Author Topic: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything  (Read 140107 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Sparky

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 450
  • Country: us
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #150 on: February 01, 2016, 11:12:28 pm »
@BenchVue Team:

Any plan to add 53200 Series RF Frequency Counters/Timers to BenchVue app?  If not, I think I am not the first or second person to make the recommendation :D

Thanks!
Sparky

Count me in :-+
Good start point can be Timelab http://www.ke5fx.com/timelab/readme.htm

Thank you plesa!  Perfect timing  :-+ It's an immediate help :)
 

Offline ECEdesign

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 173
  • Country: us
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #151 on: February 02, 2016, 01:36:02 am »
I am looking to get a HP/Agilent/Keysight 34401A (likely used since I'm a student).  What can I do with the free version of this software with that multimeter?  Assuming I figure out how to interface serial with my computer.
 

Offline plesa

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 965
  • Country: se
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #152 on: February 02, 2016, 08:21:20 pm »
I am looking to get a HP/Agilent/Keysight 34401A (likely used since I'm a student).  What can I do with the free version of this software with that multimeter?  Assuming I figure out how to interface serial with my computer.


You can use the DMM connectivity utility or you can try to apply for Free BenchVue DMM Pro.
https://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=GB&lc=eng&ckey=2620987&id=2620987&cmpid=1-7025931885

Check thread
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/free-benchvue-dmmfgdaq-pro/

It has similar functionality like free Agilent DMM connectivity utility.
http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-2307503/digital-multimeter-dmm-connectivity-utility-software

Which is the best if you do not want to make your own scripts in Python.
Another possibility is to use Excel macro for logging directly to spreadsheet ( it is posted few pages back).
 

Offline PioB

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 84
  • Country: ch
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #153 on: February 23, 2016, 11:30:25 am »
Pleasant surprise, Benchvue just updated itself to 3.1.1602.19. Unfortunately, I cannot find a changelog. New instrument support perhaps as at the surface it seems to look the same?

Edit: Miswrote 3.3 instead of 3.1. Corrected.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2016, 10:46:49 am by PioB »
 

Offline rosbuitre

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 90
  • Country: ar
My instruments: DMM Keysight 34461A / Tektronix DMM916 / Fluke 12, Rigol DS1074Z, Deer DE-5000, Siglent SDG805 / SDP3303D, Dayton Dats2
 

Offline Sbampato12

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 221
  • Country: it
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #155 on: February 29, 2016, 02:17:42 pm »
I've tried the E3632A power supply with benchvue, and the voltage range 15V works OK, but the software shows the second range as 20.6V instead the 30V of the power supply.

By front panel (manual operation) I'm able to change the voltage range to 30V and choose any voltage inside the range.

May it be a kind of bug, or I'm doing something wrong?

PS: I'm using GPIB interface.
 

Offline deepskyridge

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 87
  • Country: us
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #156 on: February 29, 2016, 04:38:47 pm »
Any chance of adding the 33120A function gen to benchview ??

Thanks
Gary
 

Offline BenchVue TeamTopic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 48
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #157 on: March 01, 2016, 05:00:34 pm »
Hi All, this forum always seems to be on top of things. We did release our newest BenchVue platform release this last week, the latest version is 3.1. The platform releases are a maintenance release so you won't see much difference besides some performance enhancements and the odd bug fixes.

We also released updates to 3 of our apps this week as well. The Power Supply app, Spectrum Analyzer app, and Network Analyzer app have all been updated and you should be able to update via the app tab in BenchVue.  New instruments have been added to each of these apps along with additional defect fixes.

We also released an Electronic Load app that should help those of you doing power characterization. This Eload app allow you to control your electronic load. Characterize your power by data logging power, current, and voltage. For those that need an easy method of controlling parallel channels, you can do that easily with our parallel channel configurator. Once you've setup your parallel channel, you can control the parallel channels as if they were a single load. You can also automate your measurements with other instruments with our Test Flow app.

The latest list of supported instruments is located at
http://www.keysight.com/find/BenchVueInstruments

~David
 

Offline BenchVue TeamTopic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 48
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #158 on: March 01, 2016, 05:08:52 pm »
I've tried the E3632A power supply with benchvue, and the voltage range 15V works OK, but the software shows the second range as 20.6V instead the 30V of the power supply.

By front panel (manual operation) I'm able to change the voltage range to 30V and choose any voltage inside the range.

