HP8590E Series Option 103 Driver

[Miti]

Does anybody have a card with the quasi-peak driver, option 103 for HP8590E series? I have the board but the driver doesn't seem to be installed. I've checked evilbay and the cheapest is $120 plus shipping. I understand that it is one time load and then is there so I could install it and return it, if I can find a good samaritan... I pay two way shipping.
I have options 101, 102 and 130 as well. I don't think these options need drivers, do you know?
I can't find manuals for them anyway. Option 103 has its own manual.

Thanks,
Miti

[Miti]

I was looking for EMC menus and apparently I need EMC measurements personality for that. So I'll need the EMC personality measurements card as well. Anyone? Pleaaase? 

[MarkL]

The EMC card comes with the QPD driver, so you don't need both.

I unfortunately don't have the EMC card, but you might find this thread interesting:

  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hacking-old-hp-spectrum-analyzers/msg421596/#msg421596

In it, the QPD and EMC drivers were extracted from a 8591E that had the EMC personality loaded, but no longer had the EMC card.  A series of GPIB commands were created so that the drivers could be reloaded into another SA when the QPD option card was moved.  (I should point out in all that mess there is a gpib command "USTATE" that should make the procedure much simpler to dump and restore between SAs, but I couldn't get it to work.  I still think I was doing something wrong, and eventually ended up doing it a much harder way.)

You're right the QPD is a one-time load, but the EMC drivers need the physical card so it can load the various limit line profiles when selected by the user.  You can still use the EMC functions without the card if you want to re-create whatever limit line profiles you need.  It's not difficult; just tedious.

Options 101, 102 and 130 don't need drivers.  Documentation for them (and some of 103) is scattered around the User Guide.

Option 103 already does the same AM/FM demod as 102, so you don't really need 102 unless you want the TV sync trigger.

[Miti]

Thanks MarkL,

That looks interesting... and complicated. I will need some time to digest it.
Do you know the HP part number for the EMC card? I just want to see if I can find it anywhere and how much it costs.
About Options 102 and 103, that's what I thought too. 102, I have the board but is not installed as I don't think I'll ever work in TVs, 103 is installed.

[MarkL]

The card is 85712 and it could be suffixed with A, B, C, or D, depending on the version, D being the latest.

Keysight still has the user manuals available.  This one is for the D version:

  http://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/85712-90015.pdf

[Miti]

Mark,

What do you use to communicate with the instrument to extract/upload all those files? Hardware and software. Do you still have all the separate files extracted from your 8591e? I think the attachment that you posted in that thread is a full dump and not separate files.

Thanks,
Miti

[MarkL]

It's an ancient AMD64 system running Fedora 11 with a National Instruments PCI-GPIB card.  linux-gpib-3.2.20 is driving it.

Yes, one of the postings in that thread is an SRAM image.  Probably not of much use.  Take a look here for the individual files for the GPIB commands (gpib-dlp-poc.tgz):

  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hacking-old-hp-spectrum-analyzers/msg1029801/#msg1029801

There's also a copy of the USTATE command output in the file ustate.sp2 (in the tar file) if you want to give that a try first.  It would certainly be much simpler if you can get it to work.  If you spot any kind of an error I made in creating the USTATE output, please let me know and I can try to fix it and re-dump it.

If that doesn't work, there's a bash script called "do_cmds" which goes through all the data extracted from the analyzer and submits about 450 GPIB commands (or so) to rebuild the menus and everything else that was in the analyzer's memory, which includes the QPD and EMC drivers.

[Miti]

Thanks Mark!

To my shame, I don't have a single Linux machine but I do have an NI PCI-GPIB card installed in my Win machine. I am, however, in process of installing Linux Mint Cinnamon, I read very good things about it. I hope linux-gpib-3.2.20 works on it.
My worry is.............Do you think I could mess up my instrument? 
I understand you pulled these files from HP8591E. I have an HP8594E. Are they compatible from this point of view? Can it overwrite some other functions/files if I make any mistake?
NOOB questions....

[MarkL]

Thanks Mark!

To my shame, I don't have a single Linux machine but I do have an NI PCI-GPIB card installed in my Win machine. I am, however, in process of installing Linux Mint Cinnamon, I read very good things about it. I hope linux-gpib-3.2.20 works on it.

No Problem!  You should probably go for the latest which is 4.2.0:

  https://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-gpib/

The version I have is quite old and probably doesn't have support for more recent kernels.

