Siglent SDL1000X/SDL1000X-E Electronic Load

[atimos]

It now has the model number listed again, phew.

Sorry about the scare, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the command to do that at all. I've rewritten the relevant section of the post to hopefully make this more clear to future readers.

Did you manage to give the extended ranges a try yet?

[TheDefpom]

I haven’t tested the 300W capability yet, but I can set the power limit at least.

 I will have to dig out my big 5V 100A power supply and load it up.

The re-worded instruction is much clearer.

And most of all, thanks for sharing the information!

I am tempted to do a video showing it.

[dkggpeters]

Worked like a charm.  Thanks guys.  Hardest part was figuring out SCPI since I had never used it before.

[aroundlsu]

Took me a while to figure out SCPI on Mac OS X. But installed a free trial of Labview, ran NI MAX, and connected the SDL1000 to my Mac via USB. Then I was able to run the SCPI commands and unlocked the 300W setting and 4 digit setting. Thanks everyone!

[besauk]

Just curious as to the voltage reading stability of your unit after the mod to 4 decimal places.  I have a 1020X and even with a rock solid voltage source, there is pretty consistent +/- 5 LSD bouncing around of the reading - effectively negating any benefit of the 4th decimal place.  How is the reading stability of your unit?  Current reading bounces around a bit too, perhaps a little less maybe +/- 2 or 3 LSD.  I would expect that to vary a little more just based on the load doing its job.  My main disappointment with this level of noise in the readings is that I can't easily make accurate internal resistance measurements of batteries without an added external device.

[natman69]

Hi,

any update on the real capability of this instrument at 300W?

[tautech]

Missing from documentation is the isolation spec for SDL1000X/X-E models.
All models now have a new front panel with this clearly displayed.

[oz2cpu]

Hi there,
my 1020X is with the correct firmware
I can telnet to it via its IP and port 5025 (using putty)
but the commands i found in this thread to upgrade it, have no effect
the *IDN? remain the original, and the readout on the system info remain the original..
please help ?

[oz2cpu]

I am refering to post #147
PROBLEM IS SOLVED

it turned out, I needed to do it a few times, and also reboot a few times, then suttently it report back correct upgraded type number
AND it also let me load it 300W
like shown here,
The is no feed back in the SCPI screen, i did the exactly same thing, copy and pasted,
so i could not have spelled wrong,
anyways i am happy, but a little bit worried if I need to use the scpi modes one day, seems like it is not too much alive or responding like my other siglent devices,
this one dont even say hi, when connected, i need to type *IDN? to get an answer,
none of the 4 upgrade commends returned anything.
I also did the trick mentionened in #149, but again, my unit did not repport the correct type number, then a few tried and reboots later,
it seems to work.

thanks to you all again, for sharing this, and supporting it.

[tv84]

No smoke yet?   

Good job to all.

[nez]

I'm looking at a few different entry-level electronic loads, and I was wondering about the measuring speed mentioned in the list of features for the SDL1000X-E series.

"Measuring speed of voltage and current: up to 500 kHz"

Is there somewhere I can find out what exactly this means in practice?

For example:
Is this the straight up sampling rate, and how does it work with logging and waveform trend chart (or connected PC software)?
How many samples (or how much time) can be captured?
Is the rate configurable, or automatically determined somehow depending on settings?


I didn't notice anything regarding this in the datasheet or user manual, but maybe I overlooked it. I also spent a bit of time searching for videos, but didn't see anything touching on this topic.

[tautech]

Yes it is a bit confusing however there are more clues to the performance of these loads in the programming guide and the EasySDL software.
Trend charts can be set to a max of 24 hours and readings recorded only as fast as every second and there's no apparent max file size however using just the instrument a 999s limit is imposed with a 1 us resolution.

I need to become more familiar with these and a few minutes bashing around in EasySDL finds a power of features that seem pretty simple to use however as we are out of stock for the next while can't do any tests.

Have a bash around in the 20 MB EasySDL package however if you do end up getting one of these loads do remember to install NIVISA for the connectivity drivers before attempting to connect the load otherwise your PC OS will install the incorrect ones for sure.
EasySDL SW:
https://int.siglent.com/download/softwares/?CateIdss=12

[tautech]

New firmware for SDL1000X/X-E models:

Version： V1.1.1.21R2
498 KB
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/zip/firmware/Electronic_load/SDL1000X_X-E_V1.1.1.21R2_EN.zip

Release notes
1. Fix bug: DHCP turn to be ON state after send *RST command.
2. Some units will crash after run for some time.

