Keithley Instruments
6485-852C02
Release Note for Version C02
IVI Instrument Driver for the Model 6485/6487/6514 Electrometers
9/5/2013

IMPORTANT: To work properly with the driver, your instrument must have a compatible version of firmware. Refer to section 2 (System Requirements) below for specific details regarding the required firmware version for your instrument. Visit www.keithley.com for upgrade instructions if your instrument's firmware is not a compatible version. The instrument's firmware version is shown on the display when the instrument is first powered up, immediately to the right of the model number.

This document provides additional information for the installation and use of the 6485-852C02 6485/6487/6514 driver for LabVIEW and LabWindows CVI, Microsoft .NET, Visual Basic, and C/C++.


Table of Contents
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1 Introduction
1.1 Included in this release
1.1.1 KE6485 IVI Driver
1.2 Additional available software
2 System Requirements
2.1 Supported Operating Systems and System Software
3 Installation
3.1 Prerequisite Installation
3.2 Instrument Driver Installation
3.2.1 Installing the driver from the Web
4 Using the KE6485 IVI Instrument Driver
4.1 Virtual Instruments
4.2 Create your own Virtual Instruments
4.3 Logical Names
4.4 VISA resources
4.4.1 GPIB
4.4.2 RS232
4.4.3 Example of using VISA resources
4.5 Driver Speed up solutions
4.5.1 QueryInstrStatus
4.5.2 RangeCheck
4.5.3 Caching
4.6 Using the Example Programs
4.7 Using the driver with LabVIEW
5 Known problems and issues
5.1 Serial Baud rate
5.2 KE6485_WriteInstrData
5.3 Invalid Data Type Error
6 Copyright Notice
7 IVI Compliance

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1 Introduction

1.1 Included in this release
The components described below are provided as part of the KE6485 IVI Instrument Driver for the 6485 Picoammeter, 6487 Picoammeter with voltage source, and 6514 Electrometer. Some shortcuts for them are added to the Keithley Instruments folder on your Start Menu.

1.1.1 KE6485 IVI Driver
Version C02 of the KE6485 driver supports the 6485 Picoammeter, 6487 Picoammeter with voltage source, and 6514 Electrometer.

The driver uses VISA to communicate with and an IVI configuration store to configure your instrument. IVI (Interchangeable Virtual Instruments) and VISA (Virtual Instrument Software Architecture) provide a common foundation for application development across multiple communication buses and multiple instrument vendors. This software driver supports many Application Development Environments under Windows, such as Visual Basic, C/C++, LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and TestPoint. Numerous examples and an on-line help utility are provided to help programmers build their custom applications.

Important note: VISA, an IVI configuration store, and Keithley I/O Layer software are no longer bundled with the driver installer. The Keithley I/O layer may be downloaded from the Keithley Web site.

1.2 Additional available software
Keithley I/O Layer software provides a versatile configuration utility for IVI and NI-VISA and an interactive communications utility.

ExceLINX-2A for the 6485/6487/6514 is a Microsoft Excel add-in for the 6485 Picoammeter, 6487 Picoammeter with voltage source, and 6514 Electrometer. Within minutes of installing ExceLINX-2A on a PC, users can acquire data dynamically within Excel, and then employ the familiar Excel graphics, charting, and analysis capabilities. No Programming is required to use ExceLINX - a few mouse clicks are all it takes to configure the instrument, set parameters, triggers, etc. Check www.keithley.com or call 1-888-KEITHLEY (534-8453) for more information.

2 System Requirements
- Pentium-class PC.
- 6485 firmware release B02 or later. DDC Mode is not supported by the driver.
- 6487 firmware release A02 or later. DDC Mode is not supported by the driver.
- 6514 firmware release A11 or later. DDC Mode is not supported by the driver.
- VISA: Keithley recommends NI-VISA 2.6 or later from National Instruments.
- NI-IVI Compliance Package (ICP) from National Instruments.
- Keithley I/O Layer software KIOL-850 version B02.3 or later. [Recommended]

NOTE: Keithley strongly recommends that you power your computer and instrument from an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) when running a critical application.

2.1 Supported Operating Systems and System Software
Operating Systems:
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP Professional service pack 2 or later
- Windows 2000 Service pack 4 or later
The driver has been tested with a variety of international versions of Windows, including Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, German, and French.

