards. The site also contains drivers for DasyLab and LabView. www.iotech.com/ftp.html.
Keithley Instruments offers drivers for its data-acquisition cards and IEEE 488 interface cards. www.keithley.com . (Click on “Service and Support,” then on “Applications and Technical Support,” and then on “Software” to get a driver search engine.)
LeCroy provides LabView and LabWindows/CVI instrument drivers for its oscilloscopes and several free application programs.
Measurement Computing provides drivers for its card-level products plus a calibration application and an Excel add-in. www.measurementcomputing.com/download.htm.
Microstar Labs’ site contains drivers for Windows, LabView, and MatLab. www.mstarlabs.com/ftp/webftp.html.
National Instruments’ Instrument Driver Network contains drivers for many IEEE 488 and VXIbus instruments. zone.ni.com/devzone/idnet .
Nicolet Technologies provides LabView drivers for its oscilloscopes. (See Gould)
Quatech’s technical support page contains links to drivers for Windows, DasyLab, LabView, and TestPoint. www.quatech.com/support/drivers.php . (To find a driver, you must first select a product.)
Racal Instruments provides drivers for its instruments after you register. www.racalinst.com/downloads.
Stanford Research Systems offers LabView drivers for its instruments. www.srsys.com/html/software.html.
VXI Technology supplies a list of drivers for VXIbus instruments. www.vxitech.com/SupportServices/Downloadsmain.htm.
Yokogawa maintains pages that contain LabView, LabWindows/CVI, and VXIplug& play-compatible drivers. www.yokogawa.com/downloads/default.htm. Click on "Test and Measurement product-related downloads."
Linux-based instrument drivers
The Comedi project contains open-source instrument drivers for Linux. stm.lbl.gov/comedi.
Data Acquisition Software for Linux by Bill Lavender includes links to assorted Linux instrumentation sites such as IEEE 488 and data-acquisition card drivers from numerous manufacturers. www.imca.aps.anl.gov/~lavender/linux_daq.html.
The Linux Lab Project site contains drivers for IEEE 488 cards and data-acquisition cards from National Instruments, Keithley, ines, Measurement Computing, Data Translation, and others. www.llp.fu-berlin.de. (Click on “Software Area.”)
Microstar Labs also makes Linux drivers available for its data-acquisition cards. www.mstarlabs.com/software/drivers.html. (Click on “Linux Driver.”)
National Instruments has written Linux drivers for its for E series multifunction data-acquisition cards and IEEE 488 interface cards. www.ni.com/linux/.
United Electronic Industries makes Linux drivers available for its data-acquisition cards. www.ueidaq.com. (Click on “Download.”)
ActiveX controls
ActiveX controls add functions to Windows-based programs. Some ActiveX controls let you add user-interface objects, and some give you access to instrument drivers. Others let you control I/O ports.
ActiveX Components by Alvaro Redondo contains free ActiveX controls you may find useful, even though the site isn’t specific to engineering. The site contains buttons and other controls that let you insert graphic images, which you can then use to develop application-specific user controls. www.sevillaonline.com/ActiveX.
Active-X.com contains downloads of controls for graphical interfaces, databases, calendars, and others. www.active-x.com .
Century Soar Technology sells a library of ActiveX controls for building instrument panels for $350. Controls include graphs, panel meters, and analog-style meters. www.cstsoft.com/english/index.html.
Test & Measurement World’s Web site contains an ActiveX control that lets you control instruments through IEEE 488 cards from Agilent Technologies and National Instruments. We’ve published several application articles that use the control:
-
“ActiveX Control Simplifies Instrument Programming,” June 1999.
-
“Create Your Own ActiveX Controls,” September 1998 .
-
“Make a Strip-Chart Recorder in Excel," August 2000.
-
“Thermistor and DMM Measure Temperature,” October 1999.
TVicPort, a shareware parallel-port driver for Windows NT by EnTech Taiwan, lets you control a PC’s parallel port. www.entechtaiwan.com/tools.htm.
PC port I/O drivers and information
Parallel Port Central from Lakeview Research contains links to technical information, programming, and pin configurations. www.lvr.com/parport.htm.
Serial Port Central
from Lakeview Research contains links to technical information and programming. www.lvr.com/serport.htm.
USB Central from Lakeview Research contains links to technical information and an article on USB development. www.lvr.com/usb.htm.
The USB Implementers Forum site contains specifications and programming information for the Universal Serial Bus. www.usb.org/developers/usb20.
Warp Nine Engineering provides information about the enhanced parallel port (IEEE 1384). The site provides pin configurations and links to programming books. www.fapo.com/ieee1284.htm.
