Keithley 213 Quad Voltage Source - GPIB

[k1mgy]

I've removed a Keithley 213 Quad Voltage Source from the shelf with a thought that perhaps it might be made useful at last.  It sat on the shelf because I could never talk to it over the GPIB and that's the only way to enable outputs.

Anyone here have experience with this?

I can't afford the National Instruments software, which seems to be the only option...

[Assafl]

NI offer Labview for makers for 50$. It is the 2014 version and works really well.

I also got the original Agilent 82357B for about 90$ (local electronics junkyard).

And got the raspberry pi for metrology project (see on the metrology forum). I use it control and log a DMM and power supply using Python scripts.

Turns out RPi comes with a free version of Mathematica so I am now trying to see if I can connect the two.

[k1mgy]

Assafl: Thank you very much.

I did a bit more research and found the NI Drivers (I have the NI USB interface) and a GPIB toolkit by KE5FX.  In the toolkit is a command line tool called query.  The Keithley is at address 9 and I see it on the buss when using another tool.

When I send the 213 a command, I consistently get back a reply that looks like it's trying to send me some data.

    A1C0P1R0V+00.00000

The error LED on the 213 is lit after sending any command.  If I ask what the error is using E? I get the same:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\KE5FX\GPIB>query.exe 9 E?
      A1C0P1R0V+00.00000

Any clue what this is? 

[k1mgy]

Never mind

I got it.

Had to power-cycle the Keithley 213.

Also, am now using EZGPIB, which provides a simple programming interface.  Quite powerful.

  http://www.ulrich-bangert.de/html/downloads.html

[k1mgy]

A1C0P1R0V+00.00000  is a status output.  It's listed deep within the Keithley 213 manual.

[cncjerry]

PM me if you need help.  I have a 213 and have done a lot of GPIB with it with Visual Basic.  I started to write an entire app for controlling it, got part way, but I know the device inside and out.

Jerry

[k1mgy]

Thanks very much!

Maybe we can port your VB stuff to C.