My worry is.............Do you think I could mess up my instrument? 
I understand you pulled these files from HP8591E. I have an HP8594E. Are they compatible from this point of view? Can it overwrite some other functions/files if I make any mistake?
NOOB questions....

There's nothing in the set of commands that will mess up your unit.  That's correct I extracted them from a 8591E.  I used the scripts to re-install the drivers on a 8595E, so it works across models.  The worst that can happen is that it will overwrite any keydefs or other variables by the same names, but that seems unlikely.

Not that the scripts touch them (if it's even possible), but hopefully you've backed up your cal constants anyway, just as standard operating procedure for theses aging SAs.

[Miti]

Well, I have the machine, I have the GPIB software, I have the will but that's about all.       I can't seem to find a step by step guide with commands on how to install everything.
I'm a Win man trying to chew some mint with cinnamon. I'll have to get used to the flavour.
Do I dare asking you for a guide?

[MarkL]

Not sure I have enough time to write a guide, but I'm happy to step you through it.

Where should we start?  Do you have Mint installed?  How about the Linux GPIB driver?

[Miti]

Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon is installed, the driver is not. Driver manager shows "No proprietary drivers are in use".

[MarkL]

I've downloaded Linux Mint and I'm going to install it into a VM.

It looks like someone has put the GPIB drivers in this Mint repository:

  https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/gpib-modules-source

I've honestly never used Mint before, but you could give that link a try.

Give me a day or two to get Mint installed and I'm sure I can be a bit more informative.  (Not to say Mint is the wrong choice.  I think it's a great choice but I just don't have any experience with it.)

[Miti]

Mark,

I can't ask you to make that effort for me. If you think it has any value for you, please do it, if not...
Every time I tried to play with Linux, I hated it, something didn't work for me or it was too cumbersome. I'm a Win guy and I don't think that's gonna change.

About the link that you recommended, I get this (attached).
Probably it requires registration.

[MarkL]

Well, if you're used to "click on this thing to install", you're not going to like this post.  Below are my notes on how I installed it from source.  The whole package may be sitting in a repository somewhere in easy-to-use click-on-it format, but I'm unfamiliar with the Mint world.  Anyone is welcome to jump in to point it out.

I'm certain I'm not representing Mint and other recent distributions very well at all.  Try not to hate Linux too much based on how I do things (read: entrenched in old ways).


First, a caveat:  After several attempts, I did manage to install Mint 19.1 inside a VirtualBox VM.  So, I can get everything to build and install, but I can't verify it working with an actual NI or other card.

You'll need the latest source package (4.2.0) from here:

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-gpib

Everything is done from a terminal window.  Here are my notes (step through it line by line; don't try to cut and paste the whole thing at once).  Get this working first, and then we can go to the next step of the perl/bash scripts which do the actual dumping of the EMC/QPD drivers to the SA.

Code: [Select]

# Extract archive from sourceforge.
#
tar xf linux-gpib-4.2.0.tar.gz

# Extract the two archives inside the archive
# (thats just the way they packaged it)
#
cd linux-gpib-4.2.0
tar xf linux-gpib-kernel-4.2.0.tar.gz
tar xf linux-gpib-user-4.2.0.tar.gz

# Need this package before we get started...
#
sudo apt install libelf-dev

# Build and install the kernel modules
#
cd linux-gpib-kernel-4.2.0
./configure
make
sudo make install

# Build and install the user libraries
#
cd ../linux-gpib-user-4.2.0
./configure
make
sudo make install


# Do a bunch of things as root...
#
sudo bash

# Put 2 lines in the library search path
#
echo /usr/local/lib > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
echo /usr/local/lib64 >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf
ldconfig

# Load the kernel driver for the card.  If it's the NI PCI-GPIB,
# the driver is tnt4882.  If you're using something else the list is
# (probably) in /lib/modules/4.15.0-20-generic/gpib.
#
modprobe tnt4882

# Check that it loaded.  Not exactly sure what this version prints
# out but you should see some statements from the NI driver in the
# kernel log.
#
dmesg | tail -30

# Start with the supplied template and configure your card.  The
# default in the template is the ni_pci card, so you might not need
# to do anything.
#
# System default editor is xed, but anything is fine.
#
cp util/templates/gpib.conf /etc
xed /etc/gpib.conf &

# Now you should be able to initialize the card.  chmod sets
# global rw permission on the gpib interface.  Be more restrictive
# if you want.
#
/usr/local/sbin/gpib_config --minor 0
chmod a+rw /dev/gpib*

# Check for more kernel messages as a result of the gpib_config.
# There shouldn't be any errors.
#
dmesg | tail -30

exit  # get out of root shell


# At this point you should have a working gpib installation.
# Try to talk to the SA with the ibterm utility.  My 8595E is set
# to address 18.
#
ibterm -d 18

# Example output:
#
#   Attempting to open /dev/gpib0
#   pad = 18, sad = 0, timeout = 10, send_eoi = 1, eos_mode = 0x0000
#   ibterm>*id
#   HP8595E
#   ibterm>
#   ibterm: Done.



