WinGPIB - Windows GPIB App (multi-purpose)

[IanJ]

Hi,

Small update to the EXE (see version 1.47 in post #1), somebody asked to be able to set sample rates in fractions of seconds i.e. X.Xsecs.
Minimum is now 0.1 secs.

Ian.

[Wintel]

Good program, very helpful.

[Frex]

Hello,

I purchased some time ago a used HP34401 DVM, and this software seem to do exactly
what i would. So the question is does it work on 34401 with only serial interface (with USB adapter) on Win7 (or win 10) ?
I first looked on BenchVue, but that really overpriced for what i need to do !
Best regards, and many thanks to all contributor of this tool.

Frex

[iMo]

Nope, the 34401A cannot work with a ttl/cmos USB dongle on its RS232.

Mind its rx/tx/dtr/dsr signals have got the rs232 levels (around +/- 9V, log1=-9V).

You need to convert the rs232 levels to ttl/cmos levels (ie. MAX232, or 2 transistors, etc).

Another issue to solve could be the handshaking. I've been using the serial, while I force the 34401's DTR input to +5V (a pullup 4k7 resistor) telling to the 34401 my side is always ready. Otherwise you most probably have to elaborate the DTR/DSR signals as well.

I was using the Agilent DMM Utility under Win7 and it worked till 10NPLC "reliably" (sometimes it had problem with initiation of the measurement, but the measurement itself was runnung for days fine). The lower NPLCs do not work reliably without handshaking. Today I use my own stm32 as an interface, fusing the 34401A data with two 16bit adcs (temperature) and an RTC, sending the data via Bluetooth to my PCs.

[Frex]

Hello,

Thanks for the answer.
So, even with the right level interface, it couldn't work fine, is that ?
What others solutions exist to record data with 34401 on modern PC ?
Does you own solution is available ?
Regards

Frex

[iMo]

With right interface and handshaking it works fine under Win7.
The 34401A rs232 interface speed is limited to 9600baud  therefore you cannot expect it will work with all sampling rates.

Other way to get the data off the 34401A is the GPIB interface - it is fast enough for any sampling rates 34401A supports..

[Frex]

Hello,

Ok fine.
You would recommend to  get a GPIB-USB adapter and that's it ?
It will work out of the box with the software ?
Do you know a "low cost" model that work fine and you would recommend ?
Thanks again.

Frex

[IanJ]

Hello,

Ok fine.
You would recommend to  get a GPIB-USB adapter and that's it ?
It will work out of the box with the software ?
Do you know a "low cost" model that work fine and you would recommend ?
Thanks again.

Frex

82357B via Ebay (knock off version) is probably what you are looking for. I have one and it works fine with my 3458A & Win10.

Ian.

[Frex]

Hello,

Ok, i ordered one 82357B on Aliexpress here  https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32905508446.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.1ecd6c373NtPPK .
I hope that will do the job. I will post my experience as soon received.
Thank !

Frex

[IanJ]

Hi,

Small update to the EXE (see version 1.48 in post #1), I have been playing with the PPM/DegC option in the Playback chart.

Ian.

[IanJ]

Hi,

Small update to the EXE (see version 1.49 in post #1), I have added a REFRESH CHART button in the Playback chart......much easier/quicker to refresh the graph if you make any changes to the graph settings etc.

Ian.

[Frex]

Hello,

I received the 82357A adapter these days.
After spending some time to understanding what  need to be installed, i finally  get it working.
I tried first the BenchVue  multimeter software (DMM), but i won't pay for that...
So i installed your IODeviceapp software and i must say that's a great job !
Thank you for sharing your job with us.

I use it with my HP34401 DMM, and it is connected to my Win7-64 computer.
I don't know if you already had this issue, but data graph display doesn't work.
Anyway, data logging work ok.
(When i enable data display, the error box message say that autoscale can't work
with negative data, but they are only positive ! There is the same issue when
 using post-process data display utility).

I would also have one question (i'm noob on SCPI commands) about data to be logged :
Does it is possible to record two differents measurements with the same device when data logging ?
For example, i would like to record with the DMM, the frequency of the incoming signal,
and  then record the AC RMS values. (Maybe by using alternate SCPI commands
for each measurements ?) Does it is possible ?
 Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

Frex

[IanJ]

Hello,

I received the 82357A adapter these days.
After spending some time to understanding what  need to be installed, i finally  get it working.
I tried first the BenchVue  multimeter software (DMM), but i won't pay for that...
So i installed your IODeviceapp software and i must say that's a great job !
Thank you for sharing your job with us.

