Design World – Power Transmission Reference Guide June 2019

(^40) DESIGN WORLD — EE NETWORK 6 • 2019 eeworldonline.com | designworldonline.com
TEST & MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK
Remote Communication
with USBTMC
Engineers from a variety of industries
use USB and USBTMC (USB Test &
Measurement Class) to remotely control
test and measurement instruments from
a host computer. It is useful to compare
USBTMC to the widely used GPIB
interface. The process of setting up an
instrument for remote communication
using USBTMC is relatively simple.
Typically, end-users are looking for a
simple way to connect test instruments
to a computer for automated control and
measurement recording. For many years,
these connections typically followed the
IEEE 488 format. This is a short-range
digital communications eight-bit parallel
multi-master interface bus specification first
created as HP-IB and now commonly called
GPIB. In recent years, it has also become
attractive to make simple test-instrument
Simple connections employing USB
can replace more expensive GPIB
setups in test instrumentation.
AARON FERNANDO
B&K PRECISION CORP.
Host PC with
USBTMC driver
(VISA software)
USB cable USBTMC compliant device
VISA write
VISA read
The USBTMC communication setup using a PC with supporting
VISA software and a standard A-to-B USB cable as it would
take place with a B&K 9115 Multi-range DC Power Supply.
B&K — Test and Measurement HB 06-19.indd 40 6/7/19 1:56 PM