May it be a kind of bug, or I'm doing something wrong?

PS: I'm using GPIB interface.

This is a known bug. Please try updating to version 3.1 and let me know if you still have the problem.

Brian
 

Offline Sbampato12

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 221
  • Country: it
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #159 on: March 02, 2016, 03:18:37 am »
I've tried the E3632A power supply with benchvue, and the voltage range 15V works OK, but the software shows the second range as 20.6V instead the 30V of the power supply.

By front panel (manual operation) I'm able to change the voltage range to 30V and choose any voltage inside the range.

May it be a kind of bug, or I'm doing something wrong?

PS: I'm using GPIB interface.

Yep, thats right. I've had problems with update (two attempts, both failed) but then I've downloaded it again (the new one) from website and installed. It works now!

Thanks.
This is a known bug. Please try updating to version 3.1 and let me know if you still have the problem.

Brian
 

Offline surachoke

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 4
  • Country: th
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #160 on: April 23, 2016, 10:48:10 am »
Any plan for Benchvue support on the InfiniiVision 6014L low profile oscilloscope?

As far as I know, the 6000A version can be utilised with Benchvue.

 

Offline plesa

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 965
  • Country: se
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #161 on: April 23, 2016, 11:22:10 am »
It is quite unlikely to add support for this scope, but it is still active product. Try to change identificator of scope from 6014L to 6014. I do the same trick for L4411A DMM, which also do not have support in BenchVue ant it works like charm.
 
The following users thanked this post: surachoke

Offline surachoke

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 4
  • Country: th
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #162 on: April 24, 2016, 03:28:10 am »
Could you please show me how to change the identificator?

Can this be done on the Benchvue or Keysight IO Lib.?

It is quite unlikely to add support for this scope, but it is still active product. Try to change identificator of scope from 6014L to 6014. I do the same trick for L4411A DMM, which also do not have support in BenchVue ant it works like charm.
 

Offline Karel

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2217
  • Country: 00
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #163 on: April 24, 2016, 06:15:42 am »
Hi All, this forum always seems to be on top of things. We did release our newest BenchVue platform release this last week, the latest version is 3.1. The platform releases are a maintenance release so you won't see much difference besides some performance enhancements and the odd bug fixes.

What's the status of the Linux version?

 

Offline plesa

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 965
  • Country: se
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #164 on: April 28, 2016, 09:17:23 pm »
Could you please show me how to change the identificator?

Can this be done on the Benchvue or Keysight IO Lib.?

It is quite unlikely to add support for this scope, but it is still active product. Try to change identificator of scope from 6014L to 6014. I do the same trick for L4411A DMM, which also do not have support in BenchVue ant it works like charm.

On L4411A I modified multimeter firmware. For DSO6000 try to look in configuration files for BenchVue, because firmware seems to be shared with non L version.
 
The following users thanked this post: surachoke

Offline 6thimage

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 181
  • Country: gb
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #165 on: April 28, 2016, 10:30:53 pm »
Hi All, this forum always seems to be on top of things. We did release our newest BenchVue platform release this last week, the latest version is 3.1. The platform releases are a maintenance release so you won't see much difference besides some performance enhancements and the odd bug fixes.
What's the status of the Linux version?

Unlikely I'm guessing. Benchvue appears to be written in matlab (with the matlab/mathworks copyright on the about screen), so it should be possible for it to be compiled for linux, but keysight's IO library is windows only, and I doubt they will ever release a linux version.

However, benchvue works quite well in a virtual machine.
 

Offline VK5RC

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 2672
  • Country: au
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #166 on: April 28, 2016, 11:40:30 pm »
Hi David, 
Can I also put a vote in for B-V to be able to control a 3458a, it is your high end DMM and I feel should be included.
Thanks
Robert
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

Offline Dr. Frank

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2384
  • Country: de
BenchVue 3.2 - Digitizing with 34465A FW 2.14
« Reply #167 on: May 08, 2016, 06:09:07 am »
I updated to BenchView, PRO DMM 3.2, and also my 34465A to latest FW 2.14, which has now 2MB of memory.
FW 2.14 got an improvement in internal timing, to avoid "possible race conditions".

It is now possible over LAN to digitize with full 50kHz rate, without any 20µs delay, or so, and also without crashing the BV software.

The samples really occur in 20µs steps.

For longer sample counts, like 4MSa, anyhow, BV takes much longer than the calculated 80sec.