[rowifi]

LXI Connectivity

Hey Guys.. I'm thinking of getting one of these but I've never connected anything to ethernet or remote controlled, but would like to do this the the electronic load. So I read about SCPI ( Command set ) VISA ( some api ) and LXI..   
I see LXI specified in other manufacturers models ( Keysight e.g. ) but nowhere can I see LXI mentioned in the Siglent data sheet. Although they do show a video promoting the use of LXI, it doesn't specifically mention these electronic loads.

Do I need LXI? What are the pros and cons? Or, has it got it but not mentioned?

[tv84]

[rowifi]

Interesting.. I read into that, that the Siglent must have LXI by virtue that it has Ether net connectivity and is not a LeCroy device?

[tautech]

LXI Connectivity

Hey Guys.. I'm thinking of getting one of these but I've never connected anything to ethernet or remote controlled, but would like to do this the the electronic load. So I read about SCPI ( Command set ) VISA ( some api ) and LXI..   
I see LXI specified in other manufacturers models ( Keysight e.g. ) but nowhere can I see LXI mentioned in the Siglent data sheet. Although they do show a video promoting the use of LXI, it doesn't specifically mention these electronic loads.

Do I need LXI? What are the pros and cons? Or, has it got it but not mentioned?

Interesting.. I read into that, that the Siglent must have LXI by virtue that it has Ether net connectivity and is not a LeCroy device?

LXI/LAN connectivity can be considered as the same for your needs however if your PC OS is Linux then you might consider member lundmar's excellent LXI Tools application but as yet it's not listed to work with SDL1000X so you may need to work with him to get it up and running:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/open-source-lxi-tools-and-liblxi-v1-0-released-for-gnulinux/

Otherwise remote control is done with either LabVIEW or the Windows EasySDL SW package. (Requires NIVISA Runtime drivers)
I recommend you investigate EasySDL as it is a powerful package.

Yes it is a bit confusing however there are more clues to the performance of these loads in the programming guide and the EasySDL software.
Trend charts can be set to a max of 24 hours and readings recorded only as fast as every second and there's no apparent max file size however using just the instrument a 999s limit is imposed with a 1 us resolution.

I need to become more familiar with these and a few minutes bashing around in EasySDL finds a power of features that seem pretty simple to use however as we are out of stock for the next while can't do any tests.

Have a bash around in the 20 MB EasySDL package however if you do end up getting one of these loads do remember to install NIVISA for the connectivity drivers before attempting to connect the load otherwise your PC OS will install the incorrect ones for sure.
EasySDL SW:
https://int.siglent.com/download/softwares/?CateIdss=12

[szszoke]

If you want to get EasySDL up and running on Linux, you my guide might help.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-easywavex-on-linux-with-wine/

Please write a comment on the post if you were able to get other Siglent apps up and running.

[Timpert]

New firmware for SDL1000X/X-E models:

Version： V1.1.1.21R2
498 KB
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/zip/firmware/Electronic_load/SDL1000X_X-E_V1.1.1.21R2_EN.zip

Release notes
1. Fix bug: DHCP turn to be ON state after send *RST command.
2. Some units will crash after run for some time.

I ran into this bug almost two years ago, so I was quite curious about the fix. It turns out there is still a bit of an issue. I can telnet to port 5025 and manually issue the *RST command, and the instrument resets while retaining its IP settings. Yay! But when issuing the *RST command using pyvisa/pyvisa-py, pyvisa craps out. All my other instruments perform a reset just fine using this method, so there is still something not quite right here.

I am currently using five of these loads in a remote controlled setup, so I would love to see this sorted. If I can help I gladly will. 

[tautech]

New firmware for SDL1000X/X-E models:

Version： V1.1.1.21R2
498 KB
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/zip/firmware/Electronic_load/SDL1000X_X-E_V1.1.1.21R2_EN.zip

Release notes
1. Fix bug: DHCP turn to be ON state after send *RST command.
2. Some units will crash after run for some time.