[Miti]

Thanks Mark!

Where should the two folders, "linux-gpib-kernel-4.2.0" and "linux-gpib-user-4.2.0", be located when I send all these commands? Can I leave them in the "Downloads" or I have to move them somewhere else? It doesn't seem to work directly from the Downloads folder.
Also, do I have to be root?

[Miti]

I guess part of it worked, even though I see some errors. Please see attached.
Up to "cp util/templates/gpib.conf /etc" where it cannot find a directory.

[MarkL]

You almost had it.  There was a "cd\" that you entered right before the "sudo bash" that put you in the wrong directory.

So, start in the directory "linux-gpib-user-4.2.0" and become root with the "sudo bash" command, if you're not already root.  You can tell if you're root because the prompt will end with "#".

Copy the supplied config file "gpib.conf" to the directory "/etc" with:

  cp util/templates/gpib.conf /etc

And pick up from there.

The answer to your previous question is it doesn't matter where you do all this.  If you untar the archive in the Downloads directory, that's fine.  If you were going to use Linux for the longer term, you would organize your sources under one directory, like /usr/local/src, but I wasn't going to get into the extra detail of system admin here.  The goal is to get the GPIB working.

And the other question, you do have to be root for some things.  You generally want to minimize those operations to only what's absolutely necessary, like installation.  You can do all the builds as a regular user.

"sudo CMD" does CMD as root, and "sudo bash" gives you a shell so you can do a bunch of things in a row as root.  You can use "exit" or ctrl-D to exit the root shell.

[Miti]

Hat off Mark!

I have it working...

[MarkL]

One thing you should be aware of is that the gpib drivers are not loaded and initialized automatically on boot.  Each time you will need to do:

  sudo bash
  modprobe tnt4882

  # wait a few seconds here

  /usr/local/sbin/gpib_config --minor 0
  exit


One you get everything working manually, you can put the gpib startup commands in the file /etc/rc.local, which is executed each time the system boots:

Code: [Select]

sudo bash

# You can cut and paste the following, from the "cat" up to the
# "chmod".  Note this wipes out any previous content in /etc/rc.local,
# but this file doesn't exist in a fresh Mint install.  Use a text editor
# for future changes to it.
#
cat << EOF > /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/sh

exec > /tmp/rc.local.log 2>&1

echo "Loading gpib driver (configuring in 5 seconds)..."
modprobe tnt4882
(
  sleep 5
  echo "Configuring gpib driver..."
  /usr/local/sbin/gpib_config --minor 0
  chmod a+rw /dev/gpib*
) &
EOF
chmod +x /etc/rc.local
exit

The output from the gpib initialization (and any other commands you add in /etc/rc.local) will be placed in /tmp/rc.local.log.  If the gpib driver is not loading on boot, look in /tmp/rc.local.log for clues.  And you can always try loading it manually as per the above.

(Before anyone says it, I already know /etc/rc.local is an antiquated way.  It works just fine in this situation.)

[Miti]

Ok, I did and it works, I can send commands right after Mint starts.
Now I'm ready for the next step of the perl/bash scripts, but before that, Is there a way to backup everything that's in my SA just in case something goes wrong?

[MarkL]

Before you do anything, if you haven't done it already, backup up your calibration constants.  I posted recently about it here:

  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-8594e-spectrum-analyzer-at-last-i-own-a-decent-spec-an/msg2140066/#msg2140066

As for what might already be in memory, you can press RECALL --> Catalog Internal --> CATALOG ALL to show what DLPs (programs) and variables are in there.  CATALOG REGISTER will show states and traces, and CATALOG ON EVENT will show event commands.

You can also do the same thing via ibterm.  Below is an example of what ibterm returns on an empty 8595E.  To check for the same things you need to examine prefixes "*", "on*", and "reg*" (this is all described in the programmer guide).

