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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: klaus11 on February 22, 2018, 09:25:19 am

Title: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on February 22, 2018, 09:25:19 am
I found this multimeter at Farnell, On request. Any opinion or information about it.

(http://es.farnell.com/productimages/standard/en_GB/2840447-40.jpg)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: trevwhite on February 22, 2018, 12:17:19 pm
Yeah I saw that but very little information available about it or when it is available.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: klaus11 on February 22, 2018, 12:38:33 pm
Yes, but strange information; weight 5.5 Kg and declare an access button to facilitate navigation, which does not appear in the image.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: TiN on February 22, 2018, 03:28:12 pm
C'mon, where is DMM8520 already ?  ;D I'm hodling on 2002's though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: JanJansen on February 22, 2018, 03:40:56 pm
In Farnell Russian site its under 1000€.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: klaus11 on February 22, 2018, 04:33:25 pm
Preliminary specifications Farnell is like a rehash of Tek DMM4050 and FLuke 8846.

The minimum range 10µA is at a disadvantage with 1µA of Keysight 34465A.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: klaus11 on February 22, 2018, 04:41:22 pm
C'mon, where is DMM8520 already ?  ;D I'm hodling on 2002's though.


You will lose less years eliminating the noise of the DMM7510, the 8.5 Digits?  :-\
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: MadTux on February 22, 2018, 05:07:49 pm
I'm hodling on 2002's though.
The VFD of older Keithley instruments looks much better than the modern LCD stuff. Also much more easy to repair and  more robust. I'll stick with older LED/VFD Keithleys, too. The internal FPGA/softcore madness of the Fluke 8846 is ugly, don't really need that in my lab, the graphical VFD is kinda nice though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: TiN on February 22, 2018, 05:11:01 pm
8.5d metrology meters aren't supposed to be looked at. Sadly NFP versions of meters are usually priced MORE than regular ones.  :wtf:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: FransW on February 23, 2018, 01:30:55 pm
Gents, see:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/digital-multimeters/8493832/

Frans
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500
Post by: klaus11 on February 23, 2018, 01:33:06 pm
Keithley DMM7510  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on March 05, 2018, 09:30:37 am
And now DAQ6510 appears on a website from Finland.
DAQ6510 is an acquisition multimeter system

(http://tekfinland.fi/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/500x333/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/a/daq6510_front.jpg)

Date Web: http://tekfinland.fi/tuotteet/uusimmat-tuoteuutuudet/keithley-daq6510-dmm-kytkinyksikko.html (http://tekfinland.fi/tuotteet/uusimmat-tuoteuutuudet/keithley-daq6510-dmm-kytkinyksikko.html)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on March 05, 2018, 03:08:58 pm
And now DAQ6510 appears on a website from Finland.
DAQ6510 is an acquisition multimeter system

Interesting that it is only listed in Finland.
I can not find any other specs anywhere.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on March 06, 2018, 05:59:01 am
Yes, I have downloaded catalog 2018 TEK / KEI, and there is nothing new in Keithley.
Two ghosts Keithley.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on March 12, 2018, 03:59:10 pm
DMM6500. Datasheet :

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: htassell on March 16, 2018, 10:42:04 am
I wound up ordering one of these for work the other day - anticipated shipping date: 25/6/2018.... :-\
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on March 16, 2018, 11:50:42 am
I wound up ordering one of these for work the other day - anticipated shipping date: 25/6/2018.... :-\
How did you find an ordering link?
And how much was it?

It looks like a really promising 6 1/2 digit meter.
I was thinking of getting a second DMM7500, may be I will get one of these DMM6500 first.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: htassell on March 17, 2018, 12:36:08 am
I ordered it from Element14 Australia. It was AUD$1,475 I think

For the price, it had the right feature set I need including multiplexing.

http://au.element14.com/keithley/dmm6500/digital-multimeter-bench-6-5-digit/dp/2840447 (http://au.element14.com/keithley/dmm6500/digital-multimeter-bench-6-5-digit/dp/2840447)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on March 17, 2018, 01:40:44 am
I'm in the market for a new bench DMM and the DMM6500 looks like my next purchase.

Where can I find it online to ship to my country?  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on March 17, 2018, 05:56:21 am
We will have to wait for the real Datasheet, the document contributed by Farnell is only "Application Notes". It does not say anything about ACAL either.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: quarks on March 21, 2018, 10:49:40 am
looks interesting
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TAMHAN on March 21, 2018, 03:53:52 pm
I've had it in my hand yesterday, didnt particularly like the screen resolution and felt the screen "sponged away" when touched.

Also shot a little video which I will add here soonish...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Krampmeier on March 21, 2018, 08:23:52 pm
I have been using an engineering sample of the 6500 for a couple of weeks now, and I really do like it. I also noticed that the screen "sponges away" a little bit, but other than that, the look&feel is very nice. The screen resolution is a little bit higher than it is on the 7510, as the screen is a bit higher. It is also much clearer, and the touch interface works very well.
After playing with this new meter for a couple of hours, going back to a 2000 series device feels weird. We are all used to the VFDs, but the LCD really does have a lot of advantages. The data logging alone, with the intuitive scrolling and zooming and a huge memory, would be enough to justify the upgrade in many cases. Another neat feature is that you can upload scripts to the meter which also change the UI and add special functionality. That seems to be very powerful. It also has a very good virtual frontpanel via LAN, which is quite useful for remote debugging.

I noticed that the 6500 also shows very low noise, and the (preliminary) specs look very good (better than all the Keysight 6.5 digit meters). As far as I understand it, It does not need ACAL to get full accuracy, and does not have it.

I don't think I should share the photos of the inside or the pricing information for Europe yet, but in my opinion, it will be a no-brainer when you have to decide between the 6.5 digit universal multimeters currently on the market.

There are still some minor firmware issues which Keithley is working on at the moment. The design team has been very responsive to feedback and suggestions during the last weeks, so I suppose they'll iron those problems out before the meter hits the market in Europe. The only thing that I still worry about is that the time required for measurement function changes is much longer than it was for the 2000 and 2010. No big deal for bench use though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on March 21, 2018, 08:27:50 pm
DMM6500. Datasheet :

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf)

Good to see ethernet standard, even if they got it backwards  :D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Krampmeier on March 21, 2018, 08:29:33 pm
Quote
You will lose less years eliminating the noise of the DMM7510, the 8.5 Digits?

I am not sure what you mean with that... Are you saying the 7510 is particularly noisy? This is true in the 100 mV - 10 V ranges when it is set to 10 MOhm input impedance. When you set it to "Auto" impedance (10 GOhm), it has rather low noise.
Keithley knows about this problem, and they will likely fix it with a new firmware (which will change the signal path switching in the meter).

The 6500 does not suffer from that problem.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on March 21, 2018, 08:31:32 pm
If it will provide (as it seems) PC software (and for digitizer function) - it will be another brick on 34465a DMMs grave. As opposing to now not free anymore BenchVue, which is also known for it's bulky and buggy style.
However there always will be an amount of people, which would prefer physical buttons for functions.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: insine on March 22, 2018, 12:07:08 am
Does it have a fan?
It seems there is a soft power button, how does it work? Does it boot fast?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Krampmeier on March 22, 2018, 05:31:28 am
Yes, it has a fan. It is rather quite, but noticable (and a bit annoying) in a quiet office. I did not notice a dust filter in the prototype.

The soft power button just toggels the power when pressed. It must be pressed for a moment before something happens. When the instrument is power cycled externally, it goes back into the power state it had when the supply was interrupted.

The boot time of the unit here is about 16 seconds.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on March 22, 2018, 05:40:59 am
It will be interesting to see if they fix the autozero problem that causes excessive noise on 10-100 sec time scale, which was present in both DMM7510 and 2002 meters. And hopefully the software will be less prone to crashes.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on March 22, 2018, 08:00:51 am
I have been using an engineering sample of the 6500 for a couple of weeks now, and I really do like it. I also noticed that the screen "sponges away" a little bit, but other than that, the look&feel is very nice. The screen resolution is a little bit higher than it is on the 7510, as the screen is a bit higher. It is also much clearer, and the touch interface works very well.
After playing with this new meter for a couple of hours, going back to a 2000 series device feels weird. We are all used to the VFDs, but the LCD really does have a lot of advantages. The data logging alone, with the intuitive scrolling and zooming and a huge memory, would be enough to justify the upgrade in many cases. Another neat feature is that you can upload scripts to the meter which also change the UI and add special functionality. That seems to be very powerful. It also has a very good virtual frontpanel via LAN, which is quite useful for remote debugging.

I noticed that the 6500 also shows very low noise, and the (preliminary) specs look very good (better than all the Keysight 6.5 digit meters). As far as I understand it, It does not need ACAL to get full accuracy, and does not have it.

I don't think I should share the photos of the inside or the pricing information for Europe yet, but in my opinion, it will be a no-brainer when you have to decide between the 6.5 digit universal multimeters currently on the market.

There are still some minor firmware issues which Keithley is working on at the moment. The design team has been very responsive to feedback and suggestions during the last weeks, so I suppose they'll iron those problems out before the meter hits the market in Europe. The only thing that I still worry about is that the time required for measurement function changes is much longer than it was for the 2000 and 2010. No big deal for bench use though.

Nice first impression, thank you!
The 7510 does have an ACAL but it is really not needed.
Every time I have used it, it may changed the last digit by one digit only and was spot on with my 3458A
So, I would expect that Keithley has used the same technology in the 6500
Both my 34470A on the other hand, have developed an ACAL offset over time, that seems not to be fixable.

I am really looking forward of getting one of these 6500 Keithley, once all the small issues have been solved.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: klaus11 on March 22, 2018, 08:07:59 am
I noticed that the 6500 also shows very low noise, and the (preliminary) specs look very good (better than all the Keysight 6.5 digit meters). As far as I understand it, It does not need ACAL to get full accuracy, and does not have it.


"better than all the Keysight 6.5 digit meters" optimism in the morning. "not need ACAL" This is very good.
 Keysight has many reasons to be worried, also for the price: 980 EUR + taxes.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on March 22, 2018, 04:04:26 pm
The DMM7510 seems to uses some temperature measurement and numerical corrections (this can be seen during warm up). This can to a certain degree reduce the TC, if done for the different ranges. So they may not need ACAL to get the overall low TC. However this can not compensate for long time resistor drift. Having an automatic cal function could reduce the number of long time stable dividers / resistors and maybe reduce long time drift (e.g. beyond the usual cal cycle) if just a few, higher grade resistors are used.

Even if there is no explicit ACAL cycle, there could be some hidden, e.g. when changing rages.  So the longer time it takes to change the function might be just a hidden partial ACAL function for the new selected function.

If done well, the ACAL way could give additional confidence, as drift of dividers could be noticed and it could work as a good and stringent internal self test. With sufficiently low noise of the ADC and amplifier ACAL can be relatively fast, especially if only 6 digit accuracy is aimed for. Usually the noise level is not that much lower in the high end meters, so they might need considerably longer to get the extra accuracy.
For a modern meter of this grade I would expect it to have some internal cal check and maybe adjustment. For a more normal use they might not need to make ACAL transparent to the user - for metrology use this would be requited.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on March 22, 2018, 05:10:22 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on March 22, 2018, 11:26:12 pm
I am very interested in this unit but I am not sure if this will do over a 7510.

The reason why I ask is because I want to get that extra digit at higher voltages to measure the natural discharge rate of supercapacitors and batteries.

Is this a 2000000 count meter? Will I need a 7510 or will this suffice for my requirements?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on March 22, 2018, 11:38:59 pm
Is this a 2000000 count meter? Will I need a 7510 or will this suffice for my requirements?

No, this would be a 1,200,000 count meter.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Krampmeier on March 23, 2018, 05:19:03 pm
I am very interested in this unit but I am not sure if this will do over a 7510.

The reason why I ask is because I want to get that extra digit at higher voltages to measure the natural discharge rate of supercapacitors and batteries.

Is this a 2000000 count meter? Will I need a 7510 or will this suffice for my requirements?

Kj7e is right about the counts.

You could just connect a stable voltage source in series to your battery / capacitor, with opposite polarity, so that you can use a lower range on your DMM. Maybe one of the LTZ1000 boards described in the metrology forum, or just an off-the-shelf calibrator...

If the 10 GOhm input resistance (up to 10 V) or the 10 MOhm input resistance (above 10 V) are a problem in your application, or the bias current bothers you, you may want to have a look at the Keithley Electrometers.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Big Ben on March 26, 2018, 09:43:26 am
Delivery will be Mid April at the latest
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sibeen on March 26, 2018, 11:39:15 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM)

"The fucker has a touch screen"

ROFL. Well done Mike :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Dr.Trinity on March 26, 2018, 07:57:23 pm
This new Keithley DMM looks very promising
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 02, 2018, 11:01:02 am
 New documents.

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607096.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668 (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607096.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668)
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668 (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668)

 I think that the "soft" screen has its advantages - it's hard to destroy.

 The device is very attractive. Can someone give an alternative?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on April 02, 2018, 04:47:25 pm
It has zero RMS noise according to the datasheet! Attractive indeed!

Measurement Rate    DCV RMS Noise Uncertainty
in NPLCs                  (in % of range + fixed base)
5                                                    0
1                                                    0
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on April 02, 2018, 06:41:41 pm
The 0 for the noise number just means the noise is lower than the 6.5 Digit resolution. It could even be just so low that it does not increase the uncertainty (10-30 ppm range) by much.  Getting noise well below 1 ppm at 1 PLC is nice but not yet that special. I would expect a noise level not much higher than with the DMM7510, about on par with the competing Keysight 3446x meters.

Chances are high to still see the extra noise bump in the 0.1-0.01 Hz range. Would be a nice surprise if Keithley finally fixed this problem that might date back to the 196 or so.

A nice feature might be specs for a 2 year cal cycle. This kind of indicates no special new parts are used, but more like well tested technology.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on April 02, 2018, 07:30:07 pm
I was being sarcastic, of course. They should have said "additional rms noise"
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: pmcouto on April 17, 2018, 11:49:50 am
DMM6500 is now available from Farnell (EU) and I just bought one!

Should receive it tomorrow.   ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Smokey on April 17, 2018, 06:15:26 pm
url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql78V1fFquM[/url]

"The fucker has a touch screen"

ROFL. Well done Mike :)
HA!  I was just about to make the exact same post...


So is this the long awaited update to the 2000 series... FINALLY!!!!  I'm not sure what the hell they were waiting for here.  If this was out a couple years ago when I needed some new bench meters for a test setup I would have probably specced one in.
1,197.74 US Dollars is almost exactly what they were still charging for a new 2000.

The fast sampling and storage is pretty attractive.  The frequency of stuff I'm typically looking at is in the kHz anyway so it could almost be a substitute for a scope in most cases.  I'm a little confused by the spec through.  The data sheet 1st page lists "1MS/sec digitizer" but later on in the Typical Read Rates, DC Functions section is says it can only do a max of 20600 readings per second at the lowest PLC. 

Drop in migration guide from 2000 to DMM6500 = http://download.tek.com/manual/077146600_DMM6500.pdf (http://download.tek.com/manual/077146600_DMM6500.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Eric_S on April 18, 2018, 05:06:04 am
I'm a little confused by the spec through.  The data sheet 1st page lists "1MS/sec digitizer" but later on in the Typical Read Rates, DC Functions section is says it can only do a max of 20600 readings per second at the lowest PLC.

It's got two measurement paths. The 1MS/s is for the 16bit (probably delta-sigma) ADC, the 20,6kS/s is for the high resolution path (I forget what the technique is called).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on April 18, 2018, 02:49:01 pm
DMM6500 is now available from Farnell (EU) and I just bought one!

Should receive it tomorrow.   ;D

Be sure to post some photos and give your thoughts.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on April 18, 2018, 08:42:00 pm
I am really curious as to whether or not it can do power and energy measurements using four wires. If it can I'm sold!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on April 18, 2018, 10:06:00 pm
I am really curious as to whether or not it can do power and energy measurements using four wires. If it can I'm sold!

I don't see it explicitly stated anywhere that there is a "power" mode, but you can measure voltage and current at the same time for sure. Check reference manual page 184.
Calculations may have to be done with scripts written yourself. It would also be 3 wire not 4 wire, as the ground is shared.

From the manual, it sounds like if you are doing simultaneous current/voltage at 1Ms/s it would be 4.5 digit:
Quote
The DMM6500 digitize functions make fast, predictably spaced measurements. The speed, sensitivity, and bandwidth of the digitize functions allows you to make accurate voltage and current
readings of fast signals, such as those associated with sensors, audio, medical devices, power line issues, and industrial processes. The digitize functions can provide 1,000,000 readings per second at 4½ digits. Digitize voltage and digitize current have separate internal signal paths that are optimized for fast response to signal changes.

Possible concern if you were using the higher res mode it might have to switch a relay every measurement? Or at the very least your measurement speed would be in half:
Quote
The DMM6500 allows you to make and display two measurements from different functions. The measurements are displayed on the front panel and stored in the reading buffers.
Depending on the selected functions, a relay may click when the instrument switches between the measurement types. Leaving secondary measurements on for extended periods may shorten the life of the relays.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on April 18, 2018, 10:25:15 pm
I am really curious as to whether or not it can do power and energy measurements using four wires. If it can I'm sold!

I don't see it explicitly stated anywhere that there is a "power" mode, but you can measure voltage and current at the same time for sure. Check reference manual page 184.
Calculations may have to be done with scripts written yourself. It would also be 3 wire not 4 wire, as the ground is shared.

From the manual, it sounds like if you are doing simultaneous current/voltage at 1Ms/s it would be 4.5 digit:
Quote
The DMM6500 digitize functions make fast, predictably spaced measurements. The speed, sensitivity, and bandwidth of the digitize functions allows you to make accurate voltage and current
readings of fast signals, such as those associated with sensors, audio, medical devices, power line issues, and industrial processes. The digitize functions can provide 1,000,000 readings per second at 4½ digits. Digitize voltage and digitize current have separate internal signal paths that are optimized for fast response to signal changes.

Possible concern if you were using the higher res mode it might have to switch a relay every measurement? Or at the very least your measurement speed would be in half:
Quote
The DMM6500 allows you to make and display two measurements from different functions. The measurements are displayed on the front panel and stored in the reading buffers.
Depending on the selected functions, a relay may click when the instrument switches between the measurement types. Leaving secondary measurements on for extended periods may shorten the life of the relays.

Thanks for the input.

I forgot about the relay switching between voltage and current measurments.

This would definitely not be the right instrument for energy measurments.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on April 18, 2018, 11:07:29 pm
New official video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGomkSmtYFk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGomkSmtYFk)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on April 18, 2018, 11:09:42 pm
And an application video on:

Get the Best Low Resistance Measurements Possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNwoAux252Y (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNwoAux252Y)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on April 19, 2018, 02:41:12 pm
Updated USA Tektronix/Keithley web page, starting MSRP $1,140;
https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500)

All related DMM6500 available downloads;
https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=dmm6500 (https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=dmm6500)

Someone needs to do a side by side comparison of the DMM6500 and Keysight 34465A.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: olkipukki on April 23, 2018, 06:46:51 am
Yes, it has a fan. It is rather quite, but noticable (and a bit annoying) in a quiet office. I did not notice a dust filter in the prototype.


What about bzzzzzzzzzzz sound when the unit is off?  :-BROKE
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on April 24, 2018, 07:35:55 pm
All Farnell stock is gone on DMM6500 in just a week and no reviews/videos/impressions... Just curious while waiting for a delivery.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: olkipukki on April 24, 2018, 11:16:31 pm
Yes, it has a fan. It is rather quite, but noticable (and a bit annoying) in a quiet office. I did not notice a dust filter in the prototype.


What about bzzzzzzzzzzz sound when the unit is off?  :-BROKE

Is there somebody got this DMM6500?
My unit is keep making a transformer noise...when is off...  :wtf:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: pmcouto on April 25, 2018, 10:01:06 am
My DMM6500, bought from Farnell April 17th, was finally delivered yesterday.

Apart from unboxing and turning it on, I didn’t have the chance to fully test the new meter.
I also have a DMM7510 and a 2450, so I’m already familiar with the user interface and I should say I’m a huge fan. Comparing with the other instruments with this UI, I could see a few subtle changes in DMM6500 UI.
As this meter supports a MUX card, there are some new menu items for this functionality. Although I didn’t test it, it seems very easy to manage MUX channels and create a scan script for data acquisition.
There are also some new menu items (and a front panel button) dedicated to apps. Some demo apps come preloaded in the instrument. 

My first impressions (no serious performance test performed so far):
This is a very nice 6.5 digit meter and a “killer” at this price (under 1,000 Euros).
If there are no performance issues (not expected form a manufacturer such as Keithley), this is probably the best meter on the market in this segment!  :-DMM  :-+

I’ll be traveling the next few days, so away from the lab and unable to play with the new toy…  :'(


Best regards,
Pedro Couto
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: helgel on April 25, 2018, 07:35:20 pm
Just got my DMM6500. Added two quick videos that indicate difference in noise and startup time between DMM6500 and Keysight 34461...for those who are interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: olkipukki on April 25, 2018, 08:37:30 pm
Just got my DMM6500. Added two quick videos that indicate difference in noise and startup time between DMM6500 and Keysight 34461...for those who are interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA)

Can you hear any noise coming from DMM6500 when powered off?

You might be quite close to the unit, but very noticeable...  unplug a power cable (quiet) and plug it again (bzzzzz)...  :-BROKE
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: LaurentR on April 26, 2018, 01:30:25 am
Just got my DMM6500. Added two quick videos that indicate difference in noise and startup time between DMM6500 and Keysight 34461...for those who are interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE6HV-VWdbL9xBSPX-mOKA)

Noise-wise from your video, it looks like the sound level is about the same, but the 34461A has a higher pitch whine while the DMM6500 has a broader band swoosh?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on April 26, 2018, 01:52:28 am
Sounds like a variable speed fan, that's nice.  Wish the 7510 had that.

Really curious if they implemented the internal temp correction algorithm like on the 7510.  Need to connect the 6500 to a stable voltage reference, power it on and look the the warmup plot.  Also like to see how quickly the 6500 comes to a stable reading.  The 7510 only needs about 2 min for ppm stability.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: helgel on April 26, 2018, 06:19:36 am
LaurentR: Yes, that's a good description. I was a bit disappointed by the "high pitch whine" when I bought the 34461A. Sounds a bit "cheap". I think I prefer the sound from the DMM6500. I wish there was a "silent" mode where the fan was almost turned off. I could accept reduced measurement accuracy is such a mode.
olkipukki: I can hear some minor transformer "hum" when I keep my ear closer than 10cm from the case. When the power cord is connected but the instrument turned off.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on April 26, 2018, 07:21:35 am
Time for Dave to look what's reference is inside   :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Faith on April 26, 2018, 11:32:05 am
Ohh just came across this thread. Looks nice! I sold my 34465A about half a year ago since I don’t really “need” a bench meter and I prefer the mobility of handheld DMM’s as they’re much easier to move around the desk and all... but this looks... tempting!

I just wish it wasn’t so deep though. Per data sheet the DMM6500 is almost 9cm deeper than the 34465A (387mm for the DMM6500 & 303mm for the 34465A.) It’s not a super big difference and this may seem like me nitpicking but some parts of my bench are only 70cm deep due to a pillar... lol.

I think the biggest feature of the DMM6500 that really kills the 34465A is that you don’t have to spend money on stupid software licenses. For the 34465A you only have 50Kpts memory and 5,000Rdgs/sec unless you pay for one option to unlock 2Mpts memory and then ANOTHER to unlock 50,000Rdgs/sec.

And that’s just damn bloody stupid... not to mention they’re expensive options.

So if I were to choose between the DMM6500 and 34465A now it would be the DMM6500 no contest just on the basis that the DMM isn’t artificially gimped by licenses. And I’m saying this as a big Keysight fan girl, almost all my equipment is HPAK. Sorry Keysight.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on April 26, 2018, 01:01:55 pm
Faith, im a faithful fan of fanless fun too   ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on April 26, 2018, 04:59:09 pm
Hi,

Just received the device. First impressions - loads not as fast as hmc8012, but fast enough. Need to get used to - too manyf settings, buzzer is somewhat strange - not as usual, different and it has some kind of delay - it will sound 1 second regardless of what is going on with continuity, would be nice if Keithley will add setting for its sound and delay. Capacitors measurement is strange - not sure if it is been tested enough on caps that have been soldered on pcb, HMC8012 does caps better. A bit awkward way for making device boot with last settings - have to save a script and store it to "autoexec". Interesting software (KickStart), but you'll have to restart the device after using it - it reconfigures it in some way, so you don't know (if not familiar enough) what to do and where to run for it to behave as usual (triggers, I think).
But overall - nice device, I like it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: NinjaSauce7 on May 21, 2018, 02:01:15 pm
Was looking for this item and still noticed it is out of stock on Farnell  |O but it seems to be available here https://www.distrelec.de/en/multimeter-benchtop-trms-ac-dc-1000-vdc-10-adc-keithley-dmm6500/p/30108747?ext_cid=prnaanadeen-Keithley (https://www.distrelec.de/en/multimeter-benchtop-trms-ac-dc-1000-vdc-10-adc-keithley-dmm6500/p/30108747?ext_cid=prnaanadeen-Keithley) Also is it me or is that quite a low price? Maybe they got it wrong?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on May 21, 2018, 02:03:16 pm
Nope, the price is right. A bit high, like 50 euro more than it was at farnell, I think. All stock was gone in 1 week after the initial release.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 21, 2018, 02:10:36 pm
I would love to see a few good hi-res photos with the cover off.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on May 21, 2018, 03:39:05 pm
I am tempted to buy a DMM6500 but I will be waiting to see if anyone will report any big or small bugs.
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: adambacon on May 21, 2018, 10:53:27 pm
How does the DMM6500 compare to the DMM7510? Just 6.5 digits instead of 7.5 and a little less storage (7 million standard records instead of 11 million)? I am looking at getting an instrument to quantify the current draw of an IoT design that spends most of its life at <10uA but occassionally wakes up and pulls up to 20mA.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: EEVblog on May 22, 2018, 11:50:48 am
Only just saw this.
Interesting.
The 34461A is a few bucks cheaper here in Oz, but basically the same price. See it's not killing on the price front.
Another spec vs spec and feature vs feature debate, might be a hard to make a general call on this?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: pmcouto on May 22, 2018, 01:07:09 pm
Only just saw this.
Interesting.
The 34461A is a few bucks cheaper here in Oz, but basically the same price. See it's not killing on the price front.
Another spec vs spec and feature vs feature debate, might be a hard to make a general call on this?

Dave,

The new DMM6500 has digitizing capabilities (1 MS/s) so it should be compared to Keysight 34465A, which costs more than 34461A (about 250$ USD).
Additionally, DMM6500 base model includes digitizing feature as well as 7 M readings memory; Unfortunately, both these features are paid options for KS 34465A.

So, unless KS revises 34465A pricing, DMM6500 is a real “killer” in the 6.5 digit bench DMM segment.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: EEVblog on May 22, 2018, 01:23:27 pm
Only just saw this.
Interesting.
The 34461A is a few bucks cheaper here in Oz, but basically the same price. See it's not killing on the price front.
Another spec vs spec and feature vs feature debate, might be a hard to make a general call on this?

The new DMM6500 has digitizing capabilities (1 MS/s) so it should be compared to Keysight 34465A, which costs more than 34461A (about 250$ USD).
Additionally, DMM6500 base model includes digitizing feature as well as 7 M readings memory; Unfortunately, both these features are paid options for KS 34465A.

So, unless KS revises 34465A pricing, DMM6500 is a real “killer” in the 6.5 digit bench DMM segment.

Ok, but what if you don't need a fast digitiser?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 22, 2018, 02:37:42 pm
The DMM6500 specs are better matched and in many areas better than to the 34465A.  I love my 34465A, but if I was in the market for another 6.5 digit DMM, I think I would have to go with the Keithley, it just seems to be more meter with better specs for the price.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 22, 2018, 02:52:39 pm
Before getting to excited about the Keithley meter, maybe someone should measure the noise / Allan deviation plot. Some extra low frequency noise like with the DMM7510 could disappoint some users who hope for 7 digit resolution via PC interface.

The DMM6500 looks like a response to the 3446x meters, to also offer the more graphical user interface at a lower price range than the 7510.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 22, 2018, 04:49:08 pm
The new DMM6500 has digitizing capabilities (1 MS/s) so it should be compared to Keysight 34465A, which costs more than 34461A (about 250$ USD).
Additionally, DMM6500 base model includes digitizing feature as well as 7 M readings memory; Unfortunately, both these features are paid options for KS 34465A.

So, unless KS revises 34465A pricing, DMM6500 is a real “killer” in the 6.5 digit bench DMM segment.

Ok, but what if you don't need a fast digitiser?

Well the meter is as you've mentioned on par with 34461A price-wise, so you get the digitizer and 7M sample memory for free. Also, what was a big deal for me, not only it supports the scanner cards but the old common ones (2001-TCSCAN). Also, I believe the software (Kickstart vs Benchvue) is cheaper and even free for now (beta version - 90 day trial).

Before getting to excited about the Keithley meter, maybe someone should measure the noise / Allan deviation plot. Some extra low frequency noise like with the DMM7510 could disappoint some users who hope for 7 digit resolution via PC interface.

I should be getting one soon so I can report my experience here. I'll try to capture Allan Deviation as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on May 22, 2018, 04:54:57 pm
The new DMM6500 has digitizing capabilities (1 MS/s) so it should be compared to Keysight 34465A, which costs more than 34461A (about 250$ USD).
Additionally, DMM6500 base model includes digitizing feature as well as 7 M readings memory; Unfortunately, both these features are paid options for KS 34465A.

So, unless KS revises 34465A pricing, DMM6500 is a real “killer” in the 6.5 digit bench DMM segment.

Ok, but what if you don't need a fast digitiser?

Well the meter is as you've mentioned on par with 34461A price-wise, so you get the digitizer and 7M sample memory for free. Also, what was a big deal for me, not only it supports the scanner cards but the old common ones (2001-TCSCAN). Also, I believe the software (Kickstart vs Benchvue) is cheaper and even free for now (beta version - 90 day trial).

Before getting to excited about the Keithley meter, maybe someone should measure the noise / Allan deviation plot. Some extra low frequency noise like with the DMM7510 could disappoint some users who hope for 7 digit resolution via PC interface.

I should be getting one soon so I can report my experience here. I'll try to capture Allan Deviation as well.

Also there's web server inside (LXI) with full remote control and data download. Plus quite extensive scripting engine (triggers, etc.) and free script builder software (even though its bulky like 1.5+ Gb).
I have not seen trend/chart feature on 34xxx series, but on dmm6500 it's very handy and quite useful (auto-scaling, touch screen zoom and stuff, triggers).
Only drawback for the moment is somewhat strange capacitance measurement - rarely measures caps in circuit, have no idea why.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 22, 2018, 05:14:21 pm
The web UI on the 3446x series is almost useless since Java support has been depreciated where as I use the web UI on the 7510 often.  The 34465 trend plot is very nice and well laid out and easier to use than the 7510 IMO, but the 7510 is much more powerful.  I suspect the 6500 and 7510 UI and web UI are nearly the same.

I'm curious what the Factory Calibration costs for the 6500, I know Keithley wants nearly $400 for the 7510.  For comparison I had my 34465A calibrated by Keysight for under $200.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: pmcouto on May 22, 2018, 07:40:23 pm
Only just saw this.
Interesting.
The 34461A is a few bucks cheaper here in Oz, but basically the same price. See it's not killing on the price front.
Another spec vs spec and feature vs feature debate, might be a hard to make a general call on this?

The new DMM6500 has digitizing capabilities (1 MS/s) so it should be compared to Keysight 34465A, which costs more than 34461A (about 250$ USD).
Additionally, DMM6500 base model includes digitizing feature as well as 7 M readings memory; Unfortunately, both these features are paid options for KS 34465A.

So, unless KS revises 34465A pricing, DMM6500 is a real “killer” in the 6.5 digit bench DMM segment.

Ok, but what if you don't need a fast digitiser?

You are absolutely right – If fast digitizer is not needed, KS 34461A is a slightly cheaper comparable instrument.
We should also consider that 34461A is the “de facto” replacement for the industry standard 34401A.

However, specs and feature wise, DMM6500 seems to be a superior DMM with an excellent price/features/performance ratio.
Keysight’s DMM product managers are certainly not comfortable with Keithley/Tektronix pricing strategy for this meter...  >:D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 22, 2018, 08:14:43 pm
First things first: which referenz is inside?   :-//
(yes, i assume lm399...)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 22, 2018, 08:17:29 pm
First things first: which referenz is inside?   :-//
(yes, i assume lm399...)

Based on specs, I strongly suspect LTFLU-1ACH, but maybe not heated.  Keithley/Tek/Fluke use the LTFLU over the LM399 for this class of spec.

Edit: Bit it could be a well aged and selected LM399.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 22, 2018, 08:33:04 pm
First things first: which referenz is inside?   :-//
(yes, i assume lm399...)

Based on specs, I strongly suspect LTFLU-1ACH, but maybe not heated.  Keithley/Tek/Fluke use the LTFLU over the LM399 for this class of spec.
Yes.  :)

Someone wrote in the forum:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/the-ltflu-(aka-sza263)-reference-zener-diode-circuit/msg608846/#msg608846 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/the-ltflu-(aka-sza263)-reference-zener-diode-circuit/msg608846/#msg608846)
Quote
I'ts now obvious to me that it will be more complicated to get good results with the LTFLU than with the LTZ1000, so why bother? I'll quote what I heard in an interview with a guy who's interest in life was old English sports cars, on why he liked tinkering with them: "They give you such interesting problems to solve!".
;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 24, 2018, 02:39:59 pm
OK I got the meter yesterday and so far I find it quite impressive. UI wise it looks & feels like all the more expensive devices from modern Keithley lineup that people reviewed so far. Web interface is very nice as well.

I'm planning to do a mini-teardown soon (maybe this weekend if I have time) and write a short review after some getting more hands-on experience with the device.

For now I attach ~ 1h log of shorted inputs, AZ & line sync enabled, 3 NPLC (in the manual they recommend 1-5 NPLC range for the lowest noise). The meter was warmed up and the temperature should be relatively constant, slightly below the temperature it was calibrated at.

Maybe someone can generate an Allan Deviation plot (I'm playing with that as well at the moment).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on May 24, 2018, 02:46:08 pm
Thanks. I can plot in comparison to DMM7510. What voltage range was the data taken on?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 24, 2018, 02:50:15 pm
Thanks! It was auto ranged so the lowest - 0.1V
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 24, 2018, 02:57:43 pm
Thanks! It was auto ranged so the lowest - 0.1V

Could you do one more but set the range to manual 10v.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on May 24, 2018, 03:08:50 pm
Here is the plot for 100 mV comparison of DMM7510 and DMM6500. So it seems a bit of a disappointment that the noise with shorted inputs is not the same, as in 34465A vs. 34470A. Also the autozero bump in Allan deviation is still there.
The rms noise on 100 mV setting is 1.1 ppm for 3 nplc, which is still pretty good. For comparison, DMM7510 has about 0.35 ppm and 34465A has about 1.9 ppm. 
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=440461)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 24, 2018, 03:10:16 pm
Could you do one more but set the range to manual 10v.

OK, I'll try to capture that in the evening.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 24, 2018, 03:57:14 pm
C'mon, let's crack the hood already and see who lives inside. Perhaps LTZ pimping await for brave souls. :D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 24, 2018, 04:03:35 pm
C'mon, let's crack the hood already and see who lives inside. Perhaps LTZ pimping await for brave souls. :D

I'll try to do that over the weekend :) I'll contact you when I'll have the photos.

Regarding the reference, the specs are very similar to other LM399 meters, so that would be my first guess. People say LTFLU-1ACH, but I highly doubt it, it would have better specs and noise-wise too. Also, Fluke 8846A uses LM399 AFAIR, despite being Fluke.

We shall see soon.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 24, 2018, 10:14:15 pm
OK, here's the 1h short on the 10V range. Other settings are the same: 3 NPLC, AZ, Line Sync, no math.

It looks quite good, StdDev of 1.66 uV on 10V is 0.166 ppm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on May 25, 2018, 01:48:41 am
Here is the comparison of the noise with other meters on 10V scale. It is OK but not great. They are clearly saving money on the analog hardware. It would be interesting to see what kind of ADC is used.

For comparison 34465A has about 0.075ppm noise on 10V range at 3 nplc and DMM7510 has roughly 0.066ppm noise at 3 nplc.

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=440932;image)

P.S. It looks like DMM6500 is fairly closely matching in noise the 34461A, see
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg667540/#msg667540 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg667540/#msg667540)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 25, 2018, 07:37:33 am
P.S. It looks like DMM6500 is fairly closely matching in noise the 34461A, see
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg667540/#msg667540 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg667540/#msg667540)

Interesting, I thought (based on Dave's teardowns) that 344xx are all the same with just some parts added to support extra functions (like the uCurrent range or 10A) and various grades of references or LTZ1000 and of course software crippling.

If the noise on 34461A is very different from 34465A that would suggest a completely different design.

Regarding the DMM6500 I've listed various pros already, mostly modern UI, scripting and interfaces, with all the capabilities they bring, plus the scanner card support.
Now some first cons:
- banana jacks don't look copper! maybe it is some silver plating?,
- also they are quite deep even for this safety-jacks category, I have a bunch of banana plugs with spring loaded safety shroud and they pop out immediately,
- 4.5W standby power and soft power switch (with a standby LED to make it worse),
- transformer hum in standby,
- the probes supplied look and feel quite crappy, PVC cable, not very flexible handles.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 25, 2018, 07:44:20 am
The curve for the DMM6500 also seem to include some extra low frequency noise. Not as obvious as with the 7510 but still there.
So the ADC in the 6500 is higher noise than the 34465, even without the extra LF noise. So noise wise the ADC might be more like the 34461 that is at a similar price point.

However the earlier curve for the 100 mV range showed that the input amplifier is rather low noise - not as good as with the 7510, but still better than the 34465, even with the odd extra LF noise. The increased LF noise also in the 100 mV range suggests that the AZ mode also includes the full input amplifier like with most Keysight meters and different from the old Keithley meters (e.g. 2000,2001, 2002), that use a separate buffer upfront.

For the ADC used, I don't think they get that performance from a SD converter chip or similar - so it is likely a multislope converter of some kind likely in combination with a ADC chip (fast SD converter) for the fast data rates (like more than 1000 SPS) and maybe AC conversion.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on May 27, 2018, 09:31:36 pm
I would like to know if anyone has any experience with:

Kickstart 2.0 (priced) vs. older Kickstart (free): Will this instrument run under Version 1.7.0 and 1.9.8 ?

TSP / Test Script Builder - What can be programmed (without buying accessories) and how?

2000-SCAN Card - Would it be possible to DIY anything based on documentation / reverse engineering from the K2000 family.

KTTI-RS232, KTTI-GPIB, KTTI-TSP - Does the instrument have a "Talk-Only" mode so that one could sniff the data for use on an external monitor ? (instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a simple RS232-Card)

"Big Digit" (Large Digits) mode: Can the display be customized / composed by "programming"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clpehjdNdaI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clpehjdNdaI)


Anything else "new and modern" (apart from the UI and Digitizer)? [I agree with the posters above who emphasizes the "gadget"-style of this box. I have a handful of older (stable and agreeing) 6.5 / 7.5 digit voltmeters / dataloggers, so I am not worried about noise- and/or drift qualities from this meter compared to "old-fashioned" HP-type meters ... ]
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 28, 2018, 10:51:05 am
I would like to know if anyone has any experience with:

Kickstart 2.0 (priced) vs. older Kickstart (free): Will this instrument run under Version 1.7.0 and 1.9.8 ?

Sorry, Linux here so I didn't even bother to download Kickstart.

TSP / Test Script Builder - What can be programmed (without buying accessories) and how?

I just got the meter, so I haven't tried TSP scripts but I thought these are just text files with LUA, so I have no idea about any Test Script Builders or buying accessories for that. TSP scripts are definitely on my list of things to try - like using the digitizer to capture the MCU's current consumption and then calculate an intergral over that to estimate the power usage. I was also thinking that, with the 1 MSPS digitizer, having a FFT function would be nice to see dunno, the noise from simple < 100kHz DC-DC switchers. But without the FFT function built-in I guess implementing it purely in LUA will be a waste of time as it would be very slow I guess.

2000-SCAN Card - Would it be possible to DIY anything based on documentation / reverse engineering from the K2000 family.

I have 2001-TCSCAN card and it works with the meter. The nice thing is that one can program DMM functions, with all their settings, per channel so when switching everything is already set.

Regarding the DIY option it is definitely doable, I was planning to do that, the schematics are there, this article from TiN is helpful as well:
https://xdevs.com/review/kei2001tscan/

and I guess making the non-TCSCAN version is even cheaper as one does not need expensive AD590MH temperature sensor and machine the copper block. The rest is just a bunch of TQ2E-L2-5V relays, terminal blocks, MIC5841 drivers and some other bits and bobs.

In the end, just after I finished redrawing the schematic in KiCAD and before I started doing the PCB layout I managed to score 2001-TCSCAN cards on eBay for around 120 GBP, so the project is abandoned.

KTTI-RS232, KTTI-GPIB, KTTI-TSP - Does the instrument have a "Talk-Only" mode so that one could sniff the data for use on an external monitor ? (instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a simple RS232-Card)

No idea, it has USB and Ethernet by default, so I'm actually glad that the archaic/arcane interfaces are separate paid options, so it doesn't increase the base price of the meter. If somebody needs to replace 34401A or K2000 in a production system then of course they'll have to buy KTTI-GPIB or similar, but for me personally I don't care - Ethernet FTW.

"Big Digit" (Large Digits) mode: Can the display be customized / composed by "programming"?

I haven't found such option yet. What customisation you have in mind?

Anything else "new and modern" (apart from the UI and Digitizer)? [I agree with the posters above who emphasizes the "gadget"-style of this box. I have a handful of older (stable and agreeing) 6.5 / 7.5 digit voltmeters / dataloggers, so I am not worried about noise- and/or drift qualities from this meter compared to "old-fashioned" HP-type meters ... ]

It was similar for me, I have a bunch of other, older meters, some more stable, some with more digits, but I wanted a modern one with all the bells & whistles.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cyr on May 28, 2018, 12:38:04 pm
TSP / Test Script Builder - What can be programmed (without buying accessories) and how?

Have a look at the programming section(s) of the manual:

https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0)

Some sample code here:

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668 (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf?_ga=2.109722629.1255162927.1522665742-1348294533.1519212668)

You shouldn't need anything more than a text editor and USB stick or a network connection, although I'm sure "Test script builder" is helpful when developing...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 28, 2018, 06:41:12 pm
C'mon, let's crack the hood already and see who lives inside. Perhaps LTZ pimping await for brave souls. :D

I'll try to do that over the weekend :) I'll contact you when I'll have the photos.

Regarding the reference, the specs are very similar to other LM399 meters, so that would be my first guess. People say LTFLU-1ACH, but I highly doubt it, it would have better specs and noise-wise too. Also, Fluke 8846A uses LM399 AFAIR, despite being Fluke.

We shall see soon.

(https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://home.freeuk.com/jrknight/smileys/postpics.gif&key=77f0ef30a7a7f2eb67cead4a79ad94126f9701d02ee752347d4e46fa82bd2743)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on May 28, 2018, 07:03:01 pm
I gave all the pics to TiN, he did a splendid job with retouching and postprocessing them as my DSLR skills are very mediocre :) I believe he will publish them on xDevs soon :)

For now I'll just say: it is LM399, but as usual pre-aged and pre-selected with custom markings :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on May 28, 2018, 09:24:16 pm
...
It was similar for me, I have a bunch of other, older meters, some more stable, some with more digits, but I wanted a modern one with all the bells & whistles.

Thank you very much for your very informative post. I missed it yesterday when I glanced through the last posts. Sorry.

I will get a DMM6500. Cool box.


[Edit: Deleted some rambling]

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 28, 2018, 10:27:12 pm
I gave all the pics to TiN, he did a splendid job with retouching and postprocessing them as my DSLR skills are very mediocre :) I believe he will publish them on xDevs soon :)

For now I'll just say: it is LM399, but as usual pre-aged and pre-selected with custom markings :)

Found them;

https://doc.xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/DMM6500/lukier/

Thanks!

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 28, 2018, 11:04:37 pm
As i suspected.
(lukier's pictures from xdevs.com processed)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=443296)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=443302)

This 70k isn't a VHP100/200 best quality ...?!

Edit: Big orig pictures to smaller ones
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kj7e on May 28, 2018, 11:17:57 pm
Amazing the level of effort needed to go from 6.5 to 7.5 and then 8.5 digit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 28, 2018, 11:31:56 pm
Amazing the level of effort needed to go from 6.5 to 7.5 and then 8.5 digit.
Yes, really. But I'm thinking, if I would really buy something like that again next to my Keysight
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: IAmBack on June 26, 2018, 12:59:57 pm
Hi.

Any news about DMM6500?
I can buy Keysight 34461A about 15% cheaper than DMM6500. Considering specifications and planned exploatation period (10 years maybe) I'm more convinced to buy Keithley rather than Keysight. Anyone would choose other way?

Regards.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 13, 2018, 01:50:26 pm
Is there any newer Firmware as V1.0.0j in the meantime?

I've got mine dmm6500 today, and had not less than 4 bluescreens in the first two hours at the trial to measure my 10V references graphically. Also the y-scaling is relatively meaningless as well as the vertical indication of the cursoposition as voltage.

Btw, the calibration certificate is from 15-May-2018, says nothing else as "In Tolerance",and doesn't contain any information about actually measured values! Is that normal? Big difference to Keysight.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 13, 2018, 02:07:03 pm
Yea, funny vertical scale and those 10 uV jumps look pretty bad if you used a good 10V reference.

Of course this meter is meant to be more of an eye candy than a metrology instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on July 13, 2018, 04:51:02 pm

Btw, the calibration certificate is from 15-May-2018, says nothing else as "In Tolerance",and doesn't contain any information about actually measured values! Is that normal? Big difference to Keysight.

I heard that Keithley changed their policies regarding calibration certificates.
You can order a full calibration report with all detailed values, but you have to pay extra for that!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 13, 2018, 06:23:39 pm
Of course this meter is meant to be more of an eye candy than a metrology instrument.
Would you rather suggest a 34465a?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 13, 2018, 07:19:58 pm
For absolute stability one would need to go to a 7-1/2 digit meter, like a 34470A. At the 6-1/2 digit level, measurements suggest that 34461A is actually better in terms of noise than 34465A, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg1658819/#msg1658819 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/dmm-adc-noise-comparison-testing-project/msg1658819/#msg1658819)

Certainly Keysight 344x series never has a blue screen as far as I know. It doesn't have all of the latest user interface features of the Keithley meters, but it is still a big step up from the old style meters that just give a number.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on July 14, 2018, 11:44:46 am
It took Keithley a while to fix the blue screen problems on the DMM7510, 2450 and 2460 SMUs. It is a big surprise to me to see a blue screen of the DMM6500. I will wait until this problem is fixed, before I will buy one.
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 14, 2018, 09:26:55 pm
I own a 344651a for >2 years, and that's the same reference:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/build-a-10v-buffer-inside-the-teko371-ltz1000-box/msg1611664/#msg1611664 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/build-a-10v-buffer-inside-the-teko371-ltz1000-box/msg1611664/#msg1611664)

Confessedly a bit rough construction, that should be a prototype, a feasibility study, but it works actually very good in my opinion. Don't see those 10 uV jumps on the Keysight.The Keysight is (edit: 10uV) 60uV off to the 6500 and need calibration for shure. But now, i really don't know, what's going on with this brand new dmm6500.

Frankly said, there to add a note that says no more than "all ok my dear", and to label that with "calalibration certificate" is a joke! They would hardly sell a dmm with "NOT in Tolerance", instead they can put the advertising as a certificate immediately.  :wtf:

Ok, no more bluescreens in the moment after >24h, the connectivity is better with the dmm6500, and i have some expectations in TSP and APPS. So i will give the meter another chance.
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 15, 2018, 09:28:59 am
The low frequency noise shown for the DMM6500 does look nasty at first view. However it is not that much different from what you are expected to see for an LM399 reference. It may be the difference between a simple of the shelf LM399 and one selected for low popcorn noise.

It is a 6 digit meter after all and 10 µV in the 10 V range is just 1 ppm. They show some extra resolution, but one can not expect this to be really stable.

If in 10 V range, a 60 µV and thus 6 ppm difference to another meter is also well within the specs.

For me the blue screens would be more something to worry about - a software problem should not get better over time.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 15, 2018, 03:07:37 pm
The low frequency noise shown for the DMM6500 does look nasty at first view. However it is not that much different from what you are expected to see for an LM399 reference. It may be the difference between a simple of the shelf LM399 and one selected for low popcorn noise.

It is a 6 digit meter after all and 10 µV in the 10 V range is just 1 ppm. They show some extra resolution, but one can not expect this to be really stable.

If in 10 V range, a 60 µV and thus 6 ppm difference to another meter is also well within the specs.

For me the blue screens would be more something to worry about - a software problem should not get better over time.

Yes, i understand your judgment. I understand my somewhat subjective expectations of "such" a meter from a meta view, so thank you for that. But my answer is, with all due respect, NO, that's still unacceptable.

I don't want a >1000 Eur meter with all this metrological limitations at the lowest end. Starting, for example, with the seemingly only nickel-plated measuring sockets, over the compared to my 34461a unstable measurement results, right through to the absurdities, simply erroneous behavior of the gui, not to mention the withheld docs from the important first calibration and bluescreens. This meter is also at the metrological lower (-lowest) end of the "specs", a 34465a is, subjective diametral, at the higher end of what the lm399 technology is to get. And with this, it has to be measured. This meter is is finally a Keithley-Tek, the successor of the K2000, and as such, it really disappoints me.

A hobbyist, for whom this is the very first table dmm will say, what a beauty. An electronics enthusiast will be rather disappointed in the ranks of his older 6.5 meters, a metrologyist should not get such a dmm, also hardly in this price range. For me, that was a bad buy.

I am sorry to say so. Others may come to other conclusions.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 15, 2018, 11:35:03 pm
Another example of what this dmm delivered during a long-term measurement (ltz1000 ref).

These 18uV spikes are not from my reference:

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=477329)

It ends up by simply touch the touch-screen to the left (only the screen!). After that, measurement again reasonably ok.  :-/O

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=477341)

It started here:

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=477335)

This dmm has BIG problems...  :-BROKE   :palm:


Edit: taken with 5 NPLC, Filter 10 repeat, autozero, 10Mohm impendance, ap's teflon cable
My 34461a shows max 2 to 2.5uV 100 NPLC

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: coromonadalix on July 16, 2018, 03:32:24 am
We had in our equipment a strange touch screen problem,   We had to put an 0.1 uf 1kv capacitor between the electronic ground and the earth ground to kill noise on the touch screen supply ????

The supply we use is CSA UL CE compliant / listed, but far from being prefect, some ac component is found on the dc outputs ????

Just touching the screen and the noise drop ???  wow
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 04:40:18 am
According to my observation, behavior has less to do with capacitive disturbances, but rather the algorithm triggered by shifting it to the left, cause a different processing of the signal to be measured. In other words, it was somewhat "out of takt" before.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on July 16, 2018, 07:28:32 am

This dmm has BIG problems...  :-BROKE   :palm:

Are you saying that without changing the anything on you setup the spikes just showed up
and went away again by swiping the screen?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 08:09:36 am

This dmm has BIG problems...  :-BROKE   :palm:

Are you saying that without changing the anything on you setup the spikes just showed up
and went away again by swiping the screen?
YES.

I did nothing but swiping the screen to the left and a gesture, 2 fingers, to adjust the y-scale a little.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Zucca on July 16, 2018, 08:22:35 am
 :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 16, 2018, 08:37:58 am
Having the noise spikes disappear/reduced  when touching the screen is interesting. It somewhat points to a problem with common mode noise (e.g. from the DMM internal supply).  I don't think it is a problem of the touch screen itself, more like from a switching converter.

So this might really be a problem of the meter - maybe by design or a broken internal cap. The environment might also be a factor, e.g. with lots of EMI from the grid or maybe lamps.

We had in our equipment a strange touch screen problem,   We had to put an 0.1 uf 1kv capacitor between the electronic ground and the earth ground to kill noise on the touch screen supply ????