Application Development Environments:
- LabVIEW versions 7.0 through 8.6
- LabWindows/CVI versions 6.0 through 8.5
- Visual Basic 6 Service Pack 6
- Visual Studio .NET
- Visual Studio .NET 2003
- Visual Studio 2005 Professional and Express
- Visual Studio 2008 Professional and Express

3 Installation

Note: The instrument driver requires VISA and an IVI configuration store. Check www.keithley.com to see if a complete installation package that includes prerequisites and the driver; Or, install the prerequisites yourself and then install the driver.

3.1 Prerequisite Installation

Before installing the KE2400 instrument driver:
- Install VISA; Keithley recommends NI-VISA 2.6 or later from National Instruments.
- Install an IVI configuration store; Keithley recommends NI-IVI Compliance Package (ICP) from National Instruments because it provides libraries that allows the driver to access the IVI Configuration Server.
- Install the optional Keithley I/O Layer, KIOL-850, following the instructions in the I/O layer readme file to install and configure the software, and to connect your instrument to your computer.

3.2 Instrument Driver Installation

3.2.1 Installing the driver from the Web
Download the driver software from the Keithley Web site, www.keithley.com. The software is a single compressed file and should be downloaded to a temporary directory.

Run the downloaded file from the temporary directory.

Follow the instructions on the screen to install the software.

When the installation is complete, reboot your computer.

4 Using the KE6485 IVI Instrument Driver
To connect to the instrument via the driver you need to first call KE6485_init or KE6485_InitWithOptions. The first parameter for either function is a VISA resource string, which indicates to the I/O layer which communication device you want to use to connect to the instrument and in most cases the address of the instrument. This can be specified using a Virtual Instrument name, a Logical Name, or a VISA Resource string. We recommend that you do not use the VISA resource string form, since it builds hardware and bus dependencies into your code. If you use the Virtual Instrument Name or the Logical Name form, the Keithley Configuration Panel can be used to select a different bus or address with no code changes required.

4.1 Virtual Instruments
The installer creates several virtual instrument configurations that you can use to automatically connect to an instrument.

If you are using a National Instruments GPIB card, select KE6485_GPIB14 as your device. By default, the logical name KE6485ExampleInstr is also assigned to this device. This logical name is used by the example programs but can also be used by user programs.

If you are using a Keithley Instruments or CEC ISA or PCI GPIB card, select KE6485_GPIB1_14 as your device.

If you are using a Keithley Instrument or INES PCMCIA GPIB card, select KE6485_GPIB2_14 as your device.

If you are using COM Port 1, select KE6485_COM1 as your device.

If you are using COM Port 2, select KE6485_COM2 as your device.

An example of using a Virtual Instrument Name to connect to an instrument connected to COM Port 1 is:
KE6485_init("KE6485_COM1", VI_TRUE, VI_TRUE, handle)

4.2 Create your own Virtual Instruments
If you want to create your own virtual instruments then use the Configuration Panel or Wizard. Open the Configuration Panel by selecting Start> Programs> Keithley Instruments> Keithley Configuration Panel, and wait for the Wizard to start. Follow the Wizard instructions to create a new configuration or modify an existing one.

4.3 Logical Names
You can also define logical Names for your devices using the configuration panel. One logical name is created by default: KE6485ExampleInstr. This default logical name is used by the example programs supplied with the driver, and is associated with the KE6485_GPIB14 device by default.

4.4 VISA resources

4.4.1 GPIB
For GPIB instruments, you would use a resource string of the following format:
"GPIBx::yy::INSTR".
x is the GPIB card number.
yy is the GPIB address of the instrument.

4.4.2 RS232
For RS232 instruments, the VISA resource string has the following format:
"ASRLx::INSTR" where x is the COM Port number.

4.4.3 Example of sing VISA resources:
To connect to an instrument at GPIB address 14 via GPIB1:
KE6485_init("GPIB1::14::INSTR", VI_TRUE, VI_TRUE, handle)

4.5 Driver Speed up solutions
Using the KE6485_InitWithOptions function there is a parameter, called OptionString, where you can enable/disable certain features of an IVI driver.

4.5.1 QueryInstrStatus
If this feature is enabled the driver will query the instrument after every function call to see if there were any errors. This is useful while you are writing your application but once it is finalized then you can disable this feature to gain extra performance.

4.5.2 RangeCheck
If enabled the IVI engine will check to see if the parameters you are passing in are within range. Disabling this feature in the final application will also gain some performance increase.