I ran into this bug almost two years ago, so I was quite curious about the fix. It turns out there is still a bit of an issue. I can telnet to port 5025 and manually issue the *RST command, and the instrument resets while retaining its IP settings. Yay! But when issuing the *RST command using pyvisa/pyvisa-py, pyvisa craps out. All my other instruments perform a reset just fine using this method, so there is still something not quite right here.

I am currently using five of these loads in a remote controlled setup, so I would love to see this sorted. If I can help I gladly will.

Please PM me some examples of your code/commands to send to Siglent.

[Timpert]

** EDIT ** Things are not always what they appear to be at first, please also read my next post. There is no bug, resetting the instrument works just fine.

This is a very simple piece of Python 3 code to reproduce the error. Pyvisa is the latest version (1.11.3) at the time of writing.

Code: [Select]

import pyvisa as visa
visa_rm = visa.ResourceManager('@py')

eload_ip = '192.168.1.5'
sdl = visa_rm.open_resource('TCPIP::'+eload_ip+'::INSTR')After running this in the console,

Code: [Select]

sdl.query('*IDN?') produces the well-known SDL1000x ID string, and no errors. The instrument can be operated remotely without issue. But after trying

Code: [Select]

sdl.write('*RST') the following error is produced after a brief wait:

Code: [Select]

VisaIOError: VI_ERROR_IO (-1073807298): Could not perform operation because of I/O error.From that point onwards, it is no longer possible to access the instrument until the sdl object is re-created. My guess is that Pyvisa times out waiting for a VXI-11 handshake that never comes, and the instrument is only accessible again after reconnecting.

Next, I tried the following:

Code: [Select]

import pyvisa as visa
visa_rm = visa.ResourceManager('@py')

eload_ip = '192.168.1.5::5025'
sdl = visa_rm.open_resource('TCPIP::'+eload_ip+'::SOCKET')
sdl.write_termination = '\x0A'
sdl.read_termination = '\x0A'This sets up a socket connection instead of a VXI-11 connection to port 5025. The instrument accepts this. With a socket connection I can say

Code: [Select]

sdl.write('*RST')to the instrument, watch it reset itself and continue operating it from a known state. Yay! So with a socket connection, *RST works as it should, but with a VXI connection it doesn't. The bug is thus only half fixed. Luckily, the workaround of using a socket connection is easy. 

[Timpert]

Okay, update, *RST does work with with VXI connection, resetting the instrument it is just slow. I had the visa resource timeout set to one second, but the instrument needs 7 seconds to perform the *RST and become responsive again. So before issuing the *RST command, I set the timeout to 10 seconds and now it also works with a VXI-11 connection. But there is a difference in behavior between VXI and socket connection in Python, which caused me to erroneously believe that the VXI implementation of *RST was still buggy.

When using a socket connection, the "write" function of pyvisa does not block program flow. It just fires whatever into the instrument buffer and carries on because there is no RPC call/handshake thing going on. Any follow-up commands are immediately issued and stored in the instrument buffer, but execution by the instrument may be delayed. So when the visa resource timeout is set to 1 second, this snippet generates a timeout:

Code: [Select]

sdl.write('*RST')
sdl.write(':SOUR:FUNC VOLT')
sdl.write(':SOUR:VOLT:LEV:IMM 10')
print(sdl.query('*IDN?')) With a socket connection it times out on the last line. However, the instrument does enter constant voltage mode at 10 V after 7 seconds following reset. The program just doesn't block at the write operations and only times out at the query because the instrument doesn't respond to queries within seven seconds after reset. With a VXI connection, the snippet times out on the first line because it now does block on the write operations and only continues when a write operation is complete, which after a reset takes 7 seconds. So generally, VXI is safer because program flow only continues when the instrument has carried out the command and is ready to carry out the next one. But it is also slower due to the blocking write operations and RPC calls that the instrument must carry out.

Short version of this story: set the visa resource timeout to 10 seconds and enjoy a good reset.

[tautech]

Good stuff Tim, thanks very much. 
Tech support thanked me which I then pass to you and your later posts have been brought to their attention.
Rob.

[Timpert]

Okay, great! Yeah, I guess that the response time of 7 seconds is a "trap for young players" that got me. I hope that my experience can help other people to avoid this pitfall.

[tautech]

Okay, great! Yeah, I guess that the response time of 7 seconds is a "trap for young players" that got me. I hope that my experience can help other people to avoid this pitfall.

It is my hope 7s can be much reduced !
Siglent will look at their coding and hopefully make some improvements.