Code: [Select]

ibterm -d 19
Attempting to open /dev/gpib0
pad = 19, sad = 0, timeout = 10, send_eoi = 1, eos_mode = 0x0000
ibterm>cat *
INTERNAL: 6994 238070   

ibterm>cat on*
ON EVENTS:               
ONEOS        UNDEFINED   
ONSWP        UNDEFINED   
TRMATH       UNDEFINED   
ONCYCLE      UNDEFINED   
ONDELAY      UNDEFINED   
ONMKR        UNDEFINED   
ONSRQ        UNDEFINED   
ONTIME       UNDEFINED   
ONPWRUP      UNDEFINED   

ibterm>cat reg*
ST/TR REG:               
ST1  UNUSED             
ST2  UNUSED             
ST3  UNUSED             
ST4  UNUSED             
ST5  UNUSED             
ST6  UNUSED             
ST7  UNUSED             
ST8  UNUSED             
TR0  UNUSED             
TR1  UNUSED             
TR2  UNUSED             
TR3  UNUSED             
TR4  UNUSED             
TR5  UNUSED             
TR6  UNUSED             
TR7  UNUSED             
TR8  UNUSED             
TR9  UNUSED             
TR10 UNUSED             
TR11 UNUSED             
TR12 UNUSED             
TR13 UNUSED             
TR14 UNUSED             
TR15 UNUSED             
TR16 UNUSED             
TR17 UNUSED             
TR18 UNUSED             
TR19 UNUSED             
TR20 UNUSED             
TR21 UNUSED             
TR22 UNUSED             
TR23 UNUSED             
TR24 UNUSED             
TR25 UNUSED             
TR26 UNUSED             
TR27 UNUSED             
TR28 UNUSED             
TR29 UNUSED             
TR30 UNUSED             
TR31 UNUSED             
TR32 UNUSED             
TR33 UNUSED             
TR34 UNUSED             
TR35 UNUSED             
TR36 UNUSED             
TR37 UNUSED             
TR38 UNUSED             
TR39 UNUSED             
TR40 UNUSED             
TR41 UNUSED             
TR42 UNUSED             
TR43 UNUSED             
TR44 UNUSED             
TR45 UNUSED             
TR46 UNUSED             
TR47 UNUSED             
TR48 UNUSED             
TR49 UNUSED             
TR50 UNUSED             
TR51 UNUSED             
TR52 UNUSED             

ibterm>

It's normal to have some "ST" or "TR" entries.  It only means someone in the past stored the SA state or trace data.  If you have a bunch of stuff returned from the "*" prefix, someone might have loaded a driver.  Or less common, if there a few entries someone may have written their own DLPs for it.

I will followup with the perl stuff.

[MarkL]

Ok, so far so good.  Here are my notes on the perl pieces, again in pseudo cut and paste format.

I'll repeat my caveat that I'm not able to try everything on a Mint installation since it's only running in a VM with no access to real gpib hardware.  It works up until the point where it actually has to talk to the SA.  My notes after that are taken from an older Linux installation running Fedora 11 with an NI PCI-GPIB, but running the exact same perl scripts presented here.

Code: [Select]

# It seems that the perl bindings are not installed by default.
# Go back and do them.
#
cd linux-gpib-user-4.2.0/language/perl
make
sudo make install

# Add the home/bin directory to the search path permanently,
# and create a bin directory to use.
#
echo 'export PATH='~/bin:'$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
. ~/.bashrc
mkdir ~/bin

# Go get the rest of the scripts.
#
cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.employees.org/~markl/gpib-perl-v0.3b.tgz
wget http://www.employees.org/~markl/gpib-dlp-poc.tgz

# Extract them both...
#
tar xf gpib-perl-v0.3b.tgz
tar xf gpib-dlp-poc.tgz

# Move only what we need into the new bin directory.  There's a lot
# of other stuff in the archive.  Explore and use later, if you want.
#
cd gpib-perl-v0.3b/bin
mv gpib gpib-lab-lib.pl sp spq ~/bin

# Do some stuff as root...
#
sudo bash

# The gpib installer, by default, puts the gpib configuration file in
# /usr/local/etc/gpib.conf, and not /etc/gpib.conf, where I had you
# put it.  Nothing looks at /etc/gpib.conf.  Get rid of it.
#
rm /etc/gpib.conf

# Append the SA configuration to the real gpib.conf.  If your SA is
# not address 18, you'll want to adjust this.  You can also use a text
# editor to add these lines.
#
cat << EOF > /usr/local/etc/gpib.conf

/* HP 8595E */
device {
    name = "sp"
    minor = 0
    pad =  18
    eos = 0x0a
    timeout = T30s  /* needed for slow print response */
}
EOF

