GPIB communications is achieved through an ICS Electronics GPIB-to-Modbus Interface Card which has been specifically designed to work with the Watlow temperature controllers used on TestEquity chambers. The ICS card converts GPIB commands to serial Modbus commands that are transmitted over RS-232. The card also takes care of calculating block checksums that are required for communications with the temperature controller.

TestEquity GPIB Manuals
For Option TE-0003 Internal GPIB Converter
For Option TE-1052 External GPIB Converter

LabVIEW Drivers
LabVIEW-GPIB.zip (442K) is written by ICS Electronics. Includes executable VI Front Panel examples and a Driver Library file for all VIs.

Visual Basic Programming
ICS has a Temperature Control example program written in Visual Basic for its GPIB-to-Modbus Interface. Application Bulletin AB48-25d (pdf, 441K) describes how to use the program and how to adapt the program to a final application or to other GPIB Controller cards. The Application Bulletin includes a description of a Visual Basic example program that controls process temperatures with the temperature controller. The program runs on any GPIB Controller Card that uses the NI488.2 Command set. File VB5_TempCtlr.zip (75K) contains the Visual Basic source and executable files.

NOTE: The examples shown in documentation from ICS are for illustration purposes only. They do not represent the correct setup or configuration for TestEquity chambers. Sample programs from ICS may change critical setup parameters, resulting in improper chamber operation. They are provided as a guideline for how to write your own programs only. Correct setup parameters are documented in the TestEquity chamber manuals.