Agilent U1272A - Data logging - Software fail :(

[PetrosA]

I had to monitor a customer's voltage during a service call today and wanted to record it for an extended time while I checked some other things. Hooked everything up, got the message that my U1272A was connected on the laptop and the DMM showed remote status activated, but never got any readings to the laptop - nada, zilch, nic, tipota - no voltage readings, no log, no graphs, no nothing. Restarted laptop, restarted DMM, restarted software multiple times, looked like a newbie asshat in front of the customer. I was not a happy electrician. Needless to say, I can't charge anyone for that 30-45 min. spent putzing around with the meter and laptop.

[Mechatrommer]

...Hooked everything up, got the message that my U1272A was connected on the laptop and the DMM showed remote status activated, but never got any readings to the laptop...

maybe there's some buttons on the DMM need to be pressed to start the upload?

[PetrosA]

No, there's a separate stored memory upload function. All I was trying to do was real time datalogging and it was the real time readout that I wasn't getting.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Hi PetrosA .

Your story gave me the idea , to prepare an small  How-to, about to quickly troubleshoot ,
such conditions.

For now I would suggest to read again , the data logger "Quick Start Guide" ,
and have some practice by making  in door experiments , by doing everything by the book at hand .





 

[EEVblog]

FYI, I just got a U1272A yesterday. Unfortunately no PC interface lead, will have to get one of those.
Damn fine looking meter though...

Dave.

[firewalker]

Yes, it kind of sexy!

[Kiriakos-GR]

Yes, it kind of sexy!

At list its not painted Green , that is the color that I hate ..
Everything industrial  at 70s - 80s  was painted Green or Gray or light blue .. 

[firewalker]

Yes, it kind of sexy!

that is the color that I hate ..

I bet you had a lot of fun while in the army... 

[Kiriakos-GR]

Thanks God , I had served my Army time to Air-force ..  (telecommunications )  ;-) 
 

[PetrosA]

I tried it at home last night and again the software saw the meter, indicated that there was a connection but got no readings. I reinstalled the software and it started working normally. I don't know what was wrong.

[Kiriakos-GR]

I reinstalled the software and it started working normally. I don't know what was wrong.

I can only imagine what got wrong in the operating system of your laptop,
and this could be an small software glitch, that caused in the Net-framework layer issues,
between the COM port driver and the software it self.

The Net-framework layer is the fastest path for communication, between hardware + drivers + applications,
it has the highest priority as layer , and offers the best results for real-time data transfers.

Any way , the good news from your latest message ,
are that the software has the ability to cure such issues,
by an simple reinstall.

And this is the only thing, that any one haves to remember about it .      

[PetrosA]

I just hope that it doesn't become a tradition - to have to install the software at every customer's house or business - that would not be good.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Call Microsoft and nag to them .  :-)

( About the operation of Net-framework in laptops = devices with more complex power saving schemes ,
when operating with batteries. )

Another possibility could be the power saving settings about the COM ports.
Do they get effected by your OS system ?  ( some settings needs inspection)

I am an unofficial doctor (I did not had the cash to pay for the certification exams ), about Windows 2000 Pro servers , and XP Pro,
but I have no idea about " Vista or 7 " .  

In any case one freelancer who does computers repairs , he will able to help in such issues ,
the technician who will face similar problems , with his own laptop computer.
(Every laptop model has an different, internal hardware configuration )   

Desktops is a different animal , very less issues , or no at all.    

[Mechatrommer]

I just hope that it doesn't become a tradition - to have to install the software at every customer's house or business - that would not be good.

pretty much this is the reason why i dont like playing (installing) with new software anymore. sometime it can srew my exitsting softwares setting. but recently i got odd behaviour something like this. my video cannot play back. after format and install all os+softwares, then i can play/edit movie, but then week later, it cannot play again, even though i dont install anything new. it happened several time (corrupt->format->ok) cycle until i realized my old harddisk is giving up, it start to develop bad sectors. so i changed to a new harddisk, reinstall everything (including ghosting to avoid it happen again) its ok until now, months already still ok. so the morale... check your harddisk "integrity"

[Kiriakos-GR]

so the morale... check your harddisk "integrity"

I have double hard drives as RAID 1 = mirror , plus "Ghost 14" for regular backups every two weeks, in to a third HDD.

There is no way to get a flat Tyre , because of a failing hard drive.  
And I do suggest the RAID 1 = mirror setup , for every one who has lots of software, installed on his computer.    

At the RAID 1 = mirror , the integrity is monitored automatically .

[saturation]

I'll check into it when I get to review that section of the 1272a.

