New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510

[KungFuJosh]

I never suggested trying AI.

[Salient666]

Well,
I'm a noob with this stuff still, and just that like created an error that there was no trigger model loaded.
Then I asked AI how to deal with that.... Needless to say I tried a hundred combinations, sometimes with 10 lines of 'code' but nothing worked in the end.
And don't count the times that Gemini (in this case) told me "you are right, your meter doesn't understand the command <command> . Here is the correct command <new command>... which didn't work either of course

[KungFuJosh]

AI is so helpful sometimes. 

[KungFuJosh]

BTW- a Keithley rep got back to me. They loaded my save states as autoexecs and they all worked for them without trigger issues (1, 2, 5, 10 NPLC). 

I asked them to increase the sample count and see if that changes anything. I think that's the only thing I did differently before it stopped working correctly.

[KungFuJosh]

From a Keithley rep:

Code: [Select]

trigger.continuous = trigger.CONT_AUTO
That will fix the problem. Well, it did for me anyway.

Thanks,
Josh

[Salient666]

Yup, works on mine too! Thanks! Now I can finally start this thing up normally with NPLC10 as the default.

[Salient666]

This is now my startup script:


--Auto created configuration script
--Wed Aug 19 13:27:29 2026
--Model: DMM6500
--Firmware Version: 1.7.18a

reset()

-- set up DMM
-- inactive functions
dmm.measure.configlist.set("active", 1, dmm.FUNC_DC_CURRENT, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_RANGE, 1e-05, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_NPLC, 10, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_APERTURE, 0.2)
dmm.measure.configlist.set("active", 1, dmm.FUNC_RESISTANCE, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_RANGE, 1e+08, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_NPLC, 10, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_APERTURE, 0.2)
dmm.measure.configlist.set("active", 1, dmm.FUNC_4W_RESISTANCE, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_RANGE, 1e+08, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_NPLC, 10, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_APERTURE, 0.2)
dmm.measure.configlist.set("active", 1, dmm.FUNC_CAPACITANCE, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_RANGE, 1e-09)
dmm.measure.configlist.set("active", 1, dmm.FUNC_DCV_RATIO, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_RANGE, 10, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_NPLC, 10, dmm.ATTR_MEAS_APERTURE, 0.2)

-- active default measure function
dmm.measure.range = 0.1
dmm.measure.autorange = dmm.ON
dmm.measure.nplc = 10
dmm.measure.aperture = 0.2

-- set up reading buffers

-- set up channel settings for all slots

-- set up Scan

-- set up trigger model
trigger.continuous = trigger.CONT_AUTO

[Hydron]

Is NPLC = 10 the best startup option? IIRC the manual say that lowest noise is at about 5 NPLC. Others may know better though!

[KungFuJosh]

Is NPLC = 10 the best startup option? IIRC the manual say that lowest noise is at about 5 NPLC. Others may know better though!

That's what they say. 10 NPLC was lower noise for me, but go ahead and test yourself and see what you think looks the best.

[Salient666]

For my convenience (preference) I also added the following line so the default bottom half are the settings instead of the function selection at startup.

display.changescreen(display.SCREEN_SETTINGS_SWIPE)

[KungFuJosh]

I made a range buzzer script. You can set the upper and lower limits, and the meter will only buzz within that resistance range.

Make sure upper is higher than lower, and lower is lower than higher.

I made different versions for different ranges, but they all worked well, so I skipped the lower ranges. This works for me from 0 to 1MΩ.

Thanks,
Josh

[ian.ameline]

I wonder if we should open a new discussion thread here for TSP applications in general - they apply to more than just the instrument this thread is meant for - there is the 7.5 digit meter, and some SMUs too. They all run TSP applications.

My serial decoder is virtually finished - at https://github.com/ameline-design/dmm6500-serial-decode
I'm going to finish off my "spectrum analyser" app while I'm on vacation in September.

I'd appreciate it if anyone with a daq6510 or a DMM7510 could try it out and se if it runs and even decodes some serial activity - that woud be awesome! Thanks!

-- Ian

[KungFuJosh]

That's a good idea. I'll start a thread for it, and include a few scripts in the op.

ETA: Here's the thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tsp-and-lua-scripts-for-modern-keithley-dmms-smus-etc/