Hey EEVBlog members! We’re part of the Keysight BenchVue team and we are here to answer your questions on BenchVue. We’ll be monitoring this thread to answer your questions. Ask us anything!
Well, unfortunately the BenchVue 3.0 update did not work out well for me. The older version (2.7 I think) worked but did not see much use. The update installed with an error message of some sort which I don’t remember. My Keysight 34465A appeared at the bottom in the list but when selecting it for operation BenchVue 3.0 crashed (Windows 7 32 bit with dual screens). After this I uninstalled the whole affair because I was bent on doing something productive (see my contribution here - No. 4 in https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/building-your-own-voltage-reference-the-jvr/60/), instead of troubleshooting a programme I intended not to use very much anyway. Sorry folks.
Yours – Messtechniker
Hey EEVBlog members! ... Ask us anything!
Why are cows big and mice small? Why don't you get cows the size of mice, or mice the size of cows?
Well, unfortunately the BenchVue 3.0 update did not work out well for me. The older version (2.7 I think) worked but did not see much use. The update installed with an error message of some sort which I don’t remember. My Keysight 34465A appeared at the bottom in the list but when selecting it for operation BenchVue 3.0 crashed (Windows 7 32 bit with dual screens). After this I uninstalled the whole affair because I was bent on doing something productive (see my contribution here - No. 4 in https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/building-your-own-voltage-reference-the-jvr/60/), instead of troubleshooting a programme I intended not to use very much anyway. Sorry folks.
No way to show such a graph in Benchvue?
One thing I'd like to see in BV is synchronized acquisition/display of multiple instruments (DMMs in my case), i.e. having the same time base / x axis and two curves on the y axis instead of having different fully independent windows.
Hey EEVBlog members! We’re part of the Keysight BenchVue team and we are here to answer your questions on BenchVue. We’ll be monitoring this thread to answer your questions. Ask us anything!
Is the BenchVue Mobile Android app available via other means than Google Play store only?
http://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=GB&lc=eng&ckey=2428702&nid=-32762.1080833&id=2428702
Considering that not all Android devices can have Google Play (and not everyone wants to run Android with the invasive Google Services), and that this is an app that targets technically savy people (engineers), I'd think that a direct download of the apk file could be offered. Failing that, at least put it on the Amazon Android Store as well.
I'll see what I can do about this. Give me a few days and I'll update this thread.
~David
Truly sorry you experienced installation issues Messtechniker. If you do decide to give BenchVue another try please contact us directly via PM and we will attempt to resolve the issue you encountered. We are aware of a current issue with the 34465A without the digitizer option, that fix is coming shortly. Without knowing more about your situation I can't claim its the issue you encountered.
I have a 33250A and have tried your benchlink waveform software. The 'trial/unlicensed' version is quite limited and the 'list' at $766 for the complete version is a heck of a lot of $$ for not much capability.
Seems a very rudimentary piece of software to charge so much for. Given the test equipment is already premium priced and a large investment, the software costs are just another painful pill to swallow/justify. Maybe a large company doesn't see that as an expense, but for the little guy that's a lot of money for what is just a 'drawing' program...
cheers,
george.
Thank you for the release v3 of BenchVue
I have been using BenchVue for over a year now and it works really great for the applications I had.
Integrating more instruments, like the counters 53220A and 53230A would be really great!
Thank you for your input. The 3458A is a special DMM, I had the pleasure of redesigning the production test system for it many years ago and it is still the highest performing DMM in Keysight's arsenal. While the 3458A is not supported at this release, we are continuing to add new models all the time. I will make sure that it is included in our product planning and considered for future support.
This will be true for all requests in this thread. Development and SQ (software quality) takes time and resources but please voice your opinion on what types of instruments you would like to see supported. We will be keeping track of this thread and are actively working to add instruments.
BenchVue is designed by engineers for engineers. The engineers that we focus on are users that aren't programmers and want to be able to accomplish a task simply. BenchVue is Keysight's answer for users that have struggled to connect their PC to their instrument. For users that need to document their results but still use a camera to take a screenshot. For users that need to visualize their results in a graph but might struggle with the various data types and keeping track of results. We have had feedback on our user interface and are constantly working on improvements. I can't speak of future plans in detail but the gray background feedback has been taken to heart.
If you are already experiencing crashes, please use the built in feedback tool that BenchVue has (if BenchVue allows you to get that far). If not, we would be glad to work with you to solve your problem. Feel free to PM us on the EEBlog and we can work with you to get it resolved.
~David
I have a 33250A and have tried your benchlink waveform software. The 'trial/unlicensed' version is quite limited and the 'list' at $766 for the complete version is a heck of a lot of $$ for not much capability.
Seems a very rudimentary piece of software to charge so much for. Given the test equipment is already premium priced and a large investment, the software costs are just another painful pill to swallow/justify. Maybe a large company doesn't see that as an expense, but for the little guy that's a lot of money for what is just a 'drawing' program...
Hi George. We appreciate you taking the time to provide the feedback. Keysight's prices do attempt to reflect all the engineering, manufacturing, support and yes marketing that goes into creating and selling the products. I don't have an alternate answer for you at this time but did want to acknowledge your comment.
Hey EEVBlog members! We’re part of the Keysight BenchVue team and we are here to answer your questions on BenchVue. We’ll be monitoring this thread to answer your questions. Ask us anything!
