README

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   Description
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Package ni488 wraps National Instruments NI488.2 General Purpose Interface Bus
(GPIB) driver. The driver allows a client application to communicate with a GPIB
enabled piece of test equipment remotely and/or programmatically. NI-488.2 is an
industry standard for GPIB communications.

Common test equipment with GPIB interfaces:
 Digital Multimeter
 Power Supplies
 Universal Radio Communications Testers
 Signal Generators
 Spectrum Analyzers
 Thermal Chambers
 Network Analyzers
 Oscilloscopes


Lots of miscellaneous NI-488.2 information:
    http://sine.ni.com/psp/app/doc/p/id/psp-356

GPIB Driver Versions for Microsoft Windows and DOS:
    http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5326#toc0

GPIB Driver Versions for non-Microsoft Operating Systems:
    http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5458

Direct download:
    http://download.ni.com/support/softlib/gpib/

Drivers:

    - Windows  On 32-bit platforms, the DLL's (gpib-32.dll or ni4882.dll)
      are compiled against ni488.h and 64-bit platforms against ni4882.h.

    - OSX  32-bit library only and compiled against ni488.h.

    - Linux  Nothing on Linux yet. :-(

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    Caveats
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Only tested against the 32-bit driver so far.


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    Usage
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See ni488_example.go


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    Compiling
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You'll need the Go compiler installed:

    For installation on FreeBSD, Linux, and OSX:
        http://golang.org/doc/install.html

    For Windows:
        Grab the prebuilt binaries here:
            http://code.google.com/p/gomingw/downloads/list

        To compile the goNI488 library you'll need MinGW and MSYS.
            https://bitbucket.org/jpoirier/go_mingw/downloads

Set the cgo LDFLAGS for your environment: top of ni488.go/ni.386.go/ni.amd64.go

Note that cgo doesn't currently handle Windows paths so you'll need to copy
the NI DLL (gpib-32.dll or ni4882.dll) into the package's build directory, then
set "-L./" in LDFLAGS. See the CL here http://codereview.appspot.com/5154042/

National Instruments has only released a 32-bit driver. The Go wrapper,
and/or test program, need to be compiled in 32-bit mode. You can set
GOHOSTARCH=386 and GOARCH=386 to build the required Go compiler and
the goNI488 package.

To build the package: $ go get github.com/jpoirier/goNI488
To build and run the example: $ go run ni488_example.go


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Testing
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My Misc Notes
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9-30-2011:
Windows: when compiling on 32-bit platforms AllSpoll is undefined.


--- OSX info ---
Method 1: Startup key combination (for current startup only)

If your Mac uses the 32-bit kernel by default, but supports the 64-bit kernel, you
can start up using the 64-bit kernel by holding the 6 and 4 keys during startup.

If your Mac uses the 64-bit kernel by default, you can start up with the 32-bit
kernel by holding the 3 and 2 keys during startup. Your Mac will revert to the
default kernel the next time you reboot it.


Method 2: On-disk setting (persistent)

To select the 64-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

To select the 32-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

Note: This setting is stored in the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
file and will take effect every time you start up from this disk. If you start up from a different
disk, the setting on that disk, or the hardware default, will take effect.