Free HP3478A multimeter control program.

[Miti]

Hi Luke,

I have Kaspersky free installed on my computer and all of a sudden today, after years of having and using your software, Kaspersky deleted multiple version of this application because it thinks is infected with VHO:Trojan.Win32.Convagent.gen. I tried to download it again from your site and it doesn't let me.
Do you know what can cause this? Something in the SW behavior that looks like a trojan, or Kaspersky went crazy? Real trojan?

Thanks,
Miti

[Miti]

Now it won't even allow me to download anything from your site. It says:
"Visiting a dangerous website has been prevented"

What is going on? Has Kaspersky gone nuts? Can other people check with different antivirus SW?

https://mesterhome.com/gpibsw/hp3478a/Software/

Thanks,
Miti

[coromonadalix]

kill your  A.V  and retry 

[lmester]

I had the same problem with Windows Defender a few years ago. I reported the problem to them and they published a revised virus scan file to correct the problem.

Here is a link to report to Kaspersky:

https://forum.kaspersky.com/topic/kaspersky-how-to-report-false-positive-22328/

[lmester]

I tested my program files on my work computer. It's running Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This is the enterprise version of the microsoft security software. No virus was found in the files. Definitely a false positive.

[lmester]

I have users of my HP 3478A multimeter control software that are getting checksum errors when trying to read the calibration data. This is happening with newer AR488 firmware versions. Older firmware works fine.



My program works with AR488 0.49.14 but fails with AR488 0.51.18.

If you have checksum fails you should check your firmware version. You may need to downgrade until I find the cause of this problem.

[coromonadalix]

Same here,  no problems with antivirus  and  downgraded the firmware ...  but not using 3478, im using other 344xx series

[adinsen]

Your software made my day! I bought a 3478A a few weeks ago and was becoming anxious that the battery would run out as it was older than I thought when I bought it. The battery is impressively still at 3.5V even though its date coded 11/87. So I was happy when I received the PCBs for AR488 today from JLCPCB, I got the 24pin connectors from Digikey earlier this week.

As you note above, I had to install AR488 0.49.14 firmware from the archived ZIP file in the github repository to make it work. I checked the AR488 issue tracker https://github.com/Twilight-Logic/AR488/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue and there's apparantly nothing reported there about the problem. We should. Is there a way to dump the communication between your software and the AR488 for debugging?

The automatic GPIB address search and edit calibration data dialogue are very nice features of your software!

I've observed a bug that sometimes it display Ohms instead of DCV. Clicking the function radio button corrects the display, so it's just a minor source of confusion. See screenshot.

Thanks a lot for your work 

/Anders

[ultrasmurf]

Hi guys, just scored a cheap working 3478A. And after failing to write program to talk to the gpib I stumble to this program. Now I need some help because it seems that the gpib is only somewhat working (this is definitely the reason i fail to write the program... not my programming skill.... )
If I use this beautiful program, and set my gpib address at 6 (seems to be the value of the setting for the software as downloaded), it can somehow connect to the multimeter. I need to press the reset button, and then i can press the start button and get it to read the measurement and display it on the software.
During start up the software recognize the com port and set it correctly but will fail at detecting gpib.
If I press reset, it will say comm failure, but I can hear clicking in the multimeter, and after this if i press start button it will display correct measurement.
If I try to read cal data it will say comm fail.
If I set my gpib address to anything other than 6 I can still hear the multimeter responding when I click reset, but it will not allow my to start and will only show comm fail.

Any pointer as to where I should look at ? Or way to test the gpib ?

Thanks a bunch...

[ultrasmurf]

Just a quick update,

Ofcourse everything now works... no idea what was it. Might be the PC. Now it scan and found the gpib address and communicate with the multimeter like a champ. Reading calibration data without issue. 

[adinsen]

Great to hear! Mine sometimes takes a few tries before I get it to connect. I think it's the windows stack of COM-USB drivers but once it's working, it's rock-stable.