The supply we use is CSA UL CE compliant / listed, but far from being prefect, some ac component is found on the dc outputs ????

Just touching the screen and the noise drop ???  wow
0.1 µF sounds like a lot - normally the usual class Y caps should be sufficient (e.g. 5 nF with high voltage rating for safety). In a meter I would prefer even less.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Synthtech on July 16, 2018, 09:01:33 am
Element 14 in Australia is of course out of stock of the Keithly for months otherwise I would have already purchased a DMM6500, perhaps I am lucky that they don’t have them. Of course they are also out of all the Keysight Truevolt meters but after reading this thread I am glad that I am forced to wait, it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds, I might be better with a Keysight.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 09:05:28 am
Having the noise spikes disappear/reduced  when touching the screen is interesting. It somewhat points to a problem with common mode noise (e.g. from the DMM internal supply).  I don't think it is a problem of the touch screen itself, more like from a switching converter.

So this might really be a problem of the meter - maybe by design or a broken internal cap. The environment might also be a factor, e.g. with lots of EMI from the grid or maybe lamps.
Is this to me?
This is not "touching", this is swiping.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1675235/#msg1675235 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1675235/#msg1675235)

And this can not be EMI from enviroment, if itself measured this 5h before without this (over night measurement); yes, this are wrong measurements from the meter itself.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 16, 2018, 09:44:49 am
According to my observation, behavior has less to do with capacitive disturbances, but rather the algorithm triggered by shifting it to the left, cause a different processing of the signal to be measured. In other words, it was somewhat "out of takt" before.

I had overlooked this and my first thought was the effect of capacitive coupling to the screen. This description would point towards a software problem or maybe something like interference of the display with the meter itself, like massive interface traffic on the shift / redraw causing the spikes.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 09:52:29 am
I had overlooked this and my first thought was the effect of capacitive coupling to the screen. This description would point towards a software problem or maybe something like interference of the display with the meter itself, like massive interface traffic on the shift / redraw causing the spikes.
Maybe, maybe, tcp/ip dhcp (edit: but fixed ip) was connected too ...  :-/O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on July 16, 2018, 02:32:42 pm
Hi everyone, Applications Engineer for Keithley here.  Just letting you all know that engineers here do read all these threads and try to review all the problems you present.  This latest one is really strange to us.  The graph should have no influence on readings taken, and the analog measurement board is well separated from anything involving the display.

hwj-d, I'm going to PM you my email address, I have a few questions gathered from the design team and I want try recreating the problem here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on July 16, 2018, 03:11:04 pm
Hi everyone, Applications Engineer for Keithley here.  Just letting you all know that engineers here do read all these threads and try to review all the problems you present.  This latest one is really strange to us.  The graph should have no influence on readings taken, and the analog measurement board is well separated from anything involving the display.

I'm very glad Keithley is listening to the community.

Few observations from my side:

Regarding the touchscreen noise it didn't occur to me as I usually set the meter and leave it alone - I bought it mostly for logging things.

Here's a screenshot of an 1h log of 10V from Fluke 5440B, std. deviation is quite good, but I cannot say what is the cause of spikes there as I didn't use fancy volt-nut cables, don't know how good my 5440B is and I definitely have a lot of EMI around from all the gear, PCs and cheap wall-warts. (5 NPLC, auto zero, no filter or math, HiZ input impedance).

 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=477644;image)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on July 16, 2018, 03:52:20 pm

Feel free to PM me more details/feedback if you have them.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 06:22:45 pm
I'm very glad too, Keithley is now listening to the community.

But I think, it's very important to us, to prioritize issues and their fixes here in the forum, not just as a PM.  :)

Big thank's to Brad O   :-+

... and welcome in the forum
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 16, 2018, 06:50:20 pm
One could somewhat understand software glitches and blue screens in DMM7510, which was a brand-new software platform, and they have been for the most part resolved over time.  I am not sure why the new meter DMM6500 also has BSD issues, since I would assume the majority of the code is the same.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on July 16, 2018, 06:56:33 pm
Brad O:

Thanks fort stepping in here officially for Keithley.

We are a highly technical community here and would really appreciate some detailed technical
feedback of why these issues with the DMM6500 exist.

I went through the the blue screen problems on my DMM7510, 2450 and 2460 SMU and did not
expect similar issues on the DMM6500. Actually I wanted to buy a DMM6500 but now I am waiting
for the issues to be solved and for a good explanation, before I will buy.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on July 16, 2018, 08:48:41 pm
But I think, it's very important to us, to prioritize issues and their fixes here in the forum, not just as a PM.  :)
I certainly don't want to prevent any discussion here!  I just don't want to clog up this thread with troubleshooting Q&A either... (Another place to give good or bad feedback is the Tek/Keithley support forum (https://forum.tek.com/viewforum.php?f=617) which may be better suited for back-and-forth troubleshooting than here.)

To maxwell3e10and HighVoltage: A lot of the firmware/software for the DMM6500 and DAQ6510 is new.  There are enough differences in the design that many resources couldn't be reused from the 7510.  In terms of technical reasoning for this particular problem, I'm not sure yet.  We've done long-term testing here and not seen anything like what hwj-d reported.  I will certainly try to give you technical reasons for other issues, but understand that Keithley designs are confidential so I'm limited in how much detail I can give without a review from our legal department. Many times too, the answer is simply a software bug. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 16, 2018, 10:23:57 pm
But I think, it's very important to us, to prioritize issues and their fixes here in the forum, not just as a PM.  :)
I certainly don't want to prevent any discussion here!  I just don't want to clog up this thread with troubleshooting Q&A either... (Another place to give good or bad feedback is the Tek/Keithley support forum (https://forum.tek.com/viewforum.php?f=617) which may be better suited for back-and-forth troubleshooting than here.)
Ok, that's a little bit OT now.

Yes, but don't get me wrong, I think as I understand this forum, one of the main concerns is to be able to ask and answer questions here on neutral ground.

There are threats with many hundreds of pages, which are still not overcrowded, thanks to the very good search function. If a thread actually becomes OT, one can define a more suitable one. R&S, for example, solved this with its own self-defined thread. And we, I think, are very thankful for that.  ;)

Of course many technical questions can be better answered in the Tek forum, maybe, we do not have to compete for that. But contributions of all kinds (according to the forum rules), which are addressed and discussed here in the forum, should continue to be publicly discussed here. That's what this forum stands for.

If necessary, please correct me.
(Edit: I forgot, I spoke only as a enthusiast member...)

Thanks

 ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on July 17, 2018, 04:53:47 pm
The first firmware update for the these instruments has been released.  For the DMM6500 (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1001-and-release-notes) and for the DAQ6510 (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1001-and-release-notes).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on July 26, 2018, 10:42:43 am
The first firmware update for the these instruments has been released.  For the DMM6500 (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1001-and-release-notes) and for the DAQ6510 (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1001-and-release-notes).

Flashed DVM to 1.0.01f and it seems to have fixed lock-up problems (4) moving around the menu's, but still seen a lock-up by running a script
further once a "blue screen" saving a script... so still room for improvements.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on July 30, 2018, 02:59:17 pm
seen a lock-up by running a script further once a "blue screen" saving a script... so still room for improvements.

So a lock-up while running a script and a blue screen while saving a (the same?) script?  Could you send me the script you're using?  That's likely a problem with one of the commands so we'd like to see what commands are used and the context they're used in.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on July 31, 2018, 08:14:05 am
seen a lock-up by running a script further once a "blue screen" saving a script... so still room for improvements.

So a lock-up while running a script and a blue screen while saving a (the same?) script?  Could you send me the script you're using?  That's likely a problem with one of the commands so we'd like to see what commands are used and the context they're used in.

Hi,

Sorry to say the scripts are long gone,
but to be a bit more precise, the lock-up in “running script” was not actually while running the script
but loading it in the Scripts Menu.
The blue screen, saving script.. quite sure I used an existing name.

Problem in both cases,  it’s not possible to repeat.

I have been writing professional firmware for 25 years and know how
frustrating it can be for the developer to find the bug without sufficient feedback from the user
and will try to save the circumstances if further problems turns up.
 
Great to see KEITHLEY responds to reported problems here at eevblog
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 10, 2018, 10:42:58 am
seen a lock-up by running a script further once a "blue screen" saving a script... so still room for improvements.

So a lock-up while running a script and a blue screen while saving a (the same?) script?  Could you send me the script you're using?  That's likely a problem with one of the commands so we'd like to see what commands are used and the context they're used in.

HI,

Found the blue-screen trigger (from Settings swipe or tab to graph press Calc or Meassure icon before graph window fully loads) see attached video.
To me its a classic threaded programming issue.. one task starts upon another.. the good thing its easy to fix :)

I'm sure quite sure the blue-screens I've seen other places moving around menus relates to this issue.

Regards
Claus
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 10, 2018, 11:45:54 am
seen a lock-up by running a script further once a "blue screen" saving a script... so still room for improvements.

So a lock-up while running a script and a blue screen while saving a (the same?) script?  Could you send me the script you're using?  That's likely a problem with one of the commands so we'd like to see what commands are used and the context they're used in.

HI,

Found the "Run Script" lock-up trigger (not Blue- Screen)  I reported earlier (quite easy when you know what to look for) In run menu switch rapidly between Scripts / Run Selected
(some times only 2 switch necessary) and exit with Menu button then main menu locks up, and power-cycle needed.

This instrument have for sure problems if you have "fast" fingers and I'm quite sure the problems can be triggered all over the GUI, something in the threaded programming needs an overhaul, a bit strange that QC of the firmware hasn't spotted this weakness.
 
Regards
Claus

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 10, 2018, 04:14:53 pm

Found the blue-screen trigger (from Settings swipe or tab to graph press Calc or Meassure icon before graph window fully loads) see attached video.
To me its a classic threaded programming issue.. one task starts upon another.. the good thing its easy to fix :)

Oh yes that's really easy to duplicate, I just saw it on my desktop unit!  I've filed the issue as AR61734 and it should be fixed in the next firmware release.  It looks like that doesn't happen with shortcuts on any of the other swipe screens, or if you're using the rear inputs, but that one must've slipped by.

Found the "Run Script" lock-up trigger (not Blue- Screen)  I reported earlier (quite easy when you know what to look for) In run menu switch rapidly between Scripts / Run Selected
(some times only 2 switch necessary) and exit with Menu button then main menu locks up, and power-cycle needed.

Ooh, now this one's pretty interesting and has already been fixed in the development firmware.  This is actually a bug with the file selector object and how it interacts with multi-touch.  If you have nothing selected and touch the file selector object (just the area itself, not a list item in it) and anywhere else on the screen that's not an active object (e.g. an inactive button) the touchscreen sometimes gets trapped in the file select object so you can only interact with the files listed.  Other buttons on the box will work normally since they don't require the touchscreen.  Like I said it's been fixed for the next firmware, but there's also an easy workaround in the meantime so you don't have to restart your DMM: press the FUNCTION key and then the TRIGGER key.  That sequence will do a soft reset of the display and allow the touchscreen to act normally again. 

Thank you so much for sending these, though I'm sorry you had to see them.  Incidentally, you seem pretty good at this, you know we have an opening for a firmware test engineer... ;)

Also as an update for the board, I've so far been unable to replicate the shifting noise level problem hwj-d reported, that's in as AR61694 for more engineers to evaluate. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 13, 2018, 06:45:36 am

Found the blue-screen trigger (from Settings swipe or tab to graph press Calc or Meassure icon before graph window fully loads) see attached video.
To me its a classic threaded programming issue.. one task starts upon another.. the good thing its easy to fix :)

Oh yes that's really easy to duplicate, I just saw it on my desktop unit!  I've filed the issue as AR61734 and it should be fixed in the next firmware release.  It looks like that doesn't happen with shortcuts on any of the other swipe screens, or if you're using the rear inputs, but that one must've slipped by.

Found the "Run Script" lock-up trigger (not Blue- Screen)  I reported earlier (quite easy when you know what to look for) In run menu switch rapidly between Scripts / Run Selected
(some times only 2 switch necessary) and exit with Menu button then main menu locks up, and power-cycle needed.

Ooh, now this one's pretty interesting and has already been fixed in the development firmware.  This is actually a bug with the file selector object and how it interacts with multi-touch.  If you have nothing selected and touch the file selector object (just the area itself, not a list item in it) and anywhere else on the screen that's not an active object (e.g. an inactive button) the touchscreen sometimes gets trapped in the file select object so you can only interact with the files listed.  Other buttons on the box will work normally since they don't require the touchscreen.  Like I said it's been fixed for the next firmware, but there's also an easy workaround in the meantime so you don't have to restart your DMM: press the FUNCTION key and then the TRIGGER key.  That sequence will do a soft reset of the display and allow the touchscreen to act normally again. 

Thank you so much for sending these, though I'm sorry you had to see them.  Incidentally, you seem pretty good at this, you know we have an opening for a firmware test engineer... ;)

Also as an update for the board, I've so far been unable to replicate the shifting noise level problem hwj-d reported, that's in as AR61694 for more engineers to evaluate.

HI,

Really like your comment about the job opening... would be nice to rip others code apart after a lot of people had tried to do the same with mine during the years. :)

Found a couple of bugs more...

1)
System Events, randomly select events and "empty" pos in the grid... the "OK" dialog  hangs even if you exit with physically Key's it's still present. (see foto)

2)
Manage Scripts, Select a script hold your finger and tab outside frame exit with menu key and you have a lock up (Trigger/Function will fix it)

The bugs was easily triggered within minutes, and shows sorry to say vulnerability all over the GUI

Regards
Claus
 

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: wn1fju on August 13, 2018, 12:10:52 pm
Received my DMM6500 a few days ago and did the firmware update.  As the picture in the previous post shows, I too get a couple of Informational 4917
messages in the log every time I turn it on.  Obviously it does no harm, but do I really need to know buffers that I am not using are 0% filled?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ebclr on August 13, 2018, 12:19:34 pm
Mine is on the way, From Newark, I hope  they  come from a new lot with a more updated firmware
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 13, 2018, 01:10:48 pm

Found the blue-screen trigger (from Settings swipe or tab to graph press Calc or Meassure icon before graph window fully loads) see attached video.
To me its a classic threaded programming issue.. one task starts upon another.. the good thing its easy to fix :)

Oh yes that's really easy to duplicate, I just saw it on my desktop unit!  I've filed the issue as AR61734 and it should be fixed in the next firmware release.  It looks like that doesn't happen with shortcuts on any of the other swipe screens, or if you're using the rear inputs, but that one must've slipped by.

Found the "Run Script" lock-up trigger (not Blue- Screen)  I reported earlier (quite easy when you know what to look for) In run menu switch rapidly between Scripts / Run Selected
(some times only 2 switch necessary) and exit with Menu button then main menu locks up, and power-cycle needed.

Ooh, now this one's pretty interesting and has already been fixed in the development firmware.  This is actually a bug with the file selector object and how it interacts with multi-touch.  If you have nothing selected and touch the file selector object (just the area itself, not a list item in it) and anywhere else on the screen that's not an active object (e.g. an inactive button) the touchscreen sometimes gets trapped in the file select object so you can only interact with the files listed.  Other buttons on the box will work normally since they don't require the touchscreen.  Like I said it's been fixed for the next firmware, but there's also an easy workaround in the meantime so you don't have to restart your DMM: press the FUNCTION key and then the TRIGGER key.  That sequence will do a soft reset of the display and allow the touchscreen to act normally again. 

Thank you so much for sending these, though I'm sorry you had to see them.  Incidentally, you seem pretty good at this, you know we have an opening for a firmware test engineer... ;)

Also as an update for the board, I've so far been unable to replicate the shifting noise level problem hwj-d reported, that's in as AR61694 for more engineers to evaluate.

HI,

Really like your comment about the job opening... would be nice to rip others code apart after a lot of people had tried to do the same with mine during the years. :)

Found a couple of bugs more...

1)
System Events, randomly select events and "empty" pos in the grid... the "OK" dialog  hangs even if you exit with physically Key's it's still present. (see foto)

2)
Manage Scripts, Select a script hold your finger and tab outside frame exit with menu key and you have a lock up (Trigger/Function will fix it)

The bugs was easily triggered within minutes, and shows sorry to say vulnerability all over the GUI

Regards
Claus

Last bug today...

Trigger Configure, Tab and hold one of the flow-boxes while applying one or a couple of tab's to the Buffer Clear frame.... exit with Menu.. main then locked
sometimes several tab's on the Icons recover function but mostly completely locked.

Regards
Claus   

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 13, 2018, 05:28:51 pm
A new firmware is coming to the website in 1-2 weeks but it is mostly to fix an internal issue.  Expect a new customer focused firmware release in... October I'd guess.  The imminent firmware seems to make a lot of these issues harder to reproduce, but it doesn't directly address any of them, that will be for the later firmware.

wn1fju: Add the attached script to your DMM to remove those messages on startup (You'll have to remove the .txt extension before putting it on your DMM, the forum won't let me upload just .tsp).  All it does is run eventlog.clear() on startup to clear the buffer messages before you see them, you could add that command to your own startup script if you have one.  The only downside with doing this is it will prevent you from seeing any legitimate startup errors should they happen.See my next post for clarification.  The reason those messages happen is that a lot of our customers that use DMMs for logging will run a script based on that 0% filled message.  That message is often used (and is the recommended use case) for the Service Request (SRQ) bit used in IEEE standards.

elbot:
1)
System Events, randomly select events and "empty" pos in the grid... the "OK" dialog  hangs even if you exit with physically Key's it's still present. (see foto)

2)
Manage Scripts, Select a script hold your finger and tab outside frame exit with menu key and you have a lock up (Trigger/Function will fix it)
Trigger Configure, Tab and hold one of the flow-boxes while applying one or a couple of tab's to the Buffer Clear frame.... exit with Menu.. main then locked
sometimes several tab's on the Icons recover function but mostly completely locked.

So I think all of these involve using at least 2 fingers on the touch screen at the same time right?  At least I couldn't get my fingers to move fast enough to see any of these without multitouch.  Probably there is an issue with the multitouch process, or at least multitouch should be ignored in these (and no doubt other...) scenarios.  Touch detection is one of the things had had to be almost entirely re-written from the DMM7510 and 2450 series SMUs so it's not terribly surprising to me you've found these errors around there. 

These are getting filed as bugs since they definitely shouldn't happen, but I am a little curious how you found them.  Did you naturally stumble upon these while using the instrument?  Or were you doing your own stress testing?  During development, a lot of our GUI debugging comes from our engineers using the box in scenarios we expect them to be used in.  So I'm just wondering if you (and natually others) are wanting to use the box in a way we didn't expect.  Like do you want something else to happen when you hold an item and touch somewhere else on the screen?  Or did these happen while naturally using the box and then you went back to find the exact cause of the lock-up?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 13, 2018, 07:47:52 pm
Whoops, some clarifications:

I was accidentally using an older development build when I was confirming elbot's lock-up errors.  I didn't see them at all in the latest development build so you can expect the fix with firmware update coming later this year.

For the startup script for wn1fju, I said there's a downside in that you won't see legitimate startup warnings.  That's not quite true since warnings and errors will cause pop-ups that require you to click something along with event log items.  So you would still see a pop-up if an error or warning occurred.  That startup script just prevents you from seeing informational messages that happen as part of the DMM's default start.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 13, 2018, 07:53:20 pm
A new firmware is coming to the website in 1-2 weeks but it is mostly to fix an internal issue.  Expect a new customer focused firmware release in... October I'd guess.  The imminent firmware seems to make a lot of these issues harder to reproduce, but it doesn't directly address any of them, that will be for the later firmware.

wn1fju: Add the attached script to your DMM to remove those messages on startup (You'll have to remove the .txt extension before putting it on your DMM, the forum won't let me upload just .tsp).  All it does is run eventlog.clear() on startup to clear the buffer messages before you see them, you could add that command to your own startup script if you have one.  The only downside with doing this is it will prevent you from seeing any legitimate startup errors should they happen.  The reason those messages happen is that a lot of our customers that use DMMs for logging will run a script based on that 0% filled message.  That message is often used (and is the recommended use case) for the Service Request (SRQ) bit used in IEEE standards.

elbot:
1)
System Events, randomly select events and "empty" pos in the grid... the "OK" dialog  hangs even if you exit with physically Key's it's still present. (see foto)

2)
Manage Scripts, Select a script hold your finger and tab outside frame exit with menu key and you have a lock up (Trigger/Function will fix it)
Trigger Configure, Tab and hold one of the flow-boxes while applying one or a couple of tab's to the Buffer Clear frame.... exit with Menu.. main then locked
sometimes several tab's on the Icons recover function but mostly completely locked.

So I think all of these involve using at least 2 fingers on the touch screen at the same time right?  At least I couldn't get my fingers to move fast enough to see any of these without multitouch.  Probably there is an issue with the multitouch process, or at least multitouch should be ignored in these (and no doubt other...) scenarios.  Touch detection is one of the things had had to be almost entirely re-written from the DMM7510 and 2450 series SMUs so it's not terribly surprising to me you've found these errors around there. 

These are getting filed as bugs since they definitely shouldn't happen, but I am a little curious how you found them.  Did you naturally stumble upon these while using the instrument?  Or were you doing your own stress testing?  During development, a lot of our GUI debugging comes from our engineers using the box in scenarios we expect them to be used in.  So I'm just wondering if you (and natually others) are wanting to use the box in a way we didn't expect.  Like do you want something else to happen when you hold an item and touch somewhere else on the screen?  Or did these happen while naturally using the box and then you went back to find the exact cause of the lock-up?

HI,

Yes you're right, 3 bugs from today was triggered by 2 fingers, first one in natural use next two on purpose because it would make sense it was there too.
All other bugs reported was discovered by "normal" use and I went back to repeat them, so no direct stress-test but 25 years in embedded hardware an especially programming makes it quite easy to trace such bugs down due to the fact that you have a good knowledge of how it works.
 
I'ts easy to touch the screen with 2 fingers if you access it fast and I think its ok to disable this multi finger access to get a stable behavior,
Its a DMM not a piano :)

Credits to you for en open and direct dialog not trying to cover up the fact that fw stability could be improved.

Regards
Claus 



 

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Jens01 on August 13, 2018, 08:16:36 pm
At the company i work at we are currently migrating from the 'old' K2700 to the newer DAQ6510, for now in the K2700 emulation mode. IMHO these meters are really great to work with and really a step forward from the K2700. We use the RS232 option card and it was -almost- plug 'n play in our automated measurement setups.

There is one thing which did not migrated properly: external triggering using the Digital I/O connector in K2700 emulation mode. We had to (re)connect the trigger line to the BNC connector on te back of unit to make it work. The migration manual mentions the DIO DB-9 as a valid external trigger source, so @Keithley, are we missing something like an additional configuration? The setup worked flawless with a K2700 unit. Trigger is at 5V TTL level.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 14, 2018, 01:52:13 pm
Whoops, some clarifications:

I was accidentally using an older development build when I was confirming elbot's lock-up errors.  I didn't see them at all in the latest development build so you can expect the fix with firmware update coming later this year.

For the startup script for wn1fju, I said there's a downside in that you won't see legitimate startup warnings.  That's not quite true since warnings and errors will cause pop-ups that require you to click something along with event log items.  So you would still see a pop-up if an error or warning occurred.  That startup script just prevents you from seeing informational messages that happen as part of the DMM's default start.

Great with a new firmware within hopefully short time,
in meantime you can look at this error...  .

Running as Digi I as I often use (actually the reason to buy the DMM) I was fiddling around a bit with buffer-size and sampling rate
to restore things to "normal" by running a script I have used many times before, a few movments later error shows up...

NO fingers on the screen :) and no communications physically attached to the DMM so don't understand the message..

This time I don't have the golden key to trigger the bug and don't spend time on it right now, if you already know the reason.

Regards
Claus





Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 15, 2018, 01:07:42 pm

Couple of bug's today..

Blue Screen Swiping in Diode Function  see DMM6500_Diode Swipe

After working in Diode function, loading a script and this message show up    see DMM6500_remote
DMM are not controlled remotely, hereafter this..     see Error_5738_after_remote
DVM behaves strange so power cycle to get i running again.

I will later report a bug where the DMM stops measuring but still responds to GUI, but out of time for now.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on August 15, 2018, 01:33:46 pm
'old' K2700

If you plan to trash them I can help reducing e-waste :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 16, 2018, 06:39:14 pm
There is one thing which did not migrated properly: external triggering using the Digital I/O connector in K2700 emulation mode. We had to (re)connect the trigger line to the BNC connector on te back of unit to make it work.
I see what you're talking about, I couldn't get it to work either.  I know 2700 emulation was tested pretty extensively so I'm not sure if there's a problem with the manual or the emulation mode.  The person who tested it is out this week, so I'll get back to you next week with an update.  I'm glad you were able to get your triggering to work over BNC though!

Running as Digi I as I often use (actually the reason to buy the DMM) I was fiddling around a bit with buffer-size and sampling rate
to restore things to "normal" by running a script I have used many times before, a few movments later error shows up...

NO fingers on the screen :) and no communications physically attached to the DMM so don't understand the message..
This "Communication error" message happens when the main processor talks to something else in the DMM and doesn't get a response back withing its timeout period.  It can sometimes happen when the DMM is busy processing a complex setup command and you send it another one too quickly.  Mostly, the processor handles these holdups itself, but with your lightning fingers, I could see this error happening.  Its rarely a fatal error though and the DMM6500 almost always recovers from it, sometimes without even dropping any commands.

There's another cause that's more common though: Most commands execute sequentially, so they'll always wait for the previous one to finish, but a few, like the trigger model, are overlapped so you can continue executing other commands while they do their own thing.  If you send a command that's not expected or conflicts with the current overlapped command while this is happening, you can get the communication error because the DMM won't know how to respond.  This usually only happens with scripts, which is why the waitcomplete() command exists, front panel operation should automatically wait for the overlapped commands to finish before sending a conflicting command.

The next firmware release will have more advice and help where that "No additional information available" message is now. 

Blue Screen Swiping in Diode Function  see DMM6500_Diode Swipe

After working in Diode function, loading a script and this message show up    see DMM6500_remote
DMM are not controlled remotely, hereafter this..     see Error_5738_after_remote
DVM behaves strange so power cycle to get i running again.
Was this blue screen also caused by selecting the settings shortcut while the swipe screen is moving?  That shortcut works the same in every measurement function so I would expect that bluescreen to be there for each function.

For the other errors, the Communication error message almost certainly comes from the remote control message.  But you say you got this message while you didn't have *any* interface cables attached?  That'll require some more investigation... The DMM should not be able to put itself in remote mode as far as I know.

A few other things:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: elbot on August 16, 2018, 07:08:48 pm

Brad O,

The complexity of most bugs found from now on increases and therefore gets
more and more difficult to trace down... Quite sure the easy ones mostly found now :)
so I will try to use the log function, great with the screenshot function, I properly need an email
to be able to upload files directly to you.

Regards
Claus
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 21, 2018, 02:03:07 pm
At the company i work at we are currently migrating from the 'old' K2700 to the newer DAQ6510, for now in the K2700 emulation mode. IMHO these meters are really great to work with and really a step forward from the K2700. We use the RS232 option card and it was -almost- plug 'n play in our automated measurement setups.

There is one thing which did not migrated properly: external triggering using the Digital I/O connector in K2700 emulation mode. We had to (re)connect the trigger line to the BNC connector on te back of unit to make it work. The migration manual mentions the DIO DB-9 as a valid external trigger source, so @Keithley, are we missing something like an additional configuration? The setup worked flawless with a K2700 unit. Trigger is at 5V TTL level.
Yep!  That's a bug!  I'm very sorry you had to change your setup.  It's AR61773, it will be fixed in the next firmware release.  DI/O triggering on Pin 6 was initially not supported, so it never made it onto the testing plan.  Later, engineering found out it was possible so the manual was updated to include it, but it still didn't get onto the test plan.  So, an error made it through to the first release that means the DMM never starts listening for the trigger signal on that line. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on August 23, 2018, 06:07:21 am
 Hello Brad O.
 
 Not about bugs, nevertheless hope for your answer.

 In the ref manual there is no mention of the hybrid filter. Please explain differences of various filters in practical use.

 This is important question for me. Appendix C: Performance verification, C-25 page. For 1 Ohm and 10 Ohm resistors typical values 1,000157 and 9,999450 are shown. For the best result it is necessary to accept THESE values, but not 1,000000 and 10,00000?
 By the way, on the C-31 page there is a small disorder for 1A range.

 How I can get calibration results? Does it exist?

 Thanks for good work.
 
 Why this multimeter is called 6 1/2 digits? It can show +/-1.200.000, but not +/-5.999.999 or +/-2.999.999. This is 6 1/12 or 6 1/6 digits DMM.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 23, 2018, 05:40:50 pm
Sure MikeP, in fact, I would say that I prefer talking about things that aren't bugs!  Hopefully that doesn't bother any entomologists  :D

The Hybrid filter is the same as the moving average filter, but it doesn't return any measurements until the whole filter block fills up for the first time.  This delay's the first measurement, but ensures you never get an unfiltered (or partially filtered) reading.  The reason it's called hybrid is because the first reading acts like the repeat filter, but every reading after that behaves like the moving average filter described on 5-54 in the manual.  This was added for the most recent firmware release and so was included in the 1.0.01f Release Notes, rather than the Reference Manual, it'll be added to the Manual when we put out a new update to it.

The measurements on C-25 are example measurements preformed by our cal lab for the manual.  So the "Typical reference DMM reading" values of 1.000157 and 9.999450 are the actual measured values of the specific resistors we used for the manual example.  You should use your own resistor or calibration source with nominal values of 1 Ohm and 10 Ohms, the actual value should just be close to that, but I don't think it's spec'd how close.  Page C-4 lists the how to find the upper and lower limits, you simply use the accuracy listed in the specification: Actual Value +- (% of actual value + % of range)

For the full calibration report, the best thing to do is be sure to ask for it when you order your unit.  If you got your unit recently, try emailing RMA at tek.com with your model number and serial number (they might need your calibration certificate number too).  They keep the full data for some amount of time so they may still have it.  Otherwise, you will need to ask for the full calibration report the next time you send your unit in.  I think the full data costs a little bit extra for the DMM6500/10, maybe $10?

The 1/2 digit refers to the first digit in the reading, which can be either a 0 or a 1.  So the DMM can read 6 full scale digits, where each can be any number 0-9, and one 1/2 digit that's either a 0 or a 1.  A 1 would be the full scale of the range (i.e. 1.000000V), but most meters let you measure a little above the maximum of the range, often 20% in Keithley equipment.  As far as I know, calling that a half digit is industry standard.  I believe the unofficial formula is fractional digit = (max value)/(number of possible values), I say unofficial because it isn't always true.  Keithley usually uses 1/2 digit to mean a digit that doesn't have a full 0-9 scale, other manufactures do similar.  Even in the DMM6500, some measurements can read more than 1 in the first digit.  Current for example has a 3A range, but it's still considered 6 1/2 digits, using the formula I gave would mean that particular range is 6 3/4 digits.  It would be confusing to list the precise fractional digits for each range and function, so the whole meter is classed as a 6 1/2 digit.

Hopefully that answers your questions?
EDIT: Fixed when the Hybrid filter was released and where it's documented.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on August 26, 2018, 04:10:39 pm
 Brad, thanks for your answer. This is great explanation.  :-+
 Can you show some examples of dual measure functions (secondary swipe screen)? I think this is very interesting function. But I don't know how to use that - ref manual without enought info.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on August 27, 2018, 05:24:58 pm
Like how people use the secondary measure function?  Well a big one is to measure voltage and current of a circuit at the "same time" (measurement functions are usually separated by physical relays that take time to change).  But you could also diagnose an AC line by measuring the frequency and voltage at the same time, or measure an AC Voltage signal on top of a DC Voltage signal.  You could also measure the voltage to a thermocouple and the temperature of the thermocouple at the same time.  Maybe make a DC current measurement but also measure frequency to detect ground loops or AC noise.  I think there's lots of uses out there, maybe some other people have examples of how they've used a DMM's secondary measure feature?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on August 28, 2018, 08:37:01 pm
 Brad thanks.

 I was very confused with opportunity to set two voltages at the same time. Yes. It does not work.  :)
 For the rest, dual meas. is really very good function.
 Screenshots - burden voltage (front connectors). Some instability in the fuse contact is present. Valid range of 0,3-0,4 Ohms.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on August 29, 2018, 07:50:26 pm
  So it turned out that I received this calibration document. I believe that this is useful and interesting for everyone. I do not have much experience using this device. But something seems to be true, and repeated very well.

 Brad, maybe this is not a very stupid recommendation - to make cursors with different colors.

 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 01, 2018, 04:51:06 am
I am seriously considering buying a DMM6500 after I sold my 34401A and have no bench meter now.
However, I noticed that the test currents in R and C measurements are quite high (much higher than 34411A and even slightly higher than 34401A)
How does it work for in-circuit measurements when troubleshooting? Sometimes I had wrong readings with my 34401A when I did in-circuit resistance measurement and I had to check with my Fluke 289 and it would give a much better result. This meter, however, I suspect will not be very useful for in-circuit troubleshooting.
Can anybody do some tests and give an idea as to how it performs?

one last questions, does it have the auto hold function the same way as 34461A? that meter holds the last 8 readings on screen and updates the last one every time you do a new measurement, that is very useful in troubleshooting
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Octane on September 01, 2018, 01:44:45 pm
Hi analogRF

Serious question: how does the measurement current influence in circuit measurements? If there are multiple path for the current to go (in circuit), how does that change with measurement current (assuming linearity of all involved parts)? Differently asked, why is lower current better?

We always learned: never measure in circuit. You dont know where the current goes and can‘t trust the results.

Thanks,
Michael
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on September 01, 2018, 01:58:52 pm
If everything is linear, it does not matter at which current one measures. However diodes / transistors are not linear and tend to not conduct if the voltage is well below 0.5 V. So at low voltage (low current) chances are a little better to get away with an in circuit resistance / capacitance measurement. One always has to be a little careful about the results and should not expect high accuracy anyway.

With manual range selection, one can just choose a high resistance range to get a low test current - high accuracy is usually not needed anyway.
However auto-ranging is very convenient if one does not know the range before. So ideally one would have a separate setting for high/low Ohms test current.  This might also apply to more normal measurements on resistors of small physical size. The choice of test current is a balance between self heating and low voltage related errors like thermal EMF. In principle this is to a large part a software question.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 01, 2018, 02:05:27 pm
Hi analogRF

Serious question: how does the measurement current influence in circuit measurements? If there are multiple path for the current to go (in circuit), how does that change with measurement current (assuming linearity of all involved parts)? Differently asked, why is lower current better?

We always learned: never measure in circuit. You dont know where the current goes and can‘t trust the results.

Thanks,
Michael

Yes, that's absolutely true and "generally" we never expect to get accurate results by in-circuit measurements, however, a lot of times during troubleshooting we do that for example as a sanity check or to find "open" or get an idea about a capacitor in circuit, etc...now when the test current is too high (and usually the open circuit voltage of the R/C range is also too high if you check their specs) it can strongly forward bias pn junctions in the circuit (around the area of measurement) and thus have too much influence on the result leading to wrong conclusions.  I have personally checked when I used my Fluke 289 instead of 34401A, a lot of the times I would read numbers much closer to what was expected.

I actually remember a specific case when I finally detected an open SMD resistor in circuit (reading a value much higher than its nominal value) when I used my Fluke 289 but my 34401A was giving me an answer which was not that far off and I could not suspect the resistor was open! It wasted my time for a while until I finally found the problem when I switched to my fluke 289
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 01, 2018, 02:08:53 pm
....but still this thing has so many goodies packed in it that makes it very very tempting :-\

34410A/11A/34465A are really the best if low test current and also accurate AC measurements are important.
Keithley ones don't come close in my opinion but now with this DMM6500 they have lot of other advantages over the Keysight ones
including but not limited to their better accuracy in DC and resistance
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 01, 2018, 04:06:36 pm
34465A are really the best if low test current and also accurate AC measurements are important.

Is it? I would guess most handheld meters uses about the same test current and much lower voltage voltage.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 01, 2018, 04:24:03 pm
34465A are really the best if low test current and also accurate AC measurements are important.

Is it? I would guess most handheld meters uses about the same test current and much lower voltage voltage.

sorry I was only comparing among 6.5 digit bench meters. yes, hadhelds are better in that particular spec
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on September 01, 2018, 08:51:08 pm
 For me, a large current was one of the reasons for buying. Since a large test current is an important part in the accurate measurement of small resistances.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on September 02, 2018, 08:47:34 am
Small resistors (e.g. 10 Ohms) need a relative high test current - no question here. The problem here is more about larger resistor ranges like 100 K. Here there is a choice of using something like 1 µA to read in a 100 mV range, or use something like 10 µA and read up to 1 V. It is possibly use even more and go up to maybe 10 V.  Here is really depends on the application: sometimes 1 µA is better and sometimes 50 µA could give the best results.

Another point is about how residual voltage (like thermal EMF) are handled: Some meter use a DC current and some measure both with and without current (so kind of low frequency AC). This can also have an effect on how it reacts in circuit. This feature can usually be turned off and may not be used in all ranges. An important point here is that the instructions tell, what way is used, so one knows about possible pitfalls. With the large display it might even be nice to show the used  test current in the display.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 02, 2018, 01:57:05 pm
yes, my concern was about measuring (roughly) high resistances, say less than 200K or 100K, in-circuit without activating any semiconductor junctions around that point.
I went through the datsheets of several 6.5 digit bench meters and did some simple calculations and here is what I found.
I have come to trust my Fluke 289 at 500K and 5M ranges to be the best for in-circuit testing. So I will compare the bench meters to my Fluke 289 at 500K range. This meter gives 10ohm resolution with 0.5V full scale voltage (1uA) at 500K range. The open circuit voltage of this meter is always 5V

I am not dwelling on the accuracy specs of these meters since it is not that important for this application.

In case of all Agilent 6.5 digits, old and new, it turns out that if I set the range to 10Mohm I get 10 ohm resolution with 5V full scale (0.5uA) which is even better than the fluke 289 at 500K range. At 1Mohm range the resolution is 1ohm at 5V full scale voltage (5uA), so for 100K resistor it will be 0.5V which is too high. So I should have used my 34401A more wisely  :-[

In case of Fluke 8846A and Tek DMM4050 (identical), in 10M range we get 10ohm resolution with 10V full scale voltage (1uA) which is the same as Fluke 289 at 500K range (0.1V for 100k resistor). The open circuit voltage in this range is 13V. The 1M range is not good with 10uA test current

In case of DMM6500, in 10M range we get 10 ohm resolution with 3.5V full scale (0.7uA parallel with 10Mohm input) which is even better than the Fluke 289 at 500K. The open circuit voltage is about 7V.
BTW this meter is excellent for low resistance measurement with 1ohm range and 10mA test current.

So no concerns here  :-+
now I need to find one with reasonable price  |O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on September 02, 2018, 07:12:36 pm
Another point is about how residual voltage (like thermal EMF) are handled: Some meter use a DC current and some measure both with and without current (so kind of low frequency AC). This can also have an effect on how it reacts in circuit. This feature can usually be turned off and may not be used in all ranges. An important point here is that the instructions tell, what way is used, so one knows about possible pitfalls. With the large display it might even be nice to show the used  test current in the display.

 Yes. Quite right. Here IT is called - Offset Compensation. You can enable (or disable) this feature in a range of up to 10 kOhm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on September 05, 2018, 07:51:41 pm
 Today I used a digitizer. It works! The frequency is 100 Hz. Unfortunately, there are some defects. Probably I made a mistake in setting up. It would be interesting to know - how this should work and what recommendations for use.
 
 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 05, 2018, 10:10:27 pm
MikeP:
Probably you set the digitize Count to 1 and went into continuous trigger mode?  When you do that, triggering is handled by the display processor, so when that processor gets busy it will stop triggering and catch up with whatever else it's being told to do (like update the graph image).  That's where those gaps in data are coming from.  A couple ways around this come to mind:

analogRF:
You seem to have figured out your test current question yourself, but I don't think anyone answered you on the hold functionality.  The DMM6500 doesn't have an exact equal to the 34461's probe hold feature, but it's easy enough to reproduce through scripting or a trigger model.  Tell you what, if you get a DMM6500, I'll write something for you myself ;D
EDIT: Also in regards to AC measurement accuracy, the DMM6500 has a brand new AC measurement architecture from the model 2000 that performs much better, the specs are fairly conservative there too.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 05, 2018, 10:19:18 pm

analogRF:
You seem to have figured out your test current question yourself, but I don't think anyone answered you on the hold functionality.  The DMM6500 doesn't have an exact equal to the 34461's probe hold feature, but it's easy enough to reproduce through scripting or a trigger model.  Tell you what, if you get a DMM6500, I'll write something for you myself ;D

Thanks! Finally that's the answer I was looking for  :) I have even asked the Tek support about the same thing and waiting for them to reply.
Reading a bit through the manual I thought that it might be possible with all those trigger models although I cannot figure out how.
Have no idea how the scripting works...

Have you tried to write something to emulate this? I am stunned they have not implemented this simple and very useful feature
in this sophisticated device. Even 2015 had this and all Keysight meters or even Rigol have it. There you can even adjust the threshold
for triggering to read a new value when you probe again. I have used it a lot and I am very used to it and I really want my new meter to have this.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 05, 2018, 10:31:00 pm
I haven't done anything exactly like the probe hold, I typically use the graph when I'd need similar functionality.  I think someone around here was working on a script that did it though...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on September 06, 2018, 08:08:57 pm

... There you can even adjust the threshold for triggering to read a new value when you probe again...


 :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: olkipukki on September 06, 2018, 10:11:52 pm
  • The transformer hum a lot of people have mentioned is a manufacturing defect that affected some DMMs on the first run, it's been fixed in the later builds.  You can contact your service center about getting it fixed, they should all be aware of the issue.  I'm not sure the exact percentage of affected units, but that's why some people have said they didn't notice it.  In general, please always reach to Tek service if you notice something that seems unreasonable about operation, mistakes do happen...


If there any Tek reference can be used for this issue?

I got DAQ6510 recently and it's much worse :( than DMM6500, planning to return both units... to be fixed and or replaced.

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on September 07, 2018, 08:55:34 am
@ Brad O
What is the current state of shipped DMM6500?
I am interested in buying one but only if all Hardware problems have been solved, like the transformer humm.
When can we expect a new firmware that will solve the software issues?
Thanks for an honest answer.



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 07, 2018, 06:02:06 pm
I'm sorry to hear that olkipukki... All the team here believes the transformer hum to be entirely solved, so there shouldn't be any new units going out with it.  We personally checked a few dozen units here a couple weeks ago and didn't find any issues (we didn't get them to check for issues, but did while we had them), so you should contact Tek support if you're seeing an abnormally loud hum.  As for a reference number, I think it was handled in manufacturing since it wasn't a design defect and they seem to use their own issue tracking system.  I'll keep looking but Tek support should know of the issue if you report it with them.  Did you get your DAQ6510 from a distributor?  They could have sent an older serial number from before the manufacturing fix was implemented.  Tek support will know at which serial number the problem was diagnosed and fixed.  Looking through our tracking system, I don't think there have been any design related hardware problems since release, and the transformer hum, while annoying, didn't affect measurements. 

HighVoltage: A new firmware release is planned for later this year.  It's a bit of a longer schedule than a typical new product firmware release as we have some special things planned for it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on September 07, 2018, 06:06:33 pm
HighVoltage: A new firmware release is planned for later this year.  It's a bit of a longer schedule than a typical new product firmware release as we have some special things planned for it.

could that include the reading hold feature  ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 07, 2018, 09:15:24 pm
I'm not gonna lie, adding a reading hold to the main firmware is not terribly high on the priority list right now.  But maybe I can come up with something for you in a couple weeks... :-X
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: julius79 on September 07, 2018, 09:45:20 pm
Im on market for 6 1/2 dig bench dmm. Where in UK,Europe i may get one for a clearance or a very good offer ,sale please ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: helgel on September 10, 2018, 06:50:28 am
Tektronix has a comparison between Keithley DMM6500 and Keysight 34461A here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9Zpcsc57k. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9Zpcsc57k.) Maybe not a unbiased comparison, but might be useful for some.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 27, 2018, 11:47:25 am
I just got the DMM6500 with software V1.0.02a
The 10uA DC range do not have a 20% overload margin, it goes into overload at 10uA, not at 12uA
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 27, 2018, 04:31:05 pm
The 10uA DC range do not have a 20% overload margin, it goes into overload at 10uA, not at 12uA

I just checked my DMM with 1.0.02a and was able to measure up to the 20% overrange without issue. Is it possible you're measuring a noisy signal?  If you have overranging spikes on your signal, the DMM will clip those readings and average the signal lower than it actually is.  You could check this by manually ranging up to see if you get what you expect or using the Digitize current function to see if there are any spikes present. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 27, 2018, 04:44:31 pm
The 10uA DC range do not have a 20% overload margin, it goes into overload at 10uA, not at 12uA

I just checked my DMM with 1.0.02a and was able to measure up to the 20% overrange without issue. Is it possible you're measuring a noisy signal?  If you have overranging spikes on your signal, the DMM will clip those readings and average the signal lower than it actually is.  You could check this by manually ranging up to see if you get what you expect or using the Digitize current function to see if there are any spikes present.

Very strange, I am trying it again now and it works perfectly.
I am using my 2460 as source and it is computer controlled with a special DMM test program I have made for checking DMM's. This makes it very unlikely I did a mistake before, but I did not try turning off-on the DMM6500 when it had trouble.

I did try locking it in 10uA range, where it flickered in and out of overload, I also tried with filter, it did not help either.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 28, 2018, 01:58:20 pm
I have been playing some more with the meter and got a couple of blue-screen while doing screen dumps:

(http://lygte-info.dk/pic/Keithley/DMM6500/DSC_2465.jpg)

I also wonder what the purpose of the ENTER key is, I have not found any use for it. On models with a encoder wheel it has purpose.

When doing math it would be nice if the secondary value could be the same value without any math applied.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 28, 2018, 05:20:34 pm
I have been playing some more with the meter and got a couple of blue-screen while doing screen dumps:
As in you saw blue screens while taking a screenshot? Do you have any other info on how you got them?

I also wonder what the purpose of the ENTER key is, I have not found any use for it.
The ENTER key does behave like a touch most of the time, it selects whatever's highlighted on the screen and also enters values for pop-up dialogs. The DMM6500's frame comes from our SMUs which do have an encoder wheel, so it's also a bit of a hold-over from those instruments as well.  I suppose I mainly use it for screenshots. 

When doing math it would be nice if the secondary value could be the same value without any math applied.
So you'd like a second buffer that records (for example) mV while the main buffer records %?  That seems reasonable, I'm not sure if there's a reason that wasn't done besides no one thought to do it.  I filed it as a requested feature, AR61921.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 28, 2018, 05:27:23 pm
I have been playing some more with the meter and got a couple of blue-screen while doing screen dumps:
As in you saw blue screens while taking a screenshot? Do you have any other info on how you got them?

Not much more info, I was on the mains screens, it happened on the statistic (twice) and on the settings screen.

When doing math it would be nice if the secondary value could be the same value without any math applied.
So you'd like a second buffer that records (for example) mV while the main buffer records %?  That seems reasonable, I'm not sure if there's a reason that wasn't done besides no one thought to do it.  I filed it as a requested feature, AR61921.

Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on September 28, 2018, 05:39:45 pm
I have been playing some more with the meter and got a couple of blue-screen while doing screen dumps:
As in you saw blue screens while taking a screenshot? Do you have any other info on how you got them?
Not much more info, I was on the mains screens, it happened on the statistic (twice) and on the settings screen.
Is there anything else on that flash drive?  One of our co-ops remembered seeing a bug during development where the DMM would sometimes crash after having the flash drive inserted for some time.  He believed it was related to what files were on the drive but doesn't know what file would've caused it since he erased the drive.  We haven't seen anything like that since then, and there's not an obvious reason why any process that reads the flash drive would cause a crash, but it's something to go on.  If there are other files on it, could you PM me a list of the file names and extensions (NOT the contents)?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maukka on September 28, 2018, 05:44:24 pm
I've seen similar things happen on some AV equipment with USB drives with long folder names. several nested folders or special characters in files or folders.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 28, 2018, 05:46:24 pm
If there are other files on it, could you PM me a list of the file names and extensions (NOT the contents)?

Lot of files, I have send a PM.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on September 30, 2018, 12:05:50 pm

I also wonder what the purpose of the ENTER key is, I have not found any use for it. On models with a encoder wheel it has purpose.

I would suspect that HOME and ENTER pressed simultaneously would save a screen shot to the USB thumb drive like on the DMM7510?
But besides this function, I have not used the ENTER knob on the DMM7510.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on September 30, 2018, 12:11:51 pm
I would suspect that HOME and ENTER pressed simultaneously would save a screen shot to the USB thumb drive like on the DMM7510?
But besides this function, I have not used the ENTER knob on the DMM7510.

On 7510 and other Keithley equipment with encoder wheel you can use the wheel and enter instead of the touchscreen, but 6500 do not have an encoder wheel.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on October 12, 2018, 05:32:45 pm
Hey @analogRF I don’t know if you’ve bought a 6500 yet, but I put together that Probe hold script for you and anyone else (@MikeP).  Also see the end for news on firmware.

It uses the App interface of the DMM so it behaves a little differently from a normal script.  I put together some info below.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.   Download the attached file and change the .txt ending to .tspa
2.   Make sure your DMM’s command set is set to TSP in MENU > Settings
3.   Put the script on a USB drive and insert into the DMM
4.   Press the APPS key and go to the USB tab
5.   You can either run the script here, or save it to local memory first (it will be added to local memory automatically)
6.   Click Run

DESCRIPTION:
The app adds a swipe screen to the home screen that detects stable readings and displays them on screen.  The big reading is still what the DMM is currently measuring.  There is a delete button to remove the last reading and a settings button, described below.  All readings ever displayed are stored in a separate buffer, called App_buffer, that can be exported just like any other buffer.  defbuffer1 holds all the readings the DMM takes, like normal, so you can go back and review the exact measurements taken (though defbuffer1 clears when you change functions).  Most functions are supported, the ones NOT supported are digitizing, temperature, continuity, or diode.  You can swipe off the probe hold, but no measurements will take place while you’re away from it.

SETTINGS:POWER USERS:
I wrote the app using the TSP language, which is pretty easy to follow as far as programming languages go.  There are some Global Settings towards the bottom of the script that act as defaults (except for $mcount, which is not adjustable "in app", and sets the measure count).  You’ll see some TODO statements of features I want to add in the future, or places where I know things need to be improved. 

BUGS:
I made this in my spare time so I’m 100% sure it has bugs in it, there’s a few I’m even aware of but haven’t had time to fix yet.  If you find one though, or have an idea for how you’d like the app to work differently, you can comment over at this thread on the Tek forum (https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141115) (It’s not like I won’t read it if you post here though…)  For one, it doesn’t quit gracefully, if you want to close this app I recommend restarting your DMM, there are lots of ways closing it will lead to blue screens or lock-ups.  Most of those issues require a firmware change to fix, and there are things I’d like this app to do which also require a firmware change.  That brings me to…

NEW FIRMWARE:
I’ve been told by the project manager that a new firmware will now not be coming until early next year.  It’s involved a lot of backend work and it’s simply taken longer than thought to get it ready.  I’ll let you all know a firm release date as soon as I get one. 

*EDIT: I changed the attached file since the first one I had accidentally had the wrong firmware listed as a requirement.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on October 12, 2018, 06:26:40 pm
Hi @Brad O
Thank you so much for following this up.
No, I havent been able to buy it (yet?) as it is still out of my price range
I tried to find a used 8846A or DMM4050 instead but no luck so far.
I even contacted Tek for a refurbished (or even defective !) DMM6500 but no answer.

But I am sure if I ever manage to buy this baby, this program definitely helps
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on October 15, 2018, 07:06:27 pm
 I briefly tried PROBE HOLD script. I think this script not final product and it has some defects. But it very usable – now multimeter can collect and hold several measurements. You even shouldn’t see the screen: beep-charger, beep-aux, beep-pump, beep-inverter. Very good. Brad many thanks!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on October 15, 2018, 07:12:02 pm
looks very good  |O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on October 16, 2018, 02:31:27 pm
Is it possible to a small gap each three decades? Like on keysight instruments (notice a gap after "0.634": https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-2891615-pn-34461A/digital-multimeter-6-digit-truevolt-dmm?cc=NL&lc=dut (https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-2891615-pn-34461A/digital-multimeter-6-digit-truevolt-dmm?cc=NL&lc=dut) .
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on October 18, 2018, 02:35:30 pm
I bought a 6500 meter sometime ago and decided to do a review of it before it got stuffed into my test setup.