I can't figure out yet, what happens here, obviously the instrument and/or the BV program have still problems with direct data transfer.

Frank
« Last Edit: May 08, 2016, 06:36:17 am by Dr. Frank »
 
The following users thanked this post: Sparky

Offline Messtechniker

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 782
  • Country: de
  • Old analog audio hand - No voodoo.
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #168 on: May 08, 2016, 09:53:15 am »
BenchView does not honour math :-//

For example: my trusted 34465A indicates (locally) -0.100 dB.
And BenchVue indicates -0.100 VAC. BenchVue should rather indicate -0.100 dB
- which I would prefer - or the proper pre-math value of 0.766 VAC.

Yours - Messtechniker
Agilent 34465A, Siglent SDG 2042X, Hameg HMO1022, R&S HMC 8043, Peaktech 2025A, Voltcraft VC 940, M-Audio Audiophile 192, R&S Psophometer UPGR, 3 Transistor Testers, DL4JAL Transistor Curve Tracer, UT622E LCR meter
 

Offline FivePoint03

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 51
  • Country: gb
Re: BenchVue 3.2 - Digitizing with 34465A FW 2.14
« Reply #169 on: May 11, 2016, 08:27:20 pm »
I updated to BenchView, PRO DMM 3.2, and also my 34465A to latest FW 2.14, which has now 2MB of memory.
FW 2.14 got an improvement in internal timing, to avoid "possible race conditions".

It is now possible over LAN to digitize with full 50kHz rate, without any 20µs delay, or so, and also without crashing the BV software.

The samples really occur in 20µs steps.

For longer sample counts, like 4MSa, anyhow, BV takes much longer than the calculated 80sec.

I can't figure out yet, what happens here, obviously the instrument and/or the BV program have still problems with direct data transfer.

Frank

Can you share your 50k setup - I have BenchVue Pro 3.1.1602.19 / DMM Pro 3.2 trial / FW A.02.14-02.40-02.14-00.49-02-01 / library 1.21, and still only 25k.  I really need 50k!

 

Offline Dr. Frank

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2384
  • Country: de
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #170 on: May 12, 2016, 08:20:56 am »
Here's my working setup. The signal is a 10V reference with chopper spikes.
By zooming in, you can clearly see the 20µs / 50kHz sample spacing.

Currently I connected the instrument via USB, to avoid any network and firewall problems over the internal LAN network. (The 1 GBit LAN does work also, anyhow).


The highest rate of 50kHz can not be set consistently, sometimes I also get this limitation of 25kHz, or a forced trigger delay of 20µs, which I can not get rid of via BV.

Root cause, is that the 34465A is not set properly to DIGITIZING, but will stay in CONTINUOUS mode instead, which implements this 20µs delay.
I think, the initialization to fastest setting is not working correctly.

In this case, I set the instrument to local, and set it manually to DIGITIZING, zero delay, and so on.

If I select DIGITZING over BV afterwards, it will usually work, and you can now also set zero delay in the BV menu, as displayed.

If I use long samples as 1MSa or so, the digitizing and data transfer takes much too long.. obviously, the data were not transferred fast enough over the bus.
One problem is the wrong data format, ASCII, instead of binary (8 byte real number).

See command log, by using IOMonitor and command logging.

As a summary, BV is still not optimized for digitizing at fastest rates.
I recommend to get the 2M memory option (you'll get it for free, currently), and then sample at 50Khz directly into the instrument, creating a file afterwards, which you may import to PC over USB or LAN.

Frank

Update:
I have the 2nd DMM Pro license installed on a much faster machine, also USB, same problems. So the speed of the PC is not the crucial parameter.
 
It's working with 50kSa/sec, if I go to local <shift key> => <Acquire> => <Digitize>

If I chose 1MSa/Trigger , 1 Trigger, it takes 40sec instead of 20sec to digitize and upload.
It takes 3 minutes, if I set 1Sa/Trigger and 1M Triggers.

Root cause is also the simple READ command to transfer data: "R?"
This FiFo transfer, using the output buffer, slows everything down.
This has to be programmed differently, w/o buffering, directly reading, or DMA transfer, and again, using 8 byte REAL format, instead of 16bytes ASCII format.
Keysight should also change 34465A firmware to have the elder 4 byte REAL format available, like in the 34411A. (also for compatibility reasons)

Keysight anyhow uses the VISA / IVI interface and drivers for MatLab, where data transfer is probably not optimized for fast acquisition.
Or maybe they need to use a different command set / macro for DMA, I'm not familiar with that package.