If there is any way, use less number of services in windows in future builds, if that is possible. Don't use BV all the time and since am on pretty limited resource machine, I need to turn off BV services, since I can't do nothing like that from BV itself
Hi BenchVue guys,
i have an old good HP 54602B oscilloscope. Is there any chance for all of us with old good stuff to see any support for BenchVue in the near future ?
Thanks in advance for your answer.
I just want to chime in and say that I have to agree with George, the individual 'Pro' modules are pretty expensive for what they do...
The BenchVue Spectrum Analyzer module seems to support the PSA Series, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to include the E4406A VSA (which is essentially just a cut-down PSA).
I know that the E4406A is unsupported, but considering that it's basically just another PSA it would be great if it could be supported in BV. There are still lots of E4406A's around and in use.
One thing I'd like to see in BV is synchronized acquisition/display of multiple instruments (DMMs in my case), i.e. having the same time base / x axis and two curves on the y axis instead of having different fully independent windows.
One thing I'd like to see in BV is synchronized acquisition/display of multiple instruments (DMMs in my case), i.e. having the same time base / x axis and two curves on the y axis instead of having different fully independent windows.
Although you can't get one graph in BenchVue, you can now synchronize multiple DMMs by using the vastly improved Digitizer option in the DMM Pro app. Using external trigger, it is easy to set up multiple DMMs to capture various signals at the exact same time. Use "Export All" to put exported data from all DMMs into a single Excel spreadsheet, one DMM per tab. Each DMM will have the same timestamps, all relative to 0 instead of time of day as before. This makes it easy to cut and paste the data columns from all tabs into one, then use Excel's standard charting feature to get them all on one graph. I've made a video showing how to do this, available on Dropbox at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/232v7ecojkyntne/two_dmm_digi.mp4?dl=0
And by the way, the video shows how to use multiple external triggers and 1 Sample/trigger, so that two completely different DMMs with different internal sample rates can be synchronized. This requires another instrument to generate the triggers. I used a 33521 as a pulse generator for this. If precise timing is not required, you can instead use the VM Complete output out of one to trigger the other, making the data for the 2nd DMM off by one measurement period. If you have two identical DMMs, such as two 34465As, you can use a single external trigger and then change the sample count (and sample interval) to gather the data. The sample subsystem can be run faster than the trigger subsystem, but both modes are now available to you.
Brian
Thanks!
BTW, in BV2, there was a poor man's digitizing function for the 34461A which was really nice. Strangely, that function was not available on a 34465A without the DIG option, which doesn't make sense. Is BV3 different? I'd check but BV3 doesn't work with the 34465A without DIG option :-)
If there is any way, use less number of services in windows in future builds, if that is possible. Don't use BV all the time and since am on pretty limited resource machine, I need to turn off BV services, since I can't do nothing like that from BV itselfIf you are not actively running an activity in BenchVue the CPU consumption should be very small, if you see something different please let us know via PM and we'll attempt to diagnose the cause. Is it possible are you referring to RAM utilization while keeping BV open in the background?
Somehow I can't find the download link for the Linux version...
I did not study all BenchVue documentation, but is there a function to have it upload CSV/data automatically using FTP/file mechanism? For long-time (days+) experiments and data-logging it's a needed feature, when user can leave little PC running BenchVue to collect data and upload to server for realtime data access remotely. If not, it should not be very difficult to implement, given standard OS APIs, AFAIK. I used LabView for 34970A for that matter, but it's overkill for simple data gathering into CSV on network share.
One more thing. I know it's lot to ask, but perhaps in some future (v4.0? ) would be great to see BenchVue support 3rd-party DLL/scripting API to expose SCPI interface, so people can add custom functionality to support their equipment. It could possibly widen usability of BenchVue for many more people, than just Keysight instrument owners. That's what other products like NI's LabView have stronghold in, can work with anything, not limited to single brand/tool. Free hint - you can even have some section on website for users to share their setups and libraries across, just like what happening now here when someone post piece of software to interface particular tool, and others use it.
If we're on the subject of equipment support, is there any chance it'll ever be able to download data from my HP 4395A network analyser?
(Long shot, I know, but it would be really worthwhile... not sure how much longer it'll be physically possible to use floppy discs to get data off it!)
One thing I'd like to see in BV is synchronized acquisition/display of multiple instruments (DMMs in my case), i.e. having the same time base / x axis and two curves on the y axis instead of having different fully independent windows.
Although you can't get one graph in BenchVue, you can now synchronize multiple DMMs by using the vastly improved Digitizer option in the DMM Pro app. Using external trigger, it is easy to set up multiple DMMs to capture various signals at the exact same time. Use "Export All" to put exported data from all DMMs into a single Excel spreadsheet, one DMM per tab. Each DMM will have the same timestamps, all relative to 0 instead of time of day as before. This makes it easy to cut and paste the data columns from all tabs into one, then use Excel's standard charting feature to get them all on one graph. I've made a video showing how to do this, available on Dropbox at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/232v7ecojkyntne/two_dmm_digi.mp4?dl=0
And by the way, the video shows how to use multiple external triggers and 1 Sample/trigger, so that two completely different DMMs with different internal sample rates can be synchronized. This requires another instrument to generate the triggers. I used a 33521 as a pulse generator for this. If precise timing is not required, you can instead use the VM Complete output out of one to trigger the other, making the data for the 2nd DMM off by one measurement period. If you have two identical DMMs, such as two 34465As, you can use a single external trigger and then change the sample count (and sample interval) to gather the data. The sample subsystem can be run faster than the trigger subsystem, but both modes are now available to you.
Brian