# Leave root...
#
exit

# At this point perl programs should be able to talk to the SA.
# Try this:
#
spq "*id"

# You should get the same response as ibterm:
#
#   HP8595E
#
# If not, stop here.  The next step will not work.
#
# If ok, you should be able to dump the EMC/QPD driver to the SA.
#
cd ~/Downloads/gpib-dlp-poc
./do_cmds

# Long output here, and it will take a minute or two, but that should be it.
# The SA should now have a copy of the EMC and QPD drivers.
#
# "do_cmds" checks for errors after each command submitted to the SA.  If you
# see any errors, something didn't work, and some part of the drivers will
# be incomplete and not work even though there may now be menu buttons for
# them.
#

I've attached the output from the "do_cmds" script, as well as a couple of before and after screen shots of what you should see.  This was done to an 8595E that had it's memory wiped via CONFIG --> Dispose User Mem.

[Miti]

Something didn't go well

Code: [Select]

miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$ ibterm -d 18
Attempting to open /dev/gpib0
pad = 18, sad = 0, timeout = 10, send_eoi = 1, eos_mode = 0x0000
libgpib: ibBoardOpen failed to open device file
libgpib: No such file or directory
libgpib: error in is_cic()!
ibterm error: open failed
 - EDVR 0: OS error
ibdev error
ibterm: Aborted
miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$ spq "*id"
libgpib: ibBoardOpen failed to open device file
libgpib: No such file or directory
libgpib: error in is_cic()!
libgpib: ibfind failed to get descriptor
exit value cannot find gpib device "sp" at /home/miti/bin/gpib-lab-lib.pl line 405.
miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$


[Miti]

Ok, I fixed it. Apparently cat command overwrites the conf file. I copied it again and ibterm works.

Code: [Select]

miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$ ibterm -d 18
Attempting to open /dev/gpib0
pad = 18, sad = 0, timeout = 10, send_eoi = 1, eos_mode = 0x0000
ibterm>*id
HP8594E
ibterm>ibterm>cat *
ibterm>cat*
INTERNAL: 4830 238062   
C_ONLV           34     

ibterm>cat on*
ON EVENTS:               
ONEOS        UNDEFINED   
ONSWP        UNDEFINED   
TRMATH       UNDEFINED   
ONCYCLE      UNDEFINED   
ONDELAY      UNDEFINED   
ONMKR        UNDEFINED   
ONSRQ        UNDEFINED   
ONTIME       UNDEFINED   
ONPWRUP      UNDEFINED   

ibterm>cat reg*
ST/TR REG:               
ST1  CF: 1.65 GHz      SP: 10.00 kHz
ST2  CF: 1.65 GHz      SP: 20.00 kHz
ST3  CF: 1.45 GHz      SP: 2.900 GHz
ST4  CF: 1.45 GHz      SP: 2.900 GHz
ST5  CF: 1.45 GHz      SP: 2.900 GHz
ST6  CF: 1.45 GHz      SP: 2.900 GHz
ST7  CF: 1.63 GHz      SP: 10.00 kHz
ST8  CF: 1.45 GHz      SP: 2.900 GHz
TR0  TL: 07:55:52 FEB 23, 1999
TR1  TL: 17:34:55 SEP 14, 2001 17:36:57 SEP 14, 2
TR2  TL: 17:34:55 SEP 14, 2001 17:36:57 SEP 14, 2
TR3  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR4  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR5  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR6  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR7  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR8  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR9  TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR10 TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR11 TL: 07:55:53 FEB 23, 1999
TR12 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR13 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR14 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR15 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR16 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR17 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR18 TL: 07:55:54 FEB 23, 1999
TR19 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR20 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR21 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR22 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR23 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR24 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR25 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR26 TL: 07:55:55 FEB 23, 1999
TR27 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR28 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR29 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR30 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR31 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR32 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR33 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR34 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR35 TL: 07:55:56 FEB 23, 1999
TR36 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR37 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR38 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR39 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR40 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR41 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR42 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR43 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR44 TL: 07:55:57 FEB 23, 1999
TR45 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR46 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR47 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR48 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR49 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR50 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR51 TL: 07:55:58 FEB 23, 1999
TR52 TL: 07:55:
ibterm>
ibterm: Done.
miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$ spq "*id"
exit value cannot find gpib device "sp" at /home/miti/bin/gpib-lab-lib.pl line 405.
miti@miti-System-Product-Name:~$

Perl doesn't work though.