In the data capture mode without a direct PC connection, the spec sheet claims it can store 10k data points, versus just 200 on the 1252a.  But in manual mode, its only 100 or  ??200 datapoints.  If you set the sampling period to just 1 sec per sample, that's almost 3 hours of continuous data collection, so one really needn't do live PC connections; its also safer for industrial and electrical environments not having to take a PC into that location.

[PetrosA]

I'll check into it when I get to review that section of the 1272a.

In the data capture mode without a direct PC connection, the spec sheet claims it can store 10k data points, versus just 200 on the 1252a.  But in manual mode, its only 100 or  ??200 datapoints.  If you set the sampling period to just 1 sec per sample, that's almost 3 hours of continuous data collection, so one really needn't do live PC connections; its also safer for industrial and electrical environments not having to take a PC into that location.

Sometimes you need the graph data for troubleshooting. I also feel completely safe with the optical coupling to my battery powered laptop...

[Mechatrommer]

so the morale... check your harddisk "integrity"

I have double hard drives as RAID 1 = mirror , plus "Ghost 14" for regular backups every two weeks, in to a third HDD.

i do it manually, periodically backing up stuff into my external HDD (sometime 6 months, sometime 1 year, most time lazy ). i dont like the idea of HDD keep turning ON for a long time. maybe it will not last long compared if seldomly switched ON. thats my imagination telling.
ps: i remember there are 2 events of major breakdown (total data loss) in my history of computing. that was long time ago.
ot?

[PetrosA]

I think I might know what happened. I have my laptop set to hibernate instead of sleep, and I rarely restart it. It's possible that the virtual COM port was corrupted when the laptop went into hibernation (It's been years since I used anything on RS232, but I kind of remember that being an issue...). I tried it a few more times over the weekend, and had some nasty experiences with the GUI and hibernation. I was able to reproduce the partial connectivity again (settings are getting through, readings are not). If I close the laptop with GUI still running, it freezes the GUI process that was running and it can't be killed - i.e. the only way to shut the process down and get GUI to start again properly is to do a hard restart since a normal shutdown can't kill the process and the OS just sits there waiting for the process to close. If my problem last week was a stuck GUI process, I'll never know. I do know that I'll have to make sure it shuts down each time I use it.

Some things I don't understand about the software:

Why don't the preferences stick after shutting down the program? What's the sense in having preferences if you have to reset them (0 second sample rate) each time you use the software?

Why don't other things like screen settings stick either? I only need the main readout graphed, but each time I start the software I have to click twice to close the bottom pane on the graphs tab, then drag the bottom graph out of the way.

Are others seeing battery level or other indications other than connected status on the bottom of the screen? I don't have anything active other than connection status.

[saturation]

Hibernate can be a PITA in Windows, IMHO.  When software looks 'goofy' first try switching hibernate off so it purges all set variables and see what happens.  Sleep mode is better if you use the PC daily.  Hopefully this is why your data logger is erratic.

[saturation]

Congratulations!  I think the DMM designers have finally got something right and unique in the shape, layout, and color of the DMM.

I really like the orange.  Its very close to 'international orange' used in rescue gear, i.e., the coast guard.  Very high visibility, more than the Fluke yellow [ yellow was also a high visibility color superceded by orange] and in most locations, from job site to jungle, orange is very easy to see.

FYI, I just got a U1272A yesterday. Unfortunately no PC interface lead, will have to get one of those.
Damn fine looking meter though...

Dave.

[PetrosA]

Hibernate can be a PITA in Windows, IMHO.  When software looks 'goofy' first try switching hibernate off so it purges all set variables and see what happens.  Sleep mode is better if you use the PC daily.  Hopefully this is why your data logger is erratic.

I tried sleep mode but the batteries don't last very long - a day at the most.

[gobblegobble]

I really like the orange.  Its very close to 'international orange' used in rescue gear, i.e., the coast guard.  Very high visibility, more than the Fluke yellow [ yellow was also a high visibility color superceded by orange] and in most locations, from job site to jungle, orange is very easy to see.

You sure you don't mean 'safety orange'? It looks quite yellowish orange in the pictures and international orange has much more red in it - it's barely orange at all.

[Kiriakos-GR]

I do not care that much about the colors ,
If I get this  'international orange' in to a  industrial site or factory for few hours,
soon it will turn to 'international black'  

All those videos , with smiling electricians , with clean cloths and white gloves,
its just an Hollywood style approach , and far from the electricians or industrial workers , reality.      

[saturation]

Yes, you are right.  Didn't know there was such a difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_orange

I really like the orange.  Its very close to 'international orange' used in rescue gear, i.e., the coast guard.  Very high visibility, more than the Fluke yellow [ yellow was also a high visibility color superceded by orange] and in most locations, from job site to jungle, orange is very easy to see.

You sure you don't mean 'safety orange'? It looks quite yellowish orange in the pictures and international orange has much more red in it - it's barely orange at all.