Sound cards
Sound cards contain two analog-to-digital (ADC) channels and two digital-to-analog (DAC) channels. You can use them for measurement applications under certain conditions.
Brad Thompson, one of our contributing technical editors, explained how to do this in “Sound Cards Work in Some Measurement Applications” (Test & Measurement World, March 2000. p. 57.) The article lists software you can use to take measurements with a sound card. Since we published Thompson’s article, we found other software with similar capabilities.
Ines lets you download Freeview, a free scope application for sound cards. www.inesinc.com/sound.htm.
Mind Provokations shows you how to use a sound card to monitor your electric power consumption. The site also includes other applications for sound cards. www.riccibitti.com/stimulus.htm.
NCH Swift Sound offers an audio tone generator for downloading. This signal generator lets you create sine waves, triangle waves, square waves, impulses, and white noise. You can also use it to generate a reference frequency for tone comparison. www.nch.com.au/action.
Oscilloscope for Windows software for sound cards produces two-channel time-domain and frequency-domain plots. Sample rates cover 11 kHz, 22 kHz, and 44 kHz. polly.phys.msu.su/~zeld/oscill.html.
Signal Analyze Toolkit gives you signal-analysis software for your sound card. Analysis tools include FFT, digital filters, and histograms. This software lets you produce, capture, and analyze signals. You can generate waveforms such as sine waves, triangle waves, and white noise. Signal analysis options include power spectrum, phase, and cepstrum. www.hotfiles.zdnet.com.
The Simtel.Net Windows 95 collection contains sound and audio programs such as wave editors, tone generators, CD players, and audio mixers. simtel.net/pub/win95/sound.
Electronics and math resources
Agilent VEE user resource site, an independent site where Agilent VEE users can share information was in the beginning stages at press time. Over time, the site’s question-and-answer page could build into a useful resource. www.preciselyso.co.uk.
The Computer Time Synchronization page provides information about setting your computer’s clock to a time server over the Internet. You can learn about how time servers work, and you can download PC clock synchronization software. www.ntp.org.
The Find All VIs project lists a catalog and a search engine to help you locate LabView virtual instruments (VIs). Categories include general LabView programming, GPIB control, motion control, vision, data acquisition, and analysis. www.mooregoodideas.com/FAVIs.
Mathtools contains add-in functions for Matlab, Visual Basic, C/C++, and Excel. www.mathtools.net.
ProbeAssist by Jim Haas is a free program that lets you build visual aids for test and production. www.dmecorp.net/dmsats/probe_assist.htm.
Simtel contains assorted math and engineering programs in addition to sound-card programs. Categories include calculators, electronics, and ham radio. http://ftp.funet.fi/mirrors/simtel.net/win95/index-win95.html.
The Technit site contains circuit diagrams for first-order and second-order filters. You’ll also find pinouts for numerous computer buses. Pinouts include standard buses such as PCI, but include many proprietary buses, too. www.technit.net.
Transera provides IEEE 488 bus and data-acquisition tutorials. www.transera.com/htbasic/support/tutorial.html.
Other resources
Bigfix.com supplies driver repair software and news about security patches. www.bigfix.com.
Creativelement offers workarounds to many of Windows’ annoying “features.” www.annoyances.org.
Modem Doctor provides software for troubleshooting modems. You’ll find versions for DOS, Windows 3.1/95/98/NT/2000. The DOS version lets you test serial ports down to the bit level. Windows versions check for proper settings in the operating system. www.modemdoctor.com.
Discussion groups
Sometimes, you can best solve your problem by asking another engineer. Mailing lists give you access to other engineers who use similar equipment and programming tools.
Info LabView is an independent Internet discussion group hosted by Tom Coradeschi for LabView programmers. Subscribe at www.info-labview.org.
Info-LW is a discussion group where LabWindows/CVI programmers exchange programming tips through a hosted by Texas A&M University. Post messages to info-lw@listserv.tamu.edu. You can subscribe at www.topica.com/lists/info-lw@listserv.tamu.edu.
VEE Reflector is a place where Agilent VEE programmers can discuss ideas with each other. Subscribe to vrf-request@lvld.agilent.com. Post messages to vrf@lvld.agilent.com. T&MW
Martin Rowe has a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Bentley College. Before joining T&MW in 1992, he worked for 12 years as a design engineer for manufacturers of semiconductor process equipment and as an applications engineer for manufacturers of measurement and control equipment. E-mail: m.rowe@tmworld.com.
No related content found.
- 0 rated items found.
Datasheets.com Electronic Parts & Inventory Search
185 million searchable parts
- Part Number
- Description
- Inventory
- Products
- Manufacturers
View All Webcasts