4.5.3 Caching
The driver has the option of caching all the settings it sends to the instrument so that it doesn't send a setting to the instrument a second time if it hasn't changed. By default this is enabled.

4.6 Using the Example Programs
The KE6485 Driver includes a number of example programs written in Visual Basic, LabVIEW, and C. The examples demonstrate how to perform common functions using the driver. The example programs are hard coded to use the logical name: KE6485ExampleInstr for the device identifier. By default, this logical name is associated with the KE6485_GPIB14 device, which is a 6485 at GPIB address 14 using a National Instruments GPIB interface card for communications. If you are using a different bus, address, or interface card, you must reassign the logical name to the correct device using the Keithley Configuration Panel. For example, if you are using a CEC GPIB card instead of a National Instrument GPIB card, you would use the Keithley Configuration Panel to delete the logical name from the KE6485_GPIB14 device, and add it to the KE6485_GPIB1_14 device.

4.7 Using the driver with LabVIEW
LabVIEW versions 7.0 through 8.6 are supported.

If LabVIEW is already installed on your computer when the driver is installed, the LabVIEW VIs will be installed in the proper subdirectory of the LabVIEW directory so that they are directly accessible from within LabVIEW.

If LabVIEW is not installed on your computer when the driver is installed, the LabVIEW VIs will placed in a subdirectory of the Keithley Instruments directory. Once LabVIEW has been installed, the VIs must be copied to the proper subdirectory under LabVIEW before they can be used. This directory is typically:
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW X\inst.lib\KE6485

Depending on the particular driver, there may be separate versions of the VIs for LabVIEW 5.x and 6.x, in which case they will be installed into separate directories. Copy the appropriate version of the VIs into the National Instrument directory tree. The 6.x VIs are compatible with versions 7 and 8.

5 Known problems and issues

5.1 Serial Baud rate
The instrument driver works correctly only if the serial baud rate is set to 9600. This problem is only in the driver and will be fixed in the next release. This does not affect GPIB connections.

5.2 KE6485_WriteInstrData
When using this function you must append a linefeed character to the end of the command that you send to the instrument. In LabVIEW and C add a "\n" whilst in Visual BASIC add the "Chr(10)" or "vbLf" command to the end of the string.

5.3 Invalid Data Type Error
Wherever you see the following data types in the Visual BASIC help file: ViChar, ViChar[], ViString or ViConstString use the VB data type STRING. If you use one of these data types your VB program will run but when the code executes it will generate an error, "Invalid data type for automation". All the VB examples use the correct data type. (PR19585)

6 Copyright Notice
The KE6485 Series instrument driver is Copyright (c) 2001-2005, 2008 Keithley Instruments. All Rights Reserved.

7 IVI Compliance
The following information is required by IVI 3.1 section 5.21.

IVI Compliance Category:
IVI-C IviDmm Specific Instrument Driver
Class Specification Version: 2.0
Group Capabilities Support:
IviDmmBase = Supported
IviDmmACMeasurement = Not Supported
IviDmmFrequencyMeasurement = Not Supported
IviDmmTemperatureMeasurement = Not Supported
IviDmmThermocouple = Not Supported
IviDmmResistanceTemperatureDevice = Not Supported
IviDmmThermistor = Not Supported
IviDmmMultiPoint = Supported
IviDmmTriggerSlope = Supported
IviDmmSoftwareTrigger = Supported
IviDmmDeviceInfo = Supported
IviDmmAutoRangeValue = Not Supported
IviDmmAutoZero = Supported
IviDmmPowerLineFrequency = Supported


Optional Features:
Interchangeability Checking = False
State Caching = True
Coercion Recording = False

Driver Identification:
Driver Revision: 2.0
Driver Vendor: Keithley Instruments, Inc.
Prefix: KE6485
Description: Keithley 6485/6487/6514 Electrometers

Hardware Information:
Instrument Manufacturer: Keithley Instruments, Inc.
Supported Instrument Models:
MODEL 6485
MODEL 6487
MODEL 6514
Supported Bus Interfaces: RS232, GPIB

Software Information:
Support Software Required: VISA (part of NI-VISA 2.6 or later [Recommended])
National Instruments IVI Engine ver 1.83 (included in driver package), or 2.0 or later (part of ICP) [Recommended]
Source Code Availability: Source code not available.


End of Release notes.