Remote communications interfaces
This section shows you how to connect instruments to the following remote communication
interfaces:
• Universal serial bus (USB)
• Local area network (LAN)
• General purpose interface bus (GPIB or IEEE-488)
The USB can be used for single ASCII-based commands.
This section describes how to configure and troubleshoot these interfaces on computers with
Microsoft
®
Windows
®
2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.
It also describes the I/O software, drivers, and application software that can be used with Keithley’s
instruments.
Supported remote interfaces
The Series 3700A supports the following remote interfaces:
• GPIB. General purpose interface bus is an IEEE-488 instrumentation data bus.
• LAN. Local area network (LAN) communications provide the flexibility to build scalable and
functional test or data acquisition systems with a large degree of flexibility.
• USB. Communicate with the instrument over a Type B USB connection.
The Series 3700A can be controlled from only one communication interface at a time. The first
interface from which it receives a message takes control of the instrument. It ignores the other
interfaces until the instrument is returned to local operation.
For more information about the remote interfaces, see:
• GPIB setup (on page 2-11)
• LAN concepts and settings (on page A-1)
• USB communications (on page 2-6)
USB communications
To use the rear-panel USB port, you must have the Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA)
layer on the host computer. See How to install the Keithley I/O Layer for more information.
VISA contains a USB-class driver for the USB Test and Measurement Class (USBTMC) protocol that,
once installed, allows the Microsoft Windows operating system to recognize the instrument.
When you connect a USB device that implements the USBTMC or USBTMC-USB488 protocol to the
computer, the VISA driver automatically detects the device. Note that the VISA driver only
automatically recognizes USBTMC and USBTMC-USB488 devices. It does not recognize other USB
devices, such as printers, scanners, and storage devices.
In this section, "USB instruments" refers to devices that implement the USBTMC or
USBTMC-USB488 protocol.
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