I use it with my HP34401 DMM, and it is connected to my Win7-64 computer.
I don't know if you already had this issue, but data graph display doesn't work.
Anyway, data logging work ok.
(When i enable data display, the error box message say that autoscale can't work
with negative data, but they are only positive ! There is the same issue when
 using post-process data display utility).

I would also have one question (i'm noob on SCPI commands) about data to be logged :
Does it is possible to record two differents measurements with the same device when data logging ?
For example, i would like to record with the DMM, the frequency of the incoming signal,
and  then record the AC RMS values. (Maybe by using alternate SCPI commands
for each measurements ?) Does it is possible ?
 Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

Frex

I think logging from the same device would depend on the commands you want to use.......I just did a quick test and set up both channels to log from my 3458A and it appears to be doing so just fine.
You could run into problems if ch.1 sends a command that is due to take some time to respond and in the meantime ch.2 has sent it's command to the same device. You could find you get a queue of commands building up (the small pop up will show you queued commands).

Could you post your CSV log file here and maybe a screenshot of the app so I can see your setup and I will take a look at it. I seem to remember a similar issue during development but thought it was all fixed.

Ian.

[pwlps]

I think logging from the same device would depend on the commands you want to use.......I just did a quick test and set up both channels to log from my 3458A and it appears to be doing so just fine.
You could run into problems if ch.1 sends a command that is due to take some time to respond and in the meantime ch.2 has sent it's command to the same device. You could find you get a queue of commands building up (the small pop up will show you queued commands).

Yes, the commands can mix up if both devices point to the same physical address. Using only blocking commands might work but then you loose some of the advantages of asynchronous commands.  But there is one very simple solution to this. Add, on the device2 upper panel, a new button "set device2 same as device1" as an alternative to the "create device 2" button. The code of this button would be the same except for the first line:
dev2 = CreateDevice(... etc.
should be replaced by
dev2=dev1

This is quite different from setting the same address for both: as there is only one object - i.e. a single queue and a single device lock  -  commands cannot mix up.
I did not try but I don't see any reason this wouldn't work.

[Frex]

Hello,

Thank you for your answer.

First, below a screen-shoot of the error message that appear when data plot
is enabled and as soon the first value is recorded.
(value is indicated in error message as out of plot range axis, maybe an issue with decimal separator ?).
Note that there is same issue when opening a recorded csv files with playback plot viewer.
Anyway, the data log work fine and so i can show data plot results in others apps (Calc/Excel).



I tried to set both device channel with my 34401A, but i think the reading  are in collision (send at same time)
and so there is only the first value that is read.
I want to measure the RMS voltage first (command  is    :Measure:Voltage:AC? DEF,DEF) and then
i want to measure the input signal frequency (command is  :Measure:FREQency? DEF,DEF  ).

I understand that the second measurement must be delayed, but i must admit that i don't know how.
You can show my setup on the screenshoot below, only the first measure is received...
Can you help me to fix this ?





Regards.

Frex

[IanJ]

A first quick look at your screenshots......the app is crashing because your language uses commas for decimal points instead of full stops and its conflicting with the comma separated values.
Try selecting the semi-colon option instead, save settings, and clear your csv file and start again.

I would suggest get everything working with just one device first before trying two.

Ian.

[Frex]

Hello,

Ok, i will try  to change the language setting for the graph plot.

Note that i of course tried separate devices settings and if i select only one at once,
i got the correct measurement on the channel (frequency or AC value).
If i try to use both at same time there is probably a conflict and there is only one value read.
I don't know how to set the command (and where) avoiding to be send at same time (at sampling frequency) ?

Regards.

Frex

[IanJ]

Hi,

There is no place in my app to separate the timing of the requests.
I will look more into this by mimicking your setup later and see what happens.

Ian.

[pwlps]

There is no place in my app to separate the timing of the requests.

Hi Ian and Frex,

Maybe you missed my previous post where I suggested a small add-on addressing the collision problem (and precisely, this would automatically separate the timings), it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to add it in the code. And I think this is the only way to do it reliably. Of course it has to be tested for possible side effects - for example both devices will now have the same "name" fields (dev2.name same as dev1.name), but I did not look if this field is used in your latest code.

