Connecting Your Instruments

The BenchVue application uses Keysight Connection Expert, which is part of the Keysight IO Libraries Suite, to automatically configure your instrument IO and populate the BenchVue Instrument Panel. Connection Expert displays the status of your instruments as determined by the Keysight Instrument Discovery Service, which loads whenever your computer is running with IO Libraries Suite installed. Most instruments are automatically discovered by the Instrument Discovery Service and you will see those instruments in the BenchVue Instrument Panel. In some cases, however, you may need to launch Connection Expert to manually add an instrument to your configuration.

You may have a choice of several different physical interfaces with which to connect your instrument to your computer. Since not all interfaces are available on all instruments, you will need to determine which interface is best suited for your specific application. See Choosing the Interface for Your Instrument for more information.

If an Instrument is Not Shown

If an instrument you are expecting to see is not shown in the BenchVue Instrument Panel, launch Connection Expert to manually add that instrument to your configuration – usually for serial (RS-232) instruments and LAN instruments that are not on your local subnet or are older LAN-based instruments. Note that if one of your instruments was discovered at an earlier time but communication can no longer be established with that instrument, it will not be shown in Connection Expert. In most cases, this means that the instrument has been disconnected or turned off. If you are experiencing connection issues with an instrument, be sure to verify that the instrument is turned on and is properly connected to the selected interface. Then try refreshing the instrument list in BenchVue by clicking the Refresh button at the bottom right corner of the Instrument Panel.

See Also