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Need advice on what software to use to control T&M equipment in the home lab

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nctnico:

--- Quote from: Swake on February 06, 2023, 10:25:11 am ---I've always used all my equipment in stand-alone mode, and now is the time to evolve and let it talk together so that more advanced or even automated things can be achieved with it.
This probably sounds similar for many of us enthusiasts that have collected power supplies, electronic loads, function generators, scopes, multimeters all equipped with GPIB/LAN-LXI/RS-232/ etc.

Connecting these to a computer is not that difficult ones you discover AR488 and the like. Connecting over the LAN is a bit more challenging, but there are some initiatives such as YAUGI that, I hope, will land soon. OK, that is the hardware layer.

What software are you using to make all this talk together? There are a million things out there, and that's the issue: I'm lost now, waaay too many possibilities, cant identify the good choices...

--- End quote ---
IMHO you should start with what kind of task you want to perform. Is it just data collection or plotting? During the past couple of years I have been using Python + Pyvisa (with the integrated Visa driver) to control various instruments. Typically for collecting screendumps. Don't be alarmed with having to learn another programming language. I've been writing software for decades but my Python skills are extremely basic. Yet through the use of Google I manage to get reasonable results. I'm using Matplotlib to put graphs together as well.

alm:

--- Quote from: Swake on February 06, 2023, 08:09:04 pm ---Those HP/Agilent GPIB to Ethernet interfaces come at a steep cost, not very hobby friendly even second hand  :o

--- End quote ---
Deals can still be had if you're patient. A E5810A sold for $100 not too long ago. But prices have gone up unfortunately, like almost all test equipment on the used market.


--- Quote from: Swake on February 06, 2023, 08:09:04 pm ---That python based stuff seems promising, although programming is not my strongest point. I understand that to automate something you have to scripts it somehow.

--- End quote ---
An important factor in your decision of platform will probably what exactly you want to do with it. If you want to measure a parameter over time, or want to do a ramp, then a solution like TestController will probably work well. Especially if your main goal is producing a graph. If it involves more, like characterizing something over multiple voltage and current ranges, generating multiple output files, and doing more complicated analysis on the results, you'll probably be happier with a real programming language like Python.


--- Quote from: Swake on February 06, 2023, 08:09:04 pm ---Got an heterogeneous set of gear with HP; Fluke, Philips, Toellner, Rigol and some other stuff. Communication wise it has a little bit of everything GPIB; ETH-LXI; RS-232; USB; Analog.
My 'needs' are that of an experimenter playing with low frequency stuff. One day I'd like to characterize some opamps for example and will build a test-setup for this and the other day I perform consumption measurement on low power devices.

--- End quote ---
In general hardware interfaces aren't a very big deal, although obviously anything with analog inputs / outputs will need some sort of ADC or DAC in between to translate it to something a computer understands, unless you want to use the sound card.

dobsonr741:
I recommend VISA, even for Macs. Gives you a solid foundation and device support. I use either USB or RS232. Writing my automation code in Python, in Jupyter notebooks. The glue to VISA is pyvisa, and I use the ivi backend. A nice starter library is testgear (https://github.com/PhilippCo/testgear/) from the author of meas_rpi already quoted.

Very productive environment. Datasets and visualization is a piece of cake with pandas and plotlib. Less tha 50 lines of code will give you a live updating histogram, for example.

tautech:

--- Quote from: Swake on February 06, 2023, 10:25:11 am ---I've always used all my equipment in stand-alone mode, and now is the time to evolve and let it talk together so that more advanced or even automated things can be achieved with it.
This probably sounds similar for many of us enthusiasts that have collected power supplies, electronic loads, function generators, scopes, multimeters all equipped with GPIB/LAN-LXI/RS-232/ etc.

Connecting these to a computer is not that difficult ones you discover AR488 and the like. Connecting over the LAN is a bit more challenging, but there are some initiatives such as YAUGI that, I hope, will land soon. OK, that is the hardware layer.

What software are you using to make all this talk together? There are a million things out there, and that's the issue: I'm lost now, waaay too many possibilities, cant identify the good choices...

--- End quote ---
You have omitted disclosing which PC OS you are using.

Bud:
Can be done in MS Excel, an example here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/data-logger-for-legacy-hp-instruments/msg1138738/#msg1138738

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