Edit
Another approach, without modyfying the code, would consist of using the blocking mode ("send blocking" checkbox checked) for one of the devices and async mode for the other. Then the command-responses sequences cannot mix up either.  However it will allow to mix the preceding configuration commands, if any such are added in "At Run": so it will only work if there is a single "At Run" command. If you need to add other commands to reconfigure the meter between the measurements (the case here),  the configuration commands should be sent in the same command string (in SCPI they are separated by a semicolon).
 Incidentally, I just saw that the settings on the screenshot are not correct: the commands "Measure.FREQ?" and "Measure.Volts?" should be repeated before each measurement, so these are "At run" commands and not "Pre run" commands.



Pawel

[IanJ]

Pawel,

I have been thinking about this and not sure I want to modify the code......its already a pretty complicated app due to my layout and cramming a lot of functionality in......I think it is good that ch.1 and ch.2 are separated completely and the essence of the app is to drive two different devices. I'd like to avoid confusion.

Not to mention the testing etc required.....

Hmmmm!

Ian.

[pwlps]

As I suggested it would only be an option, activated with a separate button. But I agree there are a lot of them already...

Pawel

[Frex]

Hello,

After tweaking some region setting in the OS, I finally get graph display working,
even if sometime i have some weird behavior.
(Maybe the Win7 OS is not as good supported as Win 10  too ?).
Anyway,  display is only for convenience. So that's fine as is.

About making two interlaced measurements with the same devices,
i think this would be a (for me at least) great feature, but i understand it require some work.
Too bad for me.
So the good point would be to found a tips to become this work with your actual software,
but I'm for now a beginner in scpi commands.

If you Ian or Pawel can gave me an example of commands i can use to try,
 that would help me a lot. (With the 34401, i want to log frequency and AC rms amplitude each 10s ).
I must admit that I'm little confused about the all options fields to complete on the GUI.
Thank you.
Regards.


Frex

[IanJ]

Hello,

After tweaking some region setting in the OS, I finally get graph display working,
even if sometime i have some weird behavior.
(Maybe the Win7 OS is not as good supported as Win 10  too ?).
Anyway,  display is only for convenience. So that's fine as is.

About making two interlaced measurements with the same devices,
i think this would be a (for me at least) great feature, but i understand it require some work.
Too bad for me.
So the good point would be to found a tips to become this work with your actual software,
but I'm for now a beginner in scpi commands.

If you Ian or Pawel can gave me an example of commands i can use to try,
 that would help me a lot. (With the 34401, i want to log frequency and AC rms amplitude each 10s ).
I must admit that I'm little confused about the all options fields to complete on the GUI.
Thank you.
Regards.


Frex

If you press the NOTEPAD button in the app it is loaded with some example commands for some instruments.

Ian.

[tppc]

Hi there,

I spent the afternoon reading every single post of this thread.
First of all, THANK YOU for sharing this remarquable work!

I would like to use your App to compare the readings of my 2 HP3457A units.
For the moment, I ran some tests with a Fenrir (Prologix clone) USB - GPIB adapter with no success.

1. I know for sure that the adapter works (tested with Prologix.exe from the KE5FX GPIB Toolkit


2. Is your App supposed to work with Prologix USB adapter?

3. When you select the INTERFACE Com Port, the default configuration is COM1:9600,N,8,1,CRLF
Except the com port which must be set to the Prologix virtual COM Port, are all other parameters significant and correct?
Furthermore, how do I specify the GPIB address? there is no input field for it???

4. Since I use a PROLOGIX clone, I did NOT Install the Keysight IO Libraries Suite.
Am I  right? or is it still necessary?

Can someone help?

Regards.

[IanJ]

Hi there,

I spent the afternoon reading every single post of this thread.
First of all, THANK YOU for sharing this remarquable work!

I would like to use your App to compare the readings of my 2 HP3457A units.
For the moment, I ran some tests with a Fenrir (Prologix clone) USB - GPIB adapter with no success.

1. I know for sure that the adapter works (tested with Prologix.exe from the KE5FX GPIB Toolkit
(Attachment Link)

2. Is your App supposed to work with Prologix USB adapter?

3. When you select the INTERFACE Com Port, the default configuration is COM1:9600,N,8,1,CRLF
Except the com port which must be set to the Prologix virtual COM Port, are all other parameters significant and correct?
Furthermore, how do I specify the GPIB address? there is no input field for it???

4. Since I use a PROLOGIX clone, I did NOT Install the Keysight IO Libraries Suite.
Am I  right? or is it still necessary?

Can someone help?

Regards.

I have never tried the Com Port interface type, nor have I used Prologix adaptors unfortunately.
All I can do is point you towards Pawel's original CodeProject and in there you'll find some info as to the functionality of SerialDevice.

Ian.