It is a fairly long review: http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html (http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on October 18, 2018, 04:14:03 pm
I bought a 6500 meter sometime ago and decided to do a review of it before it got stuffed into my test setup.

It is a fairly long review: http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html (http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html)

Very nice review of the DMM6500.
I also looked at your other great DMM reviews, you put lots of work in to this.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on October 19, 2018, 07:44:16 pm
Is it possible to a small gap each three decades? Like on keysight instruments (notice a gap after "0.634": https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-2891615-pn-34461A/digital-multimeter-6-digit-truevolt-dmm?cc=NL&lc=dut (https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-2891615-pn-34461A/digital-multimeter-6-digit-truevolt-dmm?cc=NL&lc=dut) .
On the main display: that is not possible right now, for the probe hold app: yes, I can add an option for small spacing in the next release.

I bought a 6500 meter sometime ago and decided to do a review of it before it got stuffed into my test setup.

It is a fairly long review: http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html (http://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html)
Thank you for the review!  One thing I wanted to point out though, the KickStart software you talk about actually comes free when you purchase a 6500/6510 (this is true anywhere, not just in the US).  You should contact whoever you purchased your DMM from and ask for your free KICKSTARTFL-BASE license.  You may need to provide your unit's serial number too.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on October 20, 2018, 07:14:47 am
One thing I wanted to point out though, the KickStart software you talk about actually comes free when you purchase a 6500/6510 (this is true anywhere, not just in the US).  You should contact whoever you purchased your DMM from and ask for your free KICKSTARTFL-BASE license.  You may need to provide your unit's serial number too.

I will do that next week.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on October 21, 2018, 09:15:55 pm
 Once I got efficiency of my converter over 100% (actually about 98%). I thought: the perpetual motion machine and Nobel Prize it is good, but … I need more precision tools. The most significant error is a current measurement and current shunt is a great toy. I considered some resistors (other story) and DMMs. Keithley 6500 has 1 Ohm range, therefore has better accuracy than Keysight 34461/5 (lower range 100 Ohm).

 Here comparison of specifications (10 mOhm/1 year)
 Keysight 34461: 1uOhm (reading) + 4mOhm (range) = +/-4,001 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-40%.
 Keysight 34465: 0,6uOhm (reading) + 4mOhm (range) = +/-4,0006 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-40%.
 Keithley 6500: 0,85uOhm (reading) + 200uOhm (range) = +/-0,20085 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-2%.

 Here one more comparison of specifications (1 mOhm/1 year):
 Keysight 34461: 0,1uOhm (reading) + 4mOhm (range) = +/-4,001 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-400%.
 Keysight 34465: 0,06uOhm (reading) + 4mOhm (range) = +/-4,0006 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-400%.
 Keithley 6500: 0,085uOhm (reading) + 200uOhm (range) = +/-0,20085 mOhm. Accuracy: +/-20%.
 So I got DMM6500.

 I understand that the actual accuracy is much better.  I will show calibrations data report of my multimeter once again.
 Measurement of 10 Ohm and 1 Ohm at calibration:
 1 Ohm. Spec. accuracy: +/-285uOhm. Actual error: - 5 uOhm, uncertainty: 31 uOhm.
 10 Ohm. Spec. accuracy: +/-1005uOhm. Actual error: - 50 uOhm, uncertainty: 140 uOhm.
 Unfortunately, any data for smaller resistance it is not provided. I decided to make experiment: measurement of low resistance - 10 Ohm, 1 Ohm, 100 mOhm, 10 mOhm and 1 mOhm.

 Less than 3 months after cal. I made special cable for experiment: teflon shielded + crimped connectors. All measurements repeated many times. Durations: 0.5-2 hours. Tamb - 21-23C. Settings: NPLC - 12, repeat filter count - 100, autozero ON, power sync ON … Later I will show a difference between other settings
Resistors inaccuracy not considered (better than 0.01%). I consider the resistor like an absolutely precise - I do not know the actual resistance, and it does not matter at all.

 My modest experience does not allow commenting on these data, I can’t speak about uncertainty of measurements and more difficult aspects. I understand the difficulty of measuring low resistance. I will be very grateful for any comments.
 This is just data:
10 Ohm. Spec error: +/-0,0105%. Measured range: 9,999611-9,999625. Error:-0.0039%.
1 Ohm. Spec error: +/-0,0285%. Measured range: 0,9999636-0,999962. Error:-0.0038%.
100 mOhm. Spec error: +/-0,2085%. Measured range: 99.99736-99.99858. Error:-0.0027%.
10 mOhm. Spec error: +/-2,0085%. Measured range: 10,00009-10,00070. Error: +0.007%.
1 mOhm. Spec error: +/-20%. Measured range: 999,5403-999,9838. Error:-0.046%.

 Conclusion:  :clap: and now I have opportunity to create my own precision shunt.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on October 24, 2018, 08:06:34 am
One thing I wanted to point out though, the KickStart software you talk about actually comes free when you purchase a 6500/6510 (this is true anywhere, not just in the US).  You should contact whoever you purchased your DMM from and ask for your free KICKSTARTFL-BASE license.  You may need to provide your unit's serial number too.
Hi Brad,

This is very nice to find out that unlike Keysight, customers can use get free software for a device of this level. I've been trying to contact with a seller (which is Farnell) and now they ask "Where I heard about free software" and I don't know how to answer. I've provided SN, order number, confirmation number, now they ask the exact company purchased the device (it was an agent from my country) and I'm not sure I understand where it is leading as why do they even care about all this information since S/N is traceable and a license (I think) is tied to the device... Could You help with this please?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on October 24, 2018, 08:55:57 am
I bought a DMM6500 from the local dealer here in Australia. Before I even have the meter in my hands (delivery due tomorrow), I have a email about the software in my emails.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on October 24, 2018, 09:01:38 am
I bought a DMM6500 from the local dealer here in Australia. Before I even have the meter in my hands (delivery due tomorrow), I have a email about the software in my emails.
I have found no info on the web regarding this. On top of that - I've bought it via an agent, Farnel routed my request to their local office responsible, which, unfortunately, is in Russia and they do not seem to be eager to help in any case - "we do not support third parties"...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on October 24, 2018, 09:13:30 am
I wonder why software is not readily available for downloading to avoid all the trouble with contacting distributor, etc. If it needs to be tight to the device, a registration form can pop up during the first run.

But I'd say avoid overcomplicated purchase verification process, requiring persistent Internet connection, etc.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: chalgoguma on October 24, 2018, 03:50:27 pm
Just now, after registered my DMM6500 in Tektronix site, I got Kickstart 2 base license. (I bought DMM6500 in 5-23-2018)
I saw "Redeem" link after registering serial key, and I can generated license key using host id which got from Kickstart 2  ;D

Brad, Thank for good information.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on October 24, 2018, 04:59:04 pm
Just now, after registered my DMM6500 in Tektronix site, I got Kickstart 2 base license. (I bought DMM6500 in 5-23-2018)
I saw "Redeem" link after registering serial key, and I can generated license key using host id which got from Kickstart 2  ;D

Brad, Thank for good information.
Thanks for the tip. Will try this approach.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on October 24, 2018, 09:18:23 pm
Special offer for new registered products only? For my already registered DMM6500 redeem not offered. So I re-registered multimeter, redeem is appear but then OOOOOOOOOOOOPS...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on October 25, 2018, 03:49:47 pm
So I got my nice shiny new DMM6500, powered it up on the bench, connected it to my EDC Voltage display, was reading 100mV with the graph on the lower section of the screen, pressed menu and it blue screened.

Haven't been able to get it to do it again since.

Fw 1.0.02a which I can't even see on the Tek website.

Any idea when the next FW will be released?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on October 26, 2018, 12:42:38 pm
Hi,

Finally have got the license. Had a small issue, because I've had previously installed trial beta version, so it took one business day for tek.com to fix it. It's really easier to go via device registration and redeem of the license.
Thanks for the tip on this!

And, of course, it is very nice of Keithley to provide free license for DMM6500 owners!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: branadic on October 26, 2018, 01:22:10 pm
I don't want to be pessimistic, but it somewhat feels like beta test is done on the customer. Is this the new strategy at Keithley since they are part of Danaher group, to decrease time to market and development time?

-branadic-
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on October 26, 2018, 05:14:07 pm
Another blue screen. This time trying to full screen the graph view.

Anyone having major issues with the auto range in 2w resistance?

I have a coil, measures ~8.6 ohms. If it’s in auto, the range relay is constantly cycling (10 times a second maybe). Manual range to 10 ohms and it’s fine, no over range. Now if I put it into auto, it is fine. If I remove a lead and reccomend it, back to the beginning.

It’s a 600 turn coil I use for checking clamp meters.

Is there any way to rearrange the lower screens? I don’t need secondary temp measurement and I find myself using screen 1, 3 and 5 the most.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on October 28, 2018, 07:00:06 pm
 I promised to show the difference between the settings. This is a small comparison of "fast" and "slow" settings.

 1 mOhm at "fast" settings (5NPLC, filter 10, 27 readings or 2 min): + 0.0423%
 “Slow” measurements (12NPLC, filter 100, 0,5-1 hour): -0.046% (worst case).


 Another experiment was performed with a 10 mOhm.
 Small quantity of readings, 10 separate measurements (5NPLC, filter 10, 10 readings or 40 sec):  +/- 0.024% (worst case).
 “Slow” measurements (12NPLC, filter 100, 0,5-1 hour): +0.007% (worst case).

  I think this is evidence of low 1/f noise or small thermal fluctuations.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: evava on October 29, 2018, 08:24:42 am
Anyone having major issues with the auto range in 2w resistance?

I have a coil, measures ~8.6 ohms. If it’s in auto, the range relay is constantly cycling (10 times a second maybe). Manual range to 10 ohms and it’s fine, no over range. Now if I put it into auto, it is fine. If I remove a lead and reccomend it, back to the beginning.

It’s a 600 turn coil I use for checking clamp meters.

It is a coil. Some coil with certain properties (L and R) can confuse certain meters at autoranging - it is not so unusual behaviour. Meter gives different current at different ranges, and coil answers to that change of current by changing voltage on it, and meter answers to the change of voltage by change of range, and so on for ever.  It is difficult to settle that if worst conditions occur. That's one reason why there's still manual ranging at all meters.

And sorry to ask, but how exactly you are checking clamp meters with 600 turn coil (except demagnetize).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on October 29, 2018, 01:55:21 pm
I will do that next week.

I contacted my supplied and asked them about the free Kickstarter offer, they would investigate and return. This is now one week ago and I have not gotten any response yet.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on October 29, 2018, 07:23:04 pm
Okay let's see if I can address everything...

I wonder why software is not readily available for downloading to avoid all the trouble with contacting distributor, etc. If it needs to be tight to the device, a registration form can pop up during the first run.
This has a lot to do with how our relations with distributors work, the software is really tied to the sale not the instrument.  When you buy from a distributor, you don't interact with Keithley or Tektronix at all, so unless you buy 1000 of something, we won't find out who bought what.  That's why the software promotion goes through the distributor. 

Just now, after registered my DMM6500 in Tektronix site, I got Kickstart 2 base license. (I bought DMM6500 in 5-23-2018)
I saw "Redeem" link after registering serial key, and I can generated license key using host id which got from Kickstart 2  ;D
So this is a separate promotion running right now where you can get KickStart 2 free for registering ANY currently compatible product (see the list here: https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart (https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart)), I think this runs through the end of the year, it just started last week or thereabouts.  This is not the same thing as getting a license when you purchase a DMM6500 or 6510. 

So I got my nice shiny new DMM6500, powered it up on the bench, connected it to my EDC Voltage display, was reading 100mV with the graph on the lower section of the screen, pressed menu and it blue screened.

Haven't been able to get it to do it again since.

Fw 1.0.02a which I can't even see on the Tek website.

Any idea when the next FW will be released?
What do you mean connected to a EDC Voltage display?  Like you were measuring voltage across one of those LED displays?  If you see the blue screen again see if you can catch the code it gives, that can help us find any issues. 
FW 1.0.02a is the same is 1.0.01f, it has 2-3 behind the scenes changes to address some manufacturing problems, but doesn't affect user experience at all.  Current DMMs are shipping with 02a, but there's no reason to upgrade to it after it leaves manufacturing, so that's why it's not on the website.  The next firmware will come in early 2019.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but it somewhat feels like beta test is done on the customer. Is this the new strategy at Keithley since they are part of Danaher group, to decrease time to market and development time?
I understand your frustration, believe me, I don't like finding bugs in things I buy either.  But, we never treat a release as a beta.  Fortive (who split off from Danaher and owns us now) honestly doesn't have that much input on product development, their philosophy is luckily much more of a hands off approach.  The thing is, Keithley itself is and has always been a small company.  That approach is good for some reasons, we get tighter control over the scope of our products for example.  But it also has its negatives in that large releases like the DMM6500/DAQ6510 can put a strain on our resources.   Also, a lot of the bugs reported here are pretty obscure things that take a long time for us to even replicate.  So I wouldn't say we treat releases like betas, but bugs do slip through.

Anyone having major issues with the auto range in 2w resistance?

I have a coil, measures ~8.6 ohms. If it’s in auto, the range relay is constantly cycling (10 times a second maybe). Manual range to 10 ohms and it’s fine, no over range. Now if I put it into auto, it is fine. If I remove a lead and reccomend it, back to the beginning.

It’s a 600 turn coil I use for checking clamp meters.

Is there any way to rearrange the lower screens? I don’t need secondary temp measurement and I find myself using screen 1, 3 and 5 the most.
As evava said, that sounds like the inductance is causing an issue with autorange since ohm measurement uses a current source.  Changing ranges disconnects the current source briefly, so if the coil isn't at equilibrium, I could see that inductive kickback causing problems with the circuitry.  I would say the solution to that is leave it in manual range. 

The lower swipe screens can't be reconfigured from the front panel.  But, here's the TSP commands to delete the 2nd and 4th swipes if you don't want them:
display.delete(display.SCREEN_SECONDARY_SWIPE)
display.delete(display.SCREEN_SETTINGS_SWIPE)

You can add these commands to an autoexec.tsp file and load it to the instrument to remove these screens on startup.  Also these commands aren't documented anywhere yet (so you didn't miss anything) as they're part of the application API that's still changing quite a bit until the next firmware release.  To bring the screens back you can use
display.create(display.SCREEN_HOME, display.OBJ_SWIPE, display.SCREEN_SETTINGS_SWIPE)
display.create(display.SCREEN_HOME, display.OBJ_SWIPE, display.SCREEN_SECONDARY_SWIPE)


I contacted my supplied and asked them about the free Kickstarter offer, they would investigate and return. This is now one week ago and I have not gotten any response yet.
I'd ask you to wait one more week and then message me with your details and I will look into either getting you a license another way or reaching out to your distributor on your behalf.  In fact, maybe you should send a follow up email and tell them you've been talking with a Tektronix rep so they know you're serious.  In the mean time, you have access to the trial version right?  The trial version has no limitations other than the time limit. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on October 29, 2018, 08:29:14 pm
I contacted my supplied and asked them about the free Kickstarter offer, they would investigate and return. This is now one week ago and I have not gotten any response yet.
I'd ask you to wait one more week and then message me with your details and I will look into either getting you a license another way or reaching out to your distributor on your behalf.  In fact, maybe you should send a follow up email and tell them you've been talking with a Tektronix rep so they know you're serious.  In the mean time, you have access to the trial version right?  The trial version has no limitations other than the time limit.

I have already told them "Keithley Apps Engineer" when they asked where I had got information about the offer. I will take it easy another week.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: nictinkers on November 02, 2018, 11:27:10 am
I've recently changed jobs from a workplace where I had a Keysight 34461A on my bench to one with a DMM6500. I'd say that the DMM6500 has better specifications for the price but isn't necessarily as nice to live with.

The 34461A came with a nice probe set, the DMM6500 only a pair of decidedly middle-of-the-road probes. The 34461A is a much shorter unit. The DM6500, with cables out the back, measures in at around 400 mm. You need a deep desk to sit this somewhere comfortable.

There's a lot about the DMM6500 that indicates it was designed to sit in a rack as a piece of process equipment rather than on an engineer's bench. The 10A jack is only available at the back (the 34461A has it only available at the front). The input jacks are laid out differently on the front and back, which is not at all a big deal but feels anti-human.

Somebody else has mentioned that the 34461A main display separates digits in thousands. I wish the default buffers were called something more like "Buffer 1/2" or "Main Buffer" and "Secondary Buffer" rather than "defbuffer1/2". Why does the trigger mode have to be in all caps when nothing else at the top of the screen is? It's little touches like that that add up to make the Keysight feel more polished.

I'm not at all a fan of the DMM6500 touchscreen - I find the ergonomics of trying to swipe horizontally or vertically on a small, upright screen really poor, and I don't like leaving fingerprints on the screen. I wish more functionality had been made available with physical buttons.

I don't think the front panel is particularly attractive. I'm pretty sure this one was designed after the 7510 and they've made some improvements - the buttons look more balanced on either side of the screen, for example, but it's still a mess of different fonts and logos, poorly distinguished buttons and strange alignments. Why does the Ω look like it comes from a seriffed font? The screen doesn't feel vertically centred on the unit, giving it a slightly enlarged forehead.

The red strip on the top right should be the same height and vertical location as the red of the Keithley logo, for pity's sake - instead it's placed half under the rubber surround, constantly reminding me that the meter is meant to be sitting in a rack without the rubber surround attached rather than on my bench. The model number box should be aligned with the red strip and logo as well. The lurid green would make sense if it was sitting in a rack or stack to help you quickly identify the instrument but on the bench just stands out as clashing visual colour and noise.

I'm disappointed that there's no temperature sensor at the input jacks for thermocouple CJC compensation. That feels like it would have been such a cheap feature to add. Also that the instrument doesn't measure voltage and current simultaneously. It would have been really nice to be able to measure power, power factor, VA, VAR, even at some much lower resolution and accuracy than the main ADC. The capacitance range tops out at 120 µF. There's no measurement of capacitor ESR and you can't measure inductance. I'm not saying that competitive units have these features, (as I recall, the 34461A didn't even measure capacitance when it was first released) just that I think I expect more from a high-end bench multimeter released in 2018.

I've complained a lot, and about a lot of little things. I know that makes my opinion of this meter sound worse than it actually is. There are awesome things about this meter that I really like. Unlike posters here, I haven't managed to see a single blue screen. The quick setup slider (resolution vs speed) is a nice utility. The connectivity is great and the web interface is responsive. The scripting is only going to get more and more useful as more examples are published. A steady trickle of firmware releases indicating that the product is still being improved and responsive support greatly increase its value.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 05, 2018, 01:55:27 am
It doesn't have "dry circuit" voltage limits on the low ohm ranges, only the 7510 and the 2010 seem to have this option?
I was wondering if it could be added later in firmware, or in scripting, or whether it's an actual hardware limitation on the 6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 05, 2018, 06:10:15 pm
It doesn't have "dry circuit" voltage limits on the low ohm ranges, only the 7510 and the 2010 seem to have this option?
I was wondering if it could be added later in firmware, or in scripting, or whether it's an actual hardware limitation on the 6500.
The 3706A is another instrument with dry circuit measurement, I think that's the only 3 we offer with dedicated dry circuit modes.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 don't have the hardware required to do dry circuit testing, so that's a feature that can't be added in later (without a new model number).  It was looked at, but the team decided the cost for adding that one feature would've been too great. 

@nictinkers, thank you for the feedback!  I'm sorry you don't care for a lot of the design, but really, we do take all the feedback we can get to heart. 
Also that the instrument doesn't measure voltage and current simultaneously. It would have been really nice to be able to measure power, power factor, VA, VAR, even at some much lower resolution and accuracy than the main ADC.
Not exactly what you really want I think, which would require 2 full ADCs, but the DMM6500 can measure power with the voltage ratio function like the other DMMs in its class.  One of our engineers wrote a small script to simplify the process a bit, the script and the full description are here: https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141154,
here's a video he's been putting together for it too:
https://youtu.be/oWTTrA20M0w
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 06, 2018, 01:10:45 am
The 3706A is another instrument with dry circuit measurement, I think that's the only 3 we offer with dedicated dry circuit modes.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 don't have the hardware required to do dry circuit testing, so that's a feature that can't be added in later (without a new model number).  It was looked at, but the team decided the cost for adding that one feature would've been too great.
Thank you for your answer.

As a compromise, is there anything which would prevent me from doing the following hack as a TSP script?
- Connect an external high stability 2 ohm in parallel with DUT (open would be 20mV on the 1 and 10 ohm ranges?)
- Measure the 2 ohm alone, store the value
- Deduce the DUT and display only the calculated value

One caveat is that pecision would become exponentially worse above 2 ohms,  but that's all I need anyway for small signal relay contacts.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 06, 2018, 02:54:13 pm
The 3706A is another instrument with dry circuit measurement, I think that's the only 3 we offer with dedicated dry circuit modes.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 don't have the hardware required to do dry circuit testing, so that's a feature that can't be added in later (without a new model number).  It was looked at, but the team decided the cost for adding that one feature would've been too great.
As a compromise, is there anything which would prevent me from doing the following hack as a TSP script?
- Connect an external high stability 2 ohm in parallel with DUT (open would be 20mV on the 1 and 10 ohm ranges?)
- Measure the 2 ohm alone, store the value
- Deduce the DUT and display only the calculated value

One caveat is that pecision would become exponentially worse above 2 ohms,  but that's all I need anyway for small signal relay contacts.
In fact, that's exactly the type of thing TSP scripting was designed for!  For your test setup, I think that should work fine, I'm sure you know more about the measurement than I do.  Be sure to only use manual ranging and only ever switch in the dry resistance while the DMM is already measuring the 2 ohm resistor.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: nictinkers on November 07, 2018, 08:02:54 am
@nictinkers, thank you for the feedback!  I'm sorry you don't care for a lot of the design, but really, we do take all the feedback we can get to heart.

I rather hope you don't take it too close to heart - I know it can really suck to have something you worked hard on criticised.

Not exactly what you really want I think, which would require 2 full ADCs, but the DMM6500 can measure power with the voltage ratio function like the other DMMs in its class.

That's an interesting approach. I like that using an external shunt doesn't age the relays switching from voltage to current. Is there a way to fill a buffer of full ratio measurements at a high speed with a fixed sample frequency? (That is, like Digitise Voltage, but for full ratio.) Even if you couldn't hit 1 megasample/sec I'd assume you could get fast enough to get a low-distortion measurement for 50/60Hz signals. Then it would depend on whether the scripting language is then powerful enough to calculate AC power parameters from the buffer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 07, 2018, 03:40:43 pm
Not exactly what you really want I think, which would require 2 full ADCs, but the DMM6500 can measure power with the voltage ratio function like the other DMMs in its class.

That's an interesting approach. I like that using an external shunt doesn't age the relays switching from voltage to current. Is there a way to fill a buffer of full ratio measurements at a high speed with a fixed sample frequency? (That is, like Digitise Voltage, but for full ratio.) Even if you couldn't hit 1 megasample/sec I'd assume you could get fast enough to get a low-distortion measurement for 50/60Hz signals. Then it would depend on whether the scripting language is then powerful enough to calculate AC power parameters from the buffer.
The Ratio function's sample rate is defined by NPLC or Aperture, so it has a minimum sample window of ~8 us like the rest of the box.  The maximum reading rate is slightly slower than that for buffer and trigger overhead though.  Just removing the delays in the script, setting a manual range, turning off auto delay, and setting the minimum NPLC, I measured noise at 200S/s, or ~5ms between readings.  I would suspect you could speed it up slightly if make a trigger model to control when readings happen, as I've said before, the trigger model has a dedicated processor.  I would have to dig deeper and talk to the firmware folks to find out what the limiting factor is here, it's not TSP though, I tried just reading the ratio function directly to defbuffer1 and it was about the same speed.  I suspect the ratio function just isn't optimized for speed. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: attle123 on November 08, 2018, 12:36:05 pm
The 3706A is another instrument with dry circuit measurement, I think that's the only 3 we offer with dedicated dry circuit modes.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 don't have the hardware required to do dry circuit testing, so that's a feature that can't be added in later (without a new model number).  It was looked at, but the team decided the cost for adding that one feature would've been too great.
Thank you for your answer.

As a compromise, is there anything which would prevent me from doing the following hack as a TSP script?
- Connect an external high stability 2 ohm in parallel with DUT (open would be 20mV on the 1 and 10 ohm ranges?)
- Measure the 2 ohm alone, store the value
- Deduce the DUT and display only the calculated value

One caveat is that pecision would become exponentially worse above 2 ohms,  but that's all I need anyway for small signal relay contacts.

Hi Brad, following up on this ratio topic, is there anyway to display the sense/Vs voltage onto the screen as well alongside the Vinput. Like the keysight is able in the video (2:09)
https://youtu.be/Y6xnLkiUMn8?t=129 (https://youtu.be/Y6xnLkiUMn8?t=129)
thanks!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 08, 2018, 07:08:12 pm
Hi Brad, following up on this ratio topic, is there anyway to display the sense/Vs voltage onto the screen as well alongside the Vinput. Like the keysight is able in the video (2:09)
https://youtu.be/Y6xnLkiUMn8?t=129 (https://youtu.be/Y6xnLkiUMn8?t=129)
thanks!
Yeah, that's real easy.  So how the ratio function works is it will store the ratio as "the reading".  In a full buffer, it will also store the sense voltage in the "extra values" field.  You can get the input voltage from those two values of course.  Then you can just print those values as a string to the main screen.  Or, you can use them in the power calculation like the first script does.

The same engineer adapted his first script to replicate what the Keysight video looks like (change .txt to .tsp to use it, like normal). 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 09, 2018, 03:52:24 am
Getting this DMM out of US customs is incredibly frustrating, is this paranoid crap a new thing?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on November 09, 2018, 08:25:59 pm
Yeah, that's real easy. 

  :clap: :clap: :clap:

 I think this tool has a lot of undisclosed features.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on November 09, 2018, 08:45:28 pm
Getting this DMM out of US customs is incredibly frustrating, is this paranoid crap a new thing?

Where did you buy from, from what I saw US vs CAD distributors the price wasn't far off.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: attle123 on November 09, 2018, 10:38:35 pm
thank you very much for the script, however there seem to be an issue with the readingbuffer, that every time the script is ran it seems to change the reading buffer to fill mode "once", even when i manually change the fill mode back to continuous on the dmm, so the script eventually stops itself. Is there anyway to change the fill mode to continuous in the script?. I noticed this aswell on the power measurement script aswell

Thanks!!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on November 10, 2018, 10:14:54 pm
It doesn't have "dry circuit" voltage limits on the low ohm ranges, only the 7510 and the 2010 seem to have this option?
I was wondering if it could be added later in firmware, or in scripting, or whether it's an actual hardware limitation on the 6500.
The 3706A is another instrument with dry circuit measurement, I think that's the only 3 we offer with dedicated dry circuit modes.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 don't have the hardware required to do dry circuit testing, so that's a feature that can't be added in later (without a new model number).  It was looked at, but the team decided the cost for adding that one feature would've been too great. 

@nictinkers, thank you for the feedback!  I'm sorry you don't care for a lot of the design, but really, we do take all the feedback we can get to heart. 
Also that the instrument doesn't measure voltage and current simultaneously. It would have been really nice to be able to measure power, power factor, VA, VAR, even at some much lower resolution and accuracy than the main ADC.
Not exactly what you really want I think, which would require 2 full ADCs, but the DMM6500 can measure power with the voltage ratio function like the other DMMs in its class.  One of our engineers wrote a small script to simplify the process a bit, the script and the full description are here: https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141154,
here's a video he's been putting together for it too:
https://youtu.be/oWTTrA20M0w

I'm glad there is an option to measure power.

My question however is what shunt ratings would I need to measure power as accurately as possible from 1 mA to say 300-500
A?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 10, 2018, 10:47:20 pm
Finally received it, the low resistance precision is pretty nice.

I just soldered three 14 awg in parallel on some machined banana plugs I had. With sense wires about an inch apart. So that is supposed to measure around 60 to 65 uohm I guess. It's just a test for noise, not accuracy.

The lowest resistance range is very noisy as expected, getting usable values that low requires slow integration and filtering. Averaging reaches the point of diminishing returns around 5 NPLC with 100x repeat filter. A hundred readings took a little over an hour. Doing 15 NLPC with 100x filter took 3 hours and provided very similar numbers. It's either the limit of the instrument or the limit of my crude methodology.

9.98 uohm pk-pk
2.26 uohm std dev
Average 61.3 uohms

That's kind of amazing....
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 11, 2018, 05:43:07 am
The interface is a lot of fun to use, there are still a few things that I hope will be adressed in a firmware update. Not a big deal, the yellow cursor have no reason to exist on the 6500 since there's no knob to control it (it seems to have been written more for the smus and the 7510) unless I didn't figure out how to move it around. It makes the behaviour of the enter key a bit random, it's whatever default was selected on the page.

The swipe to change pages can be risky to operate, I sometimes press one of the functions by mistake, which wipe out the currently running acquisition. I would love to cycle the pages with the home key or something, maybe an option to remove the function page completely since there's already a dedicated function button to popup that menu. Maybe a toggle to prevent interrupting the measurement? A dialog yes/no for anything which would clear the buffer? Something like that.  When running a trigger and count other than plain continuous, the content of the buffer is probably important.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 11, 2018, 10:58:26 am
.....
The lowest resistance range is very noisy as expected, getting usable values that low requires slow integration and filtering. Averaging reaches the point of diminishing returns around 5 NPLC with 100x repeat filter. A hundred readings took a little over an hour. Doing 15 NLPC with 100x filter took 3 hours and provided very similar numbers. It's either the limit of the instrument or the limit of my crude methodology.


The limited effect of more filtering / longer averaging is a kind of weak point with quite some Keithley meters. If think they should work on this, as it is very likely fixable in software and it effects not just the 6500.  This seems to be an old problem (AFAIR I saw the odd low frequency noise already on an old 196 or 199) so I would no expect a fast solution. My hope would be more on finally finding out when developing a new 8 digit meter.

The DAQ6500 is more like a meter for fast measurements and only specified for 6 digits. So the relatively poor noise with 10-60 seconds averaging is not that significant for this type of meter. It's more the higher grade 7510 where this really hurts. The good thing is, chances are it gets better once averaging is much longer (e.g. 5 minutes).

The very low resistance means measuring very low voltage and there thermal EMF effects at the "resistor" can also limit the accuracy. It might help to cover the resistor to protect it from air drafts. Thermal EMF combined with temperature fluctuations is one of the limiting factors for long time averaging. This is inside the meter and also at the DUT.  For the copper resistor this could also be just a fluctuation of the resistance due to temperature changes.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on November 11, 2018, 04:41:01 pm

The limited effect of more filtering / longer averaging is a kind of weak point with quite some Keithley meters.


I did a comparison of "fast" (filter 10, NPLC 5, readings 10) and "slow" (filter 100, NPLC 12, readings up to 160) measurements for 10mΩ +/-0,01%. In a series of ten "fast" measurements, the maximum deviation is about 200 ppm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 12, 2018, 05:12:47 am
I think the integration rate (NPLC setting) is altering the slope rate of the ADC? I mean it's not averaging multiple samples during thst time, otherwise 100x 1 NPLC would give the same result as 10x 10 NPLC and it doesn't. As a reference the 1 ohm range is insanely low voltage considering the current source is 10mA. So the noise in that range warrants more samples at a faster rate.

I made 3 different reading at the same 100 readings, 100 total NPLC per reading, I repeated the test 5 times to get a good sampling. Room is electronically controlled to 22C. Same 60uohm copper wire. The value shown is the std deviation, in uohms, of each iteration. The test was done 1,2,3,1,2,3 etc... to avoid corellated external factors.

Filter 7x at 15 NPLC:
7.85
9.73
8.75
9.02
9.63

Filter 10x at 10 NPLC:
7.59
7.86
9.04
7..35
7.99

Filter 100x at 1 NPLC:
3.75
3.48
3.23
3.45
3.92

I wish they enabled a 1000x repeat filter for a 1 NLPC reading, which would probably yield one least significant digit in the 1 ohm range. All other ranges are ultra stable and don't really need this. That 1 ohm range is already crazy impressive but it can still be improved in software even more.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 12, 2018, 03:53:35 pm
Getting this DMM out of US customs is incredibly frustrating, is this paranoid crap a new thing?
Occasionally customs gets freaked out by test equipment.  :-\  Nothing new as far as I'm aware.

thank you very much for the script, however there seem to be an issue with the readingbuffer, that every time the script is ran it seems to change the reading buffer to fill mode "once", even when i manually change the fill mode back to continuous on the dmm, so the script eventually stops itself. Is there anyway to change the fill mode to continuous in the script?. I noticed this aswell on the power measurement script aswell

Thanks!!
Yeah, by default buffers are fill-once.  Add these commands after the buffers have been created (so around line 15):
Code: [Select]
readingBuffer.fillmode = buffer.FILL_CONTINUOUS
powerBuffer.fillmode = buffer.FILL_CONTINUOUS
Manually changing them should work too, but you have to change both buffers.  The fillmode command in on page 742/15-41 of the reference manual.
EDIT: oh, you also need to change a couple other things: the for loop needs to become a "while true do" and you need to add "i = 1" before the loop and "i = i + 1" at the bottom of the loop since we're removing the iterable for loop.

The lowest resistance range is very noisy as expected, getting usable values that low requires slow integration and filtering. Averaging reaches the point of diminishing returns around 5 NPLC with 100x repeat filter. A hundred readings took a little over an hour. Doing 15 NLPC with 100x filter took 3 hours and provided very similar numbers. It's either the limit of the instrument or the limit of my crude methodology.
There are diminishing returns for higher NPLC for most signals, and in fact higher NPLC may be less accurate.  Page 203/5-58 in the reference manual discusses this a little bit.  At higher NPLC, the measurement interval starts to cover a time frame where the DMM's internal drift starts to matter.  Unless you expect a lot of power line noise, I would recommend 1-5 NPLC and averaging. 

The interface is a lot of fun to use, there are still a few things that I hope will be adressed in a firmware update. Not a big deal, the yellow cursor have no reason to exist on the 6500 since there's no knob to control it (it seems to have been written more for the smus and the 7510) unless I didn't figure out how to move it around. It makes the behaviour of the enter key a bit random, it's whatever default was selected on the page.

The swipe to change pages can be risky to operate, I sometimes press one of the functions by mistake, which wipe out the currently running acquisition. I would love to cycle the pages with the home key or something, maybe an option to remove the function page completely since there's already a dedicated function button to popup that menu. Maybe a toggle to prevent interrupting the measurement? A dialog yes/no for anything which would clear the buffer? Something like that.  When running a trigger and count other than plain continuous, the content of the buffer is probably important.
Interesting idea for the enter key to move between swipes...  To remove the Functions swipe screen, you can use same command I gave to PTR_1275 earlier:
Code: [Select]
display.delete(display.SCREEN_FUNCTIONS_SWIPE)to bring it back:
Code: [Select]
display.create(display.SCREEN_HOME, display.OBJ_SWIPE, display.SCREEN_FUNCTIONS_SWIPE)You could add these to autoexec.tsp to have the swipe removed on start up.
In fact, here's the list of the swipe screens if anyone else wants to remove one of them. You could even remove all of them! If for some reason you wanted that...
Code: [Select]
display.SCREEN_FUNCTIONS_SWIPE
display.SCREEN_SETTINGS_SWIPE
display.SCREEN_SECONDARY_SWIPE
display.SCREEN_GRAPH_SWIPE
display.SCREEN_STATS_SWIPE

The very low resistance means measuring very low voltage and there thermal EMF effects at the "resistor" can also limit the accuracy. It might help to cover the resistor to protect it from air drafts. Thermal EMF combined with temperature fluctuations is one of the limiting factors for long time averaging. This is inside the meter and also at the DUT.  For the copper resistor this could also be just a fluctuation of the resistance due to temperature changes.
Also make sure the covering is a Faraday cage, stray electrical signals become a problem at the 1 ohm range.  Really the 4-wire 1 ohm range is approaching the volt-nut territory so you'd have to start looking a the physical limitations of your measurement setup like you say.

I wish they enabled a 1000x repeat filter for a 1 NLPC reading, which would probably yield one least significant digit in the 1 ohm range. All other ranges are ultra stable and don't really need this. That 1 ohm range is already crazy impressive but it can still be improved in software even more.
Improving the physical measurement setup would have a much larger impact than more averaging if you're talking about going from 100 to 1000 readings.  Software can only do so much if you have too much noise.  Even our electrometer has a 100 reading limit on averaging. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 12, 2018, 03:54:50 pm
.....
The lowest resistance range is very noisy as expected, getting usable values that low requires slow integration and filtering. Averaging reaches the point of diminishing returns around 5 NPLC with 100x repeat filter. A hundred readings took a little over an hour. Doing 15 NLPC with 100x filter took 3 hours and provided very similar numbers. It's either the limit of the instrument or the limit of my crude methodology.


The limited effect of more filtering / longer averaging is a kind of weak point with quite some Keithley meters. If think they should work on this, as it is very likely fixable in software and it effects not just the 6500.  This seems to be an old problem (AFAIR I saw the odd low frequency noise already on an old 196 or 199) so I would no expect a fast solution. My hope would be more on finally finding out when developing a new 8 digit meter.

The DAQ6500 is more like a meter for fast measurements and only specified for 6 digits. So the relatively poor noise with 10-60 seconds averaging is not that significant for this type of meter. It's more the higher grade 7510 where this really hurts. The good thing is, chances are it gets better once averaging is much longer (e.g. 5 minutes).

The very low resistance means measuring very low voltage and there thermal EMF effects at the "resistor" can also limit the accuracy. It might help to cover the resistor to protect it from air drafts. Thermal EMF combined with temperature fluctuations is one of the limiting factors for long time averaging. This is inside the meter and also at the DUT.  For the copper resistor this could also be just a fluctuation of the resistance due to temperature changes.
Ok thanks I just saw the discussion about this in the 7500 thread, I'll be following it there. The details are a bit above my degree of knowledge.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on November 13, 2018, 08:23:28 pm
 I performed another experiment - the measurement of 1 milliohm. The settings: NPLC 0.1 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 12, the filter 100 or OFF, the measurement time of 1 or 10 minutes. About 60 measurements. I was very surprised by the results - a smaller error at the NPLC 1, the filter 100 time measurement 10 min. Much more accurately than with NPLC 12.

 The user manual has the following information: At these rates (lowest noise region in graph), DMM6500 will make corrections for its own internal drift and...

 How is autocorrection related to aperture? How it work? And why is this only possible in a narrow range?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 14, 2018, 03:04:41 pm
The user manual has the following information: At these rates (lowest noise region in graph), DMM6500 will make corrections for its own internal drift and...

 How is autocorrection related to aperture? How it work? And why is this only possible in a narrow range?
Most every DMM will do some delays/corrections/reference checks between each or every-so-many readings.  Most of these are controlled by the autozero settings but there are some settling delays and reference checks that can't be changed because they're necessary to get a reading at all.

The instrument can't do those corrections and checks while the measurement is actually happening.  So when you set a longer aperture/NPLC, the end of the measurement is more likely to have drifted away from the reference than the beginning of the measurement.  The solution to this is often to use a smaller aperture (but no smaller than 1), even when you want a stable reading, and do some averaging.  This isn't always true though since a stable DMM will not drift very much at all. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 14, 2018, 05:21:55 pm
The ADC and input amplifier might show some 1/f type noise. The longer the individual integration, the more of this 1/f noise will come through. For this reason there is often an upper limit at some 10 PLC and even if one chooses a longer integration like 100 PLC this would internally be done by averaging shorter conversions. In this sense the 1 PLC mode might be the best, but there can be some downsides too, as limited INL and also more time lost to switching the source. The 4 Wire Ohms usually switches between Sense_Lo and Sense_Hi.

The Ohms mode may be special, but in voltage ranges the Keithley meters tend to use some averaging on the zero reading of the AZ mode. This can slightly reduce the higher frequency noise, especially seen over short times and thus can be a good thing there. However there is a downside to this: averaging the zero readings interferes with 1/f noise suppression from alternating zero and signal reading. If too much averaging is used the 1/f noise will come through and this can cause poor performance for longer times.
The PLC setting can also have an effect on this hidden zero reading averaging.

The PLC setting also effects the suppression of mains hum. Depending on the timing an actual line frequency this can be better at some settings. While some prefer a long simple conversion, there is also an advantage with the average over the right number of 1 PLC readings.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on November 14, 2018, 06:51:22 pm
 Gentlemen, thank you very much for the explanation. There are so many things that are not obvious to me. Moreover, the user manual recommends: Measuring DCV with high accuracy ...Set the integration rate to 10 power line cycles (PLCs)... (page 5-3)
 Another question is how often and when does auto-zeroing occur? Sometimes I get strange results. Perhaps there is a connection with AZ.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 14, 2018, 07:40:47 pm
The 10 PLC mode can have some advantage with linearity over 1 PLC - this at least is true for many older DMMs. With good amplifiers with low 1/f noise levels the 1 PLC mode may not have that much noise advantage.

The usual auto zero mode is alternating between one conversion with the actual input and one conversion with a zero input. There might be cases where something like 2 times signal and 1 zero reading might be used. Some meters also used a sequence line zero, signal and reference. However I don't expect this for the 6500, more for slower reading DMMs with higher priority on accuracy than speed.
Depending on the meter there can be some averaging with the zero readings - my guess is not much averaging in the Keysight meters and a little too much with the Keithley meters.

Another factor can be synchronization with the mains frequency. Sometimes there is a separate setting for line synchronous mode.

The instructions to older meters usually have a more detailed description on how exactly AZ mode works. The newer instructions often leave out these details - maybe because they are not at the high end anymore. Sometimes it still matters how the measurement is actually done, e.g. if the input signal is not constant. One would not need all the details from the old theory of operation section, but a little more information would be good.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: admiralmaggie on November 15, 2018, 11:00:42 pm
Quick question: How is your experience with continuity test on your DMM6500? I read earlier that there is a delay of some sort...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: sstepane on November 16, 2018, 06:41:58 am
Quick question: How is your experience with continuity test on your DMM6500? I read earlier that there is a delay of some sort...
There's no delay on continuity detection, but the sound is at least 1 second long - no matter how short was the connection. Which is a bit unusual, but, IMO even a little better solution - so you'll not miss it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 17, 2018, 11:43:14 pm
(cross-posting this here from the 7500/2450 bugs discusion)

Resizing buffers can sometimes cause memory fragmentation or memory leak.

Steps to reproduce on the 6500 (I have firmware 1.0.02a):
1. Reboot (power off, power on)
2. Go to Reading Buffers
--> The bug will appears if you do NOT touch the Buffer selector button and leave it at defbuffer1
3. Change capacity to 1M
4. Set buffer to defbuffer2
5. Change capacity to 10
--> Here the bug we see is that the buffer selection goes back to defbuffer1, but the capacity button is the value from defbuffer2
6. Set buffer to defbuffer1 (reselect it even if already selected)
7. Change capacity to 10
--> From this point, 1M is missing, it's not possible to either resize or create a buffer larger than 6M (7M is the max on the 6500). Until the next reboot.

In the mean time, it's simple to avoid the bug, always reselect the buffer before changing capacity.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 20, 2018, 06:39:01 pm
(cross-posting this here from the 7500/2450 bugs discusion)

Resizing buffers can sometimes cause memory fragmentation or memory leak.

Steps to reproduce on the 6500 (I have firmware 1.0.02a):
1. Reboot (power off, power on)
2. Go to Reading Buffers
--> The bug will appears if you do NOT touch the Buffer selector button and leave it at defbuffer1
3. Change capacity to 1M
4. Set buffer to defbuffer2
5. Change capacity to 10
--> Here the bug we see is that the buffer selection goes back to defbuffer1, but the capacity button is the value from defbuffer2
6. Set buffer to defbuffer1 (reselect it even if already selected)
7. Change capacity to 10
--> From this point, 1M is missing, it's not possible to either resize or create a buffer larger than 6M (7M is the max on the 6500). Until the next reboot.

In the mean time, it's simple to avoid the bug, always reselect the buffer before changing capacity.
Hmm, I wasn't able to replicate this with my 1.0.02a.  After step 7 I was able to create a buffer of size 6,500,000 without a problem.  I also tried resizing defbuffer2 from 10 to 6,500,000 without issue.  I did see that defbuffer1 appeared after resizing defbuffer2 though (after step 5), I filed a bug report for that. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on November 20, 2018, 11:36:05 pm
(cross-posting this here from the 7500/2450 bugs discusion)

Resizing buffers can sometimes cause memory fragmentation or memory leak.

Steps to reproduce on the 6500 (I have firmware 1.0.02a):
1. Reboot (power off, power on)
2. Go to Reading Buffers
--> The bug will appears if you do NOT touch the Buffer selector button and leave it at defbuffer1
3. Change capacity to 1M
4. Set buffer to defbuffer2
5. Change capacity to 10
--> Here the bug we see is that the buffer selection goes back to defbuffer1, but the capacity button is the value from defbuffer2
6. Set buffer to defbuffer1 (reselect it even if already selected)
7. Change capacity to 10
--> From this point, 1M is missing, it's not possible to either resize or create a buffer larger than 6M (7M is the max on the 6500). Until the next reboot.

In the mean time, it's simple to avoid the bug, always reselect the buffer before changing capacity.
Hmm, I wasn't able to replicate this with my 1.0.02a.  After step 7 I was able to create a buffer of size 6,500,000 without a problem.  I also tried resizing defbuffer2 from 10 to 6,500,000 without issue.  I did see that defbuffer1 appeared after resizing defbuffer2 though (after step 5), I filed a bug report for that. 
Ah okay it's really fragmentation. At that point you can make 6.5M but you cannot make or resize to 7M anymore. Since the two default buffers cannot be deleted, they eventually end up in the way of creating a single maximum buffer. Resizing them left and right is moving them around so it's not easy to make clear repro steps.
...
8. Try to create a buffer with an invalid size of zero, it will display the message it must be between 10 and 7M
9. Try to create a 7M buffer and there's a more low level OOM error -225 and 4937
--> The biggest contiguous space seems to be 6.6M here
...

The maximum mentionned in the error message doesn't match the biggest contiguous space available, it indicates the entire free memory.
Would be useful to enable deleting the defaults to mitigate the fragmentation issue.
Would be better to have a defragmentation upon any buffer operations which would split the free space.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on November 21, 2018, 09:08:59 am
My history with a free Kickstarter license are hopefully near the end. Brad did send me to the tek license office and they kicked my over to an EU license office, but they where rather busy and it took two weeks to make a license code. I got it today. Now I just have to find out what a "Host ID" is. It is not the serial number of my meter and it must be something that can response to a "Lookup Unit" or be in a Tek database.
I did never get any further response from where I bought the meter, they (elfadistrelec) obvious do not provide the free Kickstarter license.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 21, 2018, 04:02:12 pm
(cross-posting this here from the 7500/2450 bugs discusion)

Resizing buffers can sometimes cause memory fragmentation or memory leak.

Steps to reproduce on the 6500 (I have firmware 1.0.02a):
1. Reboot (power off, power on)
2. Go to Reading Buffers
--> The bug will appears if you do NOT touch the Buffer selector button and leave it at defbuffer1
3. Change capacity to 1M
4. Set buffer to defbuffer2
5. Change capacity to 10
--> Here the bug we see is that the buffer selection goes back to defbuffer1, but the capacity button is the value from defbuffer2
6. Set buffer to defbuffer1 (reselect it even if already selected)
7. Change capacity to 10
--> From this point, 1M is missing, it's not possible to either resize or create a buffer larger than 6M (7M is the max on the 6500). Until the next reboot.

In the mean time, it's simple to avoid the bug, always reselect the buffer before changing capacity.
Hmm, I wasn't able to replicate this with my 1.0.02a.  After step 7 I was able to create a buffer of size 6,500,000 without a problem.  I also tried resizing defbuffer2 from 10 to 6,500,000 without issue.  I did see that defbuffer1 appeared after resizing defbuffer2 though (after step 5), I filed a bug report for that. 
Ah okay it's really fragmentation. At that point you can make 6.5M but you cannot make or resize to 7M anymore. Since the two default buffers cannot be deleted, they eventually end up in the way of creating a single maximum buffer. Resizing them left and right is moving them around so it's not easy to make clear repro steps.
...
8. Try to create a buffer with an invalid size of zero, it will display the message it must be between 10 and 7M
9. Try to create a 7M buffer and there's a more low level OOM error -225 and 4937
--> The biggest contiguous space seems to be 6.6M here
...

The maximum mentionned in the error message doesn't match the biggest contiguous space available, it indicates the entire free memory.
Would be useful to enable deleting the defaults to mitigate the fragmentation issue.
Would be better to have a defragmentation upon any buffer operations which would split the free space.
Hmm, the error that gives you the maximum buffer size is I think supposed to get the maximum contiguous block size, and it looks like it does some times, but gets confused other times.  These steps are really helpful, thanks!  In the meantime, a System Reset or sending the reset() command will clear the volatile memory and return the buffers to their default sizes and positions in memory. 

My history with a free Kickstarter license are hopefully near the end. Brad did send me to the tek license office and they kicked my over to an EU license office, but they where rather busy and it took two weeks to make a license code. I got it today. Now I just have to find out what a "Host ID" is. It is not the serial number of my meter and it must be something that can response to a "Lookup Unit" or be in a Tek database.
I did never get any further response from where I bought the meter, they (elfadistrelec) obvious do not provide the free Kickstarter license.
Unfortunately the end of the year does get very busy for all our sales people as companies rush to use up their yearly budget.  The Host ID is generated by the KickStart software after you install it.  You can find it by opening KickStart (the trial version), clicking on the gear icon in the upper right, then click "Manage Licenses".  The Host ID is at the top of that window.  The Host ID is used with all Tek software and I think the license office people are more used to dealing with large companies buying hundreds of licenses, so they forget to explain how to find these simple things!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on November 21, 2018, 04:56:14 pm
Unfortunately the end of the year does get very busy for all our sales people as companies rush to use up their yearly budget.  The Host ID is generated by the KickStart software after you install it.  You can find it by opening KickStart (the trial version), clicking on the gear icon in the upper right, then click "Manage Licenses".  The Host ID is at the top of that window.  The Host ID is used with all Tek software and I think the license office people are more used to dealing with large companies buying hundreds of licenses, so they forget to explain how to find these simple things!

Now the license is installed and I have updated my review, thanks for the help.
It would have been nice if the webpage that ask for the "Host ID" used some text on explaining what is was or where to find it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 21, 2018, 05:47:21 pm
Does anyone know, if you also get a free Kickstarter license with the purchase of a DMM7510?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on November 29, 2018, 10:02:29 am
Where do i need to set the resistance value of my Shunt to run the power script correctly? Do i have to edit the script with some program on windows or from the instrument itself?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on November 29, 2018, 01:05:34 pm
Does anyone know, if you also get a free Kickstarter license with the purchase of a DMM7510?
Yes, I see in my profile a link to generate a license for 7510. This is very nice. Thank you Brad O for this information. I would not have noticed it myself.

In the evening I will get to the device and the computer and install myself a license.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 29, 2018, 05:25:55 pm
Does anyone know, if you also get a free Kickstarter license with the purchase of a DMM7510?

No, the free license is only with the purchase of a DMM6500 or a DAQ6510.  But, I think we still have a promotion running where when you register a new, compatible instrument on tek.com, you get a license. I think that's what MegaVolt is seeing.

Where do i need to set the resistance value of my Shunt to run the power script correctly? Do i have to edit the script with some program on windows or from the instrument itself?
The script is very simple so you can't edit it from the box itself, you need to a separate computer.  Our own IDE code editor for TSP is called Test Script Builder, you can find it on our website (https://www.tek.com/software/TestScriptBuilder/KTS-850J02 (https://www.tek.com/software/TestScriptBuilder/KTS-850J02)).  But, TSP scripts are plain text and can be edited with any basic text editor.  The relevant line for the setting the Shunt resistor value is line 10: "shuntValue = 0.91 --ohms"
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on November 29, 2018, 10:23:07 pm
Does anyone know, if you also get a free Kickstarter license with the purchase of a DMM7510?

No, the free license is only with the purchase of a DMM6500 or a DAQ6510.  But, I think we still have a promotion running where when you register a new, compatible instrument on tek.com, you get a license. I think that's what MegaVolt is seeing.

Where do i need to set the resistance value of my Shunt to run the power script correctly? Do i have to edit the script with some program on windows or from the instrument itself?
The script is very simple so you can't edit it from the box itself, you need to a separate computer.  Our own IDE code editor for TSP is called Test Script Builder, you can find it on our website (https://www.tek.com/software/TestScriptBuilder/KTS-850J02 (https://www.tek.com/software/TestScriptBuilder/KTS-850J02)).  But, TSP scripts are plain text and can be edited with any basic text editor.  The relevant line for the setting the Shunt resistor value is line 10: "shuntValue = 0.91 --ohms"

Thanks for the info Brad, I was able to set the value of my shunt resistor.

I'm still having issues with the connections to measure power though.

I am trying to measure the power draw from a DC power supply by using a shunt resistor in series between the load and the PSU and then measure the voltage drop across the resistor but that isn't working.

Is my method flawed? P=VI.

V is measured at the input terminals (12V DC) and I is automatically calculated by the program since the Voltage drop across the shunt is being measured by the sense terminals and the shunt's resistance is known  :-//

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on November 30, 2018, 06:09:11 pm
Thanks for the info Brad, I was able to set the value of my shunt resistor.

I'm still having issues with the connections to measure power though.

I am trying to measure the power draw from a DC power supply by using a shunt resistor in series between the load and the PSU and then measure the voltage drop across the resistor but that isn't working.

Is my method flawed? P=VI.

V is measured at the input terminals (12V DC) and I is automatically calculated by the program since the Voltage drop across the shunt is being measured by the sense terminals and the shunt's resistance is known  :-//

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong here.
What exactly is going wrong?  Can you attach a schematic of your connections? 
You can also troubleshoot by looking at the raw data at MENU > Reading Table and selecting the readingBuffer.  The current is the Extra column divided by the shunt resistor value.  The voltage is the Reading column times the Extra column, then P=VI. The script does exactly this calculation.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 01, 2018, 03:05:54 pm
Thanks for the info Brad, I was able to set the value of my shunt resistor.

I'm still having issues with the connections to measure power though.

I am trying to measure the power draw from a DC power supply by using a shunt resistor in series between the load and the PSU and then measure the voltage drop across the resistor but that isn't working.

Is my method flawed? P=VI.

V is measured at the input terminals (12V DC) and I is automatically calculated by the program since the Voltage drop across the shunt is being measured by the sense terminals and the shunt's resistance is known  :-//

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong here.
What exactly is going wrong?  Can you attach a schematic of your connections? 
You can also troubleshoot by looking at the raw data at MENU > Reading Table and selecting the readingBuffer.  The current is the Extra column divided by the shunt resistor value.  The voltage is the Reading column times the Extra column, then P=VI. The script does exactly this calculation.

I'm not good at drawing schematics, could you please show me the right way to make such a connection and I will do the same from my end.?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 01, 2018, 10:03:20 pm
I'm not good at drawing schematics, could you please show me the right way to make such a connection and I will do the same from my end.?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 01, 2018, 11:22:25 pm
Since the DMM6500 can take simultaneous readings of current and voltage is there some script to measure power other than using a shunt resistor?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 01, 2018, 11:58:12 pm
Since the DMM6500 can take simultaneous readings of current and voltage is there some script to measure power other than using a shunt resistor?
The device cannot measure current and voltage simultaneously. Voltage only or current only. At the same time spending a relay resource.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 02, 2018, 12:11:36 am
Since the DMM6500 can take simultaneous readings of current and voltage is there some script to measure power other than using a shunt resistor?
The device cannot measure current and voltage simultaneously. Voltage only or current only. At the same time spending a relay resource.

How was I able to measure the DC voltage using the rear ports and DC current as a secondary measurement then?

There were no relays switching between the two modes  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 02, 2018, 10:50:28 am
How was I able to measure the DC voltage using the rear ports and DC current as a secondary measurement then?

There were no relays switching between the two modes  :-//
I could be wrong. I have 7510 and maybe their behavior is somewhat different.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aurelienr on December 03, 2018, 10:39:26 am
Hi everybody,
I'm looking since several month for a reliable mean to measure current profiles on low power devices, like IoT sensors or any othr projects with low idle current and peaks working currents. If possible with a cost < 1000 euros.
When I saw the DMM6500 I thought my problem would be solved, through the high frequency sampling, that would ease measurements of low duration events (for example active current duration of 50µs with 500µs sleep.
But when I read the full specs, I see that :
 - I can use normal measurement mode up to 20.6ksamples / secs with 4.5" resolution ("Typical Reading rates, DC function" at page 17, and "DC Current noise Charac" at page 10
 - if I use Digitizing feature, according to table at page 16, I can get only 8 ENB at 50kHz sampling (400µA for 100mA range), and resolution is not specified after 50ksps. That's strange...Or may I misunderstand the 1/10/50kHz indication in the table ?

I don't understand something in the DC Current Accuracy specs (page 10). For 100mA caliber, I see that error is 0.01 + 0.03 within 24h after cal, and 0.015 + 0.005 after 90 days. Why is the range error so high (0.03% of 100mA = 30µA !) and is reduced after 90 days (0.005% = 5µA) ?

Thanks
Aurelien
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 03, 2018, 03:22:52 pm
I don't understand something in the DC Current Accuracy specs (page 10). For 100mA caliber, I see that error is 0.01 + 0.03 within 24h after cal, and 0.015 + 0.005 after 90 days. Why is the range error so high (0.03% of 100mA = 30µA !) and is reduced after 90 days (0.005% = 5µA) ?
Yeah I noticed that too, considering the rest of the table I'm assuming it's a typo, and should be 0.003
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 03, 2018, 04:02:30 pm
Since the DMM6500 can take simultaneous readings of current and voltage is there some script to measure power other than using a shunt resistor?
The device cannot measure current and voltage simultaneously. Voltage only or current only. At the same time spending a relay resource.

How was I able to measure the DC voltage using the rear ports and DC current as a secondary measurement then?

There were no relays switching between the two modes  :-//
MegaVolt is right, the DMM6500 can't measure Voltage and Current simultaneously, but you might not always hear relays clicking.  There are a couple range combinations that don't require a relay switch, typically because the the signal paths use the same range resistors.  10V and 1A is an example combo, but there are a few others.  This behavior was the same for the 7510 as far as I know, but the range combinations might be different.

Hi everybody,
I'm looking since several month for a reliable mean to measure current profiles on low power devices, like IoT sensors or any othr projects with low idle current and peaks working currents. If possible with a cost < 1000 euros.
When I saw the DMM6500 I thought my problem would be solved, through the high frequency sampling, that would ease measurements of low duration events (for example active current duration of 50µs with 500µs sleep.
But when I read the full specs, I see that :
 - I can use normal measurement mode up to 20.6ksamples / secs with 4.5" resolution ("Typical Reading rates, DC function" at page 17, and "DC Current noise Charac" at page 10
 - if I use Digitizing feature, according to table at page 16, I can get only 8 ENB at 50kHz sampling (400µA for 100mA range), and resolution is not specified after 50ksps. That's strange...Or may I misunderstand the 1/10/50kHz indication in the table ?

I don't understand something in the DC Current Accuracy specs (page 10). For 100mA caliber, I see that error is 0.01 + 0.03 within 24h after cal, and 0.015 + 0.005 after 90 days. Why is the range error so high (0.03% of 100mA = 30µA !) and is reduced after 90 days (0.005% = 5µA) ?

Thanks
Aurelien
You're right with the typical reading rate, but as an aside, the 4.5 digit is just the spec'd accuracy.  You can command the instrument to return 6.5 digits at the maximum sample rate if you wanted. 
On the Digitizing table, the 1 kHz/10kHz/50kHz is the input signal, the sampling rate for that table is fixed at 1 MS/s.  That table is largely to help with audio measurements, so the team decided to stop at 50 kHz, high above the typical 20kHz max for the audio spectrum.

On the DC Current specs, it looks like someone made a mistake, it's supposed to be 0.01+0.003 within 24h.  A bit of background: you're looking at the Datasheet which, I think, is auto generated every so often.  There's also the Specifications which is controlled directly by engineering (found here (https://www.tek.com/wenjian/specification/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-multimeter-specifications)). The specs right now have the correct number, being +0.003%range.  There's not supposed to be any discrepancy between the Specs and Datasheet though, I'm not sure how that even happened since I thought the process was automated but I'll put in a bug report for the website team, sorry for the confusion!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 03, 2018, 07:51:26 pm
you might not always hear relays clicking.  There are a couple range combinations that don't require a relay switch, typically because the the signal paths use the same range resistors.  10V and 1A is an example combo, but there are a few others.  This behavior was the same for the 7510 as far as I know, but the range combinations might be different.
Maybe there is some opportunity to tell us about the technical details of the device 7510 and 6510?
Information is not enough. To know when the relay will click, and when not.
What is the input bandwidth for DCV.
Is it possible to somehow find out the exact values of current shunts. The device itself must know them?
How are the processors, trigger connected inside ...
And any other information on the device. Scheme. Block diagram Sketches.
Please.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aurelienr on December 03, 2018, 08:26:51 pm
Thank you Brad, that helps !
Looks like santa will be nice this year :)

Just another question about KickStart licencing. I've read on this topic that the licence was included when ordering a DMM6500. I've seen some screenshots with "Host ID" request. Is there any limitation on number of PC that can use the licence for one multimeter ? I mean : if I install the licence on my current PC, will have to buy a new licence when I will replace my PC by a new one ? I know that this kind of host limited protection is used for others kinds of licences, but what about KickStart ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 03, 2018, 11:32:06 pm
you might not always hear relays clicking.  There are a couple range combinations that don't require a relay switch, typically because the the signal paths use the same range resistors.  10V and 1A is an example combo, but there are a few others.  This behavior was the same for the 7510 as far as I know, but the range combinations might be different.
Maybe there is some opportunity to tell us about the technical details of the device 7510 and 6510?
Information is not enough. To know when the relay will click, and when not.
What is the input bandwidth for DCV.
Is it possible to somehow find out the exact values of current shunts. The device itself must know them?
How are the processors, trigger connected inside ...
And any other information on the device. Scheme. Block diagram Sketches.
Please.
What exactly are you trying to do?  That's a lot of info you're asking for...  Like for DCV Bandwidth: it varies depending on a handful of settings and isn't spec'd, so if you tell me why you want it or how you'll use the info, I can estimate a figure for you.  For something like a block diagram, what are you looking to find? 

Thank you Brad, that helps !
Looks like santa will be nice this year :)

Just another question about KickStart licencing. I've read on this topic that the licence was included when ordering a DMM6500. I've seen some screenshots with "Host ID" request. Is there any limitation on number of PC that can use the licence for one multimeter ? I mean : if I install the licence on my current PC, will have to buy a new licence when I will replace my PC by a new one ? I know that this kind of host limited protection is used for others kinds of licences, but what about KickStart ?
Yes, but when ordering, please make sure they include KickStart in your quote, it should be quoted as $0 though or have a 100% discount applied.  That will save you from having to message me for help later :D.

Tektronix has three types of licenses: node locked, floating, or free trial.  For KickStart, most every license is floating, so you can move the license from computer to computer no problem, but you can only have the license on one computer at a time. 
The only time you get a node-locked license is if you get KickStart for free by registering a compatible product on tek.com (I think that promotion is still going on).  That license will only be usable on the computer you install it on. 
KickStart is also available as a free trial, which is technically it's own type of license. 
The Tek AMS page (https://www.tek.com/products/product-license (https://www.tek.com/products/product-license)) has the full descriptions for all these. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 04, 2018, 08:30:56 am
What exactly are you trying to do?  That's a lot of info you're asking for...  Like for DCV Bandwidth: it varies depending on a handful of settings and isn't spec'd, so if you tell me why you want it or how you'll use the info, I can estimate a figure for you.  For something like a block diagram, what are you looking to find? 
I am an engineer old school.
I used to understand the device with which I work. It is very difficult for me to work with a black box which I do not understand.

For example, I measure the noise of a low-noise power source. And I want to know the band of the device as the measured noise level depends on it. And I want to have this answer in my head and not ask the engineer Keithley every time.

Or I do not want to hear the switching of relyushek in double dimensions. For example, I crossed out this mode for myself from the applicable. And it turns out that under certain conditions I can use it.

Those. I really want to work with the device myself without distracting Keythley engineers from work.

Moreover, the programmers received detailed instructions for working with the device for 1000 pages. And engineers have nothing but a very modest verbal description which is difficult to understand :(
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aurelienr on December 04, 2018, 09:06:45 am
Yes, but when ordering, please make sure they include KickStart in your quote, it should be quoted as $0 though or have a 100% discount applied.  That will save you from having to message me for help later :D.
I guess you will receive an email because I cannot add licence on distributor like RS/Farnell, and when I try to set a quote on your website for the DMM6500, the Kickstart floating licence is sold at 214€ (I received email confirmation for this price !).....
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 04, 2018, 03:22:55 pm
I ordered a DMM6500 today, might receive it before Christmas.
It is confirmed to come with a free Kickstarter license (Promotion until March 2019)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 04, 2018, 04:59:01 pm
What exactly are you trying to do?  That's a lot of info you're asking for...  Like for DCV Bandwidth: it varies depending on a handful of settings and isn't spec'd, so if you tell me why you want it or how you'll use the info, I can estimate a figure for you.  For something like a block diagram, what are you looking to find? 
I am an engineer old school.
I used to understand the device with which I work. It is very difficult for me to work with a black box which I do not understand.

For example, I measure the noise of a low-noise power source. And I want to know the band of the device as the measured noise level depends on it. And I want to have this answer in my head and not ask the engineer Keithley every time.

Or I do not want to hear the switching of relyushek in double dimensions. For example, I crossed out this mode for myself from the applicable. And it turns out that under certain conditions I can use it.

Those. I really want to work with the device myself without distracting Keythley engineers from work.

Moreover, the programmers received detailed instructions for working with the device for 1000 pages. And engineers have nothing but a very modest verbal description which is difficult to understand :(

With the modern DMMs it is not common anymore to get a detailed description on how they work, that was in old days, like 30 years ago. In part this is to make is more difficult to copy the instrument in China. The other part is that the operations get more complicated with many more modes. So it would be quite a thick book to describe the operation.  Another problem is that details might even change over revisions.
So I don't think there is much hope - at least for a more normal, lower cost instruments. One might get a little more information for a metrological grade instrument - because one would need it to get the best and reliable performance.

Still it would be nice to have at least a little more information, so one does not need to start with a kind of reverse engineering / testing to get information such  as the actual data rate / time spacing, actual aperture and measurement sequence in the Ohms modes. Also for the digital filtering used in the meter, it would be nice to know about the exact filter function, as this effects noise estimates from the readings. With filtering use the simple std. deviation values calculated have to be taken with a grain of salt - as the raw data may be correlated.

Sometimes it makes a difference if the reading is a continuous integration of e.g. 500 ms or the average of 5 readings at 100 ms. This also effects things like the time from trigger to the actual reading. Also when using the scanner the timing of the reading can be important.
So at least for the more serious meters such information should be in a good manual.

Not knowing such details might lead to problems like not always waiting long enough for settling. This could lead to problems like the odd out-layers once every 160 readings seen in some cases - though in this case more like a problem for the DMM internal software.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 07, 2018, 09:00:48 pm
I am an engineer old school.
Oh well in that case: I gathered some info from the design engineers.  We're really quite happy to share details, but it helps us if you're specific in what you want to know and why you want to know it.  I think I addressed all the questions below:

To know when the relay will click, and when not.
The relay positions aren't documented right now so I just found these by trial and error.  I'll see about making a cohesive table for this later, I know reading it in text form is complicated.  If you go into or out of the following functions/ranges, you will hear a relay actuate.  These are only for Voltage, current, and ohms.  The other functions reuse these relays. 

For the DMM6500: Relays are used for the AC I/V functions, ACV 10V and higher, DCV 1000V, 10 Ohms and lower (both 2W and 4W), 100mA range and 1A and higher ranges both ACI and DCI.  The DC/ACI >=1A relay is the same as the <1000DCV relay, so switching between those will not have a relay click.  Digitize functions use the same relays as their DC counterparts. 

For the DMM7510, assume it's the same as the DMM6500, but with these differences: No relay for low ohms but instead has a relay for 10MOhm and above.  DCV has no 1000V relay.  DigiV has a relay for 10V and below (>10V shares the relay with DCV).  I don't think I missed any...

What is the input bandwidth for DCV.
From a purely hardware perspective up to but not including the ADC: up to hundreds of kHz to support the DCV digitizer function for 10V and less ranges. 100V and 1000V ranges a lot less than that due to internal 10Meg divider.  Generally similar to digitzer specs.

Is it possible to somehow find out the exact values of current shunts. The device itself must know them?
The Nominal values are copied here from the specifications: 10 μA-10 kΩ; 100 μA-1 kΩ; 1 mA-100 Ω; 10 mA-10 Ω; 100 mA-1 Ω; 1 A-100 mΩ; 3 A-100 mΩ; 10 A-5 mΩ.  These have a 1% tolerance.  The exact values are never measurable by the DMM or otherwise because of the path resistances and connections inherent to the DMM (unless you open the box and cut the resistors out).

How are the processors, trigger connected inside ...
And any other information on the device. Scheme. Block diagram Sketches.
The processors/trigger/measurement relationship is too complicated to document here and changes depending on the specifics of how you're measuring.  Is there some case you had in mind?  We want to try and answer your question, but we could make hundreds of different block diagrams about the box.

the actual data rate / time spacing
Do you mean the flow of data out of the box?  Or the spacing of measurements?  Typical reading rates out of the box for the best case scenarios are given in the datasheet, they'll go down from there.  Spacing of measurements are controlled by things like autozero, multiphase measurements (so like 4-wire ohms, DCV ratio, things where one measurement really takes more than one measurement), line sync, aperture, autoranging, autodelay, etc.  I don't think it's practical or possible to list all the possible combinations and the spacing for each function.

actual aperture and measurement sequence in the Ohms modes
The aperture for ohms modes is settable like in any other function, unless you meant something else? The measurement sequence is different depending on what range you have selected (the 10M and 100M range use a ratiometric method, described starting on page 204/5-59 of the manual) and certain measure settings like offset compensation and open lead detection add extra phases before the measurements take place. Depending on your particular settings, the measurement sequence gets up to 7 phases long for 4-wire ohms.

Also for the digital filtering used in the meter, it would be nice to know about the exact filter function, as this effects noise estimates from the readings. With filtering use the simple std. deviation values calculated have to be taken with a grain of salt - as the raw data may be correlated. 
"Filter" Filtering is applied by the digital process after calibration is applied to the readings.  There are two different types of filtering that are detailed on page 198/5-53 of the manual, plus Hybrid filtering which is in the 1.0.01f firmware release notes or I wrote about it earlier in this thread (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1768589/#msg1768589 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1768589/#msg1768589)).  All this "post-processing" follows an order of operations on page 215/5-70, I attached an image of it too (which is actually a bit misleading, going to the display and the buffer actually happen simultaneously, I put a bug report in for that).

Not knowing such details might lead to problems like not always waiting long enough for settling. This could lead to problems like the odd out-layers once every 160 readings seen in some cases - though in this case more like a problem for the DMM internal software.
You can definitely configure the box so that the DMM won't return settled measurements.  The power up default enables Autodelay which ensures settling in most cases.  The times added by autodelay are given starting on page 189/5-44 of the manual.  If you have an atypical setup, like really long cables or circuits, you may need to add manual delays.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 08, 2018, 12:11:11 am
Since the DMM6500 can take simultaneous readings of current and voltage is there some script to measure power other than using a shunt resistor?
The device cannot measure current and voltage simultaneously. Voltage only or current only. At the same time spending a relay resource.

How was I able to measure the DC voltage using the rear ports and DC current as a secondary measurement then?

There were no relays switching between the two modes  :-//
MegaVolt is right, the DMM6500 can't measure Voltage and Current simultaneously, but you might not always hear relays clicking.  There are a couple range combinations that don't require a relay switch, typically because the the signal paths use the same range resistors.  10V and 1A is an example combo, but there are a few others.  This behavior was the same for the 7510 as far as I know, but the range combinations might be different.

I noticed that but for the ranges where a simultaneous non-relay switching measurement, is there a script that can multiply the current and voltage and give me a power reading instead of using a shunt resistor and the voltage ratio method?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on December 08, 2018, 12:58:11 pm
Are there are plans to release calibration/service manual for DMM6500? I'd be interested to see the calibration points for ACV.

MegaVolt

Some of the internal pics for DMM6500 you can find here (https://xdevs.com/review/dmm6500/#teardown). Perhaps they can shed some more light on how it's designed and working.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 08, 2018, 10:33:20 pm
Oh well in that case: I gathered some info from the design engineers.  We're really quite happy to share details, but it helps us if you're specific in what you want to know and why you want to know it.  I think I addressed all the questions below:
Many thanks to Brad O for the information gathered.

Then if you do not mind, I will continue to ask questions.


Quote
What is the input bandwidth for DCV.
From a purely hardware perspective up to but not including the ADC: up to hundreds of kHz to support the DCV digitizer function for 10V and less ranges. 100V and 1000V ranges a lot less than that due to internal 10Meg divider.  Generally similar to digitzer specs.
Does this mean that I must include an external anti-aliasing filter to eliminate the effect of spectrum overlap. And at the same time reduce the input noise level?

Quote
How are the processors, trigger connected inside ...
And any other information on the device. Scheme. Block diagram Sketches.
The processors/trigger/measurement relationship is too complicated to document here and changes depending on the specifics of how you're measuring.  Is there some case you had in mind?  We want to try and answer your question, but we could make hundreds of different block diagrams about the box.
For example, I absolutely do not understand how I can get all the signal samples through the remote interface. Not one buffer. Namely, all data without gaps. I do not understand how the data pass. How does screen information or network communication affect information gathering? How do I communicate on the network so as not to interfere with the measurements. I do not understand how I should set up triggers and buffers so that the data is not lost and at the same time I had time to read them over the network.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 08, 2018, 10:40:19 pm
Some of the internal pics for DMM6500 you can find here (https://xdevs.com/review/dmm6500/#teardown). Perhaps they can shed some more light on how it's designed and working.
Thanks for the link. But I still do not know how to reverse engineer in photography :)

Although I am very interested in the type of resistor 10 MΩ and the method of its connection to the input.

I asked about the information that can not be obtained even from the scheme. Some logical block diagram of how the device is arranged.

For example, above Brad O spoke about the set of processors that have access to data with different priority. They still communicate with each other. And it would be good to understand what cubes are, how they are connected and what interesting of them can be folded.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 10, 2018, 09:09:49 pm
I noticed that but for the ranges where a simultaneous non-relay switching measurement, is there a script that can multiply the current and voltage and give me a power reading instead of using a shunt resistor and the voltage ratio method?
Not that I know of right now, but there could be!  I will see about making you a simple version in a little while that adapts the shunt method script.

Are there are plans to release calibration/service manual for DMM6500? I'd be interested to see the calibration points for ACV.
The calibration values are listed in the back of Reference Manual, Appendix C.  There is also a full calibration manual though over at https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-multimeter-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-multimeter-0) that describes the process to actually do the adjustments.  It's in general very similar to the DMM7510 procedure.

Oh well in that case: I gathered some info from the design engineers.  We're really quite happy to share details, but it helps us if you're specific in what you want to know and why you want to know it.  I think I addressed all the questions below:
Many thanks to Brad O for the information gathered.

Then if you do not mind, I will continue to ask questions.
Of course!

Quote
What is the input bandwidth for DCV.
From a purely hardware perspective up to but not including the ADC: up to hundreds of kHz to support the DCV digitizer function for 10V and less ranges. 100V and 1000V ranges a lot less than that due to internal 10Meg divider.  Generally similar to digitzer specs.
Does this mean that I must include an external anti-aliasing filter to eliminate the effect of spectrum overlap. And at the same time reduce the input noise level?
For digitize functions, there is a high frequency low pass filter ahead of the ADC but it is not sufficient (with respect to the noise floor) to eliminate all alias effects for a signal with content >500kHz. Whether or not that matters to your measurement depends on what the signal looks like (FFT-wise). 

If you have >500kHz content that is significant, yes, you should add additional filtering to avoid low frequency aliasing.  Generally if the > 500kHz content is small compared to the signal in band content, other specs swamp those errors and so the effect may not be noticed.

Quote
How are the processors, trigger connected inside ...
And any other information on the device. Scheme. Block diagram Sketches.
The processors/trigger/measurement relationship is too complicated to document here and changes depending on the specifics of how you're measuring.  Is there some case you had in mind?  We want to try and answer your question, but we could make hundreds of different block diagrams about the box.
For example, I absolutely do not understand how I can get all the signal samples through the remote interface. Not one buffer. Namely, all data without gaps. I do not understand how the data pass. How does screen information or network communication affect information gathering? How do I communicate on the network so as not to interfere with the measurements. I do not understand how I should set up triggers and buffers so that the data is not lost and at the same time I had time to read them over the network.
It is definitely possible for the instrument to take data faster than it can transmit.  No remote interface has an actual "streaming" option (that is possible with KickStart, though it still isn't magically faster than the bus).  What interface are you trying to use? (LAN/USB/GPIB?)  What measurement function are you using?  What kind of sample rate are you trying to use? 

Although I am very interested in the type of resistor 10 MΩ and the method of its connection to the input.
The 10MOhm resistor is custom and isn't available on the market.  It's designed to support the temperature coefficient and time drift of the DC specs for the 100V and 1000V ranges.  It connects from HI to LO and is switched on with a low leakage analog switch when required.  Input measurements are divided by 100 through it.

Because of the large resistance and value and stray capacitance, it has a very limited signal bandwidth.  The large value also has significant thermal (johnson) noise so it should only be used on the 1V and higher ranges if possible.  The firmware default is configured to be the least confusing, not necessarily the best measurement.  Impedance is forced to 10M by default to prevent apparent errors like "My DMM is measuring 10V with nothing connected", which our support engineers used to get many, many calls about.  We recommend switching to Auto input impedance for the best measurement. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 11, 2018, 08:44:38 am
For digitize functions, there is a high frequency low pass filter ahead of the ADC but it is not sufficient (with respect to the noise floor) to eliminate all alias effects for a signal with content >500kHz. Whether or not that matters to your measurement depends on what the signal looks like (FFT-wise). 
Can you show the graph of the frequency response of the filter? So that I can make decisions about the need for additional filtering?

It became clear about the digitizing V mode.

Can you tell us about the filter in DCV mode? Does DCV use the same filter with a cut-off frequency of 500 kHz?

After all, for DCV mode should the input band be already?

Quote
It is definitely possible for the instrument to take data faster than it can transmit.  No remote interface has an actual "streaming" option (that is possible with KickStart, though it still isn't magically faster than the bus).  What interface are you trying to use? (LAN/USB/GPIB?)  What measurement function are you using?  What kind of sample rate are you trying to use?

 For example, take the digitization rate of 100,000 samples / s
For 8 bytes per count it is 800,000 bytes. This is very little for any interface.

For example, it is 10% of the LAN. Or 2% of USB.

How should I set up the device so that after filling in one buffer, it will without a break begin to fill the next buffer?

---------------------------------------
And one more question:

I observe some pause between measurements in DCV. Its values are approximately 970 μs.

1NPLC = 0.02 ms + 970 μs = 50 Hz 47 Hz
0.1 NPLC = 0.002 ms + 970 μs = 500 Hz 336 Hz
0.01 NPLC = 0.0002 ms + 970 μs = 5000 Hz 854 Hz

What makes this delay?
Is it possible to somehow disable it?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 11, 2018, 12:38:44 pm
The extra delay between readings can have different sources. If the DMM uses a more conventional multi-slope ADC, there is some extra time for the run-down an reset phase. However nearly 1 ms would be relatively long.  There may be some extra adjustment measurements (e.g. AC scale, temperature etc. ) going on too. For a more sigma delta like ADC there can be some time for the "soft" start of the aperture window. In principle an SD like ADC could get away without an extra delay in an non AZ mode, if slight overlap / correlation is accepted.

Another possible reason maybe time for data transfer from the ADC to the display / output part of the meter. 

So it is very unlikely on could remove that extra delay.
Are these directly read delays (e.g. from the time stamp in the data file) or are these number only calculated back from the data rate ? Depending on the mode, the data may not come in at a constant rate but could include some extra delays (e.g. for auto-zero) from time to time.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 11, 2018, 02:20:51 pm
However nearly 1 ms would be relatively long.
I think so too.
Quote
There may be some extra adjustment measurements (e.g. AC scale, temperature etc. ) going on too. For a more sigma delta like ADC there can be some time for the "soft" start of the aperture window.
This is not AZ. This delay is after each measurement. But I think it's worth trying without AZ.
Quote
In principle an SD like ADC could get away without an extra delay in an non AZ mode, if slight overlap / correlation is accepted.
How can I do that?
Quote
Another possible reason maybe time for data transfer from the ADC to the display / output part of the meter. 
Then the maximum operating frequency would be 1 kHz. And the device works without problems at 1 MHz.
Quote
Are these directly read delays (e.g. from the time stamp in the data file) or are these number only calculated back from the data rate ?
time stamp in the data file
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 11, 2018, 02:43:54 pm
Here is the table.
It is curious that this delay is not very stable. It may be in the region of 970 μs or 936 μs.

It looks like I can not build FFT according to such data.

I understand that there are some other ways to get data. Tell me who knows them?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on December 11, 2018, 03:03:50 pm
Calibration manual indeed suggests that there is temperature compensation procedures in place during normal operation.
Page 3-7 clear about it:

Quote
Disable temperature correction
Before you start your adjustment, you must turn off temperature correction. Run the following commands to turn off temperature correction.
cal.adjust.step.setup("TC_EN")
cal.adjust.step.execute("TC_EN", 0)

Brad O.
Thanks for manual, interesting read! We volt-nuts always like to know what more equipment we need to buy for calibrations  :)
I missed it before, because Tek site ain't too much friendly for old-school folk. Clicked DMM6500 -> Manuals -> Service = nothing, so I assumed it's not published yet.

Quote
Impedance is forced to 10M by default to prevent apparent errors like "My DMM is measuring 10V with nothing connected", which our support engineers used to get many, many calls about. 

Hear, hear, we get thread like that every few weeks "my meter is broken, heeelp" :).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 12, 2018, 01:32:20 pm
I calculated the time for one countdown for digitalization mode V.
1 KS / s - 924 Hz
10 KS / s - 5506 Hz
100 KS / s - 11096 Hz
1 MS / s - 13199 Hz

Tell me who knows what a set of settings should be to see 1 MS / s?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 12, 2018, 07:05:59 pm
I calculated the time for one countdown for digitalization mode V.
1 KS / s - 924 Hz
10 KS / s - 5506 Hz
100 KS / s - 11096 Hz
1 MS / s - 13199 Hz

Tell me who knows what a set of settings should be to see 1 MS / s?
I haven't seen any problem filling a 7M buffer in exactly 7 seconds.

You can't capture in real-time at that speed through any external link. You have to use a large buffer and dump it afterward.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 12, 2018, 07:39:22 pm
I haven't seen any problem filling a 7M buffer in exactly 7 seconds.

You can't capture in real-time at that speed through any external link. You have to use a large buffer and dump it afterward.
Please tell me your settings? I made measurements in the internal buffer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 12, 2018, 08:50:51 pm
I understood!!!! "Count" should be put as much as possible.

This is a very unexpected behavior.
Does the device measure or display ?? At the same time can not?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 12, 2018, 09:31:24 pm
Yes, I always use a single manual trigger with a large count.

I guess it starts making sense when you have a trigger model running instead of auto triggering, because between each capture operation there's a lot of code to run. I find it logical the samples per seconds are stable only within the capture count.

It's a bit like a scope's segmented memory, the rate of triggering is not the same as the ADC rate.

 I really love trigger editor it's amazingly powerful, it takes a while to learn though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 12, 2018, 09:39:14 pm
I guess it starts making sense when you have a trigger model running instead of auto triggering, because between each capture operation there's a lot of code to run. I find it logical the samples per seconds are stable only within the capture count.

It's a bit like a scope's segmented memory, the rate of triggering is not the same as the ADC rate.
Unfortunately, I still do not quite understand where the trigger is connected and how it works.

But I thought that in the 21st century, working at 1 MHz is possible without any delays at the same time as the screen, calculating statistics and other actions.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 12, 2018, 09:44:03 pm
It's because it cannot run the trigger script a million times per second. To get a guaranteed timing there's no way around setting the size of your segments.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 12, 2018, 10:50:50 pm
It's because it cannot run the trigger script a million times per second. To get a guaranteed timing there's no way around setting the size of your segments.
For the digitizing V mode, is it possible to somehow disable the trigger and possibly the screen.

Are there any other ways to get continuous data in the buffer? Particularly interested in DCV mode.

Is there somewhere a tutorial on setting up triggers and writing scripts?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 13, 2018, 01:56:00 am
It's because it cannot run the trigger script a million times per second. To get a guaranteed timing there's no way around setting the size of your segments.
For the digitizing V mode, is it possible to somehow disable the trigger and possibly the screen.

Are there any other ways to get continuous data in the buffer? Particularly interested in DCV mode.

Is there somewhere a tutorial on setting up triggers and writing scripts?
You mean continuously overwriting itself? It doesn't look like it, not at 1MS/s.

Not sure how it works exactly, but the buffer needs to be processed in software after each acquisition (it says "processing backlog" if it cannot do it realtime). So in very high speed digitizing modes it cannot be a free running loop regardless of the size. In fact when I set a massive buffer it automatically disable the continuous trigger, which is fine considering this is a pretty big operation to process millions of samples, calculating averages and std deviation, etc... But yeah it would have been nice to sample continuously and process only when stopping.

The trigger interface is like a visual block programming directly on the device, relatively easy when you know what you're trying to accomplish with it, much more powerful than the hard coded things I'm used to. I haven't read the manual yet I'm still playing around.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 13, 2018, 08:30:13 am
You mean continuously overwriting itself? It doesn't look like it, not at 1MS/s.
Not necessarily yourself. One solution I see is the alternate filling of two buffers. But I am afraid that it is impossible to configure the device so that it does not lose data when switching from one buffer to another.
Quote
Not sure how it works exactly, but the buffer needs to be processed in software after each acquisition (it says "processing backlog" if it cannot do it realtime). So in very high speed digitizing modes it cannot be a free running loop regardless of the size. In fact when I set a massive buffer it automatically disable the continuous trigger, which is fine considering this is a pretty big operation to process millions of samples, calculating averages and std deviation, etc... But yeah it would have been nice to sample continuously and process only when stopping.
It amazes me that the work of calculating the mean and standard deviation is not assigned to the FPGA. As well as other mathematical operations.

It is very simple and very fast. I have a board on my desk where I calculate these numbers in real time for the signal coming from the ADC 1 GHz.
Quote
The trigger interface is like a visual block programming directly on the device, relatively easy when you know what you're trying to accomplish with it, much more powerful than the hard coded things I'm used to. I haven't read the manual yet I'm still playing around.
I'm trying to understand what he can. And until I found a textbook with pictures for dummies :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MrFox on December 13, 2018, 04:35:50 pm
Ah ok, Brad already explained it in a previous post...
The fastest is actually to use a trigger model, because there's a separate processor for it. I am curious why the default CONT mode isn't just that trigger model.

MikeP:
Probably you set the digitize Count to 1 and went into continuous trigger mode?  When you do that, triggering is handled by the display processor, so when that processor gets busy it will stop triggering and catch up with whatever else it's being told to do (like update the graph image).  That's where those gaps in data are coming from.  A couple ways around this come to mind:
  • Set a higher count to capture all the data you need.  Triggering within a Count set is handled by a separate processor that won't get caught up in display stuff, you also won't see the lines connecting separate groups of data that may be a little confusing.  The graph's smart scaling in x will by default show you the latest group of readings.
  • Use a trigger model.  Triggering from a trigger model is also handled by a separate processor and a very simple model can allow continuous data capture.  I'm attaching a script (change the .txt to .tsp to use it) where the last lines set up a trigger model that starts a digitize voltage measurement (that continues infinitely) and then stops the measurement when the TRIGGER key is pressed.  The display might lag behind slightly depending on your other settings, but there won't be any gaps in the data.  If you digitize at a really high rate then you may see a pop-up like "Processing reading backlog...".  That message means the display processor needs to catch up with the data buffer and it will stop other activities until it catches up, usually no more than a second or two.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 13, 2018, 05:40:41 pm
There can be more calculations done than just mean and std. deviation.  Other tasks may be corrections of temperature effects. Scaling from raw data to voltage (or amps) and also filtering zero readings / offsets.

The processor at the display part is way slower than an normal PC. I would expect is to be comparable to maybe an Rasberry at most.  This processor also likely has to handle other stuff, like the display. So I kind of understand that this might not be enough to do this in real time.  Especially some filtering might be difficult in real time as it involved forward looking data.

The trigger models are a little confusing, but this the price for an instrument with so many options.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 18, 2018, 10:51:55 pm
Tell me who knows:

1. Why the measurement period for 5 NPLC = 0.3 s, and not 0.1 s.
2. Which setting or script allows you to take measurements in DCV mode at regular intervals. How can this be done in digitize V mode using the Count setting?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 18, 2018, 11:02:43 pm
3. Measurement time for 10 NPLC have an exponential beginning?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 19, 2018, 07:49:37 am
3. Measurement time for 10 NPLC have an exponential beginning?

Was the instrument warmed up?
Was the source stable?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 19, 2018, 08:03:21 am
Was the instrument warmed up?
Was the source stable?
On the graph, time, not voltage.
These old ones seem to be from version 1.6.3 in the new one, I could not repeat it. Perhaps this has already been fixed. If I can guarantee it to repeat, I will definitely write it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 19, 2018, 01:21:54 pm
My DMM6500 arrived a few days ago and it seems to be spot on in the 10V range calibration, with my 10.0000V source.

I did a warmup comparison between the DMM7510 and the new DMM6500.
They behave very differently, but after about 2 min, they are almost completely warmed up.

But interestingly, the DMM6500 is almost as fast in the warmup time as the DMM7510. Definitely much faster than all the Keysight DMMs.

So far, I am very happy with the DMM6500.
Especially, since it came with the free Kickstarter software license.

Edit: Mislabeled pictures
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 19, 2018, 01:26:52 pm
They behave very differently, but after about 2 min, they are almost completely warmed up.
I watched a warming 7510 at a range of 0.1V with shorted inputs. Oscillations are established in 1.5 hours as indicated in the specification.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 19, 2018, 01:31:51 pm
Yes, I am not saying the instruments are warmed up to metrology specs after 2 min !
But it is impressive, how fast these two Keithley instruments warm up in comparison to other brands.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 19, 2018, 01:34:35 pm
Yes, I am not saying the instruments are warmed up to metrology specs after 2 min !
But it is impressive, how fast these two Keithley instruments warm up in comparison to other brands.
Yes, no doubt they are very quickly ready to work. And they also enter the specification very quickly.

I talked about the complete completion of transients for maximum accuracy.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 19, 2018, 03:28:02 pm
After a good warmup, I had both, the DMM7510 and the DMM6500 on the same 10V source in parallel.
Both instruments on 5 NPLC, 10 MOhm, AutoZero ON

Why would I get such a jump in the middle of the DMM6500 graph?

Also interesting (funny):
The DMM6500 counts the x-axis with [h:m:s] and the DMM7500 in [ks]

I will repeat this now with 10 NPLC and Average Filter ON


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on December 20, 2018, 07:52:34 pm
HighVoltage
 Thanks for your experiment. Can you make this measurement with 1NPLC for both DMM's also? Can you show statistical data for all experiments? Thanks again.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 20, 2018, 09:09:42 pm
Both graphs for the 7510 and 6500 show a problem with the scaling. There is no way to tel the actual scale. I know this a rather extreme case, but the labeling could get some improvement. Maybe make sure the ticks are not fixed pixel width but something like a 1-2-5-10 sequence in real voltage / current and than somewhere also show the distance. So a little like with scopes.

The steps look a lot like popcorn noise. Likely from the 6500 internal reference, as from other points in the DMM such an error should be corrected by AZ mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 20, 2018, 11:07:38 pm
Time for another mass response!  I tried to address everything that other users haven't answered already.

First of all, there's been a new firmware release, 1.0.03.  It's not a major one though, it mostly includes emulation mode and some VISA communication fixes that were heavily requested.  One notable thing, the 2700 triggering on pin 6 of the DIO port that Jens01 asked about (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1743824/#msg1743824) has been fixed so that the DAQ6510 triggers properly now.  The links have the full release notes. 
For the DAQ6510: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1003-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1003-and-release-notes)
For the DMM6500: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1003-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1003-and-release-notes)

Can you show the graph of the frequency response of the filter? So that I can make decisions about the need for additional filtering?

It became clear about the digitizing V mode.
I can try making a graph next if this doesn't answer your questions but I think I'd have to order some equipment to make a good one.  This answer comes from the hardware team:
The filter can be modelled as a simple low pass filter with a time constant of ~ 150ns putting the transition at around 1MHz. Investigate what that means to your signal input being digitized. There are higher poles also between 5MHz and 50Mhz but the upper limit response is dominated by the ~ 1MHz.

Suggestions for best added anti-alias additional filtering to really kill the artifacts. These match up well to the internal ADC. The more poles the better until ~ 8:
8 pole BESSEL type low pass filter set at ~ 400kHz – use this if you want to preserve signal waveform fidelity/accuracy (constant group delay, won’t show dispersive effects)
8 Pole MFB or BUTTERWORTH low pass type set at ~ 450kHz – use this for best attenuation, has pass band ripple (can be designed for < 1%), has some dispersion.

NOTE: The suggested pole locations are chosen to support the full input bandwidth of the digitizer for all signals. If that’s actually not needed and you wish to tailor it to your signal, the it is better to place these poles approximately 1 decade higher  than your highest signal frequency of interest. This will optimize it for your specific signal achieving the highest input noise attenuation. When implementing your filter, keep resistances < 20k if possible to avoid making additional high frequency noise sources.

Example1: Square wave(PWM etc..) just want to see the signal,  – need full BW set to just below 500kHz (400, 450 is as in above suggestions)  with appropriate # of poles can use any type. Consider no filter at all if you aren’t looking at low frequencies that could be aliased and you really want highest bandwidth.
Example2: Noisy sinewaves, ramps etc.. and care about amplitude accuracy < 10kHz. Set at ~ 150kHz and use Bessel up to 8 poles.

NOTE: If you design an input filter, keep in mind the DC specifications. The digitizer function is specified for DC performance and if you want to preserve that, you will need to select the right components for your filter.
The hardware was designed to not force an artificial bandwidth limitation so that it can be the most flexible for all applications. Programmable HW filtering options were considered but the team decided to leave them out to make the unit as versatile as possible.

How should I set up the device so that after filling in one buffer, it will without a break begin to fill the next buffer?
I don't think this is possible and I'm not sure why you would want to do this, wouldn't it be better to set one buffer to the maximum size than have 2 half size buffers?  Do you want all the data you're taking or are you aggregating it in some way?  If you're processing, it might be possible to use a TSP script.  If you want all the readings directly, you're limited by the bus speeds.

Brad O.
Thanks for manual, interesting read! We volt-nuts always like to know what more equipment we need to buy for calibrations  :)
I missed it before, because Tek site ain't too much friendly for old-school folk. Clicked DMM6500 -> Manuals -> Service = nothing, so I assumed it's not published yet.
Ah it looks like the web team assigned it as a User manual, I think that's a mistake.  I filed a bug report to have them update the classification, I fully understand your confusion.  I'm also working with the web team to improve the way tek.com handles documents like these, you're not the only one to have problems finding things.

After a good warmup, I had both, the DMM7510 and the DMM6500 on the same 10V source in parallel.
Both instruments on 5 NPLC, 10 MOhm, AutoZero ON

Why would I get such a jump in the middle of the DMM6500 graph?
That does look strange and I don't like it.  I'll try to reproduce it after the Holidays.  Was your source a custom 10V reference?  I would expect popcorn noise to have a shorter duration but it's a possibility. 

Also interesting (funny):
The DMM6500 counts the x-axis with [h:m:s] and the DMM7500 in [ks]
This was specifically done for the DAQ6510, but I think the change to [h:m:s] is slated to go in the next 7510 firmware too.  I think it makes a lot more sense than kiloseconds. 

Both graphs for the 7510 and 6500 show a problem with the scaling. There is no way to tel the actual scale. I know this a rather extreme case, but the labeling could get some improvement. Maybe make sure the ticks are not fixed pixel width but something like a 1-2-5-10 sequence in real voltage / current and than somewhere also show the distance. So a little like with scopes.
The firmware team is looking into ways to improve labeling when you have a super stable signal like that.  I don't know where they are in that process, but that's on the docket to be addressed.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on December 20, 2018, 11:09:31 pm
It's because it cannot run the trigger script a million times per second. To get a guaranteed timing there's no way around setting the size of your segments.
For the digitizing V mode, is it possible to somehow disable the trigger and possibly the screen.

Are there any other ways to get continuous data in the buffer? Particularly interested in DCV mode.

Is there somewhere a tutorial on setting up triggers and writing scripts?
If you want the minimum spacing between each reading: disable autoranging and autozero, and set a count or use a trigger model (Setting a count is the easiest). 
Here's a small walk through on how to use the trigger model to have equal spacing between your measurements, where the spacing you want isn't necessarily the minimum.  There's an image of the final model attached.

We just created a trigger model, so what does it do?  First we notify a timer, all that really does is start the timer.  Then we measure with what ever measurement settings are currently configured.  Note that the model doesn't specify what the measurement is or even what settings to use for it, only to take one.  This means you need to set up your measurement settings before you start this trigger model.
Then we wait for the timer we started in block 1 to expire, finally we branch back to block one where we start the timer again. 

What if I set a short timer so that it expires before the measurement is done? Block 3 will know that the timer has already expired so the model will leave the block immediately. 
What if there's a problem with my trigger model? The model editor will show you where it is in the trigger model while it's running.  If you abort the model, it'll show a little red error symbol next to the block it was in when you aborted, probably meaning there's a problem with that block.

Hopefully this is helpful for you all.  All the trigger model blocks and their options are explained in detail in the Reference Manual starting on page 317/9-28.  It is very powerful, but definitely different from what you might be used to.  Once you have a trigger model you like, you can save it as an instrument setup and recall it any time (an instrument setup WILL know your measurement settings, unlike the trigger model itself).  You can then export that setup as a TSP script to use on a different instrument or edit it directly in a text editor.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 21, 2018, 10:09:54 am

After a good warmup, I had both, the DMM7510 and the DMM6500 on the same 10V source in parallel.
Both instruments on 5 NPLC, 10 MOhm, AutoZero ON

Why would I get such a jump in the middle of the DMM6500 graph?
That does look strange and I don't like it.  I'll try to reproduce it after the Holidays.  Was your source a custom 10V reference?  I would expect popcorn noise to have a shorter duration but it's a possibility. 


Thanks for looking in to that.
The source is a very old, but stable Fluke 731B
And as you can see in the comparison to the DMM7510, the signal is stable.
This problem is repeatable, at least on my 6500 !


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 21, 2018, 11:14:36 am
...
This problem is repeatable, at least on my 6500 !

How repeatable ?  I would be very surprised if the jumps would occur at the same time again - that would be an unlikely software problem.
For popcorn noise one can expect the same size jumps (for a given meter), but at different times. Other meters could have smaller (or larger) jumps of less frequent ones.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 21, 2018, 11:41:57 am
...
This problem is repeatable, at least on my 6500 !

How repeatable ?  I would be very surprised if the jumps would occur at the same time again - that would be an unlikely software problem.
For popcorn noise one can expect the same size jumps (for a given meter), but at different times. Other meters could have smaller (or larger) jumps of less frequent ones.

Just the jump is repeatable it happens randomly just once in a while.
Its about the same height but sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.
Sometimes the instrument can run for a long time and there are no jumps at all.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 21, 2018, 12:20:11 pm
HighVoltage
 Thanks for your experiment. Can you make this measurement with 1NPLC for both DMM's also? Can you show statistical data for all experiments? Thanks again.

Here you go.
Both instruments are parallel on a Fluke 731B
Both instruments are on 1 NPLC and no Filter

I is nice to see how well both instruments agree on the 10V value of my source.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 21, 2018, 03:18:48 pm
Hooray!!!! Brad O is back :))
I already thought that I asked a lot of questions :)
Thank you for being with us.
I can try making a graph next if this doesn't answer your questions but I think I'd have to order some equipment to make a good one.  This answer comes from the hardware team:
The filter can be modelled as a simple low pass filter with a time constant of ~ 150ns putting the transition at around 1MHz. Investigate what that means to your signal input being digitized. There are higher poles also between 5MHz and 50Mhz but the upper limit response is dominated by the ~ 1MHz.
This answer is quite enough. No need to purchase equipment.

And this information is sad. I always have to think about filtering. And no matter what mode of operation is selected. In other words, the filtering issue is completely on the user.

To be honest, I expected that for at least part of this development is closed by engineers Keithley.
Especially for the DCV mode when the sampling frequency of the signal is small. And it is logical to expect that the appropriate filters are connected inside.
Quote
Suggestions for best added anti-alias additional filtering to really kill the artifacts.
Thank.

Quote
I don't think this is possible and I'm not sure why you would want to do this, wouldn't it be better to set one buffer to the maximum size than have 2 half size buffers?  Do you want all the data you're taking or are you aggregating it in some way?  If you're processing, it might be possible to use a TSP script.  If you want all the readings directly, you're limited by the bus speeds.

Oh yes :( I already understood this. All I could get from the device is about 300 kilobytes per second. This is 3% for LAN and less than 1% for USB. I expected more. And I hoped that I could receive all data remotely without losses.

If you want the minimum spacing between each reading: disable autoranging and autozero, and set a count or use a trigger model (Setting a count is the easiest).  Here's a small walk through on how to use the trigger model to have equal spacing between your measurements, where the spacing you want isn't necessarily the minimum.  There's an image of the final model attached.
Thank you so much for this information. I will definitely try this example.

I thought that the issue of jitter when digitizing is solved by hardware. And the program should not influence it.

And in order to use the full potential of the ADC, we must have a very low level of jitter.

For the 350kHz signal bandwidth and the ADC even 20bit (120 dB). Jitter should be no more than 0.5 ns.

And I thought that I would not need to conjure with software to get this accuracy. I was hoping that this was already done in FPGA.

------------------------

I sketched a block diagram of the device as I understand it. It is very simple and does not display many details.

But I still do not see on it fatal errors that would interfere with the transfer of all data without loss. And maintain a stable sampling rate of the ADC signals.

I am ready to correct it so that it more corresponds to the truth. I think it will be useful.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on December 21, 2018, 03:43:35 pm
HighVoltage
 Some time ago, I was surprised to find that the best accuracy for resistances at 1-2 PLC. It is very interesting to find the dependence of accuracy/PLC for voltage.
 Which PLC has the smallest error? 10-5 or 1 PLC at the same conditions. I think you know the true voltage of your 731.
 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 21, 2018, 04:26:19 pm
The AD7982 is 18 Bits only - so the jitter requirement would be lower. Another point is that large signal bandwidth is usually considerably lower than the small signal BW. So the worst case 300 kHz signal is lower amplitude. In addition one could accept some extra error in these extreme cases when that is a large signal. So no need to have jitter effect below the quantization error even under worst case conditions.
If reasonably well programmed the trigger could still be accurate down to the clock jitter level and thus down to the sub ns range if really needed.

It is very hard to tell which PLC setting is more accurate: usually there should be very little difference. If at all there could be some extra error (e.g. waiting for settling and maybe extra INL) for the fast modes. The calibration should normally use more of a slower high resolution mode so that these modes would be the most accurate.

There might be a little higher or lower noise for some speeds, especially of one compare something like a 10 PLC mode with the average of 1 PLC conversions. The slow modes like 100 PLC are internally made as averaging shorter conversions and usually the choice here should be reasonable good for best performance.  Even without filtering enabled, there seem to be some filtering going on for the zero measurements of the AZ mode. This can be tricky when comparing different speed, as the readings are not 100% independent, bit slightly correlated. So noise estimates for the average value from the std. dev values can be a little on the optimistic side.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 21, 2018, 07:08:45 pm
The AD7982 is 18 Bits only - so the jitter requirement would be lower.
I talked about the ADC multislope.

The AD7982, with the Count parameter set, perfectly fills the buffer with zero jitter. It's fine.

But attempts to get the same with the exact ADC are not yet obtained.

Here is a picture with all disabled AUTO ...

A jitter of around 1µs is a pure 50 dB. It is very sad :(
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 21, 2018, 07:32:39 pm
For the relatively slow multi-slope ADC, jitter is much less critical.  Having the second faster ADC in parallel, I would assume there is little sense to use it for much below 1 ms integration.
 
With so many options for triggering the jitter likely depends on the trigger type used.

Depending on the type of ADC, there could also be inherent jitter - especially the continuous integrating ADCs can have intrinsic uncertainties in the exact aperture. Some versions also have a non rectangular aperture, using a soft start and stop that represents some extra filtering.
Still 1 µs jitter would be pretty high, though in most cases not a problem, as the relevant frequencies are low  (e.g. <= 120 Hz).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 21, 2018, 08:00:34 pm
Here's a small walk through on how to use the trigger model to have equal spacing between your measurements, where the spacing you want isn't necessarily the minimum.
I checked this model. Unfortunately, it has the same 1 μs jitter.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 21, 2018, 08:05:33 pm
Still 1 µs jitter would be pretty high, though in most cases not a problem, as the relevant frequencies are low  (e.g. <= 120 Hz).
Yes, it seems so.

But at the same time I lost AZ
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 21, 2018, 09:13:42 pm
There should also be a way to get a constant sampling rate with AZ mode active.  It may not be that fast (e.g. sampling rate near 24/29 Hz) but ideally should allow for a reasonable constant rate.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 22, 2018, 07:58:30 am
There should also be a way to get a constant sampling rate with AZ mode active.  It may not be that fast (e.g. sampling rate near 24/29 Hz) but ideally should allow for a reasonable constant rate.
Yes it is. But it will be necessary to lower the sampling rate 3 times. And the time of data collection will increase 3 times. :(
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 24, 2018, 05:12:56 pm
Tell me who knows: how to correctly determine that the buffer filling in the device is over? For example, set Count = 1000 with 10 NPLC. It's half an hour. What should I ask the device to find out if it has finished?

I tried to find out
defbuffer1.endindex
defbuffer1.n

But always the data collection stopped.

What should I ask the device in order not to interfere with its data collection?

Or should I calculate the time myself and maintain the timeout?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Jens01 on January 07, 2019, 06:22:29 pm
There is one thing which did not migrated properly: external triggering using the Digital I/O connector in K2700 emulation mode. We had to (re)connect the trigger line to the BNC connector on te back of unit to make it work.
I see what you're talking about, I couldn't get it to work either.  I know 2700 emulation was tested pretty extensively so I'm not sure if there's a problem with the manual or the emulation mode.  The person who tested it is out this week, so I'll get back to you next week with an update.  I'm glad you were able to get your triggering to work over BNC though!

upgrading to V1.0.03 fixed the issue. :-+

Another question regarding the K2700 emulation-mode: the K2700 has a a current range of 0 ... 20 mA, the DAQ6510 only has 0 ... 10 mA or 0 ... 100mA ranges. In emulation-mode a 0 ... 20mA range is available, but how is this implemented? Nothing more than  0 ... 100mA range capped at 20mA?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 08, 2019, 12:56:36 am
HighVoltage
 Thanks for your experiment. Can you make this measurement with 1NPLC for both DMM's also? Can you show statistical data for all experiments? Thanks again.

Here you go.
Both instruments are parallel on a Fluke 731B
Both instruments are on 1 NPLC and no Filter

I is nice to see how well both instruments agree on the 10V value of my source.

Nice to see performance of both instruments at a 731B reference.
This gives me an idea of how to classify my dmm6500 and my 10V selfmade reference:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/build-a-10v-buffer-inside-the-teko371-ltz1000-box/msg1611664/#msg1611664 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/build-a-10v-buffer-inside-the-teko371-ltz1000-box/msg1611664/#msg1611664)

First 3 pic with 1 NPLC and no Filter, but i measure my references with
5 NPLC and FILTER REPEAT COUNT 10
last 3 pics. Temp 20.5°C

Edit: Attach log (open document format ods, should be excel compatible)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on January 08, 2019, 04:51:55 pm
hwj-d

 Thanks for experiments. Can you make it with 10 PLC?
 (I think we will get the same 10.00000)  :scared:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 09, 2019, 01:53:05 am
Hello MikeP,

I can't see actually no expressive difference between measuring a ltz1000 reference with lm399 based dmm6500 with 5 or 10 NLPC. The result is the same as shown, setting isn't more accurate. Also filtering do show everything else than more the truth, because we try to measure the missing 7th digit with a higher noisy dmm as the reference itself.  ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 10, 2019, 04:43:45 am
One interesting Application Note:
Data Logging of Power Profiles from Wireless IoT and Other Low-Power Devices Using the DMM6500
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf
 (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2607097.pdf)
Some scripting tips inside  :-+


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 10, 2019, 08:13:26 am
Some scripting tips inside  :-+
Thank. Examples are good.
I found this document:
It is for the oscilloscope but you can understand the principles of operation.

And a document from competitors. With some details, attainable speeds and other interesting information.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 10, 2019, 04:44:57 pm
I didn't see any DMM6500 Reference Manual in the moment, as it is there for the DMM7510.
The only command-, syntax-reference to the DMM6500 TSP (-TekVISA) is encapsulated as html-xml in Win-TextScriptBuilder.  :-//
Don't know if i be allowed to publish the extracted web help as zip here in the forum (asking Brad-O)?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on January 10, 2019, 05:35:05 pm
I didn't see any DMM6500 Reference Manual in the moment, as it is there for the DMM7510.
The only command-, syntax-reference to the DMM6500 TSP (-TekVISA) is encapsulated as html-xml in Win-TextScriptBuilder.  :-//
Don't know if i be allowed to publish the extracted web help as zip here in the forum (asking Brad-O)?

https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 10, 2019, 05:41:23 pm
Don't know if i be allowed to publish the extracted web help as zip here in the forum (asking Brad-O)?
That would be very convenient. I only use TSB to read help :)))

If it's not difficult for you to make me 7510 :) please.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 10, 2019, 05:45:16 pm
https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0)
Ah, ok, thanks.
(Don't know, why I didn't found that :-/O )
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on January 10, 2019, 06:32:08 pm
Hello MikeP,

I can't see actually no expressive difference between measuring a ltz1000 reference with lm399 based dmm6500 with 5 or 10 NLPC. The result is the same as shown, setting isn't more accurate. Also filtering do show everything else than more the truth, because we try to measure the missing 7th digit with a higher noisy dmm as the reference itself.  ;)
This is good news. I was interested in the REAL and PRACTICAL difference in PLC - settings. Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 10, 2019, 10:27:41 pm
Don't know if i be allowed to publish the extracted web help as zip here in the forum (asking Brad-O)?
That would be very convenient. I only use TSB to read help :)))

If it's not difficult for you to make me 7510 :) please.

For the DMM6500 it is:

DMM6500 command reference
-----------------------------
Remote commands
../topic/com.keithley.keithleyide.docDMM6500/DMM6500_introduction_to_TSP_operation.htm
file:///X:xx/yy/zz/doc/DMM6500_introduction_to_TSP_operation.htm

TSP command reference
../topic/com.keithley.keithleyide.docDMM6500/DMM6500_TSP_command_reference.htm
file:///X:xx/yy/zz/doc/DMM6500_TSP_command_reference.htm

Additional DMM6500 information
../topic/com.keithley.keithleyide.docDMM6500/46200.htm
file:///X:xx/yy/zz/doc/46200.htm
-----------------------------
where you extract the doc.zip

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mipcgq0y89s1fp0/doc.zip?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/mipcgq0y89s1fp0/doc.zip?dl=0)

But, if i saw the Reference Manual to late, it is pretty the same as in the PDF. The themes are hyperlinked in the manual.

So, i believe, tell me, no need to explicide extract that 7510 file. ;-)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 11, 2019, 06:24:19 pm
So, i believe, tell me, no need to explicide extract that 7510 file. ;-)
;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 12, 2019, 07:37:30 am
Update:

As i see now, there is a big difference between Reference Manual 7510 and Reference Manual 6500:
So, the use of the above mentioned, extracted, intern correct linked HTML-Helpfile-Doc's for workflow TSP programming make sense, till the Reference Manual 6500 is corrected.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 13, 2019, 11:40:21 am
6500: https://xdevs.com/review/dmm6500/#manual
7510: https://doc.xdevs.com/article/keithley-instruments/#7510
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on January 14, 2019, 12:09:26 am
Is there a manual for APP development for the DMM6500? I have the code of the Intro application, one that can load images to the LCD. I can't locate a manual that describes te image format and how to load it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on January 14, 2019, 12:45:49 am
Answering my own question:
Create a PNG image
Convert to BASE64
Then add at the end of the application script between:

loadimage <name> <script>
BASE64 data
endimage
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on January 14, 2019, 01:04:21 am
That was easy :)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=622831;image)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 21, 2019, 09:49:59 pm
I try to get uniform readings in Digitize_V mode.

The best I could get looks like this. But there are a number of strange regular artifacts. The main number of readings has a deviation of no more than 1 ns. But a number of calculations following about 100 counts have a larger deviation of up to 40 ns. Single emissions up to 120 ns.

On the graphs on the X axis time. On the Y axis, the deviation of the duration of 1 measurement from the ideal. In this case, from 100 μs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on January 22, 2019, 12:27:13 am
I try to get uniform readings in Digitize_V mode.

The best I could get looks like this. But there are a number of strange regular artifacts. The main number of readings has a deviation of no more than 1 ns. But a number of calculations following about 100 counts have a larger deviation of up to 40 ns. Single emissions up to 120 ns.

On the graphs on the X axis time. On the Y axis, the deviation of the duration of 1 measurement from the ideal. In this case, from 100 μs.

Are those DigiV measurements with the 7510 or 6500?

Update:

As i see now, there is a big difference between Reference Manual 7510 and Reference Manual 6500:
  • the Links in the 6500 Manual are not working,
    (DMM6500-901-01 Rev. A / April 2018)
  • the Links in the 7510 Manual do!
So, the use of the above mentioned, extracted, intern correct linked HTML-Helpfile-Doc's for workflow TSP programming make sense, till the Reference Manual 6500 is corrected.
The hyperlinks in the manual are working fine for me with Adobe Acrobat, is anyone else have trouble?  Try downloading directly from Tek.com... 
Also, the TSB command help files are compiled from the same source the Reference Manuals are compiled from.  You can access the TSB version of the help directly without going through TSB with (in  Windows 10 at least): Windows Key > Keithley Instruments folder > TSB for 65XX Documentation.  Or, just keep the Reference Manual pdf open and jump back to page 17, where the TSP command list starts.

That was easy :)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=622831;image)
Awesome! Doubly impressive since we haven't publicly documented that!  We are working on documentation for the apps to release sometime later this year, the commands are still very fluid as we make some apps ourselves and figure out how we'd like the commands to work.  If you have some ideas for what you'd like to do with the interface could you send them along to me?  We're trying to put together a "wish list" of apps, I could also send you some of the documentation we have right now.

Hello MikeP,

I can't see actually no expressive difference between measuring a ltz1000 reference with lm399 based dmm6500 with 5 or 10 NLPC. The result is the same as shown, setting isn't more accurate. Also filtering do show everything else than more the truth, because we try to measure the missing 7th digit with a higher noisy dmm as the reference itself.  ;)
Unless you are expecting recurring noise at a frequency lower than 1 PLC (i.e. you expect some 30 Hz noise, then use 2 PLC), the 6500 will return the best results at 1 PLC.  I would recommend averaging rather than higher PLC settings to reduce noise.

Also thank you for all the data, I'm still looking into that shifting level issue you saw with a couple other engineers.

There is one thing which did not migrated properly: external triggering using the Digital I/O connector in K2700 emulation mode. We had to (re)connect the trigger line to the BNC connector on te back of unit to make it work.
I see what you're talking about, I couldn't get it to work either.  I know 2700 emulation was tested pretty extensively so I'm not sure if there's a problem with the manual or the emulation mode.  The person who tested it is out this week, so I'll get back to you next week with an update.  I'm glad you were able to get your triggering to work over BNC though!

upgrading to V1.0.03 fixed the issue. :-+

Another question regarding the K2700 emulation-mode: the K2700 has a a current range of 0 ... 20 mA, the DAQ6510 only has 0 ... 10 mA or 0 ... 100mA ranges. In emulation-mode a 0 ... 20mA range is available, but how is this implemented? Nothing more than  0 ... 100mA range capped at 20mA?
Ah yeah, that's a weird quirk.  2700 Emulation mode ignores the 20mA range and will only use the 100mA range.  You can see this if you're watching the front panel when you set the range with CONF:CURR.  I'll mention that to manuals, it should probably be explicitly called out in the Emulation Manual.

Tell me who knows: how to correctly determine that the buffer filling in the device is over? For example, set Count = 1000 with 10 NPLC. It's half an hour. What should I ask the device to find out if it has finished?

I tried to find out
defbuffer1.endindex
defbuffer1.n

But always the data collection stopped.

What should I ask the device in order not to interfere with its data collection?

Or should I calculate the time myself and maintain the timeout?
It sounds like you're in continuous mode and then send the box a query over the remote interface, is that right?  Continuous mode isn't available when you're using the remote interface, so the box will always leave it and go to Manual Trigger mode if you send it a command (which puts the box into remote mode).  The commands you listed are a good way to find how full the buffer is (in combination with defbuffer1.capacity) but unless you start the measurement from a remote interface, going into remote mode will interrupt your measurement.

Here's a small walk through on how to use the trigger model to have equal spacing between your measurements, where the spacing you want isn't necessarily the minimum.
I checked this model. Unfortunately, it has the same 1 μs jitter.
With the settings I gave?  I see <100ns variation off of 1s between each reading.  I'll put together a script tomorrow for you to try.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 22, 2019, 08:18:42 am
Are those DigiV measurements with the 7510 or 6500?
I was working with 7510. It was necessary to indicate this.

It seems to me that they are very similar? Or is it not?
Quote
It sounds like you're in continuous mode and then send the box a query over the remote interface, is that right?  Continuous mode isn't available when you're using the remote interface, so the box will always leave it and go to Manual Trigger mode if you send it a command (which puts the box into remote mode).  The commands you listed are a good way to find how full the buffer is (in combination with defbuffer1.capacity) but unless you start the measurement from a remote interface, going into remote mode will interrupt your measurement.
Yes that's right. I did not know about this feature. And I ran the measurements manually on the instrument and tried to read them remotely. It turned out that this can not be done. It is necessary to run and read data remotely.

Now I can read the data during the measurements except NPLC value <0.15 If the NPLC <0.15 device does not respond to requests. As I understand it before the completion of the measurements.

Quote
With the settings I gave?  I see <100ns variation off of 1s between each reading.  I'll put together a script tomorrow for you to try.
It is very interesting. It looks like I do not notice some important nuance. I will try to show the results that I get.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 22, 2019, 02:20:19 pm

Update:

As i see now, there is a big difference between Reference Manual 7510 and Reference Manual 6500:
  • the Links in the 6500 Manual are not working,
    (DMM6500-901-01 Rev. A / April 2018)
  • the Links in the 7510 Manual do!
So, the use of the above mentioned, extracted, intern correct linked HTML-Helpfile-Doc's for workflow TSP programming make sense, till the Reference Manual 6500 is corrected.
The hyperlinks in the manual are working fine for me with Adobe Acrobat, is anyone else have trouble?  Try downloading directly from Tek.com... 
Also, the TSB command help files are compiled from the same source the Reference Manuals are compiled from.  You can access the TSB version of the help directly without going through TSB with (in  Windows 10 at least): Windows Key > Keithley Instruments folder > TSB for 65XX Documentation.  Or, just keep the Reference Manual pdf open and jump back to page 17, where the TSP command list starts.


Hmm, that's weird.

Are there different Reference Manuals: DMM6500-901-01 Rev. A / April 2018?
Downloaded from:
https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0)

Look at pictures, green are real hyperlinks, red are no hyperlinks, only colored text.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on January 22, 2019, 07:10:59 pm
Are those DigiV measurements with the 7510 or 6500?
I was working with 7510. It was necessary to indicate this.

It seems to me that they are very similar? Or is it not?
They are similar, but there are a few differences, this is one of them.  The 7510 has different specs for its timestamps when digitizing than the DMM6500/DAQ6510, (search for "timestamp" in the 7510 datasheet to see the lines I'll be mentioning) the timestamp resolution is 1ns for standard buffers so that's why you're seeing that small variation, the actual difference is probably less.  The timestamp accuracy is spec'd to "20ns between adjacent readings".  What it means is there's 20ns of uncertainty between adjacent readings, so two readings could potentially be 40ns apart, as you're seeing.  The reason for this discrepancy, incidentally, is that the 7510 uses different clocks for timestamps and digitized readings that sync up every so often.  In actuality, the digitized readings are probably much closer together than what the timestamps say, it's the timestamps with the uncertainty, not the readings.

The 120ns difference is most likely those 2 clocks syncing.  Rather than explaining that in the datahseet, it just says the "20ns between adjacent readings" is valid "with total buffer time <2 s", after that those larger timestamp differences may appear.  Once again, these specs are for the 7510, NOT the 6500/6510 which use the same clock for readings and timestamps.

With the settings I gave?  I see <100ns variation off of 1s between each reading.  I'll put together a script tomorrow for you to try.
It is very interesting. It looks like I do not notice some important nuance. I will try to show the results that I get.
Try this script I'm attaching (same deal, change .txt to .tsp and run on the instrument), it's the same one I described in this message. (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2056225/#msg2056225)  It'll take 100 readings on the 10V DCV range each 1s apart, just to make sure you're not missing anything.  Like I said, I saw <100ns difference between timestamps, you should see somewhere around that.


Update:

As i see now, there is a big difference between Reference Manual 7510 and Reference Manual 6500:
  • the Links in the 6500 Manual are not working,
    (DMM6500-901-01 Rev. A / April 2018)
  • the Links in the 7510 Manual do!
So, the use of the above mentioned, extracted, intern correct linked HTML-Helpfile-Doc's for workflow TSP programming make sense, till the Reference Manual 6500 is corrected.
The hyperlinks in the manual are working fine for me with Adobe Acrobat, is anyone else have trouble?  Try downloading directly from Tek.com... 
Also, the TSB command help files are compiled from the same source the Reference Manuals are compiled from.  You can access the TSB version of the help directly without going through TSB with (in  Windows 10 at least): Windows Key > Keithley Instruments folder > TSB for 65XX Documentation.  Or, just keep the Reference Manual pdf open and jump back to page 17, where the TSP command list starts.


Hmm, that's weird.

Are there different Reference Manuals: DMM6500-901-01 Rev. A / April 2018?
Downloaded from:
https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-manual/model-dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-bench-system-0)

Look at pictures, green are real hyperlinks, red are no hyperlinks, only colored text.

Ahhh, I see what you mean, try clicking the page number instead of the function name, does that work?

I had to go ask manuals about this one, the tool our manuals department uses broke on those function links when the DMM6500 manual was compiled and no one noticed until after it was on the web.  The page numbers should work everywhere though, they're generated via a different method.  All those links will be fixed in the next manual update in March.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 22, 2019, 11:10:07 pm
Quote
Ahhh, I see what you mean, try clicking the page number instead of the function name, does that work?

Thanks Brad, that's it. Besides this big "fake"-hyperlinks i didn't register the clickable page numbers at all.  ???

Quote
All those links will be fixed in the next manual update in March.

 :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 22, 2019, 11:18:52 pm
The 7510 has different specs for its timestamps when digitizing than the DMM6500/DAQ6510, (search for "timestamp" in the 7510 datasheet to see the lines I'll be mentioning) the timestamp resolution is 1ns for standard buffers so that's why you're seeing that small variation, the actual difference is probably less.  The timestamp accuracy is spec'd to "20ns between adjacent readings".  What it means is there's 20ns of uncertainty between adjacent readings, so two readings could potentially be 40ns apart, as you're seeing.
Oh yes :( I don't read the fine print well.

OK :( +/- 20 ns meet specifications. But 100 ns is already beyond the specification. Plus in DCV modes, the spread is more than 100ns :(

Quote
The reason for this discrepancy, incidentally, is that the 7510 uses different clocks for timestamps and digitized readings that sync up every so often.  In actuality, the digitized readings are probably much closer together than what the timestamps say, it's the timestamps with the uncertainty, not the readings.
Is there any chance that this will be fixed in 7510? After all then all sense of timestamp is lost.

Plus it seems to me that the synchronization of two hours can explain a single time failure. But on the chart I see triple crashes. And in some modes, I can find more bad samples.

Quote
Try this script I'm attaching (same deal, change .txt to .tsp and run on the instrument), it's the same one I described in this message. (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2056225/#msg2056225)  It'll take 100 readings on the 10V DCV range each 1s apart, just to make sure you're not missing anything.  Like I said, I saw <100ns difference between timestamps, you should see somewhere around that.
I ran this script from the device (just fixed BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE on BLOCK_MEASURE for the second block). And I got a constant error of 17.5 μs on each measurement and the peak to peak spread is the peak of 2500 ns.

Data in the attachment.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on January 23, 2019, 06:50:42 pm
The 7510 has different specs for its timestamps when digitizing than the DMM6500/DAQ6510, (search for "timestamp" in the 7510 datasheet to see the lines I'll be mentioning) the timestamp resolution is 1ns for standard buffers so that's why you're seeing that small variation, the actual difference is probably less.  The timestamp accuracy is spec'd to "20ns between adjacent readings".  What it means is there's 20ns of uncertainty between adjacent readings, so two readings could potentially be 40ns apart, as you're seeing.
Oh yes :( I don't read the fine print well.

OK :( +/- 20 ns meet specifications. But 100 ns is already beyond the specification. Plus in DCV modes, the spread is more than 100ns :(
100ns fits within the specs if your buffer is longer than 2s.  In non-digitize measurements, the timestamps aren't spec'd but they generally match the behavior of the digitize function timestamps, so longer buffers could see jumps like that.

Quote
The reason for this discrepancy, incidentally, is that the 7510 uses different clocks for timestamps and digitized readings that sync up every so often.  In actuality, the digitized readings are probably much closer together than what the timestamps say, it's the timestamps with the uncertainty, not the readings.
Is there any chance that this will be fixed in 7510? After all then all sense of timestamp is lost.
Honestly, it's not very likely.  There simply aren't enough people that need the kind of timestamp resolution or accuracy you're talking about to justify the change.  We changed the way timestamps are handled in the 6500/6510 to improve accuracy and resolution, but the 7510 is unlikely, at this time, to receive changes to how it handles them. 

Quote
Try this script I'm attaching (same deal, change .txt to .tsp and run on the instrument), it's the same one I described in this message. (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2056225/#msg2056225)  It'll take 100 readings on the 10V DCV range each 1s apart, just to make sure you're not missing anything.  Like I said, I saw <100ns difference between timestamps, you should see somewhere around that.
I ran this script from the device (just fixed BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE on BLOCK_MEASURE for the second block). And I got a constant error of 17.5 μs on each measurement and the peak to peak spread is the peak of 2500 ns.

Data in the attachment.
Wait, is this buffer from the 7510 too? BLOCK_MEASURE is depreciated in the DMM6500/DAQ6510 in favor of BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE.  I'm assuming everything in this thread is about the 6500/6510 unless you tell me otherwise and the 7510 behaves differently enough that I need to know which one you're using if you want good answers, also so that I can properly replicate and log issues. 

That said, I could replicate your graph with the 7510 and that amount of timestamp drift is surprising to me and the firmware engineers.  I've logged an issue to look into this and see what's happening.  From the script I gave you, there's a couple places that could cause the delay offset (which is not present in the 6500) and jitter (which is much less in the 6500) worth looking at.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 23, 2019, 07:13:02 pm
Honestly, it's not very likely.  There simply aren't enough people that need the kind of timestamp resolution or accuracy you're talking about to justify the change.  We changed the way timestamps are handled in the 6500/6510 to improve accuracy and resolution, but the 7510 is unlikely, at this time, to receive changes to how it handles them.
Very sad. I thought a higher grade device deserves greater precision in the first place.

Quote
Wait, is this buffer from the 7510 too? BLOCK_MEASURE is depreciated in the DMM6500/DAQ6510 in favor of BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE.  I'm assuming everything in this thread is about the 6500/6510 unless you tell me otherwise and the 7510 behaves differently enough that I need to know which one you're using if you want good answers, also so that I can properly replicate and log issues. 

That said, I could replicate your graph with the 7510 and that amount of timestamp drift is surprising to me and the firmware engineers.  I've logged an issue to look into this and see what's happening.

Yes, I'm talking about the 7510. I understand that there is a separate topic for the bugs 7510. But I'm not sure that these are bugs. By this, I can write here? And I will attribute that it is about 7510.

Is there a more accurate script that takes into account the features of the 7510?

Quote
From the script I gave you, there's a couple places that could cause the delay offset (which is not present in the 6500) and jitter (which is much less in the 6500) worth looking at.
If possible, tell us more about it. I want to understand my device by myself. So that I can write good scripts without distracting you from work.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on January 30, 2019, 09:15:31 am
Brad O can I ask you a couple more questions about 7510?

1. DataSheet promises 140,000 measurements per second via LAN (measurement + time). So far I was able to get a maximum of 20,000. What can I configure to get the reading speed stated in the datasheet? Binary mode is on.

2. How can you remotely know if the warm_up period has passed or not? Is there any flag or status for this?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on January 31, 2019, 10:59:38 am
I received my DMM6500 two days ago and since then I was playing with it and reading the reference manual. I'm very pleased with this -my first- bench multimeter. It's very versatile and very flexible with the scripting capabilities and extensive settings (probably pros are used to it but that's very impressive for me, who only used hand-held DMMs so far).

I hit several bugs while playing with it (yes, novice users are the best beta testers). I was able to crash it multiple times usually while playing with the graphing options. Graphing is nice and being able to graph the buffer extra values is a nice touch. One glitch is that even if you plot the extra values in the buffer, the stats panel in the graph window still shows the stats of the main readings in the buffer. This becomes confusing especially when you graph both the main and the extra values of the same buffer in the same plot.

One missing feature is the ability to display the reference and input voltages while taking the "DC voltage ratio" measurements: you can only display the ratio. You can see the input voltage by setting the secondary panel to DC voltage, but the reference voltage at the sense port can not be displayed in realtime anywhere on the screen (Input voltage is also stored in the "extra value" column, so can be seen in the table view). I think Keysight 34465A can display both voltages in realtime and this would be a nice addition for a future DMM6500 firmware. I don't think there is a hardware limitation for this useful feature, they just need to design the UI for it IMHO.

I wanted to check and compare the noise levels of two voltage references I built, one with LM399 and one with REF 102. So I took this as a challenge to learn the scripting capabilities of the DMM and implemented a simple script which computes the sense voltage from the ratio and the input voltage from the extra value field of the buffer and display it on the user screen. I also wanted to be able to graph the two channels. After spending couple of hours with the reference manual, I was able to kinda implement this missing feature. At the end, as a bonus, through a small hack I was able to upgrade the main display resolution to 8.5 digits! (sorta, see the images)  :-/O

Now that I have two voltages measured at the same time, I think I should be able to extract the noise of the DMM's internal voltage reference by cross-correlating the two channel values, and thus be able to characterize the noise of the two DUIs much better. But that's another project.

So far very happy with the device.

- Attachments and other options
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on January 31, 2019, 12:52:15 pm
Wow, that are nice hacks.  :-+
At first I had also some bluescreens, but that hasn't happened since.
Yes, the gui can be improved in some areas. Especially for reference measurements, the reference voltage is very small and hidden next to the REL button on the adjustment screen. This belongs on the statistics screen.

Do you want to share your scripts, please? I'm very interested!

Another question, did you get a detailed calibration report, as it should be for such an instrument?

And welcome to the forum.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on January 31, 2019, 05:57:30 pm
After spending couple of hours with the reference manual, I was able to kinda implement this missing feature. At the end, as a bonus, through a small hack I was able to upgrade the main display resolution to 8.5 digits! (sorta, see the images)  :-/O


Welcome, cozdas. Nice hanks, but that's 7.5 digits  ^-^.
Interesting to see more, keep up good work.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 31, 2019, 07:50:02 pm
Hi all !

New to this forum and also a new owner to a DMM6500.

I had a really old Keithley for many years until it broke and I have missed it since. My Flukes does not really match up.
That is the reason I bought this DMM6500 after finding this thread. As a general DMM I really like this Instrument but I find
the added Graphical presentation lacking in how things are presented and the menues.

Especially in the Digitizing mode, why is there no SET (Settings Tab) among the Graph Tabs ? You have to go through multiple
steps to set sample rate and and the number of samples ? The Buffer settings could be there as well  >:D

Yes, a couple of Blue Screens and some Bugs here and there, but it's liveable, though, the biggest design flaw is the FAN !
(Personal opinion  ;))

Why should you need a Fan? This is a professional working tool, having to listen to a Fan (all day) is fatiguing.
Would it be possible to have a low speed mode or even being able to turn it of, maybe with some penalties is performance?

Yes, turning mostly to Brad O here.

Kind regards, P
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on January 31, 2019, 08:03:47 pm
Nice hanks, but that's 7.5 digits  ^-^.


 I was surprised when I first saw the calibration data. Many values contain eight digits. I asked Brad - how is this possible?! Brad said: yes, the multimeter can return such values, but not on the display.
 It is necessary to find out - is there any sense in these numbers.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on January 31, 2019, 08:41:57 pm
The digits beyond about 7 digits have no real value. The noise and INL error of the DMM is likely larger than that. From some point it's also just a floating point number scaling a limited resolution value. So there will be some steps no to allow all possible values in between. 

There is a little value to the 7 th digit in that one can see drift direction a little earlier and does not get extra rounding or quantization error. So it's OK for the computer to use those extra digit(s), but when writing things down by hand it's usually not worth it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on January 31, 2019, 10:05:51 pm
Do you want to share your scripts, please? I'm very interested!
Another question, did you get a detailed calibration report, as it should be for such an instrument?
And welcome to the forum.  :)
I can share the script, sure. But before exposing my trick to display 7+ digits I want to make sure that spying( :) ) Keithley guys won't have this "feature" fixed in the new firmwares ;)

I received a "Traceable calibration certificate" with a certificate no but I don't know where to find the detailed report.

I was surprised when I first saw the calibration data. .... the multimeter can return such values, but not on the display.
How did you access the cal data?

Nice hanks, but that's 7.5 digits  ^-^.
You are right that it doesn't show 8.5 digits, but I can see 8 digits in the big display mode (first digit can be 9). Let's call it 8.0 digits. Deal? :P

Yes, a couple of Blue Screens and some Bugs here and there, but it's liveable, though, the biggest design flaw is the FAN !
(Personal opinion  ;))
Totally agree. I'm very sensitive to noise and thus I replaced the fans of my NAS, my lab power supply and while building my beefy 32-core dual xeon system I made sure the fans are super silent. This device is the biggest noise maker in the entire house now. I'm tempted to replace that fan with a silent Noctua fan but probably won't touch it while it's newly calibrated.

The digits beyond about 7 digits have no real value. The noise and INL error of the DMM is likely larger than that. From some point it's also just a floating point number scaling a limited resolution value. So there will be some steps no to allow all possible values in between. 
There is a little value to the 7 th digit in that one can see drift direction a little earlier and does not get extra rounding or quantization error. So it's OK for the computer to use those extra digit(s), but when writing things down by hand it's usually not worth it.

I'm pretty sure that the internal representation is 64-bit floating point: I'm seeing value differences that require at least 42 bit mantissa, way smaller than the 32-bit float's 23-bit mantissa can provide. As you said that extra resolution won't provide extra accuracy or even precision for sure. But I think there is a use for that in some specific scenarios like the one I'm working on. I'm not very sure about how the sense and input terminals are actually digitized internally for the volt ratio, but looking at the graph I can definitely see some concurrent jumps in both channels, which are probably from the DMMs internal noise, and I see jumps only on a single channel, which suggests that coming from the DUT. So with some digital signal processing I can hopefully extract some stats for those 3 devices separately. We'll see.

With large NPLC and filtering values I can get a very stable 7th digit. Although a single ADC output won't have a useful info in the 7th digit, with averaging I think 7th digit is usable for some limited cases. I can see the direction of the change as you suggested in the 8th digit (probably showing the direction of the low freq noise).

I also realized another small bug: when you export a buffer to CSV, the "extra" channel isn't written with enough digits. Main reading values contain full 64bit float though. (see the images)
Code: [Select]
9.999981650865,Volt DC,...,6.984300,Volt DC,
9.999980233491,Volt DC,...,6.984298,Volt DC,
9.999979931922,Volt DC,...,6.984298,Volt DC,
As a workaround I can change my script to write the second voltage to a separate buffer instead of storing in the extra channel of the same buffer but It'd be waste of space unnecessarily.


And thanks for the warm welcome messages :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 01, 2019, 12:04:05 am
Hi Evodad,

welcome to the forum too.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 01, 2019, 01:02:24 am
I can share the script, sure. But before exposing my trick to display 7+ digits I want to make sure that spying( :) ) Keithley guys won't have this "feature" fixed in the new firmwares ;)
Then please PM it to me. Please also the trick to display 2nd trace.  :)
Maybe you're importing the data by simulating a scanner channel?

Quote
I received a "Traceable calibration certificate" with a certificate no but I don't know where to find the detailed report.
Then you didn't got it. Look at MikeP's earlyer Post, he published his.

Quote
I'm not very sure about how the sense and input terminals are actually digitized internally for the volt ratio, but looking at the graph I can definitely see some concurrent jumps in both channels, which are probably from the DMMs internal noise, and I see jumps only on a single channel, which suggests that coming from the DUT. So with some digital signal processing I can hopefully extract some stats for those 3 devices separately. We'll see.
That's my idea too. Some of my refs sometimes tend to go crazy. And i don't know, is it the dmm. If they do it the same time, I'm one step further. And yes, there is popcorn noise...

Quote
With large NPLC and filtering values I can get a very stable 7th digit. Although a single ADC output won't have a useful info in the 7th digit, with averaging I think 7th digit is usable for some limited cases.
I use the 7th digit from cvs-protocoll, to build my traces with Libreoffice.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 01, 2019, 01:23:31 am
Well multiple people asked for the script already so I decided to release it. It's nothing fancy actually; just read the ratio buffer and compute the "input" voltage from "ratio" and "reference" values then place them in another buffer(s). Extra digits were just side effect. Just promise me that if Keithley fixes the "feature" then help me push back :D

Script is here: https://github.com/cozdas/DMM6500/

If you are not familiar with the TestScriptBuilder, you can just grab the cozDualVolt.tsp file and place it in a USB stick. You should be able to run it on the DMM.

Enjoy.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 01, 2019, 01:30:46 am
Ok, I see you. You got a double thanks. ;)
Btw, nice Coyote  ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 01, 2019, 11:58:27 am
Fun with 10k precision resistor, 4-write relative measurement in relative mode. Not very useful but hey! :P

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 01, 2019, 12:59:18 pm
You can right click virtual front panel for screen only  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 01, 2019, 01:11:28 pm
I tried to run the virtual panel on the phone. It turned out not very well: (
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 01, 2019, 02:05:23 pm
Hey @analogRF I don’t know if you’ve bought a 6500 yet, but I put together that Probe hold script for you and anyone else (@MikeP).  Also see the end for news on firmware.

It uses the App interface of the DMM so it behaves a little differently from a normal script.  I put together some info below.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.   Download the attached file and change the .txt ending to .tspa
2.   Make sure your DMM’s command set is set to TSP in MENU > Settings
3.   Put the script on a USB drive and insert into the DMM
4.   Press the APPS key and go to the USB tab
5.   You can either run the script here, or save it to local memory first (it will be added to local memory automatically)
6.   Click Run

....
I like this script. When working in DCV mode, it helps to put the meter input impedance to 10 MOhm. In high impedance mode the probes can float above the threshold voltage by just laying on the table or being unconnected, in your hand, and add unwanted entries in the hold table when moving from testpoint to testpoint.

One thing I noticed is that the threshold label says that anything above it  is captured, but if you enter 2 V, also -2.5 V is captured. Not an issue, but it seems contrary to what's labeled.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 01, 2019, 02:28:19 pm
BradO tolds me, that they are developing an interactive editor with syntax highlighting-completion and debugging possibilities for online tsp-scripting.
That's good news to comfortable develop such things for own needs.  :-DMM
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on February 01, 2019, 09:24:27 pm

This device is the biggest noise maker in the entire house now. I'm tempted to replace that fan with a silent Noctua fan but probably won't touch it while it's newly calibrated.


Try to block the holes in the case. You will immediately see the results on the display.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 01, 2019, 10:08:48 pm
Brad Oh, I will continue to ask about the 7510?

3. I managed to get the error of measuring time beyond 20ns during the first 2s :(  It seems to me that these outliers occur at random times and are not related to the first 2s.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 01, 2019, 10:26:34 pm
Quote
I will continue to ask about the 7510
Can you open a 7510 thread? These posts about another instrument in they DMM6500 and DAQ6510 thread are confusing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 03, 2019, 10:58:50 am
Can you open a 7510 thread? These posts about another instrument in they DMM6500 and DAQ6510 thread are confusing.
You can do a lot of thread. But Brad O is one. And it seems to me that the chance to get an answer is higher if you write in one topic. Plus the software control of these two devices is very similar. If possible, I would like to stay in this thread.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on February 03, 2019, 01:28:40 pm
Something tells me that Brad O will be happy to avoid confusion and will chime in separate DMM7510 thread, instead of trying to understand each time if question here about DMM6500/6510 or different instrument...
And two devices while designed around same idea, have quite different platform and indeed different firmwares.
Recommend you to start another thread, please.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 03, 2019, 02:35:49 pm
Recommend you to start another thread, please.
Ok.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 04, 2019, 03:31:30 am
I was playing with the dual volt idea, not that it'd be very useful but as a toy project to learn DMM6500's programming capabilities and the feature set. It was also a good opportunity to learn the Lua language.

By reverse engineering the example scripts and the applications that Tektronix and Brad O provided (i.e. hold probe), I was able to convert my script to an interactive application to  eliminate most of the limitations the system puts while a script is running. Unfortunately all of these apps are using an undocumented (AFAIK) API which looks slightly buggy (that's probably why it's not released and documented yet). The main issue is that after the application is terminated the swipe screen I create stays on the screen as an orphan resource and crashes the DMM when displayed. Brad O's hold probe script suffers from the same issue as well. I can safely delete the other swipe pages but not the one I created. weird.

Another problem is that the derived voltage values are not computed if the custom swipe screen is not visible, this is probably because the window message pump is not working if the window is hidden. I could not find a way to fix this. When/if the API is released, I can revisit this script. Currently the app will catch up the missed values as soon as the dual voltage swipe screen is displayed though.

If anyone wants to play with it here it is: https://github.com/cozdas/DMM6500/tree/master/cozDualVolt . Just grab the cozDualVolt.tspa and put in a USB stick. You can access it in the Apps screen. As I said, after the application is terminated, DMM GUI becomes unstable so it'd be a good idea to reboot.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 04, 2019, 11:32:20 am
@cozdas
That's perfect, for what you can do. Thanks a lot.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 04, 2019, 05:05:12 pm
Timeline (x-achsis) is wrong. (normal use)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 04, 2019, 06:02:43 pm
Why should you need a Fan? This is a professional working tool, having to listen to a Fan (all day) is fatiguing.
Would it be possible to have a low speed mode or even being able to turn it of, maybe with some penalties is performance?

Yes, turning mostly to Brad O here.
Bit of a simple answer really, but the fan is needed to manage the heat of the internal components.  The higher performing digital and analog circuits used in our modern DMMs generate more heat that needs to be managed compared to, say, a model 2000.  A low speed mode is not likely (we looked into it), that would alter the box enough that it would require different specs, so the box would need two independent specifications for every function.

BUT, if it really bothers you, you can open the box and unplug it.  As far as tear downs go, the DMM6500/DAQ6510 is pretty easy.  Of course, opening the box voids your warranty and these directions I'm about to give should not be construed as a recommendation to open up your box and disable the fan. 
The easiest way would be to remove the top panel, then the front display, which can slide out, but be careful of the terminal wire connections.  If you then look into the box, underneath the analog board and behind the transformers, you'll see the 3 wires that make up the fan cable coming out of a little daughter board.  Compare to the cable coming out of the fan on the left to be sure you have the right plug.  You can remove that cable, put everything back together, and the box will function normally (throwing a fan error on startup that can be ignored).  The box in this setup (obviously) may not meet specs, particularly on higher ranges and any digitize mode.  To plug the fan back in, you will likely need to remove the analog board, which also isn't too difficult, just more work.  You may find it easier to remove the analog board when unplugging the fan too if you're having difficulty finding or unplugging the fan cable.

@cozdas and others
A note on the digits, ALL digits past what is guaranteed by the specs have no value.  Even if they look reasonable, they are only eyecandy and may be a different value in an hour/day/month.  The way the instrument is calibrated and its design error budget / uncertainties mean you shouldn't use anything past what the specs say if you want to consider them valid.  If we secretly designed an 8.5 digit meter into a 6.5 digit meter, you can be sure we would be charging an 8.5 meter price ;)

I can share the script, sure. But before exposing my trick to display 7+ digits I want to make sure that spying( :) ) Keithley guys won't have this "feature" fixed in the new firmwares ;)
Lol, don't worry, that's an intended feature.  The primary reason you would use a writable buffer is to plot and display calculated or imported (from another instrument) data that could be any number of digits.  This also means that, while writable buffers still specify their resolution with half digit notation, they allow full scale digits in each place since a calculated value could be anything.  So a buffer.DIGITS_8_5 writable buffer is really 9 digits.

You can right click virtual front panel for screen only  :)
There was actually an argument between a couple engineers debating whether right-clicking would be useful to people.  Glad you like it! ;D

Hey @analogRF I don’t know if you’ve bought a 6500 yet, but I put together that Probe hold script for you and anyone else (@MikeP).  Also see the end for news on firmware.

It uses the App interface of the DMM so it behaves a little differently from a normal script.  I put together some info below.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.   Download the attached file and change the .txt ending to .tspa
2.   Make sure your DMM’s command set is set to TSP in MENU > Settings
3.   Put the script on a USB drive and insert into the DMM
4.   Press the APPS key and go to the USB tab
5.   You can either run the script here, or save it to local memory first (it will be added to local memory automatically)
6.   Click Run

....
I like this script. When working in DCV mode, it helps to put the meter input impedance to 10 MOhm. In high impedance mode the probes can float above the threshold voltage by just laying on the table or being unconnected, in your hand, and add unwanted entries in the hold table when moving from testpoint to testpoint.

One thing I noticed is that the threshold label says that anything above it  is captured, but if you enter 2 V, also -2.5 V is captured. Not an issue, but it seems contrary to what's labeled.
Ah yes, it was always my intention for that threshold to be symmetric about 0, so I can update the labeling.  I'm planning to write another version that is more stable, but it requires features that aren't in the currently available firmware.

Quote
I will continue to ask about the 7510
Can you open a 7510 thread? These posts about another instrument in they DMM6500 and DAQ6510 thread are confusing.
Yes please!  MegaVolt let me know what that other thread is so I can subscribe to it (I just checked and didn't see it).  7510 questions also take a bit more time to answer since some of the design engineers are on different projects now so I have to hunt them down more and they may have to look up design documents.  The DMM6500/DAQ6510 engineers are all still together.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 04, 2019, 06:12:13 pm
I was playing with the dual volt idea, not that it'd be very useful but as a toy project to learn DMM6500's programming capabilities and the feature set. It was also a good opportunity to learn the Lua language.

By reverse engineering the example scripts and the applications that Tektronix and Brad O provided (i.e. hold probe), I was able to convert my script to an interactive application to  eliminate most of the limitations the system puts while a script is running. Unfortunately all of these apps are using an undocumented (AFAIK) API which looks slightly buggy (that's probably why it's not released and documented yet). The main issue is that after the application is terminated the swipe screen I create stays on the screen as an orphan resource and crashes the DMM when displayed. Brad O's hold probe script suffers from the same issue as well. I can safely delete the other swipe pages but not the one I created. weird.

Another problem is that the derived voltage values are not computed if the custom swipe screen is not visible, this is probably because the window message pump is not working if the window is hidden. I could not find a way to fix this. When/if the API is released, I can revisit this script. Currently the app will catch up the missed values as soon as the dual voltage swipe screen is displayed though.

If anyone wants to play with it here it is: https://github.com/cozdas/DMM6500/tree/master/cozDualVolt . Just grab the cozDualVolt.tspa and put in a USB stick. You can access it in the Apps screen. As I said, after the application is terminated, DMM GUI becomes unstable so it'd be a good idea to reboot.
Very cool!  If you're interested, send me a PM and we can talk about giving you a preliminary copy of the API for you to play around with so you can see what the arguments for these commands actually are.  You are correct in that it's not publicly documented because it still has bugs in it.

The reason why the values stop being computed if you swipe away from the created screen is that your timer object exists on that swipe screen, when you swipe away, all objects on the screen are disabled.  The development firmware allows you to place timers at display.ROOT (the global display object space) so the readings would always be calculated. 

Timeline (x-achsis) is wrong. (normal use)

Wait, what's wrong with the x-axis?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 04, 2019, 06:29:49 pm
I would not recommend disconnecting or slowing down the fan. Not so much because of possibly changed specs, but because of a possible change in the calibration. So it's not just warranty void but also calibration void.

A changing air flow over analog parts could cause slight shift in analog properties - so a temperature regulated fan is also not a good option. It would be if the analog part would be fully encapsulated, like in some RF instruments, so that there is no direct air flow over sensitive parts.

There might be a market for a fan off version - that only enables the fan when really hot. One can not expect accurate readings at high temperature anyway. This may be just a different calibration.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 04, 2019, 07:12:33 pm
MegaVolt let me know what that other thread is so I can subscribe to it (I just checked and didn't see it).
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/all-about-keithley-dmm7510-bugs-and-features-recipes-advice-notes/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/all-about-keithley-dmm7510-bugs-and-features-recipes-advice-notes/)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 04, 2019, 08:09:53 pm
Timeline (x-achsis) is wrong. (normal use)

Wait, what's wrong with the x-axis?
The marks "0d:21" .. "1d:00" .. "1d:04" .. "1d:07" are relative meaningless to me. The methode is 'show all', what it does, the scale is 13.76 ks, the axsismarks are fixed there the whole 2nd day for now. In my opinion the axismarks should be fairly correspond to the cumulative measurement.

Quote
A note on the digits, ALL digits past what is guaranteed by the specs have no value.  Even if they look reasonable, they are only eyecandy and may be a different value in an hour/day/month.  The way the instrument is calibrated and its design error budget / uncertainties mean you shouldn't use anything past what the specs say if you want to consider them valid.  If we secretly designed an 8.5 digit meter into a 6.5 digit meter, you can be sure we would be charging an 8.5 meter price ;)

That's right. But as you can see here (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2166871/#msg2166871), the 1st 'crazy'-picture still shows me roughly what's happening on the 7th digit of the measurement. Irrespective of whether the inaccuracy uncertainty comes from the DMM or DUT, it is valuable for me to see this.  :)

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 04, 2019, 08:57:52 pm
Using  1d:04 and so one for indicating days and hours is at least unusual. Unless really long time of many days, I would prefer using just hours even of the numbers go beyond 100.

The tick spacing is odd: the difference is between 3 and 4 hours - so some odd rounding going one, where it should not be. This is a little like the other ticks. So the problem is not specific to the x-axis or long times - it's more like another example of the known problem with the scaling.

The ticks should be a exact, round numbers, like every 1 / 2 / 5 / ... mV  or 1 / 3 / 6 / 12 hours apart and the graphics adjusted to this. Currently it looks like it is the other way around with exactly a given number of ticks and than odd rounded numbers. Under extreme cases this leads to same numbers on several or even all tics  :palm:. These extreme zoom cases are only the ones where the error gets most obvious.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 06, 2019, 06:51:53 am
You can remove that cable, put everything back together, and the box will function normally (throwing a fan error on startup that can be ignored).  The box in this setup (obviously) may not meet specs, particularly on higher ranges and any digitize mode.

If fanless operation only effects the accuracy and does have a permanent effect, then can you please, pretty please add an option to the firmware to turn it off? I'm sure that your internal team will be worried about the unit being out of spec  in this mode but this feature can be hidden (reached only via the TSP interface for example), unit can warn you about the accuracy loss with a flashing red screen that requires triple "I understand" clicks, there may be a always visible small note in the corner of the screen and the device can return to the normal operation on each restart. But at least for some of us the accurate readings is not a requirement all the time. While developing an application for it, for example, I need to keep the device on mostly doing nothing but occasionally running my screen script code while I need to endure the constant sound coming from it all the time.

...ALL digits past what is guaranteed by the specs have no value.  Even if they look reasonable, they are only eyecandy and may be a different value in an hour/day/month.
From the uncertainty point of view, you are totally right. But I respectfully disagree with you on the "extra digits being just eyecandy". Accuracy/uncertainty is not the whole picture. If you have two devices you need to evaluate the noise of and DUT1 moves the 7th digit only between 4 and 6 while DUT2 moves the same digit between 2 and 9 most of the time and if this behavior is "repeatable" with the same DMM even better "reproducable" with a second DMM, then this is a useful and valid "data" even "information". Note that they'll look totally identical In 6.5 digit mode.

Accuracy is only one of the aspects of the measurement. Most of the time the devices behave well above their guaranteed specs which are (and need to be) very conservative. Also the "precision" of the devices are usually much better than their "accuracy". Of course I'm not claiming that 7th digit of a 6.5 digit DMM is as useful as the same digit of a 7.5 digit DMM. But as long as you are aware of the differences between accuracy, precision, resolution, trueness, bias, repeatability, reproducability, etc, there is some information in those digits that you can safely extract even while watching the display. A very safe one-size-fits-all, rule of thumb approach is "ignore the digits beyond what the accuracy spec says" of course. There is nothing wrong with it but it's somehow over-pessimistic for "some" scenarios.

Thanks again for monitoring this topic and answering all the questions in detail, appreciated.  :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 06, 2019, 04:13:16 pm
Using  1d:04 and so one for indicating days and hours is at least unusual. Unless really long time of many days, I would prefer using just hours even of the numbers go beyond 100.
That belongs to what someone is looking for. In my case i'm looking for when some of my refs goes crazy, as I have already described here. And they do it very sporadically over the time. Are there only some? Or all? All the same time? Is it with my precise resistors too? And finaly, is it the dmm or dut or environmental influences?

All this makes long-term measurements really necessary. Especially since this special measuring device is predestined for this purpose.

It may be that measuring compensates itself with time through routine, which I, as a lone fighter and autodidact, must first work out myself. And frankly, i see a lot more long-term measurements here in metrology ...  ;)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 06, 2019, 04:40:51 pm
The 6500 is definitely a good instrument to do long time measurements, like over several days. It is just that the way the times are printed is unusual. It's more like a personal taste of one prefers 245 hours or 10 days and 5 hours.  It if there are daily cycles the notation with days may indeed be a little more practical.

The main point is that the scaling of the axis in the graph mode needs some attention / updates. It looks like this effects both the x and y axis and very likely would also effect resistor readings.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 06, 2019, 04:48:14 pm
The 6500 is definitely a good instrument to do long time measurements, like over several days. It is just that the way the times are printed is unusual. It's more like a personal taste of one prefers 245 hours or 10 days and 5 hours.  It if there are daily cycles the notation with days may indeed be a little more practical.

The main point is that the scaling of the axis in the graph mode needs some attention / updates. It looks like this effects both the x and y axis and very likely would also effect resistor readings.

Absolutely yes.
I think I misunderstood something that would be unusual in itself for such long-term measurements. Sorry.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 09, 2019, 01:44:05 am
I measured a pure brandnew Vishay 0,0 ppm/°C VHP101 10k Resistor (Digi-Key (https://www.digikey.de/product-detail/de/vishay-foil-resistors-division-of-vishay-precision-group/Y407810K0000V9L/804-1059-ND/4233065)), relative, 4-wire, after let it settle down fore more than one hour. Ambient room-temp was 21.1°C.

I opened the windows for a while, and the temp goes down to 19.2°C, closed them again, and temp changes back to 20.6°C.

If Vishay is right (0,0 ppm/°C), this must be the pure tempco of the dmm6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on February 09, 2019, 02:17:17 am
Quote
If Vishay is right (0,0 ppm/°C)
Nope, you falled for their specmanship like many others. Those resistors are not zero TCR, but they are pretty good.
To stay on topic, you need larger themperature sweep to better measure TCRs and repeat test multiple times to be sure, as possible hysteresis might bias your data.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 09, 2019, 03:08:58 am
Quote
If Vishay is right (0,0 ppm/°C)
Nope, you falled for their specmanship like many others. Those resistors are not zero TCR, but they are pretty good.
To stay on topic, you need larger themperature sweep to better measure TCRs and repeat test multiple times to be sure, as possible hysteresis might bias your data.

Right.
That's why i sayd "if", with an implicite smile.  ;)

But thanks.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 09, 2019, 05:24:08 am
I'm having trouble with two settings in DMM6500:

1) Although the manual implies that in the voltage ratio function the sense input range can be adjusted, I could not find any way to change it other than the 10V range it default to. Has anyone figured out if this is possible and how?

Here an excerpt from the manual
Quote
The SENSE terminals are used as the reference voltage (VS). The SENSE terminals can measure DC volts in 100 mV, 1 V, and 10 V ranges.

The INPUT terminals provide the voltage (Vi) to be compared against the reference voltage. They can measure DC volts in 100 mV, 1 V, 10 V, 100 V, and 1000 V ranges.

2) The graph axis system indeed needs some love. Besides the non-round division values (e.g. 11.2mv/div) I'm also having trouble plotting two traces with the same scale but different offsets. I want to see two traces one with 10V mean other with 7V mean be plotted centered on the same grid with 10mv/div so that I can compare how they change in time. It feels like if you set the Y-Axis scale method to "OFF" you should be able to change the "scale" and "minimum position" values in the in Graph/Scale tab because those fields change into buttons so that you can click and enter numbers. But once you enter the numbers for the first trace and switch to the other trace to set its values, the buttons are replaced with read-only text fields and you can't get the buttons back until you change the Y-Axis method to something else and back to OFF again. Currently the value you entered for the first trace is applied to the all other traces. I hope in the upcoming firmwares it'd be possible to set the scaling and offsetting values of each trace manually.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 09, 2019, 09:14:40 am
cozdas

2) It's frustrating difficult to get the knobs to set the scales for one trace. Never attempted it for a second trace. This behavior of the gui is also not more as a big building site in my opinion.

Are there no TSP-commands to set that?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 10, 2019, 12:49:11 pm
I'm also having trouble plotting two traces with the same scale but different offsets. I want to see two traces one with 10V mean other with 7V mean be plotted centered on the same grid with 10mv/div so that I can compare how they change in time.
You can try to take away the constant component. Those. from the first signal subtract 10. From the second 7. As a result, both signals will be near zero.

To take away, you can use scripts or math access in the settings.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 11, 2019, 02:49:27 am
You can try to take away the constant component. Those. from the first signal subtract 10. From the second 7. As a result, both signals will be near zero. To take away, you can use scripts or math access in the settings.

That's eventually what I did but I did that on my PC on the CSV exported data. Because you can't apply math in DMM6500 to the already collected data. There are workarounds, so it's not a show stopper of course but it'd be nice to have a better behaving and controllable graphing system.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 11, 2019, 08:16:31 am
That's eventually what I did but I did that on my PC on the CSV exported data. Because you can't apply math in DMM6500 to the already collected data. There are workarounds, so it's not a show stopper of course but it'd be nice to have a better behaving and controllable graphing system.
You can apply math during data collection. Or use the lua language which supports the device. Documentation for this is very little: (
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 13, 2019, 09:48:54 pm
You can remove that cable, put everything back together, and the box will function normally (throwing a fan error on startup that can be ignored).  The box in this setup (obviously) may not meet specs, particularly on higher ranges and any digitize mode.

If fanless operation only effects the accuracy and does have a permanent effect, then can you please, pretty please add an option to the firmware to turn it off? I'm sure that your internal team will be worried about the unit being out of spec  in this mode but this feature can be hidden (reached only via the TSP interface for example), unit can warn you about the accuracy loss with a flashing red screen that requires triple "I understand" clicks, there may be a always visible small note in the corner of the screen and the device can return to the normal operation on each restart. But at least for some of us the accurate readings is not a requirement all the time. While developing an application for it, for example, I need to keep the device on mostly doing nothing but occasionally running my screen script code while I need to endure the constant sound coming from it all the time.
Unfortunately that's not possible with the current design.  Firmware can tell the fan to be on High or Low (It's on Low all the time right now), but there isn't any method that would allow the fan to be turned off completely, it would require, I'm told, a significant amount of work.  Believe me, we know people don't like fans, and we have these instruments on our desks all day too (you should hear the fan required for the original 4200!).  The fan was actually added pretty late in development, the team thought the DMM wouldn't need it at first, but when it wasn't meeting specs a fan had to be added. 

Another, less invasive but maybe more risky method would be to stick a paper clip or something in the fan port and jam it.  The fan is currently operating just above its stall speed so it probably would take quite some time to burn up, if at all.  More likely is the fan would just have reduced life (the unit itself would be fine, only the fan would have a reduced life).

I'm having trouble with two settings in DMM6500:

1) Although the manual implies that in the voltage ratio function the sense input range can be adjusted, I could not find any way to change it other than the 10V range it default to. Has anyone figured out if this is possible and how?

Here an excerpt from the manual
Quote
The SENSE terminals are used as the reference voltage (VS). The SENSE terminals can measure DC volts in 100 mV, 1 V, and 10 V ranges.

The INPUT terminals provide the voltage (Vi) to be compared against the reference voltage. They can measure DC volts in 100 mV, 1 V, 10 V, 100 V, and 1000 V ranges.
Ahh, you've found another manual error.  You cannot change the 65xx sense range, it's always 10V.  That section was copied from the DMM7510 manual which does have multiple sense ranges.  That's been fixed for the next manual update.

2) The graph axis system indeed needs some love. Besides the non-round division values (e.g. 11.2mv/div) I'm also having trouble plotting two traces with the same scale but different offsets. I want to see two traces one with 10V mean other with 7V mean be plotted centered on the same grid with 10mv/div so that I can compare how they change in time. It feels like if you set the Y-Axis scale method to "OFF" you should be able to change the "scale" and "minimum position" values in the in Graph/Scale tab because those fields change into buttons so that you can click and enter numbers. But once you enter the numbers for the first trace and switch to the other trace to set its values, the buttons are replaced with read-only text fields and you can't get the buttons back until you change the Y-Axis method to something else and back to OFF again. Currently the value you entered for the first trace is applied to the all other traces. I hope in the upcoming firmwares it'd be possible to set the scaling and offsetting values of each trace manually.
Huh, the buttons disappearing is definitely a bug (fixed in the dev firmware), but the fact that each buffer copies the others scale settings might be intended...  I gather that's not the behavior you want or expect though, I would think each buffer's scale should be independent too.  I put in bug report on that.  You can indeed manipulate the graph in much more detail with TSP commands (and it won't copy settings between buffers, so that probably is a bug).  The graph commands are part of the display API though so they're not publicly documented as of yet.  As a workaround, you can use the touch screen to edit each graph's scale independently, but when you switch buffers it will still copy the settings of the last buffer you were on.

Finally, another quick firmware release went out, 1.0.04.  I don't think it addresses anything that's been mentioned here but the release notes/downloads are at these links:
DMM6500: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
DAQ6510: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)

EDIT: Oh! A little preview feature I think you all will like: The latest dev firmware is much stricter about what values are allowed for the graph divisions.  It now snaps to whole numbers like 4uV/div or 200mV/div rather than things like 2.448uV/div or 406.3mV/div.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 04:29:30 am
Finally, another quick firmware release went out, 1.0.04.  I don't think it addresses anything that's been mentioned here but the release notes/downloads are at these links:
DMM6500: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
DAQ6510: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
The update isn't accepted by my dmm6500:
Code: [Select]
Error 2310
Not enough memory to perform upgrade
Fresh fat32-stick's, two tested.
All reset, also without main-power for a while.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 14, 2019, 10:01:48 am
...
The update isn't accepted by my dmm6500:
Code: [Select]
Error 2310
Not enough memory to perform upgrade
Fresh fat32-stick's, two tested.
All reset, also without main-power for a while.

It installed for me. I upgraded from 1.0.03.c
Can you check via MENU -> Reading Buffers if there aren't big buffers stored on the system?
When you click on the defbuffer1 button, you see all the buffers stored on your meter. You can delete the non-standard ones.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 10:28:00 am
...
It installed for me. I upgraded from 1.0.03.c
Can you check via MENU -> Reading Buffers if there aren't big buffers stored on the system?
When you click on the defbuffer1 button, you see all the buffers stored on your meter. You can delete the non-standard ones.
Thanks for your response. Yes, i emptied defbuffer1, deleted all other buffers manually.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 14, 2019, 11:25:00 am
Can you open the downloaded firmware file in an archive program like 7-ZIP? It's an archive that contains a mix of other archives and a txt file.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 11:43:32 am
Can you open the downloaded firmware file in an archive program like 7-ZIP? It's an archive that contains a mix of other archives and a txt file.
Yes. Zip-File is original, "ki_DMM6500_v1_0_04b.upg" used.
I'm a slightly older IT-consultant and application-programmer since the beginning of the µP-aera in the heterogeneous environment. ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 14, 2019, 01:23:46 pm
I have no further hints and tricks then :).
my experience: I used a 1 GB USB, formatted as FAT. The .upg file is the only file on the drive.
I have no autostart or other scripts stored in the meter's persistent storage
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 01:49:32 pm
That's a problem from the dmm itself.

Apparently, in my opinion there is actually no method to put the device into a cleaned ground state. For example, after all the reset methods described, there are still scripts in memory that you have created yourself (small, no autoexec). these are not causing the problem, but they show that the writable memory is actually not completely erased.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 14, 2019, 03:50:02 pm
Finally, another quick firmware release went out, 1.0.04.  I don't think it addresses anything that's been mentioned here but the release notes/downloads are at these links:
DMM6500: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
DAQ6510: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
The update isn't accepted by my dmm6500:
Code: [Select]
Error 2310
Not enough memory to perform upgrade
Fresh fat32-stick's, two tested.
All reset, also without main-power for a while.
Did you manually power cycle the box immediately before trying to upgrade?  Manually deleting buffers and variables might not free up enough memory for an upgrade due to fragmentation of the memory space I've talked about before.  Engineering is working on a solution to that for the next firmware, but currently, memory can still become fragmented and limit the maximum size of memory objects.  Restarting the box is the way to completely reset the volatile memory. 

Scripts are stored in non-volatile flash memory so they purposefully persist when you power cycle the instrument.  When the box starts up, they're loaded into volatile memory so you can immediately access them from a remote interface or from the front panel.  How many scripts do you have on your box?  What does it say for available space at the bottom left of MENU > Manage (under Scripts)?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 04:46:49 pm
Finally, another quick firmware release went out, 1.0.04.  I don't think it addresses anything that's been mentioned here but the release notes/downloads are at these links:
DMM6500: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software/dmm6500-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
DAQ6510: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/daq6510-software/daq6510-firmware-v1004-and-release-notes)
The update isn't accepted by my dmm6500:
Code: [Select]
Error 2310
Not enough memory to perform upgrade
Fresh fat32-stick's, two tested.
All reset, also without main-power for a while.
Did you manually power cycle the box immediately before trying to upgrade?  Manually deleting buffers and variables might not free up enough memory for an upgrade due to fragmentation of the memory space I've talked about before.  Engineering is working on a solution to that for the next firmware, but currently, memory can still become fragmented and limit the maximum size of memory objects.  Restarting the box is the way to completely reset the volatile memory. 
That's the first what I do, yes.

Quote
Scripts are stored in non-volatile flash memory so they purposefully persist when you power cycle the instrument.  When the box starts up, they're loaded into volatile memory so you can immediately access them from a remote interface or from the front panel.  How many scripts do you have on your box?  What does it say for available space at the bottom left of MENU > Manage (under Scripts)?
At last only autoexec, without something i wrote in to that.
92% memory free.
Should I delete autoexec?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 14, 2019, 05:18:25 pm
Ok. I got it.
Upgrading successed.

In the autoexec are something like this:
Code: [Select]
-- set up reading buffers
KSBuffer = buffer.make(5000000,buffer.STYLE_STANDARD)
KSBuffer.fillmode = buffer.FILL_CONTINUOUS
That was something to much.

But: i deleted and emptied all buffers before upgrading, after powecycling, several times, except buffer defbuffer1, which i only emtied. The memory free shows always 92% as now after upgrading too.

But problem solved after deleting that autoexec.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 14, 2019, 06:33:14 pm
Ok. I got it.
Upgrading successed.

In the autoexec are something like this:
Code: [Select]
-- set up reading buffers
KSBuffer = buffer.make(5000000,buffer.STYLE_STANDARD)
KSBuffer.fillmode = buffer.FILL_CONTINUOUS
That was something to much.

But: i deleted and emptied all buffers before upgrading, after powecycling, several times, except buffer defbuffer1, which i only emtied. The memory free shows always 92% as now after upgrading too.

But problem solved after deleting that autoexec.
Aha!  So as soon as you start up the instrument, ~75% of your memory was taken up by a reading buffer.  So, yes, deleting that buffer should've freed up all that space again, except for the memory fragmentation.  Like I said, that's something we're working on so now engineering can use your autoexec code as an usage example, thank you!  Glad you were able to upgrade!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: tszaboo on February 20, 2019, 10:11:59 am
I have a DMM6500 now on my desk, a colleague of mine bought one to the company. This is a seriously confusing and disappointing bit of gear. First of all, I had a BSOD on it. And the entire digitize and trigger model is just complicated as hell. With some settings, the screen just start blinking, showing random data. With some other settings it takes measurement every now and then, and it just extrapolates the data between it? Or it shows me that the maximum number of samples can only be 7870020 samples, and then doesnt fill in this number into the input field?
It feels like this was made by robots, who wanted to tick all the boxes, but no real though put into how to use a meter.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Octane on February 20, 2019, 12:46:45 pm
Update the firmware to the latest version and RTFM. This is a very complex and powerful meter. I think they did a great job implementing all those features on a limited UI (screen-size, mainly).

BR,
Michael
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on February 20, 2019, 01:19:45 pm
My experience is different. I found it easy to get started.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 20, 2019, 01:23:15 pm

I have a DMM6500 now on my desk, a colleague of mine bought one to the company. This is a seriously confusing and disappointing bit of gear. First of all, I had a BSOD on it. And the entire digitize and trigger model is just complicated as hell. With some settings, the screen just start blinking, showing random data. With some other settings it takes measurement every now and then, and it just extrapolates the data between it? Or it shows me that the maximum number of samples can only be 7870020 samples, and then doesnt fill in this number into the input field?
It feels like this was made by robots, who wanted to tick all the boxes, but no real though put into how to use a meter.
This dmm has a whole new approach as we know of the previous conventional type with measuring instruments of this type and offers far more possibilities. This gives rise to the problem of the gui developers of casting these into a mould which, on the one hand, must be consistent in terms of its technical possibilities and, on the other hand, must be as conclusive as possible from the user's point of view.

This results in two learning curves
 - for the developers to integrate these comprehensive new possibilities into the matching gui and api,
 - for the user to discover this new concept to make it usable for oneself by sorting out this mistakes despite the imperfect previous named path.

That is the compromise to be entered into, which we have to go together with such kind of measuring instruments.

We remember that gui and programming interfaces of measuring instruments of the previous conventional type have undergone decades of development on both sides.

Another compromise is the much cheaper technical implementation compared to his bigger brother DMM7510.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on February 20, 2019, 03:09:17 pm
NANDBlog
I had the DMM7510 before already and therefore the DMM6500 was easy to use for me!
May be you should watch a few videos online to get you started.
After a little learning curve, this instrument is easy to use.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on February 20, 2019, 04:25:11 pm
I have a DMM6500 now on my desk, a colleague of mine bought one to the company. This is a seriously confusing and disappointing bit of gear. First of all, I had a BSOD on it. And the entire digitize and trigger model is just complicated as hell. With some settings, the screen just start blinking, showing random data. With some other settings it takes measurement every now and then, and it just extrapolates the data between it? Or it shows me that the maximum number of samples can only be 7870020 samples, and then doesnt fill in this number into the input field?
It feels like this was made by robots, who wanted to tick all the boxes, but no real though put into how to use a meter.
Well, digitizing and the trigger model are the most complicated topics so that's pretty understandable you'd have trouble with them.  I gave a small walkthrough of a basic trigger model back in this post (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2056225/#msg2056225), it might help you feel more comfortable with how the blocks work.  There are also a few videos on the digitize functions if you search YouTube.  This video (https://www.tek.com/how/capturing-complex-signals-graphical-sampling-dmm) on the DMM6500's webpage explains most of the common settings while performing a short demo.

If you think there's some explanation lacking in our documentation though I can try explaining it here or put out a new video that goes over it if it's complicated enough.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 21, 2019, 07:32:32 am
EDIT: Oh! A little preview feature I think you all will like: The latest dev firmware is much stricter about what values are allowed for the graph divisions.  It now snaps to whole numbers like 4uV/div or 200mV/div rather than things like 2.448uV/div or 406.3mV/div.

Cool, looking forward to it!

While you're on it, can you also please make sure that the graph Y axis numbers show the informative, distinct digits rather than the common thus non-informative ones? Check the attached images: here the Y range is less than 100uV though in the current implementation Y axis numbers show the 10mv, 1mv and 100uV digits, totally missing the important part. Something like the second image is what I'd expect to see.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 21, 2019, 08:30:14 am
EDIT: Oh! A little preview feature I think you all will like: The latest dev firmware is much stricter about what values are allowed for the graph divisions.  It now snaps to whole numbers like 4uV/div or 200mV/div rather than things like 2.448uV/div or 406.3mV/div.

Cool, looking forward to it!

While you're on it, can you also please make sure that the graph Y axis numbers show the informative, distinct digits rather than the common thus non-informative ones? Check the attached images: here the Y range is less than 100uV though in the current implementation Y axis numbers show the 10mv, 1mv and 100uV digits, totally missing the important part. Something like the second image is what I'd expect to see.

Right. It has been pointed out for some time that the y-axis is hardly meaningful in this form.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 21, 2019, 08:49:56 am
A little tip, with many measuring points, the image becomes a little bit clearer (edit: but without peaks) if someone only lets it be displayed as line.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 21, 2019, 09:20:14 am
A little tip, with many measuring points, the image becomes a little bit clearer (edit: but without peaks) if someone only lets it be displayed as line.

While I was preparing an image for the reply, you already edited your message to mention the gotcha with the line mode (missing peaks)  :-+.

I'm guessing that currently the markers are drawn on top of the lines so that when the samples per pixel count is less than one, you get lines connecting the sparse dots. But when the number of samples per pixels is greater than one, I think the averaged line should be drawn on top of the peak showing markers so that you can get more information in a single graph and the "both" mode becomes different than the "marker" mode. Something like this:

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 21, 2019, 12:07:22 pm
cozdas
I wonder how you can get these pictures, which the dmm is hardly capable of without scripting.  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 21, 2019, 09:41:19 pm
cozdas
I wonder how you can get these pictures, which the dmm is hardly capable of without scripting.  ;D

Photoshop  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 21, 2019, 11:03:51 pm
cozdas
I wonder how you can get these pictures, which the dmm is hardly capable of without scripting.  ;D

Photoshop  ;D
Yeah, that's what I thought. ;D
Have seen your nice photographs, and your expirience with programming and manipulating grafical filters. :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on February 21, 2019, 11:30:23 pm
ps and ot: my R&S RTB2002 is generating such traces in real.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on February 22, 2019, 10:07:05 am
...With some settings, the screen just start blinking, showing random data. With some other settings it takes measurement every now and then, and it just extrapolates the data between it? ...

I know what you mean, some parts are not really intuitive and there are many rough edges for sure, especially with the graphing part. AFAIK this is their first graphing line after all.

"Group of readings" part is not very well explained in the documents, and I was confused by that part too (user's manual doesn't mention it at all, reference manual has a brief mention). Also probably for handling the large data efficiently on the screen, they seem to have a hierarchical visual representation of the data; when zoomed out, the min, max and averaged values of "many samples" are displayed as a single line. Sometimes this "Level Of Detail" part gets confused and shows a coarser view. This happens very often with the fast digitize setups in my experience but can happen anytime if you play with the axis scale options (See the images). Pinch-zoom is usually enough to unconfuse it :)

Many rough edges, true, but still a very versatile device. I'm hoping that Keithley keeps resources dedicated for fixing the bugs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: IAmBack on February 22, 2019, 02:34:12 pm
FYI, it's birthday of this thread ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on February 28, 2019, 04:57:28 am
Whats the "proper" way to perform measurements when the trigger is high?
I tried:

trigger.extin.edge = trigger.EDGE_EITHER

trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_BUFFER_CLEAR, buffer)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_INFINITE)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)
trigger.model.setblock(5, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_STOP)

But this could get activated when trigger is low, and I also received a warning in the log stating: "trigger model is not optimized for speed due to multiple blocks waiting on the same event. Less complex trigger models can utilize hardware resources to improve performance. The trigger model requires the use of slower resources and may not achieve published specifications".

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on March 05, 2019, 06:32:22 pm
Whats the "proper" way to perform measurements when the trigger is high?
I tried:

trigger.extin.edge = trigger.EDGE_EITHER

trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_BUFFER_CLEAR, buffer)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_INFINITE)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)
trigger.model.setblock(5, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_STOP)

But this could get activated when trigger is low, and I also received a warning in the log stating: "trigger model is not optimized for speed due to multiple blocks waiting on the same event. Less complex trigger models can utilize hardware resources to improve performance. The trigger model requires the use of slower resources and may not achieve published specifications".

Thanks
That's the method I would use (or close to it).  The external trigger lines and trigger model were designed with traditional TTL triggering in mind, so the command set around it is geared towards transitions rather than states.  For state based triggering, I would recommend using DIO if possible so you could do a simple state check before starting the trigger model.  But, as long as your trigger line starts low, this trigger model should be fine.  If this is a script, you could add some TSP logic before hand to wait for a falling edge then change the external trigger logic to either and initiate the model.  To hard code it even more, you could rewrite the commands outside the trigger model so you could change trigger.extin.edge between rising and falling after every detected event.

I wouldn't worry about the optimization warning for this setup, you explicitly want to use the same event for two wait statements in this case.  One way to simplify this a bit would to move the stop block to position 2, then change the second wait block to a BRANCH_ON_EVENT block and branch to position 2, i.e.:
Code: [Select]
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_BUFFER_CLEAR, buffer)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_STOP)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_MEASURE_DIGITIZE, buffer, trigger.COUNT_INFINITE)
trigger.model.setblock(5, trigger.BLOCK_BRANCH_ON_EVENT, trigger.EVENT_EXTERNAL, 2)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 07, 2019, 06:42:17 pm
Hi,

I just got my DMM6500 for work today.
First impression looks good, had a few errors when using apps or switching between kickstart and local, but nothing dramatic.

I do have a few questions though:
- There is an A4 environmental info sheet included but it states that the PCB is still using lead but I think this is forbidden in Europe for new products, is this correct or just an old form in the box that was never updated?
Or maybe DMMs are an exception.
(the year on the paper was 2007)

- Do the 7700 series cards fit on it like the 7710, I thought only the 2000 cards?
I ask because in the DMM6500 firmware "update notes" I read:
Quote
Reference number: NIHK-6331
The 7701, 7706, or 7708 now make accurate measurements for all combinations of 2-wire and 4-wire measurements, whether in a scan, script, or from the display.
It's not a shared firmware with the DAQ6510.

-Did anyone make an FFT app, do you think that is possible, i mean can we make XY graphs?
I saw the clock app so looks possible, I don't know about speed.
Like instead of moving over the wave data to see the time zoom, you would see like a 1024 points FFT.

- What do you need to build an TSPAPP, also the tsp builder?

Edit: one FEATURE REQUEST: could someone just make the numbers on the axis better chosen (less digits when not needed)
Example: I have a histogram with Y-grid 0, 40.1 ,80.2 ,120.3 etc. what was wrong with a grid of 0, 40, 80, 120??
I don't say less accurate by rounding, but choose the grid size better.
I remember when I was young and had a TI calculator the graph XY steps were always long numbers.
I figured out how they determined the steps and I wrote a script that adjusted the max. values of the X and Y axis so the step size would be a nice round number. (in this example just choose the max value 400 instead of 401.0 and for the X-axis that could easily be -1.700, -1.600, -1.500 etc.)

FYI the firmware version on it was 1.0.02a and it updated without problem.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 08, 2019, 05:00:51 pm
I got my first blue screen while doing measurements, changing voltage measure settings, math and going to the graphs, no USB or LAN used:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on March 09, 2019, 01:43:44 pm

...
-Did anyone make an FFT app, do you think that is possible, i mean can we make XY graphs?
...

I am trying to do that - either a script or an app.
I'm currently testing if I can use the histogram gaph to show buckets of values.
If I can do that, I'm going to try to use existing fft sources to turn digitised measurements into buckets.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on March 09, 2019, 02:16:08 pm
mixed results :)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=672144;image)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 09, 2019, 03:16:07 pm
So let me try to understand it:
You take your measurement buffer and make a new 'fake' frequency measurement buffer and hence you can use the existing graph, correct?
You could do that with only a script I think, it's a creative solution, would also allow to test the processing power.
Do you know what the max. number of bins is for the graph? Since that will be your freq resolution in relation to your sample rate.

The amplitude axis 'count' you will not be able to convert to amplitude I assume, although the ratios would be right.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on March 09, 2019, 03:25:33 pm
Quote
You take your measurement buffer and make a new 'fake' frequency measurement buffer and hence you can use the existing graph, correct?
Yes. I haven't done any measurements. Just created a buffer with unit Hz.
Filled it with 10 sample values (100, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) using a script.
Displayed it using the Histogram functionality.


Nothing else is happening in my script.
I figured if I can display an array in the histogram view, and I can use an FTT script to turn samples into the frequency domain via known FTT algorithms, I'd be close to a solution.
The maximum number of bins is 700.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TCD330 on March 18, 2019, 07:36:59 pm
I am looking for a new bench multimeter and came across this thread.
From what I can read the DMM6500 will be on my short-list.

Some questions I hope someone can answer.

I understand that there is a lithium coin cell used for the real-time clock, and that it is meant to be factory replaced. The DMM6500 datasheet indicates 3+ years of battery life. If I replace this battery myself, will it affect calibration? If the DMM6500 is permanently connnected to mains without being swithced on, will the coin cell be drained, or will the real-time clock be powered from mains?

I understand that the DMM6500 is / was bundled with a free licence for the KickStarter software. I read it was valid until March this year. Does this mean end of February or end of March? I checked with RS in Norway, and they had never heard about any such bundle.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on March 22, 2019, 03:42:02 pm
I do have a few questions though:
- There is an A4 environmental info sheet included but it states that the PCB is still using lead but I think this is forbidden in Europe for new products, is this correct or just an old form in the box that was never updated?
Or maybe DMMs are an exception.
(the year on the paper was 2007)
The DMM6500/6510 are definitely RoHS compliant (the EU rule that prevents lead and cadmium use), but they still may contain those in certain parts.  They have some exemptions for things like high voltage components, and certain required alloys.  That sheet that's included is for some Chinese laws that have different requirements from RoHS.  I'm not terribly familiar with them so I can't go into detail but that's the reason for the discrepancy. 

- Do the 7700 series cards fit on it like the 7710, I thought only the 2000 cards?
I ask because in the DMM6500 firmware "update notes" ...
No, only the 2000 cards work with the DMM6500, the 77xx cards are only for the DAQ6510 (they really look very different, you couldn't confuse them in person).  I believe they made the decision to share the release notes between the two instruments to simplify things, so there may be other places where exclusive features are referenced in updates.

-Did anyone make an FFT app, do you think that is possible, i mean can we make XY graphs?
I saw the clock app so looks possible, I don't know about speed.
Like instead of moving over the wave data to see the time zoom, you would see like a 1024 points FFT.
Someone was working on one early in development but it was very slow.  I will see if I can find it to see if it still works in the current firmware. 

- What do you need to build an TSPAPP, also the tsp builder?
Instructions will be coming later this year, but really they're just text files with .tspa extension.  They have some header requirements as well, I would look at existing examples to see what the header fields are.  Test Script Builder is an IDE for developing in TSP, but technically you could use anything to write them.

Edit: one FEATURE REQUEST: could someone just make the numbers on the axis better chosen (less digits when not needed)
Example: I have a histogram with Y-grid 0, 40.1 ,80.2 ,120.3 etc. what was wrong with a grid of 0, 40, 80, 120??
I don't say less accurate by rounding, but choose the grid size better.
I remember when I was young and had a TI calculator the graph XY steps were always long numbers.
I figured out how they determined the steps and I wrote a script that adjusted the max. values of the X and Y axis so the step size would be a nice round number. (in this example just choose the max value 400 instead of 401.0 and for the X-axis that could easily be -1.700, -1.600, -1.500 etc.)
Noted, thanks!

I understand that there is a lithium coin cell used for the real-time clock, and that it is meant to be factory replaced. The DMM6500 datasheet indicates 3+ years of battery life. If I replace this battery myself, will it affect calibration? If the DMM6500 is permanently connnected to mains without being swithced on, will the coin cell be drained, or will the real-time clock be powered from mains?
It might?  The box isn't supposed to be opened at all, that's what the calibration is counting on, realistically, the calibration probably wouldn't change that much.  If you care about the calibration though you're probably sending it in once a year so they could just change the battery then if it dies. 

All you need to do to replace that battery is pull off the front panel panel and put another CR2032 battery in, it's in a holder right behind the display.  The battery will drain whenever the unit isn't on, even if it's connected to mains.  But, the ONLY thing that battery powers is the real time clock which has such a low drain that it's basically the same as the charge leakage of the battery.  Really, you're limited by the battery's shelf life minus a couple months maybe.  Also, it doesn't affect measurements at all, so if it dies you might not have any need to replace it, the date of the instrument would just be wrong whenever you turn it on.

I understand that the DMM6500 is / was bundled with a free licence for the KickStarter software. I read it was valid until March this year. Does this mean end of February or end of March? I checked with RS in Norway, and they had never heard about any such bundle.
It was originally valid until March 31st of this year (so through next week) but that will shortly be extended another few months at least.  You can tell them to check Tektronix Sales Tools for MSR 113-2485, or look at the DMM6500 partner presentation, or talk to their Tektronix rep if they need help figuring out what to do.  They should quote you a KICKSTARTFL-BASE license and discount it to $0, so in the quote you will still see the full price of the license and a separate item that takes that price off.  If they STILL won't give it to you for free, you can go ahead and make the purchase and talk to the Tektronix sales reps in Norway to get KickStart afterwords.  Just explain the situation and give them the serial number of your unit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 25, 2019, 03:05:16 pm
I understand that the DMM6500 is / was bundled with a free licence for the KickStarter software. I read it was valid until March this year. Does this mean end of February or end of March? I checked with RS in Norway, and they had never heard about any such bundle.
I bought it at farnell.com, when I registered on https://www.tek.com/ (https://www.tek.com/) I got a redeem button for the license code.
But from what I understood this type of license cannot be moved to another computer. (I did not try though)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: gas_liosia on March 26, 2019, 09:43:38 pm
Dear all, hello. I used to be a guest in the forum but finally this is my first post. I had an early DMM6500 unit and I faced a problem with a humming noise from the transformer. I communicated with TEK and they offered me a new replacement unit because some of the early ones had the same problem. The new one seems to work fine. I see that there is a new firmware available V1.0.04 that I would like to install, but I can't find the V1.0.02a that I have already installed in case I would like to do a downgrade. I dont't know if it is a special version for me due to my first problem, although I think that the problem was in the hardware. Does anyone have the V1.0.02a file?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Joel_l on March 27, 2019, 07:34:11 pm
Hi,

I was about to pull the trigger on a 34465A when I saw this, seems like a better deal all around, specs and features. I see the best price at valuetronixs. Anyone deal with them?

Joel
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kado on March 28, 2019, 12:48:09 pm
shodan@micron / Brad O.

want to double all that mentioned  details in KickStart !!!

Karsten




Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on March 28, 2019, 02:30:52 pm
That's it, why I use the csv in libre office directly.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on April 02, 2019, 08:47:27 pm
I bought it at farnell.com, when I registered on https://www.tek.com/ (https://www.tek.com/) I got a redeem button for the license code.
But from what I understood this type of license cannot be moved to another computer. (I did not try though)
That is true, that's a "locked" license so it is tied to the computer you first register the software to.  That's a separate promotion running right now I think for all of our touch screen instruments.  If you'd still like the floating license, you can reach out to the Tek office for your geographic location (www.tek.com/contact_us (http://www.tek.com/contact_us)). 

Also i have problems with high precision measurements in Kickstart, as example:
1 - When i measure 10.59077 value on 10V range, main(settings) screen shows only 10.5908 - last digit lost.
2 - No auto-zero config on settings screen.
3 - On graph last digits also desapear, as result horizontal line legends are same.

DMM6500 also do not shows last digit's on graph, horizontal line legends are same.
Hmm, I see what you mean. I've passed those comments along to the KickStart folks, I'll post again if they get back to me with a detailed response.  I agree with you though.

On the DMM6500 graph, that's been largely fixed in the latest development firmware, the next firmware will increase the graph resolution so you'll be able to see several spaces beyond the instrument specs.  Which reminds me, unfortunately the release of the next firmware has been delayed until the end of May.  The team was really hoping to get it out by the end of March but it just wasn't ready with all the features we wanted in it.  In addition, we've been trying to incorporate the feedback everyone here on EEVBlog has given.  It's really quite hard to get direct feedback from people in this industry so your comments and problems have been extremely helpful in learning more about how people are using our instruments so thank you all!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on April 04, 2019, 04:58:31 pm
From the KickStart folks:
Also i have problems with high precision measurements in Kickstart, as example:
1 - When i measure 10.59077 value on 10V range, main(settings) screen shows only 10.5908 - last digit lost.
2 - No auto-zero config on settings screen.
3 - On graph last digits also desapear, as result horizontal line legends are same.

DMM6500 also do not shows last digit's on graph, horizontal line legends are same.
1- They're aware of this one, the 6500 seems to have had its number of digits truncated 1 too many in some cases.  So a basic bug, it will be fixed in the next release.
2- This was actually already planned for the next release.  It's going through testing now.
3- They're aware of this one too and hope to have a fix in the next release by extending the number of digits available to the y-axis.  This one is a bit trickier than the DMM6500 front panel though as it affects all the instruments and there's a couple different ways to solve it.  It's on the docket though, thanks for the feedback!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TCD330 on April 04, 2019, 08:09:07 pm
I finally got my DMM6500.

I provided Elfa Distrelec with the spoon-feeding instructions from Brad, but they did still not get it. They believed the Kickstart software maybe was in the box together with the instrument, but did not know for sure.

Instead of wasting more time on them, I found I could buy directly from Tek parter Nortelco in Norway. Same price, and excellent service. Lession learnt is that the Distrelec system only push boxes. Distrelec is listed as a partner on tek.com, but seems to lack a lot when it comes to product knowledge. Not my problem, but others might find other sellers more worthy their money.

I had more or less settled on a 34461A, but since Brad was active in this tread providing real help to many since long time ago, I took a closer look at the DMM6500. Now I must spend a lot of time figuring out what I bought; this is much more than just a "multimeter" :) Thanks again Brad for your assistance!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kado on April 05, 2019, 05:01:28 am
Same experience here with "Distrelec" !!!

Waiting now more than 8 weeks for a Reedem - invitation to licence my KickStart-Basic FLOATING licence in my customer database.

German Tek office won´t / can´t help me even I send them my invoice where are listed the DMM6500 AND the KickStart-FL Software. Shame ... wasted time with several phone calls and a lot of emails.

Can´t understand Tek´s philosophy with this handling for selling / promoting this Licence and the customer care. Never had that experience with KS in the past years.

Sorry for ranting, but my good feeling for this purchase is over now.

Karsten
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 06, 2019, 08:35:56 am
 A small update.

 Yesterday I firstly tested the measurepower.tsp script. Before there was no need and opportunity.
 Everything works fine. There is the possibility of independent measurements. The picture can explain it.

 The inputs of the multimeter have a galvanic connection (the second picture). I think this may affect accuracy. I ask Brad to explain the inner structure and imposed restrictions.

 Thanks.
 M.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 06, 2019, 12:03:43 pm
This has been addressed here somewhere - I thought in thos thread but can't find it back ...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 06, 2019, 08:50:36 pm

This has been addressed here somewhere - I thought in thos thread but can't find it back ...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1942459/#msg1942459 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1942459/#msg1942459)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on April 07, 2019, 02:26:48 pm
The inputs of the multimeter have a galvanic connection (the second picture). I think this may affect accuracy. I ask Brad to explain the inner structure and imposed restrictions.
The first picture is correct.
The shunt can be connected both to the upper arm and to the lower arm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 07, 2019, 03:29:16 pm
The shunt can be connected both to the upper arm and to the lower arm.

Please detail. What is the maximum voltage between INPUT LO and SENSE LO?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on April 07, 2019, 03:42:21 pm
Please detail. What is the maximum voltage between INPUT LO and SENSE LO?
Max (SENSE HI-SENSE LO) voltage is 10V.
INPUT LO - SENSE LO  I do not know
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 08, 2019, 04:42:24 pm
 I think it's 12 volts. Who will offer more?

 Page 10, spec-sheet.

 Note 35. See DC VOLTAGE ACCURACY. SHI and SLO: 10 V range only. SHI and SLO (sense) terminals referenced to LO input. Maximum voltage
referenced to LO 12 V.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on April 08, 2019, 04:57:21 pm
I think it's 12 volts. Who will offer more?
:))))) 12V = 10V + 20% stock

Quote
Page 10, spec-sheet.

 Note 35. See DC VOLTAGE ACCURACY. SHI and SLO: 10 V range only. SHI and SLO (sense) terminals referenced to LO input. Maximum voltage
referenced to LO 12 V.
New datasheet?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on April 08, 2019, 05:06:50 pm
I think it's 12 volts. Who will offer more?
:))))) 12V = 10V + 20% stock

Quote
Page 10, spec-sheet.

 Note 35. See DC VOLTAGE ACCURACY. SHI and SLO: 10 V range only. SHI and SLO (sense) terminals referenced to LO input. Maximum voltage
referenced to LO 12 V.
New datasheet?
Indeed, it is 12V.  The page 10 reference is from the spec sheet (attached) which has the same information but is formatted differently from the datasheet
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on April 09, 2019, 10:18:54 am
Which reminds me, unfortunately the release of the next firmware has been delayed until the end of May.  The team was really hoping to get it out by the end of March but it just wasn't ready with all the features we wanted in it.  In addition, we've been trying to incorporate the feedback everyone here on EEVBlog has given.  It's really quite hard to get direct feedback from people in this industry so your comments and problems have been extremely helpful in learning more about how people are using our instruments so thank you all!

Thanks again for listening to the users and providing excellent support here. Since you were talking about bugs already fixed in the development firmware for a while I was hoping that the new firmware would arrive soon thus I was holding my bug+wish list to avoid double posting. Since it's not coming anytime soon I decided to dump my bug/wish list here so that the other members can also chime in and correct me if my wishes are not good ideas for general/professional use. So here is my list of two cents:

HW and Main Features
Buffers
General UI
Graph
Web interface
Other
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on April 09, 2019, 11:18:58 am
Thanks cozdas for this compilation.
What i consider to be very worthy of improvement among the points presented here, is the "Graph scale value entry dialog", only in steps of 10 on the y-scala, which is much too rough for the display of measured values. All that remains is the imprecise touchscreen settings. The same applies to the much too imprecise positioning of the cursors. (Regarding the cursors: they should be also assignable to different colors.)

Something I observed, with request for a countertest:it seems that screen switching in the web-interface affects the measurement result. At least I observe in irregular distances corresponding disturbing deflections on the Y-axis in the DC-µV range, which falsify the statistical result of my voltage references.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on April 09, 2019, 11:38:40 am
Another GUI behaviour.
Scale menu:
The scale values of the x-y-axis should always be freely editable without having to not intuitively switch the method back and forth to off mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on April 11, 2019, 06:01:35 am
Hi all, have read this forum for years but as this is my first post so please be gentle :)   I hope Brad picks this up as I have just received my DMM6500, a decision based almost entirely on his unbiassed information and support, plus the feedback from all other contributors on this topic, thanks to everyone!
I am a rather senior (ok old) tech and one of the reasons that made me choose this meter for the workshop was the flexible programming available, I need to start learning some sort of programming as the last serious effort was back in the 70s with the Acorn Atom.
So far I am really pleased with the 6500, seems as though every time I use it I uncover another useful feature that had previously gone unnoticed.
My question for Brad is to do with programming the OBJ_SCREEN, as in his probe hold app. I have learnt a lot from studying the text but wonder if there is any reference material that explains some of the details of this subject that are not covered in the standard 6500 reference download?
Thanks again to everyone, and of course Brad
P.S.  Can't seem to insert emojis, this is the thumbs up  :-+, any help please?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on April 11, 2019, 06:24:10 am
Emojis seem ok when viewed in the thread, thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 19, 2019, 08:12:44 am
I need an array of numbers to do some FFT calculations:

What is the syntax to Write to a buffer?
outreal= buffer.make(n,buffer.STYLE_WRITABLE_FULL)
outimag= buffer.make(n,buffer.STYLE_WRITABLE_FULL)

outreal[k]=5.0 ??

There is also the type 'table' but I don't know how to initialize it for like 1024 items.
Not sure if this would be faster or slower.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on April 19, 2019, 05:45:37 pm
My question for Brad is to do with programming the OBJ_SCREEN, as in his probe hold app. I have learnt a lot from studying the text but wonder if there is any reference material that explains some of the details of this subject that are not covered in the standard 6500 reference download?
I'm so glad I can I can be of help!  There is no official documentation for the apps API yet (so most of the display.* commands), but we are working on it! Believe me that you all expressing so much interest in TSP apps has made us want to get it right. The internal documentation we have is quite lacking, and there's a lot of changes and updates that need to made.

BUT, this seems like a good time to mention that we've started a GitHub repository Keithley example code, especially TSP code.  You can find it at https://github.com/tektronix/keithley, I've put some working TSP apps at https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/master/TSP_Apps, including several you haven't seen before like one to control the Digital I/O port (for those of you with a communication card) and the ground work for an app that allows you to email buffers (this was has a ton of restrictions though, they're mentioned in comments in the code).  If you want to make pull requests against the repo, I (and another factory applications engineer, Josh) will review them.  This should make it easier for us to share code with you, and for you to share and get help on code from Keithley.

I need an array of numbers to do some FFT calculations:

What is the syntax to Write to a buffer?
outreal= buffer.make(n,buffer.STYLE_WRITABLE_FULL)
outimag= buffer.make(n,buffer.STYLE_WRITABLE_FULL)

outreal[k]=5.0 ??

There is also the type 'table' but I don't know how to initialize it for like 1024 items.
Not sure if this would be faster or slower.

The command to write to a writable buffer is buffer.write.reading().  Generally, the only reason you would need to use a buffer is if you want to display the data on the front panel of the instrument, otherwise, it's probably easier to work with tables.  Initializing variables is actually discouraged in TSP/Lua, but of course some times it's just easier to initialize than append everything.  The way you do it is tableVar= {n=25}, that makes a table of size 25, you can then access those items how you'd like, with tableVar[k].  Speed wise, they should be about same, but I haven't done any timing testing to verify that.

Also since it's come up again, we are working on an FFT app, but it doesn't work on the currently released firmware.  Plus we'll see how it compares to all the FFT work everyone else has been doing!

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 19, 2019, 08:00:21 pm
we've started a GitHub repository Keithley example code

 GREAT!  :-+

 And official page:
https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models (https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models)

 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 20, 2019, 03:28:51 pm
About provide syntax:
Thanks, I will try when I'm at work.

About github: nice one!!
I'm thinking about using standard deviation in the sample and hold script and less fine tune settings, the script should figure it out on its own, should avoid the false 'holds' that I got when tested.
But may require a higher sample rate, idea for later.

About 10Gohm:
is there a way to force it to 10Gohm instead of Auto?
When I want to use it I don't want it to change its mind for a few second and then go back to 10Gohm
I need to be able to count on it that it's not 10Mohm.

Quote
Also since it's come up again, we are working on an FFT app, but it doesn't work on the currently released firmware.  Plus we'll see how it compares to all the FFT work everyone else has been doing!
Nice, you do know that it's not fair competition since you have more doc. and you can optimize the firmware for it ;)

about the kickstart license:
At Farrnell.be, .uk also involved, they are still trying to figure out what to do...
If only Tektronix had a website platform to register your device and redeem your copy without having to email anyone to get it. Oh wait, they do, they just didn't use it (correctly), would have made it so much easier for everyone.
But everyone is friendly trying to help.
I also contacted conrad.be to know what their procedure is because the software isn't on their website....

It's becoming more likely that I will buy a DMM6500 for myself :) (I still have a DM3068 now)
At home I'm living by the rule don't pay for calibration, buy a new DMM ;)

edit reply of conrad.be in Dutch:
Basically they have no knowledge of it and advice to contact tektronix with your proof of purchase to get your license.
Their supply is from Germany.
Code: [Select]
Ons is niet bekend hoe de door u genoemde licentiecode verzonden wordt en/of dat deze al bij het apparaat meegeleverd wordt.
Wij leveren vanuit ons magazijn in Wernberg, Zuid-Duitsland en betrekken de artikelen via ons Duits moederbedrijf.
Het kan dus zijn dat als deze actie landgebonden is er bij de "Duitse" versie geen licentie wordt verstrekt.

Ons advies is dan ook even contact op te nemen met Tectronics via het in de link gepubliceerde telefoonnummer: 00800 2255 4835

Het lijkt er echter op dat als je de meter aanschaft en een bewijs van aankoop kunt overleggen aan Tectronics deze u dan de genoemde licentiecode zal mailen.
De software is sowieso al op voorhand te downloaden via de website van Tektronics.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on May 03, 2019, 08:57:17 am
... the spec sheet (attached) ...

Hi Brad,
One quick question: in the spec sheet you attached there is this statement:
Quote
Limited compatibility with 2001-SCAN and 2000-SCAN-20; see the DMM6500 Firmware Release Notes for additional information

I could not find any additional information anywhere though, including the firmware notes. Can you please clarify the support and limitations for the 2000-SCAN-20 card?

One quick bug report:
Resolution of the stats in the graph page is not consistent, when the cursors are turned on you get the stats for the area between cursors (very useful, thanks for this feature), but the number of digits reduced compared to whole buffer stats which is visible in the same location when the cursors are off. See the attached example.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 03, 2019, 01:27:54 pm
cozdas
Yes, but isn't the specification of decimal places in the Femtovolt range a bit unrealistic anyway?  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on May 03, 2019, 07:18:34 pm
cozdas
Yes, but isn't the specification of decimal places in the Femtovolt range a bit unrealistic anyway?  ;D

Hehe. Well apparently it's not unrealistic when it comes to the full buffer statistics. Also we don't want those picovolts hang around there alone do we?   ;D

(note to self: connect something to inputs next time you take a screenshot)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 03, 2019, 08:30:43 pm


(note so self: connect something to inputs next time you take a screenshot)


As we can see, this meter can detect even fractions of nothing  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 04, 2019, 01:59:57 pm
Quote from: Brad O
we've started a GitHub repository Keithley example code
Now I wish there would be similar repository for oldie goldie series DMMs too, like 200x series :).
All this contribution to forum from Brad and Keithley team is real gold, make me want to buy one of these DMM6500 to use develop some TSP app for using Keithley 1801.

Wondering if scanner port in DMM6500 also have I2C and SPI bus to communicate with Keithley 1801? If interfaces are there and somewhat accessible, that would be perfect example when TSP saves the world day.
I know it's very very niche application, but it's the best amplifier there is for nanovolt-level measurements, but I was already impressed by amount of interested people in this niche equipment.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on May 06, 2019, 05:19:54 pm
Hi Brad,
One quick question: in the spec sheet you attached there is this statement:
Quote
Limited compatibility with 2001-SCAN and 2000-SCAN-20; see the DMM6500 Firmware Release Notes for additional information

I could not find any additional information anywhere though, including the firmware notes. Can you please clarify the support and limitations for the 2000-SCAN-20 card?
For the 2001-SCAN card, the only limited compatibility is the lack of the "high speed" scan mode on channels 5 & 10.  The high speed channels work the same as all the other relays.  For the 2000-SCAN-20 card, we didn't do thorough testing with it as the idea to include support was added only a little before release.  If you plan on using the SCAN-20 card, let me know and we can complete the testing, but those cards aren't very common and we haven't received any questions about it so far.  Actually, it may work perfectly well, but we can't guarantee that right now.

One quick bug report:
Resolution of the stats in the graph page is not consistent, when the cursors are turned on you get the stats for the area between cursors (very useful, thanks for this feature), but the number of digits reduced compared to whole buffer stats which is visible in the same location when the cursors are off. See the attached example.
Noted, thanks!

(note so self: connect something to inputs next time you take a screenshot)
As we can see, this meter can detect even fractions of nothing  :)
According to Wolfram Alpha, that voltage level is about the same as a neuron firing.  Hold on, I just got an idea for a neuro-surgery App note...

Quote from: Brad O
we've started a GitHub repository Keithley example code
Now I wish there would be similar repository for oldie goldie series DMMs too, like 200x series :).
All this contribution to forum from Brad and Keithley team is real gold, make me want to buy one of these DMM6500 to use develop some TSP app for using Keithley 1801.
I'm open to hosting code for any Keithley products (or just Keithley related code), it will just take time to add them (and I suppose a lot of the older examples we have are in BASIC...).  I and some other Keithley engineers will keep adding examples we have, it just takes time to sort through everything.  If any of you have code you'd like to add, please file a pull request against the dev branch (or just send me your code if you don't want to learn how to use GitHub). 

I've also started putting together a TSP tutorial for the 2600B Series of our Source Measure Units (https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/master/Instrument_Examples/26xx-SMU/Tutorials, if any of you have a 26xx SMU and want to try) that teaches TSP on the instruments via examples.  Once I get it a but more complete I will duplicate it for the DMM6500/DAQ6510. 

Wondering if scanner port in DMM6500 also have I2C and SPI bus to communicate with Keithley 1801? If interfaces are there and somewhat accessible, that would be perfect example when TSP saves the world day.
I know it's very very niche application, but it's the best amplifier there is for nanovolt-level measurements, but I was already impressed by amount of interested people in this niche equipment.
Ah yes, I know your love for the 1801.  The DMM6500 scan port has the same basic communication as the 2000 scan port (which is to say, almost none) and what's there is buried pretty far in firmware.  The 1801 always worked a little different compared to the other scan cards and I think the 2001/2 used a fair number of tricks to control it.  It would take a fair amount of resources to figure out how to get an 1801 working with the DMM6500, if it's possible at all.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 06, 2019, 05:40:57 pm
99.99% of my equipment-related code/apps is in Python with GPIB comms. I'll think about what would be useful, and can tidy stuff up and upload to GitHub. Just not sure how that will align with your TSP instrument-related work, as older meters are not TSP-compatible. Hence my question, if you indeed want to mix everything into one bucket.

Quote
It would take a fair amount of resources to figure out how to get an 1801 working with the DMM6500, if it's possible at all.
Sounds like a challenge :) Only problem is that there are no broken DMM6500 on ebay to buy, for trying :D. I actually restarted my old project of 1801 card, adding MCU to attempt fixing 2002 firmware issues.
Writing TSP script for DMM6500 to rescale functions/ranges should be relatively easy, but writing to EEPROM on 1801 card and selecting gain/filtering thru 4094 register need I2C and SPI access to scan-card port. I'd think simple API to read/write byte and manage CS might be enough, if that is possible.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on May 06, 2019, 06:05:58 pm
99.99% of my equipment-related code/apps is in Python with GPIB comms. I'll think about what would be useful, and can tidy stuff up and upload to GitHub. Just not sure how that will align with your TSP instrument-related work, as older meters are not TSP-compatible. Hence my question, if you indeed want to mix everything into one bucket.
Yeah!  We specifically didn't want to make it a TSP-centric repo, that just happens to be what most of my code is in since I work with mostly the TSP products.  There's already some C# and python up there though.  And the Drivers sections is explicitly for non-TSP code (which reminds me I've got a bunch of LabVIEW drivers to put up there...)

Quote
It would take a fair amount of resources to figure out how to get an 1801 working with the DMM6500, if it's possible at all.
Sounds like a challenge :) Only problem is that there are no broken DMM6500 on ebay to buy, for trying :D. I actually restarted my old project of 1801 card, adding MCU to attempt fixing 2002 firmware issues.
Writing TSP script for DMM6500 to rescale functions/ranges should be relatively easy, but writing to EEPROM on 1801 card and selecting gain/filtering thru 4094 register need I2C and SPI access to scan-card port. I'd think simple API to read/write byte and manage CS might be enough, if that is possible.
Yeah altering readings isn't hard, doing anything with the scanning port that isn't controlling a 2000-SCAN card is though  :-\
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on May 06, 2019, 09:07:18 pm
For the 2001-SCAN card, the only limited compatibility is the lack of the "high speed" scan mode on channels 5 & 10.  The high speed channels work the same as all the other relays.  For the 2000-SCAN-20 card, we didn't do thorough testing with it as the idea to include support was added only a little before release.  If you plan on using the SCAN-20 card, let me know and we can complete the testing, but those cards aren't very common and we haven't received any questions about it so far.  Actually, it may work perfectly well, but we can't guarantee that right now.

Thanks for the information. Last week I've spoofed the port and as far as my tests go DMM6500 communicates properly with the scan-20 chard. I don't have the card but all bits that DMM6500 sends make total sense with the schematic of the card. I was planning to build a DIY Solid state, 10-chan SCAN card (so that I can collect data during the night at home without the dripping tap simulation), but since DMM6500 seems to drive the 20-chan card I changed my design to double the channels (the more the merrier).

I'll let you know if I hit a problem with the DMM6500 behavior,
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 07, 2019, 12:58:02 pm
In combination with Brad O's neuro-surgery App, this would also open up completely new possibilities for the selfmade ambitious hobby craftsman.  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on May 10, 2019, 05:29:11 am
I was planning to build a DIY Solid state, 10-chan SCAN card (so that I can collect data during the night at home without the dripping tap simulation), but since DMM6500 seems to drive the 20-chan card I changed my design to double the channels (the more the merrier).

I'll let you know if I hit a problem with the DMM6500 behavior,

It's alive!!!!

I still need to buy more solid-state relays to populate the rest of the board but what's there seems to work flawlessly (so far), silent and fast. Since I was trying to keep the cost as low as possible (you can tell from the all DIY PCB board), the relays are not the best, the on state resistance of each channel is around 2 Ohm. But it's not a big deal as I have plenty of channels to use kelvin connections if needed. A $12 Atmega32u4 based board is handling all the logic.

(top board: Keithley 2000-Scan with wires attached for protocol sniffing)
(bottom board: DIY 20-chan solid state scan card)
Title: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: kado on May 10, 2019, 07:03:10 am
cozdas

[emoji106]amazing! That’s an interesting project. Please keep us informed.

Karsten


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 10, 2019, 08:25:47 am
....
It's alive!!!!

I still need to buy more solid-state relays to populate the rest of the board but what's there seems to work flawlessly (so far), silent and fast. Since I was trying to keep the cost as low as possible (you can tell from the all DIY PCB board), the relays are not the best, the on state resistance of each channel is around 2 Ohm. But it's not a big deal as I have plenty of channels to use kelvin connections if needed. A $12 Atmega32u4 based board is handling all the logic.

(top board: Keithley 2000-Scan with wires attached for protocol sniffing)
(bottom board: DIY 20-chan solid state scan card)

The on state resistance is a kind of compromise: low resistance also means more leakage. So for just voltage measurements one would prefer even higher resistance (up to a few KOhms) and thus lower leakage types.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 11, 2019, 11:39:24 am
It's alive!!!!
A low cost DIY (CozScan 2020) solid state relay solution for DMM6500  :-+
I blame you that I just ordered a DMM6500 for home use  ;)  (I don't expect to get the 'free' kickstart license)
Will this be open hardware/software?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: h4X|| on May 14, 2019, 04:05:28 pm
I have decided on either a Keithley Tek DAQ6510 or Keysight 34465A. Really leaning towards the Tek for attempting to drive a bed of nails test rig in addition to daily hardware dev and test logging duties.
Anyone using the 6x8 DAQ module?

PM me any thoughts / links on bed of nails test rig driving (dont want to clog the thread). context: I have previously just used target device MCUs to self drive a test rig, but that has limitations similar to external MCU driver.

Keithley/Tek visibility and issue transparency in the forum on this thread is a HUGE reason for considering a Tek. That takes serious stand up character to manage. My Agilent/Keysight MSO7104 scope has been a workhorse when I depended on it mid career.

Anyone have any recommendations for quotes/pricing? I am in USA and want calibrated new (built in 2019).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 15, 2019, 06:44:54 pm
Feature request:
1) A fast way to store the stats of the measurement to USB, I know you can use a screenshot but then you need to store screenshots. You can also not just copy it in a excel file.
Two options:
  A) When you take a screenshot with home+enter also write a second file, a csv with the same name.

  B) Make it possible to link a script to a button, like maybe home+trigger runs a pre-selected script.
      and let the script do the needed actions.
      (This is maybe a feature on its own that could be useful for all kind of situations.)

2) A feature request for the current measurement mode, show the voltage drop! (burden voltage isn't a second measurement) Now I have to check to be sure it's low enough. (although if not much work I choose my own resistor value)

3) For math y=mx+b, support entering 2 points (like: 4mA=0 and 20mA=7) instead of entering m and b and let it calculate m and b. (maybe this should be a script)
Also an option to change the 'X' to an 3 char that has meaning. (sometimes you forget what you were displaying after reloading the settings)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 16, 2019, 06:20:41 pm
I made few comparisons: (only one voltage from battery)
new DMM6500 vs older DMM6500
and
new DMM6500 vs old DM3068:  diff 0.0017%

The DM3068 seems to be less noisy.  (I will measure the BW later but the DM3068 is also big)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 16, 2019, 06:30:11 pm
Feature request:
1) A fast way to store the stats of the measurement to USB, I know you can use a screenshot but then you need to store screenshots. You can also not just copy it in a excel file.
Two options:
  A) When you take a screenshot with home+enter also write a second file, a csv with the same name.

Something like this would be nice.  If such a feature is considered: I would also like to see the ability to only copy the log data between the cursors, if the cursors were turned on.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 17, 2019, 02:18:45 am
I take screenshoots and csv's per LAN 'Virtual Frontpanel' and 'Extract Data' to Libre Office.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/usa-cal-club-round-2/msg2314803/#msg2314803 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/usa-cal-club-round-2/msg2314803/#msg2314803)

Yes, that's a bit more work, but nothing essential. In my opinion, it would be important to be able to position the cursor exactly at all, instead of just using the imprecise touchscreen.

Edit: Csv's from within the cursor would be nice certainly. Especially since the data already stored on screen.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 19, 2019, 10:09:39 am
Just a quick burden voltage test:
The front goes up to 3A but is only useful to go that high if the burden voltage isn't an issue.
At 1A you already have 0.27V so putting it in series with a battery supply isn't an option.

The 10A must be connected to the back then you can go to 2.8A for an 50mV drop. (17.6m\$\Omega\$)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 20, 2019, 09:42:41 am
Beta storage service (initialstate): Anyone using this?
https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/ (https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 20, 2019, 10:37:53 am
Beta storage service (initialstate): Anyone using this?
https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/ (https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/)

Don't really know what it is at all. Something to buy?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on May 20, 2019, 07:48:02 pm
Beta storage service (initialstate): Anyone using this?
https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/ (https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/)

This is something we're testing right now.  Come to think of it, I probably should've mentioned it here before!  Initial State specializes in cloud based data visualization and monitoring.  The idea is that you can use all the Initial State features with a DAQ6510.  So you could access your data anywhere, set up custom, complex triggers and notifications, custom dashboards etc.  I've attached the datasheet/flyer.  An Initial State account is required and costs money (14 day free trial if you want to try it out and give me/Initial State feedback!) but is otherwise free.  You can then also use Initial State for any other projects, they have a ton of in-depth guides and walkthroughs on using their service with a wide variety of applications and data sources.  The full guide for the DAQ6510 is here if you want to try it out: https://support.initialstate.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024313832-1-Keithley-Datalogger-Integration-Beta-Summary-Getting-Started (https://support.initialstate.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024313832-1-Keithley-Datalogger-Integration-Beta-Summary-Getting-Started)

Feature request:
1) A fast way to store the stats of the measurement to USB, I know you can use a screenshot but then you need to store screenshots. You can also not just copy it in a excel file.
Two options:
  A) When you take a screenshot with home+enter also write a second file, a csv with the same name.

  B) Make it possible to link a script to a button, like maybe home+trigger runs a pre-selected script.
      and let the script do the needed actions.
      (This is maybe a feature on its own that could be useful for all kind of situations.)

2) A feature request for the current measurement mode, show the voltage drop! (burden voltage isn't a second measurement) Now I have to check to be sure it's low enough. (although if not much work I choose my own resistor value)

3) For math y=mx+b, support entering 2 points (like: 4mA=0 and 20mA=7) instead of entering m and b and let it calculate m and b. (maybe this should be a script)
Also an option to change the 'X' to an 3 char that has meaning. (sometimes you forget what you were displaying after reloading the settings)
1) Hmm, so a csv of just the buffer stats?  We have thought about using buttons as shortcuts for scripts before but ultimately decided not to since the buttons are supposed to be universal across instruments.  Scripts are already pretty easy to access with the drop-down menu too, yes?  Or not fast enough for you? 

2) The DMM6500 doesn't have any internal way to find out what the voltage drop is.  The shunt resistors are internally calibrated, but there's also the path resistance which is pretty variable and can't really be measured by internal processes.  BUT, you can use the secondary measurement feature to measure voltage drop by shorting INPUT HI to AMPS, that would measure the internal voltage across the current leads.  If you choose the 1A or 3A range, there won't be any relay clicking on <100V ranges.  OR, you could go a step further and measure the voltage drop out to your DUT by connecting INPUT HI to the high side of your DUT.  You could remove the low side path voltage drop by using the rel feature between INPUT HI and your DUT low terminal before swapping to measure voltage between INPUT HI and your DUT high side.  Does that make sense?  I can draw the process out if you want.

3) That definitely sounds like a good scripting opportunity.  y =mx+b is the standard, but I can see the opportunity for cases where a 2-point definition is more convenient.  It would certainly be possible to use a script to find the values of m + b for you.

@cozdas: Very impressive!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 20, 2019, 08:37:19 pm
1) Hmm, so a csv of just the buffer stats?  We have thought about using buttons as shortcuts for scripts before but ultimately decided not to since the buttons are supposed to be universal across instruments.  Scripts are already pretty easy to access with the drop-down menu too, yes?  Or not fast enough for you? 

2) The DMM6500 doesn't have any internal way to find out what the voltage drop is.  The shunt resistors are internally calibrated, but there's also the path resistance which is pretty variable and can't really be measured by internal processes.  BUT, you can use the secondary measurement feature to measure voltage drop by shorting INPUT HI to AMPS, that would measure the internal voltage across the current leads.  If you choose the 1A or 3A range, there won't be any relay clicking on <100V ranges.  OR, you could go a step further and measure the voltage drop out to your DUT by connecting INPUT HI to the high side of your DUT.  You could remove the low side path voltage drop by using the rel feature between INPUT HI and your DUT low terminal before swapping to measure voltage between INPUT HI and your DUT high side.  Does that make sense?  I can draw the process out if you want.
1) Yes just the stats also cursors if there are any, can we write a custom csv file to usb with scripts?
Fast, well would be easy if it was present in the same screenshot function so they match an I guess this is little work or risk for firmware.

2) Hmm I'm going to give that a try, but I don't need to see the exact drop but more like a warning of expected max drop like 2 digits accuracy. Like text in a new tab you update when going there "The burden voltage is about 0.23V at max current in the buffer and 0.52V at full range."
I assume it's possible in a script, maybe with your own measured values.

I just did a frequency measure test and it's within specification although I did expect it to be much better than spec.
My Rigol DM3068 (spec 0.007%) is measuring 100kHz correctly up to the last digit 0.1Hz
My DMM6500 shows 1.3Hz too high, not planning to use it as an accurate frequency measurement device.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 21, 2019, 10:59:21 am
Quite some part of the burden voltage for the highest current range comes from the fuse. Those larger high performance fuses have quite some resistance. Another point are switch contacts. So an estimate could be quite a bit off, especially if the fuse is replaced with a different brand / batch.

The information one the estimated / max burden is in the manual, but with so much screen area an information on the scree can be a good idea even if with some 25% uncertainty.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 21, 2019, 06:52:08 pm
2) The DMM6500 doesn't have any internal way to find out what the voltage drop is.  The shunt resistors are internally calibrated, but there's also the path resistance which is pretty variable and can't really be measured by internal processes.  BUT, you can use the secondary measurement feature to measure voltage drop by shorting INPUT HI to AMPS, that would measure the internal voltage across the current leads.  If you choose the 1A or 3A range, there won't be any relay clicking on <100V ranges.  OR, you could go a step further and measure the voltage drop out to your DUT by connecting INPUT HI to the high side of your DUT.  You could remove the low side path voltage drop by using the rel feature between INPUT HI and your DUT low terminal before swapping to measure voltage between INPUT HI and your DUT high side.  Does that make sense?  I can draw the process out if you want.

Tried this measurement method:
Seems to be a difference of 37m\$\Omega\$ less, I'm losing a bit of wire there.

edit: adding 100mA and 10mA range, it isn't working as expected. (relay switching)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on May 21, 2019, 10:43:12 pm
1) Hmm, so a csv of just the buffer stats?  We have thought about using buttons as shortcuts for scripts before but ultimately decided not to since the buttons are supposed to be universal across instruments.  Scripts are already pretty easy to access with the drop-down menu too, yes?  Or not fast enough for you? 
1) Yes just the stats also cursors if there are any, can we write a custom csv file to usb with scripts?
Fast, well would be easy if it was present in the same screenshot function so they match an I guess this is little work or risk for firmware.
Yes you can write custom csv files pretty easily using file.open() and file.write(). The next firmware will include support for getting buffer stats of a subset of the buffer, which is how cursor stats work, if not the ability to automatically create those csv files with screenshots. 

2) The DMM6500 doesn't have any internal way to find out what the voltage drop is.  The shunt resistors are internally calibrated, but there's also the path resistance which is pretty variable and can't really be measured by internal processes.  BUT, you can use the secondary measurement feature to measure voltage drop by shorting INPUT HI to AMPS, that would measure the internal voltage across the current leads.  If you choose the 1A or 3A range, there won't be any relay clicking on <100V ranges.  OR, you could go a step further and measure the voltage drop out to your DUT by connecting INPUT HI to the high side of your DUT.  You could remove the low side path voltage drop by using the rel feature between INPUT HI and your DUT low terminal before swapping to measure voltage between INPUT HI and your DUT high side.  Does that make sense?  I can draw the process out if you want.
2) Hmm I'm going to give that a try, but I don't need to see the exact drop but more like a warning of expected max drop like 2 digits accuracy. Like text in a new tab you update when going there "The burden voltage is about 0.23V at max current in the buffer and 0.52V at full range."
I assume it's possible in a script, maybe with your own measured values.
It sounds like you might just want to set up a limit then?  You could estimate at what current you'll start worrying about burden voltage and set up a measurement limit to warn you at that level.

2) The DMM6500 doesn't have any internal way to find out what the voltage drop is.  The shunt resistors are internally calibrated, but there's also the path resistance which is pretty variable and can't really be measured by internal processes.  BUT, you can use the secondary measurement feature to measure voltage drop by shorting INPUT HI to AMPS, that would measure the internal voltage across the current leads.  If you choose the 1A or 3A range, there won't be any relay clicking on <100V ranges.  OR, you could go a step further and measure the voltage drop out to your DUT by connecting INPUT HI to the high side of your DUT.  You could remove the low side path voltage drop by using the rel feature between INPUT HI and your DUT low terminal before swapping to measure voltage between INPUT HI and your DUT high side.  Does that make sense?  I can draw the process out if you want.

Tried this measurement method:
Seems to be a difference of 37m\$\Omega\$ less, I'm losing a bit of wire there.

edit: adding 100mA and 10mA range, it isn't working as expected. (relay switching)
Ah, my bad on not explaining this, the relay switching will cause brief discontinuities in the AMPS terminal so the Rigol that's not synced to the switching would measure a higher resistance.  If you hook a scope up to the terminals you should be able to see this.  The discontinuity happens because voltage measurements happen while the current range relay is in the 1A/3A position.  So if the relay isn't already in that position it will be forced there.  I'm not totally sure all the reasons that position is required, but I believe part of it is to prevent noise from reaching the voltage measurement circuitry. 

So anyway, it's best to use the 1A/3A ranges if you want to continuously measure burden voltage with this method.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 22, 2019, 01:30:39 am
The discontinuity happens because voltage measurements happen while the current range relay is in the 1A/3A position.  So if the relay isn't already in that position it will be forced there.  I'm not totally sure all the reasons that position is required, but I believe part of it is to prevent noise from reaching the voltage measurement circuitry. 

So anyway, it's best to use the 1A/3A ranges if you want to continuously measure burden voltage with this method.

Thank you for this magic number.  I've been scratching my head on why couldn't get relay switching to stop happening in certain ranges.  If this information isn't in the manual, it deserves a special place with bold font.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on May 22, 2019, 11:50:35 pm
Another graphing bug report:

While scanning multiple channels (in this case 19 channels), the channels are not always displayed correctly on the x axis. As you can see in the attached images (where X-axis is in "show all" and y-axis is in "swim lanes" mode), when the x-axis is re-scaled to fit all, the tracks are aligned nicely but they will progress in different speeds and will get misaligned in time until the next re-scale.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 25, 2019, 12:23:00 pm
Let's check what 1nA looks like, 10Volt over a 10GOhm resistor.
Looks better than I thought it would.  I tried not to move while pressing the screenshot buttons :)

Edit
P.S. my kickStart license is finally shipping from farnell (tek UK) for work.  (the conrad.be (tek DE) email game is just started for home)

Edit2 I received my KickStart license for home already via "Tektronix France and Italy"  :-+  (5 Days after my email)
Different approach though: via farnell I got a package delivery, for home I got an email from tek with everything I need.
Both at the same day :) only the one from work I emailed about it almost 2 months ago.
(farnell did send a big box with an A4 paper in it with the code on it that I needed  :palm:)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 25, 2019, 12:23:40 pm
Did you use any filter on dmm6500? What's the input impendance of both? Try to use "repeat, count 10", input z 10M \$\Omega\$, 5 NPLC
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 25, 2019, 12:43:53 pm
Did you use any filter on dmm6500? What's the input impendance of both? Try to use "repeat, count 10", input z 10M \$\Omega\$, 5 NPLC
No filter, just 1PLC it's DC current.
The DMM6500 spec says 10k \$\Omega\$ so that is 1/1000 000 of the big resistor or it's measuring 10µV. STD: 0.455µV

edit: ah not for me, that makes more sense :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 25, 2019, 01:43:52 pm
Did you use any filter on dmm6500? What's the input impendance of both? Try to use "repeat, count 10", input z 10M \$\Omega\$, 5 NPLC
No filter, just 1PLC it's DC current.
The DMM6500 spec says 10k \$\Omega\$ so that is 1/1000 000 of the big resistor or it's measuring 10µV. STD: 0.455µV

Oh, excuse me, KedasProbe, that's to shodan. My posting had overlapped with yours.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 25, 2019, 05:14:47 pm
The representation of the characteristic curves reminds me rather of different interpolation procedures to determine and represent individual measured values.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 25, 2019, 06:28:27 pm
There was a detailed measurement on the noise around reply  #95 in this thread. The DMM6500 seems to be relatively noisy.
The low temperature effect looks impressive though. Chances are they use a numerical compensation, a little like in the DMM7510.

The Keithley meters tend to use a slightly different way of AZ mode, that includes some averaging. This gives slightly improved performance at low PLC, however as a downside the 100 PLC and similar data may be not that good. Form the old data is looks like the 6500 is also effected by this, though it looks better than the 7510 in this respect. Anyway the DMM6500 does not look like it is really low noise even at 1 PLC.

It is kind of sad, the Keithley does not offer a different, more conventional AZ filtering for slow measurements. This could be quite an improvement for slow measurements. With some luck it may be possible to get this via a script, if there is access to the raw data from a 1 or 5 PLC Az mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 02, 2019, 03:40:52 pm
I tried:
https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/blob/master/TSP_Apps/Resistance_Tolerance_Meter.tspa

- When starting I get an error, like not correctly initialized.
- When I exit the app the custom buffer stays the selected buffer, maybe this should be set back to the default buffer to avoid this next error.
- I got a few bad reading (high impedance) due to bad contact, so had to press retry but if two follow each other I will not be able to do that.
- It also shows rear terminals in the csv file while I used the front.

Not related to this app, can I make saving the measurements so that the column time is always the first column and the measured value always the second?  (makes it easier in excel)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on June 03, 2019, 10:36:11 pm
I tried:
https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/blob/master/TSP_Apps/Resistance_Tolerance_Meter.tspa

- When starting I get an error, like not correctly initialized.
- When I exit the app the custom buffer stays the selected buffer, maybe this should be set back to the default buffer to avoid this next error.
- I got a few bad reading (high impedance) due to bad contact, so had to press retry but if two follow each other I will not be able to do that.
- It also shows rear terminals in the csv file while I used the front.

Not related to this app, can I make saving the measurements so that the column time is always the first column and the measured value always the second?  (makes it easier in excel)
Alas!  I blame myself for not testing on the correct firmware.  Updated version here: https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/blob/master/TSP_Apps/Resistance_Tolerance_Meter.tspa

- I fixed the indexing error that caused that first error, the MENU will now render correctly as a result.
- Currently, there's no way to execute specific code when you exit an app.  The development firmware allows for resetting the instrument when an app exits, which would fix this.  Otherwise, since it's a writable buffer, it doesn't really need to be active, but having it active simplifies small things like going to the reading table (so that the results buffer is already up). 
- Hmm, should unlimited re-tests be allowed?  Was the bad contact just due to it taking a reading while you were still setting up or something else?
- Fixed the mislabeled terminals.  Front terminals are actually required for this app... I'm not sure why but I didn't remove that requirement in case there's a reason I didn't see (I didn't write this one). 

On saving buffers in a specific way: kinda. There's quite a few different ways to skin a cat export a buffer.  The options are fed as parameters to the buffer.save() function and are documented on page 722 (15-21) of the Reference Manual.  The option you probably want is buffer.COL_BRIEF, which saves only the reading and the timestamp (though the timestamp comes second).  For the ultimate customization though, writing your own csv is the way to go, that's typically what I do.

Let's say you want to save the relative timestamps and readings from defbuffer1 to a file named "savedbuffer.csv".  Here's a code block to do that:
Code: [Select]
fileVar = file.open("/usb1/savedbuffer.csv", file.MODE_WRITE)
file.write(fileVar, "Relative Time, Reading\n)
for i = 1, defbuffer1.n do
     file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[i]..","..defbuffer1.readings[i].."\n")
end
file.close(fileVar)

In the Resistance Tolerance Meter app, the code to save data is at line 83, in the function save_data_btn_press_event(), should you want to customize it yourself. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 04, 2019, 07:31:31 am
- Hmm, should unlimited re-tests be allowed?  Was the bad contact just due to it taking a reading while you were still setting up or something else?
For my test I pressed through the isolation of a resistor matrix PCB.
But it should not be an extra retry, maybe if it failed and more than 5? time the tolerance you have to keep measuring up to 2 second before making it a fail, but this issue may fall in the same category of the sample and hold app that sometimes picks-up a reading it shouldn't, (and I will look into that later to improve/fix that)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 05, 2019, 02:18:03 pm
How can I make it wait for the ok button?
It asks the input field even before I presses ok if no USB drive is present. (multiple pop-ups)

Code: [Select]
--TODO Please insert code here.
if file.usbdriveexists() == 0 then   --
display.prompt(display.BUTTONS_OK, "Please insert a USB flash drive into the front-panel USB port.")    
display.waitevent()
delay(1.5) -- Wait some time for the USB to be mounted
end
if defbuffer1.n >0 and file.usbdriveexists() != 0 then
statsVar = buffer.getstats(defbuffer1)
desciption=display.input.string("Description",display.SFORMAT_ANY)
fileVar = file.open("/usb1/"..desciption..".csv", file.MODE_WRITE)
file.write(fileVar, "Mean:,"..statsVar.mean.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, "StdDev:,"..statsVar.stddev.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, "Min:,"..statsVar.min.reading.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, "Max:,"..statsVar.max.reading.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, "Relative Time, Reading,,"..desciption.."\n")
for i = 1, defbuffer1.n do
    file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[i]..","..defbuffer1.readings[i]..","..defbuffer1.units[i].. "\n")     
end
file.close(fileVar)
beeper.beep(0.1, 1000) -- ready beep
else
beeper.beep(0.5, 100) -- fail beep
end

edit nevermind found it adding waitevent()

Script above to save custom .csv file (and faster, run script by pressing 'No Script' button)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on June 05, 2019, 07:15:22 pm
KedasProbe:

In the moment I don't know anything about programming the DMM because I still haven't found the time yet. But what strikes me roughly is that you don't query the return value of the button. You don't use the procedure as a function. Forgive me if I am wrong. In other code snippets it looks like this:

Code: [Select]
function set_dci_range()
optionID = display.input.option("Select current range", "1A", "100mA", "10mA", "1mA",
"100uA", "10uA")
if optionID == display.BUTTON_OPTION1 then -- 1A
return 1.0
elseif optionID == display.BUTTON_OPTION2 then -- 100mA
return 100e-3
...

That's just an idea, roughly. Don't know if that'll get you anywhere.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 06, 2019, 07:11:42 am
Because there is no option given, only an OK button, hence I know what they pressed, I only need to wait until they are ready to continue.

But maybe I see if I can make it a cancel button and loop detect when the usb drive is ready.
(but this is only when you forgot to plug in your USB drive, so it shouldn't really be used)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on June 06, 2019, 10:21:50 am
How can I make it wait for the ok button?
It asks the input field even before I presses ok if no USB drive is present. (multiple pop-ups)
and
Because there is no option given, only an OK button, hence I know what they pressed, I only need to wait until they are ready to continue.
...
You only call the ok-button to display, but don't ask when it is pressed, if I understand you correctly. So, option should be "button pressed".

(edit)
something like this:
Code: [Select]
promptID, result = display.waitevent()
...
display.prompt(display.BUTTONS_OK, "some text")
promptID, result = display.waitevent()
 if result == display.BUTTON_OK then
 ...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 06, 2019, 12:00:12 pm
The display.prompt and display.input.option works a little different for the 'input' one it will wait but for the prompt you have to ask to wait apparently.

Can be a good thing if you just want to give some info on the screen but while the measurement is still going.
like display.prompt(display.BUTTONS_OK, "Now is a good time to go get a coffee, it will take a while.")   :)

this is from the manual:
Quote
display.waitevent()
This function causes the instrument to wait for a user to respond to a prompt that was created with a prompt
command.
You can also check which button was pressed but since there was only one I didn't wrote if result==display.BUTTON_OK then because this will always be true.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on June 06, 2019, 01:07:54 pm
Yes. I once ventured out because I believe that synergies in the Forum will develop as a result, not that someone have to be right.  ;)

Your problem sounded to me like display.waitevent() is triggered by other events too. The correct react to a BUTTONS_OK event is of such a fundamental nature that there should be no problems at all. If someones own code doesn't act as expect, it usually helps to play around with alternatives. Once have found something that works, someone should reduce and optimize it back to the core.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Brad O on June 06, 2019, 01:32:24 pm
Hey KedasProbe, can I put that script on our GithHub repo for you?  I also see a couple small improvements I can make.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on June 06, 2019, 07:46:32 pm
Which reminds me, unfortunately the release of the next firmware has been delayed until the end of May.  The team was really hoping to get it out by the end of March but it just wasn't ready with all the features we wanted in it.

Hi Brad,
Is the new firmware getting closer to release? I'm looking forward to seeing the crash bugs with the user added swipe screens be fixed so that I can start implementing few ideas.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on June 06, 2019, 08:50:41 pm
I'm showing a significant voltage drop in the 100V range when doing a simultaneous measurement of voltage and current.  Could anyone else confirm this:

Voltage Range: Auto or 100V, with an input voltage greater than 12V
Input Z: Auto
Current Range: 3A  (the drop is more severe the higher the input current).
I was using the front panel.

I'm seeing drops in voltage close to 50% of the input voltage, which doesn't seem right.  Would like to confirm if it is my unit or a bug. Look at the last half of this graph and see what I mean when I changed the voltage from 12V to 13V back and forth on my powersupply (Green is voltage). Going from 12V to 13V does a range switch from 10V to 100V (Auto mode).  I don't see any issues in the 10V range.  I sent a PM to Brad, but would like to see if anyone here can reproduce this.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: imagiko on June 07, 2019, 03:30:28 am
Hi All -
I just wanted to jump in on this thread as it looks like we have someone from Keithley helping out.
I work with low power BLE/WiFi devices, where current range needs to be dynamic (usually switching between uA to mA). I would like to record these measurements at a fast rate(enough to catch the current transients). To preface, I am not exactly an electronics guy so pardon my limited knowledge.
It looks like the 6500 might be suitable, but I am not entirely sure. I have been reading about burden voltage while measuring these current transients, so how will 6500 fare when making such measurements? I hope someone can pitch in to provide feedback. There is also 7510 that is being discussed, but that is almost 3 times the price of 6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on June 07, 2019, 03:36:46 am
Here is the chart from page 10 of the datasheet.  It lists the burden voltages for each range.  The 7510 is much better for this particular spec, but it is also quite a bit more expensive.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: imagiko on June 07, 2019, 04:01:03 am
So 6500 has upto 170mV burden voltage for upto 10mA range and 7510 has upto 15mV. How to gauge how low is "good enough" for dynamic current measurements, since lower is obviously better?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on June 07, 2019, 04:55:49 am
So 6500 has upto 170mV burden voltage for upto 10mA range and 7510 has upto 15mV. How to gauge how low is "good enough" for dynamic current measurements, since lower is obviously better?
That is just going to depend on your circuit and possibly where you take your reading.  Say your device runs on a battery, and after that battery is some kind of voltage regulator.  If you take the reading between the battery and the voltage regulator, and your regulator can still provide an acceptable voltage to your circuit regardless of the voltage burden, it might not matter at all.

If you take your measurement after the voltage regulator and your circuit cannot handle a voltage drop of 170mV, and the voltage regulator cannot compensate for the drop of that level, then maybe it matters quite a bit.  Unfortunately I think that is something only you can answer, and the answer could change from circuit to circuit. 

For me, it doesn't matter enough to justify the price difference atm.  It is good enough for me, only you can answer if it is good enough for you.  I still would like to have a DMM7510 though.  If this is a important business decision or something along those lines, then maybe you should contact Keithley to see if you could demo both models.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 07, 2019, 06:22:16 am
The burden voltages for the 6500 are about in the normal range. The numbers are upper limits and include the switch resistance so the actual drop may be a little lower. So I would expect some 100 mV for the shunt and the rest from the switch and fuse.

Only the high burden in the 3 A range is odd and makes me worry a little. Much of this would be from the fuse - this is the downside of the HRC fuses used relatively close to the limit. Still it could be quite some self heating effect and thus possible linearity limitations in the 3 A range. One may get better accuracy (especially linearity) in the 10 A range above some 1 A.

The very low burden for the 7510 in the low current ranges is due to using a TIA and not just a shunt. A few meters, but not that many use this for low currents.  With a TIA the actual impedance is inductive (how much depends on the details) - in some circuits this can be a problem, so the low burden can be a little misleading.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on June 07, 2019, 08:00:29 am
The very low burden for the 7510 in the low current ranges is due to using a TIA and not just a shunt.
I suspected that, but I did not see official information anywhere. Do you have any document?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 07, 2019, 08:53:31 am
The very low burden for the 7510 in the low current ranges is due to using a TIA and not just a shunt.
I suspected that, but I did not see official information anywhere. Do you have any document?
Only a strong suspicion, based on the data - it gets very hard to impossible to get that good performance with just with a very small shunt.  A TIA makes absolute sense for the small currents, below some 100 µA. In the 10 mA range it's possibly though not that attractive due to self heating of the sensing resistor.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 07, 2019, 09:22:07 am
Hey KedasProbe, can I put that script on our GithHub repo for you?  I also see a couple small improvements I can make.
Sure, but i changed the code:
I noticed when you add these headers the DMM6500 does sees the .tsp as a .tspa and puts it in the application list instead.
So you need to delete the first 3 lines to use it via 'No Script'.
Code: [Select]
-- $Title: Save Measurement with Statistics
-- $Product: DAQ6510, DMM6500
-- $Description: Save default buffer (defbuffer1) with basic statistics info
if file.usbdriveexists() == 0 then   --
display.prompt(display.BUTTONS_OK, "Please insert a USB flash drive into the front-panel USB port.")    
result = display.waitevent()  -- result isn't used, always button 'ok'
loopcount = 0
while (file.usbdriveexists() == 0 and loopcount<8) -- Wait up to 4 sec for the USB to be mounted after 'ok'
do
loopcount = loopcount + 1
delay(0.5)
end
end
sep=","  -- separator ',' used in the csv file.
--sep=" " --tab may be preferred.
if defbuffer1.n > 0 and file.usbdriveexists() != 0 then
statsVar = buffer.getstats(defbuffer1)
description = display.input.string("Description",display.SFORMAT_ANY)
fileVar = file.open("/usb1/"..description ..".csv", file.MODE_WRITE)
strunit=defbuffer1.units[1]
file.write(fileVar, "Relative Time"..sep.."Reading ("..strunit..")"..sep..sep..description .."\n")
if defbuffer1.n > 4 then
starti = 5
file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[1]..sep..defbuffer1.readings[1]..sep..sep.."Mean:"..sep..statsVar.mean.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[2]..sep..defbuffer1.readings[2]..sep..sep.."StdDev:"..sep..statsVar.stddev.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[3]..sep..defbuffer1.readings[3]..sep..sep.."Min:"..sep..statsVar.min.reading.."\n")
file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[4]..sep..defbuffer1.readings[4]..sep..sep.."Max:"..sep..statsVar.max.reading.."\n")
else
starti = 1
end
for i = starti, defbuffer1.n do
    file.write(fileVar, defbuffer1.relativetimestamps[i]..sep..defbuffer1.readings[i].. "\n")     
end
file.close(fileVar)
beeper.beep(0.1, 1000) -- ready beep
else
beeper.beep(0.5, 100) -- fail beep
end

edit: I made a pull request on github
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on June 07, 2019, 09:50:55 am
result = display.waitevent()  -- result isn't used, always button 'ok'

 ;) :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: windsmurf on June 14, 2019, 03:46:04 am
KICKSTART 2.1.0 released
https://www.tek.com/software/kickstart/2-1-0 (https://www.tek.com/software/kickstart/2-1-0)

This might be a dumb question.... but why is Keithley 2700 on the supported list, but Keithley 2000 is not? 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 14, 2019, 08:16:34 am
About kickstart 2.1, I see the inconsistency of significant digits displayed itn't fixed, sometime 5, sometimes 7.
But it stored the values correctly so not a big issue it just doesn't look professional.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on June 18, 2019, 05:37:11 am
Hi Brad, still wondering when you will be releasing information regarding detailed use of the graphics commands for custom screens. ie can you specify the size of an object button to accomodate more text? Can you change the colour of the header text when creating an object swipe screen, if I add a hex colour code in the parameters it errors saying that only three parameters are allowed.

swipe_id = display.create(display.SCREEN_HOME, display.OBJ_SWIPE, 'Extra Data')

So far I have managed to achieve most of the things I need to but reverse engineering existing code can be a long and frustrating task, especially for a new programmer like myself, so any help would be much appreciated.

Is it possible to remove an obj swipe screen as part of a function to restore normal operation when leaving a script? Trying various methods usually locks up the meter.

A weird problem I have encountered when developing scripts is that when power cycling the meter, it does sometimes freeze if it doesn't like the script, it will hang on the Keithley logo, although the power button still works it comes back in the hung condition. I really thought I had bricked my meter but discovered that the way to solve this is to remove the power plug while displaying the logo, wait at least one minute then reapply power and, usually, this then results in a normal power up sequence.  Your comment on why this happens would be welcome.
Thanks for any information you can release, Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on June 19, 2019, 12:35:28 am
Is it possible to remove an obj swipe screen as part of a function to restore normal operation when leaving a script? Trying various methods usually locks up the meter.

Unfortunately this is a known bug in the current firmware, you can't delete a user-created swipe window. If your script has routines to handle the UI messages from the user created swipe window, once the script is terminated the orphan window will crash your DMM (possibly it's trying to call the routines which are no longer in the memory).

Many months ago Brad told that it's already fixed in the development firmware but unfortunately Tektronix/Keithley hasn't released a new firmware since February. I wish their firmware team was using a modern branch/release flow which separates the development/feature branches from the bug-fix branches which would let them release bug fixes without waiting everything to be tied together. They were expecting to ship the firmware in March but it was delayed until end of May and apparently they missed that target too. My 30+yr software engineer hat tells me that "release often" is the way to go but they may have different limitations/ideas/restrictions in their company, who knows.

I stopped developing apps/scripts for the DMM6500 until the new firmware comes as hitting the crash wall multiple times a hour is very tedious and annoying.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on June 19, 2019, 05:38:39 pm
Why isn't Keithley developing apps to be run from the Apps manager? Seems like this feature is going to waste  :--

I'd love myself a power app instead of running that power script someone posted on here a while back.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on June 20, 2019, 12:13:20 pm
Firstly thank you Cozdas for your information, I too look forward to seeing the new firmware release.
Secondly, hi  drummerdimitri, if you need a more finished version of a power meter script I have one that I have made which is quite easy to use. It allows you to input shunt values, both resistance and wattage (and will warn if you overload it), number of readings with options and a start(repeat)  button. It also displays DUT voltage, shunt voltage, shunt wattage and current on the swipe screen and records all data to three seperate buffers. I am only a beginner at this programming and have managed to create this by reverse engineering parts from various scripts written by others with a few ideas of my own.
I will try to attach a copy to this post. I accept no responsibility if you use it. Don't forget to change the "txt" extension to "tsp" before using, if you have any suggestions  or comments they are most welcome :)
If you install a script on to the DMM6500 you can select and run it from the home screen by touching the "No Script" logo at the very top of the home screen, this will drop down a list of installed scripts and you just need to touch the one you wish to use, easie than going to the apps menu.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 22, 2019, 07:09:49 pm
I made a small script to check the expected burden voltage.

It takes the maximum current in the default buffer and multiplies it with the expected resistance of the DMM6500 + 2 banana leads.
The resistance values are measured values and will vary on your unit/leads but not that much that it will lose its purpose to have an idea of the voltage drop. (for the 10A your leads will be more important to be correct)
https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/dev/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/Check_Burden_Voltage.tsp
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on June 30, 2019, 08:32:31 pm
I wrote a script to measure temperature of any type of thermistor (not just the 3 available from the firmware). It uses the Steinhart-Hart equation and requires the input of the A, B and C coefficients. Hopefully someone will find this useful

Code: [Select]
dmm.measure.func = dmm.FUNC_RESISTANCE

display.clear()
display.changescreen(display.SCREEN_USER_SWIPE)

defaultA = 1.027628774E-3
defaultB = 2.393890857E-4
defaultC = 1.555947964E-7

a = display.input.number("Coefficient A", display.NFORMAT_EXPONENT, defaultA)
b = display.input.number("Coefficient B", display.NFORMAT_EXPONENT, defaultB)
c = display.input.number("Coefficient C", display.NFORMAT_EXPONENT, defaultC)

button = display.input.option("Unit", "\19C", "\19F", "\19K")

while (true)
do
    logR = math.log(dmm.measure.read())

    kelvin = 1. / (a + b * logR + c * (math.pow(logR, 3.)))
    celsius = kelvin - 273.15
    fahrenheit = (celsius * 9. / 5.) + 32.

    if (button == display.BUTTON_OPTION1) or (button == nil) then
        text = string.format("%.3f \19C", celsius)
    elseif button == display.BUTTON_OPTION2 then
        text = string.format("%.3f \19F", fahrenheit)
    else
        text = string.format("%.3f \19K", kelvin)
    end

display.settext(display.TEXT1, text)
end

Title: Re: DM6500 Blown Current Ranges???
Post by: gby on July 04, 2019, 01:28:20 pm
I was using my DMM6500 from the front contacts to measure current.  I had the range set to 3.0 A (auto scale turned off).  I used it successfully for quite a while when an accident led to a high current spike.  Now the DMM6500 white current to common is open circuit.  Fine, I thought, I must have blown the fuse so I twisted the white contact out and checked the fuse.  Fuse looked fine and Ohm meter shows a short.  But after replacing it into the socket the current range is still open circuited.

It acts like something was blown open circuit in the current measurement path inside the instrument....yet the small 3 A fuse inside the contact that is supposed to protect the instrument is fine.

Is there another replaceable fuse somewhere inside the DMM6500?  Any clues how to fix this?

If there is nothing simple I can fix I guess I will have to return the unit to Keithley for repair.  Since it is only 1 year old I assume it would be warranty repair?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 04, 2019, 02:02:34 pm
Maybe some other fuse inside blow first.
You should ask their tech support, they will most likely know what most likely happened.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on July 04, 2019, 02:05:15 pm
There is a 3.5A 1000V fuse inside, you can see it just before the metal cover on this picture:
(https://lygte-info.dk/pic/Keithley/DMM6500/DSC_2487.jpg)

You can see many more pictures in my review: https://lygte-info.dk/review/DMMKeithley%20DMM6500%20UK.html
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: gby on July 04, 2019, 05:05:19 pm
Thanks for the hint and picture HKJ.  I will check it out next week when I am back in the office.  Hopefully it is just that fuse and hopefully they are not hard to order nor real expensive.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: FrenchieRaf on July 05, 2019, 02:29:19 pm
Hi all,
Thanks everyone for this very interesting thread full of valuable information.

May I ask the happy owners of this meter, on the first page Mr Krampmeier said he was worried about the time for switching between measurement functions, has this been fixed?

Do someone know of a video showing this?

For EU folks, what's the cheapest online price including taxes for it?
Thanks!And cheers from France  :)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on July 05, 2019, 02:33:33 pm
Feature requests: make unit shorter and remove fan if possible :).

PS I understand that a single-pcb construction and compatibility with old scanner cards could play a role here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 05, 2019, 03:02:33 pm
I have a couple of question regarding the shunt resistor values for a given measurement.

If for example I am using a shunt resistor rated for 100 A 75 mV does that mean it is safe to use up to 100 A or does it just mean that at 100 A the voltage drop across it will be 75 mV?

Also, can I use the 100 A shunt for lower than 1 A draws or will that result in an inaccurate power reading? What's a good rule to go by?
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on July 05, 2019, 04:38:18 pm
Is there a way to get DCV + ACV readings at the same time without the relay constantly clicking between them?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 05, 2019, 04:41:05 pm
Is there a way to get DCV + ACV readings at the same time without the relay constantly clicking between them?

There are some ranges where they use the same shunt resistor such as 10V and 1A range with a couple of other ranges otherwise you will have to wear those relays out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on July 05, 2019, 04:49:16 pm
Yeah, I saw that discussion when cruising through the thread search for "relay," but that's for voltage + current whereas I'm looking for voltage + voltage. I'd be perfectly happy with a similar solution but even after a bit of fiddling with the ranges I still haven't been able to figure out a click-less combination.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 05, 2019, 05:23:10 pm
For EU folks, what's the cheapest online price including taxes for it?
Thanks!And cheers from France  :)
I saw Farrell is selling it cheap. 808euro (excl. tax)
I also saw conrad.fr is more expensive than conrad.de or .be

edit www.conrad.it (http://www.conrad.it) is 867 (excl. tax)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 05, 2019, 05:26:02 pm
Yeah, I saw that discussion when cruising through the thread search for "relay," but that's for voltage + current whereas I'm looking for voltage + voltage. I'd be perfectly happy with a similar solution but even after a bit of fiddling with the ranges I still haven't been able to figure out a click-less combination.
The only good solution to avoid relays is to buy 2 DMM6500  ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 05, 2019, 05:46:47 pm
For AC + DC there is in theory a way: use the digitizer mode and statistics functions: The average voltage gives the DC value and the std. deviation is equal to the RMS for pure AC. The geometric sum gives AC+DC RMS - this could likely be done in a short script.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 05, 2019, 06:11:53 pm
Is there a way to get DCV + ACV readings at the same time without the relay constantly clicking between them?

The 1A/3A/10A ranges will result in no clicking.  The voltage can be left on Auto, or any range you choose.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on July 05, 2019, 06:25:20 pm
I am after AC/DC, not I/V  ;)

Yeah, I saw that discussion when cruising through the thread search for "relay," but that's for voltage + current whereas I'm looking for voltage + voltage. I'd be perfectly happy with a similar solution but even after a bit of fiddling with the ranges I still haven't been able to figure out a click-less combination.
The only good solution to avoid relays is to buy 2 DMM6500  ;)
You probably meant that as a joke, but right now I have my DMM6500 in parallel with my 34401a for exactly that reason.

Quote
For AC + DC there is in theory a way: use the digitizer mode and statistics functions: The average voltage gives the DC value and the std. deviation is equal to the RMS for pure AC. The geometric sum gives AC+DC RMS - this could likely be done in a short script.
It might just come to that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 05, 2019, 06:46:17 pm
I am after AC/DC, not I/V  ;)

Opps, didn't catch that.  Yeah, there is no range you can select as far as I can tell that will not result in the relays clicking.  Anyways, what you are already doing is probably your best bet.

Although if you don't need fast measurements for both ACV/DCV you could probably put a long delay on one of the measurements to lessen the relay switching (or put a delay on both).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on July 05, 2019, 08:35:54 pm
If I knew how to configure the relay delay, I'd decrease it for more lively updates. The default configuration is no good for browsing.

The problem here is that I factored selling the 34401a into my purchase justification. The buyer's remorse is hitting pretty hard right now.

I know, I know, I'm the dumbass for not finding a datasheet line where they wrote in blood that their 1MS/s digitizing multimeter with a secondary measurement display can actually simultaneously measure the AC and DC content of a waveform at > 1S/s.

Ugh.  :-\
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 06, 2019, 10:43:45 am
The maybe future FFT app may also give you your DC and AC. (assuming they make it right)

On the other hand, what is the lifetime of these relays at such low freq 1Hz. (1 000 000 to 10 000 000 operations?)
obviously we don't want to break them but aren't we over-cautious?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 06, 2019, 03:29:29 pm
What's the deal with the Keithley 2000 being sold new at higher prices than the DMM6500? Are there reasons to stick with the Keithley 2000? Less noise?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on July 06, 2019, 08:00:16 pm
What's the deal with the Keithley 2000 being sold new at higher prices than the DMM6500?

Greediness.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 06, 2019, 08:08:49 pm
Greediness.
The same shops carry both, so I guess that's not it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on July 06, 2019, 08:17:20 pm
The same shops carry both, so I guess that's not it.

Wow, I thought you were talking about NOS on ebay, not shops... Didn't know it's still on sale, I thought it was obsolete more than 10 years ago. Amazing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ruffy91 on July 06, 2019, 08:17:36 pm
Most probably the newer DMM was designed with a cheaper BOM and more modern/better components.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 06, 2019, 08:27:09 pm
Wow, I thought you were talking about NOS on ebay, not shops... Didn't know it's still on sale, I thought it was obsolete more than 10 years ago. Amazing.
It's been the current model until the DMM6500 came out recently. It's obviously still being sold and by high volume sellers too. Those understand the value of shelf space and turnover and won't leave old models laying about in the hopes of selling them at an unrealistic price, so I assume I'm overlooking a demand for them.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on July 07, 2019, 07:28:35 am
Those understand the value of shelf space and turnover and won't leave old models laying about in the hopes of selling them at an unrealistic price, so I assume I'm overlooking a demand for them.

I had the same question, but didn't find much information except some threads on eevblog. Even if we see some measurements of a particular unit, can we rely that all units are like that? I concluded that we can only rely on specs in datasheets. Spec-wise DMM6500 is similar or better than K2000. If one wants performance, then there is better equipment (e.g., 7.5 and 8.5 digit dmms).

[speculation]
What else can be is may be K2000 is in the list of approved equipment to purchase or something.

Anyway, there is an assumption that they are actively sold. But being stocked doesn't mean they make a lot of sales. May be storage space is cheap-enough to not be bothered about selling them. Big warehouses are in the middle of nowhere, it doesn't cost much to build a big hangar.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 07, 2019, 08:32:38 am
In some cases the K2000 is used with computer control, as part of a system and they need a replacement (possibly also new for low volume systems). Sometimes it is also being used to the old meter and some people do not like a touch screen. There could also be some buyers how prefer old an proven over brand new without a proven track record for reliability.

It sometimes happens that some pricing does not make much sense, mistakes are made. A still relatively high inventory of the K2000 could also be a miscalculation from a faster replacement. Sometimes a high price is only there to permit a larger discount.

For the measured performance on individual units, it depends on what to measure. Something like a temperature coefficient or the accuracy of calibration can vary a lot between units.
Other properties like the noise usually does not scatter that much between units - so here one can assume that other units will be similar. There is still some variation in the low frequency noise from thermal sources or popcorn noise of the reference.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rej on July 11, 2019, 07:21:59 am
Hello, I´m searching for a bench multimeter and received a DMM6500 from my supplyer. I´m quiet happy with it, but there is one thing i noticed: There is no exact information about the measurement in full screen mode. It just shows V instead of Vdc or Vac. If the slider tab is active it shows "AC Voltage: Front". I miss this information on the full screen mode. The firmware version of my device is 1.0.01f.

Is it the same on your device? Has this changed with the new firmware?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 11, 2019, 09:07:37 pm
I would like to use my DMM6500 to make general purpose temperature measurements (air, heatsink, liquid etc.).

I read that using a 4 wire RTD is the best way to go about it for accuracy but I'm not sure if the meter has a built in Cold Junction Compensation feature.

Can someone assist me with this?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on July 11, 2019, 09:27:15 pm
I would like to use my DMM6500 to make general purpose temperature measurements (air, heatsink, liquid etc.).

I read that using a 4 wire RTD is the best way to go about it for accuracy but I'm not sure if the meter has a built in Cold Junction Compensation feature.

Can someone assist me with this?

You need cold junction compensation for thermocouples. RTD's are resistors, don't need it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 11, 2019, 09:58:15 pm
I would like to use my DMM6500 to make general purpose temperature measurements (air, heatsink, liquid etc.).

I read that using a 4 wire RTD is the best way to go about it for accuracy but I'm not sure if the meter has a built in Cold Junction Compensation feature.

Can someone assist me with this?

You need cold junction compensation for thermocouples. RTD's are resistors, don't need it.

Good to know thanks!

How do i set the CJC since I am currently using a K-type thermocouple? Manual was too complicated I need a simpler guide.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: windsmurf on July 11, 2019, 11:23:50 pm
Greediness.
The same shops carry both, so I guess that's not it.

Still could be greediness... some companies may have validated/standardized on the 2000 and can only purchase that model, so why reduce prices?   

It might also be getting used as a psychological tool to make people think the DMM6500 is such a bargain.   ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 11, 2019, 11:25:36 pm
How do i set the CJC since I am currently using a K-type thermocouple? Manual was too complicated I need a simpler guide.

Unless you have a scanner card, you can only use the simulated CJC.  Best way I know to calibrate a K-Type is with an insulated cup full of ice with water added ( then wait about 5 mins).  Set your simulated cold junction to 0C/32F.  Then continuously stir the ice water with the thermocouple inside.  Use the relative calculation to compensate to 0C/32F once you have the temperature stabilized.  Record the relative value and put it on a tape/label and attach to the thermocouple so you don't have to do the calibration again in the future.