Update II:

LAN, including several switches and central router seems to slow down transfer to 25kSa/sec.
Over USB, it works up to 2 MSa.

data transfer is about 100kB/s on the first 40s, where the 34465A is busy digitizing.
After that, data rate increases to about 700kB/sec, where 34465A can respond to data requests with full speed.

A 2byte integer format would be better, (like the 3458A), then the 34465A state machine would be able to transfer data in real time.

Digitizing sample depth with BV is limited to the depth of the 34465A internal memory (50kSa or 2MSa), plus a certain percentage of data transfer during the digitizing phase.
Additional samples will be skipped.



« Last Edit: May 12, 2016, 11:37:14 am by Dr. Frank »
 
The following users thanked this post: Sparky

Offline 6thimage

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 181
  • Country: gb
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #171 on: May 12, 2016, 01:30:44 pm »
I've just come across a different bug with BenchVue - it incorrectly displays small current values on the instrument settings. When set to 1 uA (DC) the multimeter flashes up something like 0.000 004 uADC but BenchVue shows 0.000 4340 uADC. Strangely, the data logging and digitising show the correct value.

One problem is the wrong data format, ASCII, instead of binary (8 byte real number).

I'm really quite surprised at this (it's the reason I fired up BenchVue today) - I'm surprised it works (to a limited extent) and that Keysight aren't using the binary mode, the whole reason the binary mode is available is for digitising (hence why it is not enabled on the 34460/61A), especially considering the 3446xA only have 10/100 MBit network interfaces. I can only guess that the developers at Keysight are testing under ideal conditions (i.e. no network traffic on small networks).
 

Offline D3f1ant

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 346
  • Country: nz
  • Doing as little as possible, but no less.
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #172 on: May 15, 2016, 10:38:00 pm »
Is there any plans to add a Benchvue SMU App for the 2900 Series? Basically just a benchvue implementation of the rather clunky looking (but functional) Quick IV Measurement software would be nice.
 

Offline 6thimage

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 181
  • Country: gb
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #173 on: May 19, 2016, 12:19:50 am »
Just came across another problem with benchvue - when zooming into data on the graph that is not towards the beginning of the capture, the data is incorrectly displayed - I'm guessing your resampling for the lower zoom rates is not being correctly removed. I've attached two pictures of a repetitive signal, the first picture is the first falling edge, the second is of the second falling edge. The cursors are positioned as close together as benchvue would allow - in the first picture this cursors are on consecutive samples, in the second picture they are not. Just in case you want to try it, I've also attached the data.

Just a couple of side notes - I like that you have now added the ability to upload the data already in the multimeter's memory, it's very useful, and could you list an email address as to where the bug reports / issues are meant to be sent - I use a fairly minimal virtual machine, so benchvue says to install an email client and then email a zip, but it doesn't say where to.
 

Offline BenchVue TeamTopic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 48
Re: BenchVue 3.0 now available – ask the BenchVue team anything
« Reply #174 on: May 23, 2016, 02:15:28 pm »
It looks like we haven't been checking the forum enough recently! Allow me to give a quick response to some of these questions, some of the more detailed feedback will require us to look into the apps a little bit more deeply before we can adequately address them.

Thanks everyone for using BenchVue, taking your time to write these comments, and being passionate about test and measurement!

@Surachoke - I've added your request for the 6014L to our requests log. Hopefully we'll get progress in this area as it shouldn't be too difficult to integrate the commands. However there could be additional considerations for a faceless scope that we'll need to investigate.

@ Karel - Thanks for your interest in a Linux version. This is under serious consideration from Keysight but as you can imagine its not a trivial task. Once there is an early preview of the Linux version, can I call on you for some alpha/beta testing and feedback?

@VK5RC - Noted on the 3458A request. We've heard this many times and hopefully we'll be able to fit it into one of our upcoming development cycles.

@ Dr. Frank & @Messtechniker & @6thimage - We appreciate the feedback and characterization of the DMM app. Give our team some time to look into these points and we'll come back to the forum with our findings in the next week or two.

@D3f1ant - Some of the B2900 series are supported with BenchVue today. We currently support the B2901A, B2902A, B2911A, B2912A, B2961A, B2962A. These can be used with our power supply app.


~David

 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf