How to switch the polarity of DC bias by GPIB (cost-effectively)??

[tetze]

Hello all!

I have a simple question (for you but not for me) related with a
polarity relay controlled by GPIB.

The situation is as follows: We want to do a measurement with DC bias
scanning from positive to negative voltage (loop measurement).
Currently, we can apply DC input voltage (on either fixed polarity) to
DUT, and then acquire measured data (say, output voltage from DUT),
controlled by GPIB/LabView.

We have an Agilent digital DC power supply (E3641A), which has a
typical one-pair port output. What we want to have is, to scan both
polarity, a switch/relay which can flip between POS and NEG controlled
by GPIB (with manual switch, preferable). The basic method is very
simple but we have no idea on detail switch product.

Is such switch/relay avaialble as a product? And any detail
information?
OR is there any other smart way we can switch the polarity??

Thank you so much for your suggestions.


Tetze

 

[Sir Charles W. Shults III]

My solution was to make a box from the parallel port that switched relays
under software control. Yes, I have the IEEE 488 instrumentation card on my PC,
but you know what? It was far faster and cheaper to use the parallel port.
There is a detailed assembly of the box I made for this on my web page- look
under a "typical project" and see what I did.

Cheers!

Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip