Keithley Virtual Instrument Programming

[technician]

Dear Sir:

I am new to the Keithley Source Meter product line. I just installed Keithley software so that I may create virtual programs or, at least, communicate to "virtual" Keithley instruments through SCPI commands.

I am an experienced Labview programmer and I would prefer to program to use Labview to create virtual programs.

However, at this point in time, all I seek to do is get the software that I installed functional.

I have tried to use the program, Keithley Communicator, to talk to a "virtual" Keithley instruments and this failed. I have attached a screen shot for you to view.

I have tried to use the program, Keithley Configuration Wizard, to either add, or test, a Keithley instrument. However, the Wizard fails to detect the virtual instrument - although the virtual instruments appear to be detected by the program (see 2 "Configuration Wizard" screen shots).

I utilized NI Measurement and Automation Explorer (NI MAX) to detect the virtual instruments and it appears that a virtual driver setup is required. I have attached a screen shot so that you may understand what I am saying.

Can someone link me to a tutorial or walk me through this configuration process?

[technician]

Dear Sir:

The number of screen shot attachments I could post was limited by the web site. Therefore, in this following reply I am going to post the rest of the screen shots.

It is my belief that I may be missing VISA file(s) for the virtual instruments. However, since this is my first install, I am uncertain.

Hopefully, someone can walk me through this configuration process or link me to a tutorial that can show me exactly how to configure a Keithley virtual SMU unit.

[technician]

Hi, again!

On my own, I figured out how to use the Keithley Configuration Panel to talk to the KESCPI driver.

However, I would like to know if it possible to load a program into the KESCPI simulation program?

Right now, I am only capable of interactive manual control of a generic Keithley Source Meter.

I would like to know how I can interactively control specific Keithley Source Meter models.

Can anyone tell me how I go about loading a program, any program, into any available Keithley simulation programs?

Also, how can I configure the Keithley Configuration Panel to talk to specific Keithley models or does the KESCPI
driver take the model type into account and permit "model" specific commands to be entered into the specific Keithley models?

[JBrown54]

Hi, technician

Can you please share the SMU model you're using? Thanks!

[technician]

Dear JBrown54;

I do not have a SMU that is "physically" installed onto my PC computer system at this time.

At this time, I am attempting to only configure "virtual" sessions on my PC for training purposes. However, this condition will most likely change in the very near future.

I was under the impression that Keithley Corp. has developed software that emulates Keithley test instruments. This appears to be true as I managed to get the program "Keithley Communicator" to read and reply to some SCPI queries - see the attached screen shot.

The screen shot that you see was created by a sequence of commands that I typed in. However, I do not seek to only manually control a Keithley SMU, I seek to actually "program" a Keithley test instrument. In other words, I would like to input a program file into the Keithley Communicator program and then observe the "virtual" output. If Keithley Communicator cannot input a program file, can you tell me if it is possible to do this with any Keithley software that is available? Can you please answer this question - first - as it is the most important question that needs to be answered.

With regard to using Keithley Communicator for "manual" control operations (not "programmatic" control), can you point me to the instruction set that the "virtual" instruments can reply to?

When the attempt is made to input commands that are "universal" to most Keithley SMUs and of an "operational" nature, I receive an error message - please see the second sceen shot.

It is my belief that I may not be using the correct syntax so that Keithley Communicator can understand the instructions that I am trying to input.

For example, a typical "IDN?" query must be preceded by an asterisk sign *, or else, Keithley Communicator will return an error message.

If you are aware of the proper syntax to send more advanced commands to Keithley Communicator can you please post some examples that I can copy and paste into Keithley Communicator as verification that the software is properly installed?

Also, you may notice that the screenshots are not uploaded into my reply in the correct sequence (I discovered this after uploading the files). I do not believe that I have any control over this. Therefore, it may require a little interpretation on your part to determine which screen shot I was referring to, my apologies.

[Andrea C]

I think in general you will not find satisfaction with your quest for a simulated instrument interaction using the Keithley Communicator.

I'd say your best hope will be to interface at IVI Class level from a programming environment.
Here is a document on the topic in general on simulation with IVI drivers:
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArtic ... AI&l=en-US

Alas, there is no IVI Class for "SourceMeter".

The Keithley Communicator utility does not have facility to import a list of commands.

What might be more along the lines of what you are trying is the use the Test Script Builder tool.
I find that when it connects to the simulated entry, it provides simulated 2600 SMU instrument.
Here is screen shot with simulated current measurement:

Test Script Builder with simulated 2602

Simulated_SMU_TestScriptBuilder.PNG (8.85 KiB) Viewed 59 times

[technician]

Dear Andrea;

I would like to thank you for your reply.

I will look into downloading the Test Script Builder Tool.

Again, I would like to thank you for your reply.

- Technician M.C.