Or just buy a 4-wire PT100 RTD.  Plug it in, and your pretty much done.  You can go through the calibration procedure above, but they are pretty much spot on from my experience.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 11, 2019, 11:44:42 pm
How do i set the CJC since I am currently using a K-type thermocouple? Manual was too complicated I need a simpler guide.

Unless you have a scanner card, you can only use the simulated CJC.  Best way I know to calibrate a K-Type is with an insulated cup full of ice with water added ( then wait about 5 mins).  Set your simulated cold junction to 0C/32F.  Then continuously stir the ice water with the thermocouple inside.  Use the relative calculation to compensate to 0C/32F once you have the temperature stabilized.  Record the relative value and put it on a tape/label and attach to the thermocouple so you don't have to do the calibration again in the future.

Or just buy a 4-wire PT100 RTD.  Plug it in, and your pretty much done.  You can go through the calibration procedure above, but they are pretty much spot on from my experience.

Great explanation thanks! Will be getting an RTD from Aliexpress should be good enough for my needs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 12, 2019, 05:35:57 am
Is it the same on your device? Has this changed with the new firmware?

It's the same in the latest firmware.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 12, 2019, 07:02:36 am
Hello, I´m searching for a bench multimeter and received a DMM6500 from my supplyer. I´m quiet happy with it, but there is one thing i noticed: There is no exact information about the measurement in full screen mode. It just shows V instead of Vdc or Vac. If the slider tab is active it shows "AC Voltage: Front". I miss this information on the full screen mode. The firmware version of my device is 1.0.01f.

Is it the same on your device? Has this changed with the new firmware?
They do have free space to keep the text bar above with this info visible. (they even have free room for the range without changing the size of the reading)
But what I do for graphs for example is that I go to the internal web page so it's big on my screen, (obviously you need a PC but could be a small one with big monitor)
And yes you can press the touchscreen with your mouse. (although swipe with your mouse isn't that obvious)
Refresh is a bit slower but still fast, and doesn't refresh while doing high sample rates though. (priorities)

edit added screenshots + what is possible:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rej on July 12, 2019, 07:22:06 am
@KedasProbe

Thanks for your answer. I just send an email to Keithley about that topic. Lets see what they think about that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on July 18, 2019, 09:29:50 am
First, thanks to Brad O for trying to help me to find a (somewhat) rational way to by a DMM6500 in Thailand last year. I tried several ways but finally gave it up.

This year however, I decided to bite the dust and try to navigate myself through element14's web page in Thai (the flag button for English does not only change the language - it also sends you to the UK web page that of course cannot sell and ship to Thailand). So with the help of translation tools and dumb luck (there is no way known to me for translating button and menu text, so you just push/choose and hope for the best ...)

I managed to buy a meter more or less blindly  :o
They have now debited my card  :scared: :phew: :-DMM :clap:

I have read most of the thread before, but I would like fresh answers:

1) Can I get the calibration data after I have the serial number? If so, how?

2) Is there a free Kickstart now? Or a test license?

3) I would like to have RS232 or GPIB data out (instrument control is not important for me), but I did not buy any modules. I find them high priced. So I ask if there is a way to set the instrument in 'Talk-Only' mode so that it streams data that can be sniffed by the hobbyist?

Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on July 18, 2019, 02:45:40 pm
Thank you shodan@micron for your information.

I have looked at your LXI page. I do have a RPI3+ w/ a 10inch touch screen in a (tablet-like) case called RasPad. I have used it with Python, but have never used ethernet-stuff. I will put it up as a new project. Thanks.

As for serial data I would still like an answer from Tektronix if it would be possible to sniff measurement data using the PCB pins/edge connector inside the communication cover/slot. I make a living in a field where most PC-related stuff after XP is regarded as unsuited for reliable long time data logging, so Kickstart on a modern laptop PC is not a first choice for me.

And if all else fails I can just buy a communication module  :-/O

PS
I looked at your web site. Do you sell LM399 or LTZ1000 board with measurement data?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on July 18, 2019, 03:03:32 pm
I make a living in a field where most PC-related stuff after XP is regarded as unsuited for reliable long time data logging, so Kickstart on a modern laptop PC is not a first choice for me.
This is not a problem.
You can even communicate with the device via telnet. Those. you need a computer, a network cable and a little bit of C to send and receive commands.

You can also install the Keithley Visa library and control the device through the proposed functions.

Here are examples in different languages.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on July 18, 2019, 08:38:52 pm
1) Can I get the calibration data after I have the serial number? If so, how?

2) Is there a free Kickstart now? Or a test license?

1. No, not normally. After harassing Tek support i got a PDF with the factory calibration report, but that was "an exception".  8)

2. I created an account on tek.com and registered the meter. After that I got a license entitlement for one PC. I even had to ask Tek support "what's this license stuff, anyway?", since it just showed up. Hopefully, this function/offer is still active. The license key gets locked to one specific PC and is valid for 100 years.

Best regards,

eplpwr

Edit: License has part# "KSPROMONL-BASE".
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 18, 2019, 10:56:30 pm
Is there a way to use the USB drive as a Buffer to store more readings or does the DMM6500 only support saving the existing readings onto a USB flash drive?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on July 19, 2019, 12:39:02 am
Thank you MegaVolt and eplpwr

I will look closer at the code. Thanks.

If necessary I will arass them too  >:D . I have documentation from last year that I tried to order with calibration data from Tek's "partner". Like another poster in this thread I found the so-called partner seemingly did not know what I was talking about.

I will also try out the registration regarding the Kickstart license.

Thanks again for your info.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 19, 2019, 07:19:37 pm
About the kickstart license I think this is still valid:
- You can get the one when you register on tek.com touchscreen device promotion from tek (locked to PC when installed, I assume it dies when the PC dies)
- Second one you need to request from the seller (DMM6500 promotion from tek) but you can move it to another PC.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2315400/#msg2315400 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2315400/#msg2315400)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 19, 2019, 07:34:56 pm
Is there a way to use the USB drive as a Buffer to store more readings or does the DMM6500 only support saving the existing readings onto a USB flash drive?

I don't believe that is possible. If you need to do long term logging that would fill the buffer, you can use KickStart on your PC.  There are some limitations when it comes to maximum sampling rate using KickStart, but you can set the "Measure Count" to infinite.

If you don't have your KickStart license yet, create an account on tek.com and register your DMM.  You should get a free license that will be locked to the single computer you install it on.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 19, 2019, 07:54:04 pm
Is there a way to use the USB drive as a Buffer to store more readings or does the DMM6500 only support saving the existing readings onto a USB flash drive?

Not sure with normal mode but if you use the scan feature you can have the DMM write the readings to USB after each scan (in various formats). It might be possible to define a pseudo scan card and "use" that too but I haven't played with pseudo scan cards yet so not sure about this. You can of course buy a physical scan card or make one (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2401032/#msg2401032)

Alternatively you can write a small script running in a loop on the DMM (no computer connection needed) to read the value and write to a usb file in whatever format you want. With the scripting capabilities the device is very versatile, you should be able to come up with multiple solutions to save readings to usb file.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 26, 2019, 01:21:53 pm
I updated the save to USB script uses the startindex now but requires a lot more code just to do that.
Should be lower level stuff though not script code, I don't care where the first measurement is located, 1 should be the first measurement.

Anyway if you open the old csv file in excel and press 'sort' you will have the exact same result.
https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/pr/5/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/Save_Measurement.tsp
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 27, 2019, 10:51:13 am
I must say that the webinterface is very convenient, while I'm sitting in my quiet living room writing/testing some script code the DMM6500 is upstairs humming away. (for the DM3068 I had to write a .net program to see the screen remotely)
The only thing missing would be wake on LAN  ;D
And display.lightstate = display.STATE_LCD_OFF is luckily not changing the webinterface :)
(50% brightness: display.STATE_LCD_50)

About noise:
Is there a way to objectively measure the hum when the DMM6500 in standby because my DMM6500 is louder than the one at work although the one home is newer, is there a objective spec for that?
I know there was a problem with hum in the past that should be fixed but I don't know it this hum is within specifications or not. It could be that I'm just very lucky with the one at work.

In standby the DMM6500 is louder than the Rigol DM3068 but when on the DM3068 is louder.

edit: I did notice that it did turn the display on again without asking, maybe some timer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 27, 2019, 01:34:15 pm
Does it make noise in standby?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 27, 2019, 02:03:22 pm
Does it make noise in standby?
Not fan noise because they are off but you can hear the mains hum.  (hence my question)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 29, 2019, 01:51:15 am
Some more information for you guys! :)

You can watch the video here: [48 Minutes]

youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo (https://youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 29, 2019, 04:23:30 am
This video really makes me wish I waited and picked up a DAQ6510 vs the DMM6500.  I do foresee the DMM6500 going up on eBay eventually since 9 out of 10 times I use my other meter, while the DMM6500 mostly just logs temperature continuously.  No real complaints though, it does a great job logging those temps :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 29, 2019, 09:21:35 am
But the very most of them you can do with dmm6500 and scancard too?  :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 29, 2019, 09:44:51 am
Some more information for you guys! :)

You can watch the video here: [48 Minutes]

youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo (https://youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo)
What took you that long ;) nice to get some extra example of configuring a trigger and yes FFT please :)
Tip: if you just want to demo a new script you can just record the webinterface (no camera setup etc, saves time)
I may make one later this week.

I couldn't justify the extra price for the DAQ6510 + Cards though, most of it is present in the DMM6500 and I would probably not use the cards very often assuming I would buy one.
edit: Also the DMM6500 has a 10A input at the back while the DAQ6510 is limited to 3A with a high burden voltage.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 29, 2019, 10:03:53 am
But the very most of them you can do with dmm6500 and scancard too?  :popcorn:
A K2000 or DMM6500 with scan card is effectively a DAQ, unless I'm missing something.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on July 29, 2019, 11:24:47 am
But the very most of them you can do with dmm6500 and scancard too?  :popcorn:
A K2000 or DMM6500 with scan card is effectively a DAQ, unless I'm missing something.

Pretty much yes. That is clearly reflected in the price difference.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on July 29, 2019, 11:38:22 am
But the very most of them you can do with dmm6500 and scancard too?  :popcorn:
A K2000 or DMM6500 with scan card is effectively a DAQ, unless I'm missing something.
Yes. One can use other and more scancards (Firmware). But the measuring, triggersystem and possibilities is apparently identical?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 29, 2019, 12:55:50 pm
Some more information for you guys! :)

You can watch the video here: [48 Minutes]

youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo (https://youtu.be/Lezd27BzQLo)
What took you that long ;) nice to get some extra example of configuring a trigger and yes FFT please :)
...

I have been so busy and this poor instrument was waiting for review.

Review videos honestly take the most time. I can do two or even three repair videos in a weekend, but reviews can take many days. I have to make sure I do the instrument justice and highlight its strengths and weaknesses in a fair and relevant way by designing experiments, study data sheet and since nothing is scripted I have to make sure I am not being verbose at all.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 29, 2019, 03:18:43 pm
I couldn't justify the extra price for the DAQ6510 + Cards though, most of it is present in the DMM6500 and I would probably not use the cards very often assuming I would buy one.
edit: Also the DMM6500 has a 10A input at the back while the DAQ6510 is limited to 3A with a high burden voltage.

Yes, I couldn't justify the price difference at the time either when I picked up the DMM6500.

The 7700 series scan cards are obviously more versatile.  The 7700 card having both a CJT and 2x relays dedicated for up to 3A current.  The 2000-SCAN also has two relays for current measurement but they are 1A max, and can only be used with shunt resistors to measure the voltage drop (so no actual direct current measurement as far as I can tell).

For the most part I was happy with the DMM6500 since you had the option to do simultaneous V/I measurements, although there is a serious flaw with that either in hardware or software (not sure which since Keithley went dead silent after I pointed it out to them). I can only guess its in the hardware, but who knows since they won't discuss it.

Either way I became a bit more interested in picking up a scan card, but obviously prefer something like a 7700 card over the 2000-SCAN.  Regardless, I don't see myself buying a DAQ6510 any time soon and the DMM7510 doesn't share the V/I measurement flaw that the DMM6500 has, so I'm content for the most part.  Maybe one day I will get the DAQ, but it would be next year time frame at the earliest (if at all).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on July 29, 2019, 05:23:38 pm
although there is a serious flaw with that either in hardware or software (not sure which since Keithley went dead silent after I pointed it out to them). I can only guess its in the hardware, but who knows since they won't discuss it.
Could you clarify the details of this problem?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 29, 2019, 05:49:12 pm
Could you clarify the details of this problem?

Sure.  I mentioned it a 2-3 pages back, but here is the setup and pics below.  This occurs on the 100V range when the circuit is setup to perform simultaneous V/I measurement.  The larger the current in the circuit, the greater the effect.  I chose 9V as the source to make it easy to switch between the 10V and 100V ranges.  I use a 10R power resistor so the current is high, but not high enough to force me to use the 3A range (although the effect in the 3A/10A ranges are the same).

Basic Setup:
-Manually select DCA Range of 1A
-Manually select DCV Range of 10V
-Auto Impedance or 10M impedance is fine

Simple Circuit:
[attach=1]

DMM6500 on 10V/1A Ranges:
[attach=2]

DMM6500 on 100V/1A Ranges (Notice the large unexplained voltage drop):
[attach=3]

For comparison:

DMM7510 on 10V/1A Ranges:
[attach=4]

DMM7510 on 100V/1A Ranges (No large voltage drop):
[attach=5]

You don't have to use the exact values I did for the test circuit, but the more current through the circuit the better, since at very small currents you will not see much of a difference.  Try it with even larger voltages/current and see larger drops that can't be explained solely by burden voltage.

Keithley originally tried to blame my power supply as the problem.  But then I showed them the results using a battery.  They have been silent ever since.  I even asked if I should send my DMM6550 in for warranty work, and they wouldn't even respond to that.  I technically don't even know if it is just my specific DMM6550 that is the problem, but Keithley complete silence is not reassuring.

Edit: All I do is swap the test leads between the DMM6500 and DMM7510, no other changes are made.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on July 29, 2019, 06:05:55 pm
here is the setup and pics below.
How exactly do you connect the device?
For 6500 there is a limit: "Sense terminals on inputs are limited to 10 V range during ratio measurement."
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 29, 2019, 06:08:36 pm
here is the setup and pics below.
How exactly do you connect the device?
For 6500 there is a limit: "Sense terminals on inputs are limited to 10 V range during ratio measurement."

No sense terminals are used.  The circuit diagram shows the connection points, and the polarity of the measurements in the pictures confirms which terminals I used.

Here are some pics.  Hopefully the wire colors make it clearer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 29, 2019, 06:37:10 pm
I would love if someone else could confirm my findings, since I still really don't know if it is just isolated to my particular unit.  There really is nothing I can find to explain the behavior, and my test setup is identical between two different meters.

Also, there is of course no problem measuring current or voltage separately (meaning either a connection to the Amp input or to the HI input, but not both simultaneously).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 29, 2019, 06:45:55 pm
here is the setup and pics below.
How exactly do you connect the device?
For 6500 there is a limit: "Sense terminals on inputs are limited to 10 V range during ratio measurement."

No sense terminals are used.  The circuit diagram shows the connection points, and the polarity of the measurements in the pictures confirms which terminals I used.

Here are some pics.  Hopefully the wire colors make it clearer.

I will try this with the DAQ tonight.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 30, 2019, 01:47:24 am
I tried the same thing as your setup. Both with a battery and with a power supply. I could not replicate the issue. The instrument reports the correct results.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 30, 2019, 01:58:04 am
I would love if someone else could confirm my findings, since I still really don't know if it is just isolated to my particular unit.  There really is nothing I can find to explain the behavior, and my test setup is identical between two different meters.

Also, there is of course no problem measuring current or voltage separately (meaning either a connection to the Amp input or to the HI input, but not both simultaneously).

I wonder if this has something to do with the relay timings and/or measurement delays. Have you tried with different integration times (NPLC, repeat filters etc)?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 03:18:30 am
I wonder if this has something to do with the relay timings and/or measurement delays. Have you tried with different integration times (NPLC, repeat filters etc)?

There are no relays switching during the testing, except when you manually choose the 100V range (no relay switching occurs on the 1A/3A/10A ranges with simultaneous measurements).  NPLC/filter has no effect.  You do not have to technically even be doing a simultaneous measurement,  it will occur only measuring voltage.  But the circuit has to be wired up to do a simultaneous V/I measurement: Common LO, amp input near the low side of circuit, HI input where appropriate.  Anyways, alot of people here have actual DMM6500, and it is a simple enough circuit to duplicate.

It can of course be done using a power supply and electronic load as well, just better to make sure you are pulling around 1A or above.  It is not really apparent at all if you are only drawing say 1mA.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 03:22:04 am
I tried the same thing as your setup. Both with a battery and with a power supply. I could not replicate the issue. The instrument reports the correct results.

Dr. Shahriar, your pictures both show 10V range, and it only occurs when you select the 100V range.  Did you happen to try manually going to the 100V range?  I really appreciate you trying this out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 03:56:19 am
Very strange! Can you check (with a separate meter across the battery) if  DMM6500 is reporting incorrect voltage? Presumably that is the case since the current does not change as you switch the voltage range.

If so, it could be a error in their switch matrix for different ranges. My guess: 100V range usually gets divided by 100 before ADC, so the actual voltage measured is about 0.09V. Somehow a fraction of the current burden voltage gets subtracted from it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 04:16:06 am
Very strange! Can you check (with a separate meter across the battery) if  DMM6500 is reporting incorrect voltage? Presumably that is the case since the current does not change as you switch the voltage range.

If so, it could be a error in their switch matrix for different ranges.

Yes this has already been done with 3 different meters.  Only the DMM6500 that is doing the simultaneous measurement shows the problem.

Anyways here is an example using two SMUs to source 15V and sink ~1A, the DMM6500 to do a simultaneous measurement, and the DMM7510 to measure the voltage.  Same problem occurs with only the DMM6500.

[attach=1]
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 04:24:26 am
Thanks. Its clear that  either your meter has a bad FET or Keithley screwed up this fairly basic configuration.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 30, 2019, 05:05:08 am
There are no relays switching during the testing, except when you manually choose the 100V range (no relay switching occurs on the 1A/3A/10A ranges with simultaneous measurements).  NPLC/filter has no effect.  You do not have to technically even be doing a simultaneous measurement,  it will occur only measuring voltage.  But the circuit has to be wired up to do a simultaneous V/I measurement: Common LO, amp input near the low side of circuit, HI input where appropriate.  Anyways, alot of people here have actual DMM6550, and it is a simple enough circuit to duplicate.

It can of course be done using a power supply and electronic load as well, just better to make sure you are pulling around 1A or above.  It is not really apparent at all if you are only drawing say 1mA.

I see. I don't have DMM6550, I only have DMM6500 but tried a similar setup with it (I used separate current and voltage sources).

I see the same problem: In DC voltage mode if you pass some current through the amps-common connectors, the voltage is misreported. Passing 1A through the amps terminal causes ~ -45mV error in voltage measurement in 10V range, and ~-2.6V error in 100V and 1000V ranges. Halving the current causes the voltage measurement error to halve too.

There seems to be a cross-talk from amps circuit in voltage mode indeed.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 05:09:50 am
I see the same problem: In DC voltage mode if you pass some current through the amps-common connectors, the voltage is misreported. Passing 1A through the amps terminal causes ~ -45mV error in voltage measurement in 10V range, and ~-2.6V error in 100V and 1000V ranges. Halving the current causes the voltage measurement error to halve too.

There seems to be a cross-talk from amps circuit in voltage mode indeed.

Thank you.  I really appreciate you confirming this for me.  My guess is that Keithley knows something is wrong as well, but the lawyers are not allowing them to talk to us about it.  Still it would be nice to have a couple more people confirm the same problem with their units as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 05:24:47 am
If this is a problem for all DMM6500 meters and even exists to a significant extend on the 10V (and perhaps other) ranges, its a fairly major flaw. Its surprising it took over a year since the instrument was introduced to discover it. These boards really help to ferret out the flaws.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 30, 2019, 05:30:41 am
Here is the simplified bug repro steps for people to test it (Edit: even simpler steps)
- switch to DC volts, 100V range
- short the Input High and Input Low: you should read ~0V on the display
- While still in DCV mode pass DC 1A through the Amps-Input Low terminals: Now you will read a large value (-2.6V in my case)

I also tested with the rear terminals: If you use the rear 10Amp therminal, the error in voltage reading is around only -5mV in all ranges. Rear 3Amp terminal behaves the same as the front terminals: -2.6V error for 1A in 100V range.

therefore the workaround is:
If you need to pass current through the DMM while measuring voltage use the rear 10Amp terminal. This will reduce the voltage reading error significantly.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on July 30, 2019, 05:31:01 am
Hi, thanks to everyone for highlighting this serious problem. I have just checked and my 6500 exhibits the same problem. There is indeed a small (but totally unnacceptable) error introduced on the 10v range and an enormous error on the 100v and 1000v ranges, the meter certainly is not within spec under these conditions. I will try to upload a couple of pictures later today.
Regards all, Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 30, 2019, 06:36:24 am
I couldn't fall asleep, so I went and tried it again.

I can confirm that I see the problem with the DAQ6510 as well. At 1A there is an offset of -2.6V present in the 100V range and about 80mV in ranges < 100V.

I will discuss this with my Keithley support contact.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 06:39:03 am
I couldn't fall asleep, so I went and tried it again.

I can confirm that I see the problem with the DAQ6510 as well. At 1A there is an offset of -2.6V present in the 100V range and about 80mV in ranges < 100V.

I will discuss this with my Keithley support contact.

Thanks for checking again and confirming.  I have to say I was kind of hoping the DAQ wouldn't have the problem as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 30, 2019, 06:41:58 am
I couldn't fall asleep, so I went and tried it again.

I can confirm that I see the problem with the DAQ6510 as well. At 1A there is an offset of -2.6V present in the 100V range and about 80mV in ranges < 100V.

I will discuss this with my Keithley support contact.

Thanks for checking again and confirming.  I have to say I was kind of hoping the DAQ wouldn't have the problem as well.

Both the DMM and DAQ have the same architecture, so it makes sense that they share the issue. I am curious as to why the DMM7510 doesn't have this problem.

I wonder if this can be fixed in firmware; I am skeptical, because the instrument normally can't tell if there is current going through the other terminal without switching some relays at low current ranges.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 06:46:26 am
I also tested with the rear terminals: If you use the rear 10Amp therminal, the error in voltage reading is around only -5mV in all ranges. Rear 3Amp terminal behaves the same as the front terminals: -2.6V error for 1A in 100V range.
If the error is present at some level on all current and voltage ranges it suggests a problem with the ground reference point. This might not be so easy to fix. Even a 5 mV error is well outside the spec on most ranges. I wonder if it says in the manual somewhere that simultaneous current flow and voltage measurements are not allowed. Or perhaps in the process of simplifying the design of the DMM7510 they went a bit too far.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 06:59:20 am
If this is a problem for all DMM6500 meters and even exists to a significant extend on the 10V (and perhaps other) ranges, its a fairly major flaw. Its surprising it took over a year since the instrument was introduced to discover it. These boards really help to ferret out the flaws.

I reported the problem back on page 21 about 1.5 months ago, and started engaging with Keithley about the problem at the same time.  I think the fact that they went completely silent and refused to continue to communicate with me after I sent them a video I recorded fully demonstrating my setup and the problem speaks volumes.  They must have confirmed the problem but don't currently have a solution to it.

I didn't want to make a fuss about it since I never knew until now if it was just my unit or not.

This might not be so easy to fix. Even a 5 mV error is well outside the spec on most ranges. I wonder if it says in the manual somewhere that simultaneous current flow and voltage measurements are not allowed.

Secondary measurements are feature of the device and I never remember reading anything that would imply such a problem.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 07:27:09 am
When measuring current, one should sense voltage directly across the current shunt. When measuring voltage, one should sense voltage directly across input terminals. One possibility is that they "saved" on one switch that moves the ground reference of the ADC from one point to the other, so it now includes a voltage drop across some internal traces.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on July 30, 2019, 07:44:59 am
When measuring current, one should sense voltage directly across the current shunt. When measuring voltage, one should sense voltage directly across input terminals. One possibility is that they "saved" on one switch that moves the ground reference of the ADC from one point to the other, so it now includes a voltage drop across some internal traces.

That sounds like it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 07:50:07 am
When measuring current, one should sense voltage directly across the current shunt. When measuring voltage, one should sense voltage directly across input terminals. One possibility is that they "saved" on one switch that moves the ground reference of the ADC from one point to the other, so it now includes a voltage drop across some internal traces.

I thought I remember someone where in this thread the shunt resistor values were confirmed.  Although not sure where exactly that was.  Maybe that would help you with your theory.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on July 30, 2019, 08:43:01 am
A year back this poster showed similar results - aprox 0.3V/1Amp.
With 100V range aprox 3V/1A then?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1781402/#msg1781402 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1781402/#msg1781402)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 08:47:09 am
A year back this poster showed similar results - aprox 0.3V/1Amp.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1781402/#msg1781402 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1781402/#msg1781402)

I don't any problem at all on the 1V range, which all those pictures indicate.  Doesn't appear related unless I'm missing something.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on July 30, 2019, 08:54:34 am
Does anyone have link to the manual that shows this setup?
Couldn't find it myself.
I'm curious to know how this is supposed to work with a shared common terminal without introducing errors.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 09:01:19 am
Does anyone have link to the manual that shows this setup?
Couldn't find it myself.
I'm curious to know how this is supposed to work with a shared common terminal without introducing errors.

I don't remember there being any diagram for a measurement setup demonstrating the dual V/I measurement.  Regardless, you pretty much have to do your current measurement on the low side after your load, and your HI input closer to the source.  I made a diagram of the measurement I made using a battery which should be a page back at the most.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2578767/#msg2578767 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2578767/#msg2578767)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on July 30, 2019, 09:38:06 am
Found yours, There you show two separate gnd lines from the voltage and the current meter, in reality
it is one and any voltage drop on it (caused by the current flow) wil add (or subtract rather) to your
voltage reading.
Inside the meter there is also voltage drop on the current shunt and fuse also introducing error unless
 they switch around the gnd-ref point for the adc.

Dave's 121gw also has a similar "feature".
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on July 30, 2019, 09:52:32 am
What you get if the Voltage is secondary?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 30, 2019, 10:55:05 am
I guess the problem will be similar when I tried to measure the voltage drop
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2427312/#msg2427312 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2427312/#msg2427312)
For the 100mA ranges there was a relays switching that made the readings wrong:

This was the given explanation:
Ah, my bad on not explaining this, the relay switching will cause brief discontinuities in the AMPS terminal so the Rigol that's not synced to the switching would measure a higher resistance.  If you hook a scope up to the terminals you should be able to see this.  The discontinuity happens because voltage measurements happen while the current range relay is in the 1A/3A position.  So if the relay isn't already in that position it will be forced there.  I'm not totally sure all the reasons that position is required, but I believe part of it is to prevent noise from reaching the voltage measurement circuitry. 

So anyway, it's best to use the 1A/3A ranges if you want to continuously measure burden voltage with this method.


Maybe an old firmware should be tested to see if it was introduced later or if it was always like that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 01:57:36 pm
Found yours, There you show two separate gnd lines from the voltage and the current meter, in reality
it is one and any voltage drop on it (caused by the current flow) wil add (or subtract rather) to your
voltage reading.
Inside the meter there is also voltage drop on the current shunt and fuse also introducing error unless
 they switch around the gnd-ref point for the adc.

Dave's 121gw also has a similar "feature".

Are you referring to my little circuit drawing for the test from the battery?  It was just a drawing and there is only a single reference point to ground regardless of how many wires I showed.  Either way, I showed actual pictures of the wires from the DMM and connected to the battery, there really shouldn't be any confusion.

As to the voltage drop across the test leads, we are talking about 40mOhm leads here.  The drop across them is completely insignificant compared to the 2.6-2.8V drop we are seeing at 1A.  It is arguing that the number should be 2.56V instead of 2.60V.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding what you are trying to say, pretty tired atm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 30, 2019, 03:41:21 pm
Hi,

I tested it with my DMM6500 but I simplified the schematic a little (yes that's possible)
I just connected a current source to the DMM6500 and shorted the voltage terminals with 50 Ohm.
So I should get 0 Volt all the time:

I got this: no sound, sorry, when the voltage changes to -2.47V instead of -36mV, it is still -36mV on the terminals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-Bcm8TbW4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-Bcm8TbW4)


edit: one more thing I didn't have a relays sound on 100V range (the same like lower ranges)
edit2:
When no resistor is connected then for 1.00A I get -21mV for voltage (and much more in the 100v range and up)
When I short the voltage terminals I get -38mV (and again much more for 100V range and up)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 03:53:30 pm
Hi,

I tested it with my DMM6500 but I simplified the schematic a little (yes that's possible)
I just connected a current source to the DMM6500 and shorted the voltage terminals with 50 Ohm.
So I should get 0 Volt all the time

Nice demonstration.  Thanks. 

Edit: I did see about the same sourcing 1A from one of the SMU when I tried.  I like this method, but I wanted to post what I thought was simpler: a 9V battery and a 10Ohm resistor.  I would guess that a lot of people don't actually have a precision current source (but have batteries and voltage sources) and my goal was to have as many people as possible test their DMM6500. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 06:57:21 pm
This is a good general test setup: flow 1 A into current input, short out the voltage input and measure the voltage. It would be interesting to test DMM7510 and other meters in this way to measure the internal common terminal voltage drop. It depends  on details of construction, can be different for front vs. rear terminals.

In DMM6500 it seems they make a mistake of connecting the 100:1 voltage divider to the common before the current shunts.  This has the effect of amplifying the voltage drop by a factor of 100 on 100V and 1000V ranges.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 30, 2019, 07:00:36 pm
Edit: I did see about the same sourcing 1A from one of the SMU when I tried.  I like this method, but I wanted to post what I thought was simpler: a 9V battery and a 10Ohm resistor.  I would guess that a lot of people don't actually have a precision current source (but have batteries and voltage sources) and my goal was to have as many people as possible test their DMM6500.
I'm pretty sure anyone with a DMM6500/DAQ6510 has a power supply with max. current protection.
That's what you see in my video, the max current protection doing its job.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 07:05:00 pm
OK, let's not argue. JxR gets the credit of finding this flaw after a lot of people used the meter for a year.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 07:26:01 pm
I'm pretty sure anyone with a DMM6500/DAQ6510 has a power supply with max. current protection.
That's what you see in my video, the max current protection doing its job.

Cool.  My mistake, and I didn't actually try it this way myself.  But yeah its essentially the same as using a dedicated current source.

Overall, I guess I'm glad I am no longer alone with the flaw since it tells me I'm not crazy ;D ...but then again it would have been better if it was only my unit since I could have just sent it in for warranty service and no one would have to suffer with me.

I guess the next question is what should we do about it.  All start requesting warranty service from Keithley for our meters? 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 07:30:36 pm
OK, let's not argue. JxR gets the credit of finding this flaw after a lot of people used the meter for a year.

I certainly don't think about it this way.  If I'm going to be honest I was a tad frustrated that no one was willing to do the test a ~month ago when I first said something.  Although, that is on me for not being more vocal about it, providing more data, and test scenarios.  I guess I felt that I was still new to the forum and didn't want to be a prick about it.  Keithley refusing to talk to me about it also kind of messed with mind.

I'm a career IT and have only been playing at EE for a few years now.  Most of you are way more knowledgeable than I am and I'm just glad your here to help me out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 07:50:24 pm
I just tested Keysight 34470 in this way. It has an -81 mV offset for 1 A current on 3 A terminal  and -4mV offset on 10 A terminal. But these numbers don't change on any voltage ranges.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 30, 2019, 07:50:46 pm
I guess the next question is what should we do about it.  All start requesting warranty service from Keithley for our meters?
Simple we push until we get a good answer. ;)
You will see I added the link of the tek forum in the description of the youtube video.
It's their support forum they should use it wisely.

Could be one of the reasons why their latest firmware update is delayed.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 07:59:15 pm
Simple we push until we get a good answer. ;)
You will see I added the link of the tek forum in the description of the youtube video.
It's their support forum they should use it wisely.
Thanks. I put in a reply to the topic as well.

Could be one of the reasons why their latest firmware update is delayed.
I admit I have wondered about this myself.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 30, 2019, 08:38:33 pm
There probably is nothing that can be done about it - it kind of a HW point. It is quite normal to have the actual central ground point at the "negative" side of the shunt chain. So there is a drop to the common terminal and this is measured. The unusual point is having the divider connected the way to get the extra signal.  Anyway, when there is a current flowing, the voltage reading is no longer valid. This could be annoying when using the dual measurement mode. Anyway a shared terminal should also be suspicious.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 08:42:34 pm
I just tested Keysight 34470 in this way. It has an -81 mV offset for 1 A current on 3 A terminal  and -4mV offset on 10 A terminal. But these numbers don't change on any voltage ranges.

The DMM7510 was -35mV on the 3A terminal in all voltage ranges, and -3.5mV in all voltage ranges on the 10A terminal with a 1A source.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 30, 2019, 08:55:48 pm
Anyway, when there is a current flowing, the voltage reading is no longer valid. This could be annoying when using the dual measurement mode. Anyway a shared terminal should also be suspicious.

I would certainly not argue against your expertise in the matter, but why should we expect the meter not to perform as specified when doing dual measurements?  It is a feature of this meter and documented in the manual.  The only warning in the manual concerning dual measurements has to do with wear on the relays.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 30, 2019, 09:28:02 pm
I just tested Keysight 34470 in this way. It has an -81 mV offset for 1 A current on 3 A terminal  and -4mV offset on 10 A terminal. But these numbers don't change on any voltage ranges.
The DMM7510 was -35mV on the 3A terminal in all voltage ranges, and -3.5mV in all voltage ranges on the 10A terminal with a 1A source.
Maybe somebody can test an HP3458 in this way for reference.

There probably is nothing that can be done about it - it kind of a HW point. It is quite normal to have the actual central ground point at the "negative" side of the shunt chain. So there is a drop to the common terminal and this is measured.
This is certainly the easiest way to do it, but on a meter that can do 4-wire Ohms measurement it should be possible to move the ground reference of the ADC closer to the input terminal.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on July 30, 2019, 10:27:11 pm
Maybe somebody can test an HP3458 in this way for reference.

It is getting late here today, but maybe tomorrow I can try to do this test on my DMM6500 and two 3458As, as well as previous generation of Keithley (2015 and 2001).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on July 30, 2019, 11:36:47 pm
Possible explanation of the issue with the small 9V battery and the 10ohm resistor:

1. the first picture at 10V range shows
PRIM: 9V -> battery voltage when NOT LOADED by 10ohm
SEC: 0.87A -> the current when 10ohm connected to the battery

2. the second picture at 100V shows
PRIM: 6.7V -> battery voltage when LOADED by the 10ohm
SEC: 0.87A -> the current when 10ohm connected to the battery

My current understanding is the 10V range and 100V range differ in the way "when or how" they switch the internals in the measurement sequence.

Thus it is not a drop on the shunt or a 100V range defect, but the 6.7V is the voltage of the battery when loaded by the 10ohm. You may try to connect the 10ohm directly to the battery and measure the voltage at the battery.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 31, 2019, 12:23:01 am
Thus it is not a drop on the shunt or a 100V range defect, but the 6.7V is the voltage of the battery when loaded by the 10ohm. You may try to connect the 10ohm directly to the battery and measure the voltage at the battery.

All of those possibilities are eliminated in the posts above. DMM reads -2.7V with the input Hi and Lo shorted when 1A passes through the amps terminal.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 31, 2019, 01:07:28 am
Most of these meters have DC Ratio function that measures separately voltage on sense terminals. So, one could setup an I-V function, where the voltage is measured by sense terminals and current is measured using the common and current terminals. This would eliminate the internal voltage drop problems.

However, since the maximum voltage range of sense terminals is 10V, it wouldn't allow higher voltage measurements that are particularly bad on the DMM6500
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hugoneus on July 31, 2019, 02:59:32 am
I tried two other meters:

Keithley 2015 THD: 14.5mV offset is observed on all scales. It is constant.
Keysight 34470A: 75mV offset is observed on all scales. It is constant.

I can try this on several other models (Keysight, Rigol, Siglent, etc.) if you guys really want to see.  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on July 31, 2019, 05:55:05 am
I just tried on Rigol DM3068. 1A into Amp connector, set to volts, it is cca -15mV , all Volt ranges .
DM3068 doesn't have simultaneous I/V function.
MTX3293 shows 5mV, all ranges, it does have VA function.

Regards,
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on July 31, 2019, 07:42:35 am
Fluke 8842A: -35mV for 1A in all ranges.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on July 31, 2019, 08:57:07 am
I tried two other meters:

Keithley 2015 THD: 14.5mV offset is observed on all scales. It is constant.
Keysight 34470A: 75mV offset is observed on all scales. It is constant.

I can try this on several other models (Keysight, Rigol, Siglent, etc.) if you guys really want to see.  :-//

Perhaps you can do a video where you hunt down the cause of this offset and explain the reason why it is there.
Tell about proper measurement techniques etc.
 
On the keithley it would be interesting to see where that jump in the 100 Volt range is coming from.

 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 31, 2019, 03:32:16 pm
Hi,

I made another script to make things easier:
When you have a sensor output 0-10V or 4-20mA or ... you usually want to see the right values live.
You can enter m and b of  Y=m.X+b in the menu but usually your sensor documentation isn't m and b but 2 points of that line, so you can take your calculator... but the DMM6500 is a calculator so why not let it do it for you, hence this script enter two points and it will update m and b for you.

It also allows to set a unit to change 'X' I don't think you can do that in the menu, unfortunately limited to 2 char.
(this avoids confusion)

No sound video example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRxszpR76I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRxszpR76I)

Script:
https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/dev/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/LinearConversion.tsp (https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/dev/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/LinearConversion.tsp)


edit: If you just want to do a current measurement and convert your resistor voltage drop to current, just enter
X1=0 and Y1=0  (no current if no voltage is present)
X2 = the known resistor value (volt but think ohm)
Y2=1 (1A if voltage = resistor value)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 31, 2019, 03:44:28 pm
The offset comes from the resistance from the banana plug at the common input to the internal zero point, that is usually at the lowest shunt. This includes the double plugs, so it's not even all from the meter. It is a pronciple problem to use the same terminal for a high current and precision voltage - these don't go together. So the cross coupling is not a surprise at all.

A solution for the problem could be using the Ohms sense terminal at least for the common side of the voltage measurement. Depending on how the 4 wire ohms is implemented this could be relatively easy and more like just a software thing. As the meter supports ratio measurements via the Ohms sense terminals it should be possible to use them, from the HW side - though one may still need an external link. The difference between the voltage negative side and current terminal is limited, but should be good enough for the offset.

The higher shift for the 100/1000 V ranges is likely due to the point where the divider is connected. If the shift adds after the divider the number gets high.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on July 31, 2019, 09:44:37 pm
I've tested most of my meters. Sourced 1A into the current terminals, confirmed by switching to the current function and then switched to DCV and went through the ranges.

Only DMM6500 has this problem, above 10V range 25mV becomes 2.5V.
Other DMMs (2 x 3458A, K2001, K2015, 34401A) usually on lower ranges behave as nothing is connected (collecting charge) and on higher ranges are close to zero, both are to be expected.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on July 31, 2019, 10:00:53 pm
Did you short out (or put some resistor) across the voltage inputs of the meters? Otherwise, they do read zero but its not an accurate representation of what happens if some voltage source is connected.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: lukier on July 31, 2019, 10:47:31 pm
Did you short out (or put some resistor) across the voltage inputs of the meters? Otherwise, they do read zero but its not an accurate representation of what happens if some voltage source is connected.

No, I forgot to short them, hence why on low ranges they were collecting charge (GOhms). But they behaved exactly the same when nothing is connected (also to current input) so I assume it is fine. DMM6500 was also tested the same way and yet it showed 2.5V out of nowhere, on 10MOhm ranges that don't accumulate that much charge.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on August 01, 2019, 04:47:31 am
I don't know if I am missing something but Brad O states clearly in reply 271 (either page 16 or 17 ish) that the 6500 cannot measure volts and current together, maybe the answer is as simple as that? :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on August 01, 2019, 04:48:31 am
Sorry I meant page 11 or 12 ish  |O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on August 01, 2019, 05:10:28 am
He said "MegaVolt is right, the DMM6500 can't measure Voltage and Current simultaneously" - which is right, none of DMMs can measure two things really simultaneously (one needs a simultaneous-sampling DAQ for that).

But it should be possible to measure voltage while current is still flowing through the terminals. In a setup where a DMM is used to measure current it is impractical to keep disconnecting the current for measuring voltage, and it  also changes the circuit because of burden voltage change.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on August 01, 2019, 05:31:04 am
It looks like that with the current software, they can not measure voltage accurately with significant current flowing. This can't work using the same terminal: there would be at least some resistance in and between the plugs in the common terminal.  The error may be acceptable at low currents, e.g. in the mA range if the voltage is not that low (10 V range). The higher voltage ranges seem to have an additional problem with the DMM6500 from the odd connection of the divider.

In theory they should be able to add this feature with a modified software, if the sense terminal (likely Ohms sens low) is used for the "negative" side of the voltage reading, at least for low voltages 0.1 ..10 V ranges. The 100 V range won't work well with the divider directly to common terminal. To some degree the sense terminals could be seen as secondary inputs and they are used like this in the ratio mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on August 01, 2019, 06:06:39 am
Did you short out (or put some resistor) across the voltage inputs of the meters? Otherwise, they do read zero but its not an accurate representation of what happens if some voltage source is connected.

No, I forgot to short them, hence why on low ranges they were collecting charge (GOhms). But they behaved exactly the same when nothing is connected (also to current input) so I assume it is fine. DMM6500 was also tested the same way and yet it showed 2.5V out of nowhere, on 10MOhm ranges that don't accumulate that much charge.

Rigol DM3068 also didn't measure anything without shorting voltage input. I guess when shorted, we measure internal voltage drop on that branch of ground caused by current flow...

It all means pretty much nothing. It is using meter outside intended use..
Fact that you can program it, doesn't mean you can do what hardware wasn't meant to do...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on August 01, 2019, 07:19:39 am
What would be the typical "use cases" for such a setup (provided all work fine) with one common terminal? Normally, I would expect something like - to measure a voltage between the nodes A and B, and the current in any wire in my wiring. Thus I would need V+ V- and I+ and I- terminals, all floating.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 01, 2019, 10:45:47 am
Rigol DM3068 also didn't measure anything without shorting voltage input. I guess when shorted, we measure internal voltage drop on that branch of ground caused by current flow...

It all means pretty much nothing. It is using meter outside intended use..
Fact that you can program it, doesn't mean you can do what hardware wasn't meant to do...
When you try second measurement on the DM3068 it shows a pop-up message on the screen that voltage measurement and current measurement can not be combined. Although I think they designed it with the possibility in mind and disabled it later.

It could be that a firmware update just disables the option for the DMM6500
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 03, 2019, 02:39:33 pm
Hi,

Just to let you know that I updated the linear conversion script
https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/dev/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/LinearConversion.tsp (https://github.com/Ken26M/keithley/blob/dev/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/LinearConversion.tsp)

I added a few defaults, including 1 to 1, I let you figure out why ;)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=802116)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on August 03, 2019, 02:54:19 pm
What would be the typical "use cases" for such a setup (provided all work fine) with one common terminal? Normally, I would expect something like - to measure a voltage between the nodes A and B, and the current in any wire in my wiring. Thus I would need V+ V- and I+ and I- terminals, all floating.

A possibel such case would be measuring the voltage / current relationship of something nonlinear (e.g. a incandescent lamp, input side of SMPS). The classical setup is to use 2 meters, one for current and the other for voltage. Doing both reading with the same meter, without disconnecting the wires and upsetting the current flow would be a nice plus. This meter could even combine the data and plot the curve.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 03, 2019, 03:09:14 pm
Basically high voltages >10V combined with low current <1mA won't really notice the 30µV voltage drop.
For other combinations you would need to take it into account that you have a variable offset or use two DMM.
(assuming the big error of the 100V/1000V range is fixed)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on August 03, 2019, 05:30:44 pm
The higher error is likely from the way the divider is connected. So there likely is no fix to the higher error in the 100/1000 V ranges. So the less critical voltages would be more some 2-10V.

One may be able to correct some of the coupling, but chances are the internal resistance is copper wiring and maybe contact resistance (front to rear switch), so it would not be very stable. Still some correction (e.g. 95%) is better than the full error. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 07, 2019, 08:25:14 pm
Anyone else having major lag/freezing and crashing issues with their DMM6500?

It's so bad I'm having a hard time using the damn thing! I've upgraded to the latest firmware and this issue still persists  :-

How are you dealing with this major annoyance?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 08, 2019, 05:03:25 pm
I had a crash on my first day use but haven't had it since.
What I do though is I don't change the def1buffer size and don't use the apps. (I do use scripts)
I assume they have some memory problems with changing buffer sizes.
I use USB and network.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 09, 2019, 01:34:40 pm
Is it possible to load an lua module?
like:
complex = require "complex"
https://github.com/h4rm/luafft/blob/master/src/luafft.lua


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 10, 2019, 10:14:33 pm
This DMM is completely unusable and extremely frustrating!  |O

This can't possibly be right!

I've attached a short clip demonstrating how the instrument is totally unresponsive. I can't be the only one having these issues right?

https://mega.nz/#!MZURjIxQ!z3RixZ78lUd9IsXTKDPOkJ3QRNn7nYZNAlUjnb4h_-4

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on August 10, 2019, 10:19:33 pm
I've attached a short clip demonstrating how the instrument is totally unresponsive. I can't be the only one having these issues right?
It seems like a malfunction of the device.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 10, 2019, 10:31:31 pm
This DMM is completely unusable and extremely frustrating!
Seems like your DMM want repair.
I use 6500 about 1 year - all works fine, captivate touch is very sensitive, and working on all my touches.

How can I tell if the touchscreen is the culprit or a bad firmware?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on August 10, 2019, 10:55:41 pm
This DMM is completely unusable and extremely frustrating!  |O

This can't possibly be right!

I've attached a short clip demonstrating how the instrument is totally unresponsive. I can't be the only one having these issues right?

https://mega.nz/#!MZURjIxQ!z3RixZ78lUd9IsXTKDPOkJ3QRNn7nYZNAlUjnb4h_-4

The firmware has rough edges, looks like people at Keithley made sure that the main use cases are mostly error free but if you go well outside the typical use cases it misbehaves. When I got my unit early this year it was crashing/freezing multiple times a day, probably because I was clicking the buttons, doing things outside of the typical use scenarios. After my learning phase ended the problems went away.

There are known issues, one is with swap screen and some scripts and applications. Brad O. said somewhere above that they were hoping to get a new firmware late March 2019 but that didn't happen and he got silent recently. Hope they are still working on a bug-fix firmware to be released sometime soon.

Anyhow if you installed some apps, scripts, especially a startup script, you may want to do a system reset and check again. With the current firmware it's easy to put the unit in an unstable state.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 10, 2019, 11:01:42 pm
This DMM is completely unusable and extremely frustrating!  |O

This can't possibly be right!

I've attached a short clip demonstrating how the instrument is totally unresponsive. I can't be the only one having these issues right?

https://mega.nz/#!MZURjIxQ!z3RixZ78lUd9IsXTKDPOkJ3QRNn7nYZNAlUjnb4h_-4

The firmware has rough edges, looks like people at Keithley made sure that the main use cases are mostly error free but if you go well outside the typical use cases it misbehaves. When I got my unit early this year it was crashing/freezing multiple times a day, probably because I was clicking the buttons, doing things outside of the typical use scenarios. After my learning phase ended the problems went away.

There are known issues, one is with swap screen and some scripts and applications. Brad O. said somewhere above that they were hoping to get a new firmware late March 2019 but that didn't happen and he got silent recently. Hope they are still working on a bug-fix firmware to be released sometime soon.

Anyhow if you installed some apps, scripts, especially a startup script, you may want to do a system reset and check again. With the current firmware it's easy to put the unit in an unstable state.

I have installed 5 scripts onto the machine. Will try to remove those to see if the unit will work normally again.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 10, 2019, 11:29:29 pm
I've noticed that the placement of the DMM6500 affects this issue. When it was placed on a shelf as can be seen in the video, the issue appears. Now that I have it placed on my wooden computer desk it is back to working normally again :wtf:

My theory is that the surface of whatever the DMM is sitting on and/or my position relative to the DMM is somehow affecting the capacitance of my finger which results in a functional or non function touchscreen  :-//

Have I gone mad or does this make any sense?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 10, 2019, 11:49:19 pm
I've noticed that the placement of the DMM6500 affects this issue. When it was placed on a shelf as can be seen in the video, the issue appears. Now that I have it placed on my wooden computer desk it is back to working normally again :wtf:

My theory is that the surface of whatever the DMM is sitting on and/or my position relative to the DMM is somehow affecting the capacitance of my finger which results in a functional or non function touchscreen  :-//

Have I gone mad or does this make any sense?

Never-mind, the problem is the power source.

For some reason it works fine when powered from the wall socket in my bedroom but not in another room  :-//

How does this make any sense?! Could it be that the instrument does not work properly when power from one of the 3 phases powering my house? Could it be a question of harmonics disturbing the sensitive components inside the meter?

I tried isolating the unit form the mains by powering it up from a pure sinewave inverter using a lead acid battery but the issue persisted.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 11, 2019, 04:02:13 am
According to the forum page for Brad O, he was last active "June 14, 2019, 09:29:26 pm". His last post here seems to be June 7. He has not answered a private message I sent some 10+ days ago. Maybe the Danaher Group don't find it profitable to let him use his time here   :o

My DMM6500 works OK out of the box (Calibration dated March 2019). It has survived 3-10 black- and brownouts a day. It even runs on down to 160-70 volt AC line voltage (I live in the countryside in not particularly developed NE-Thailand).

                                                   ------ EDIT August 15 ------
Yesterday I sent a an email to Tek support just to try once more. This time I got all my 3 cases solved in a matter of hours. So I must change my view of the support given by Keithley/Tektronix US this time to a very positive one. I do however write "US" (i.e. Americas) above because I have not changed my view on support emails I got from China/Singapore.

So I am now quite a happy user of DMM6500 with full calibration data and Kickstart running. Let us hope Brad O or another Keithley representative comes back here so that the forum can report bugs in a single place.
- END of edit

- ORIGINAL post continued - but I am quite a lot more positive regarding support now:
I probably will never change firmware or program the box. Why? Because over the last 2 weeks in some 30+ emails back and forth with "support" persons in Keithley / Tektronix / Fluke (all Danaher) that redirected me around from Shanghai to Singapore to Thailand to the US and back and around and ... again and again, I have lost all hope of finding anything that (imo) even only remotely could be labeled helpful resulting from opening a support ticket. But I am OK. With the good reference manual, you will do fine as long as the box works. If it stops working - well, then ...

Good luck ::)
- END of old post - please see EDIT above as I have changed my view since writing this.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on August 11, 2019, 06:31:56 am
I've noticed that the placement of the DMM6500 affects this issue. When it was placed on a shelf as can be seen in the video, the issue appears. Now that I have it placed on my wooden computer desk it is back to working normally again :wtf:

My theory is that the surface of whatever the DMM is sitting on and/or my position relative to the DMM is somehow affecting the capacitance of my finger which results in a functional or non function touchscreen  :-//

Have I gone mad or does this make any sense?

Never-mind, the problem is the power source.

For some reason it works fine when powered from the wall socket in my bedroom but not in another room  :-//

How does this make any sense?! Could it be that the instrument does not work properly when power from one of the 3 phases powering my house? Could it be a question of harmonics disturbing the sensitive components inside the meter?

I tried isolating the unit form the mains by powering it up from a pure sinewave inverter using a lead acid battery but the issue persisted.
It could be a grounding issue. The touch-screen may work better if the instrument is properly grounded ( PE via the mains cable).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on August 11, 2019, 08:21:36 am
!!!!DANGEROUS!!!!

Hi dear Brad O.

Hardware bug report:

DMM6500 do not compatible with Keithley 4299-9 Dual Fixed Rack-Mount Kit for 2U Graphical Display Instruments.

When i install front rack ear, down screw cannot install properly. That screew is too long and break current sense terminal if install it on full lenght.


PS.I use nut as spacer, for install that screw to proper letght... but it bad way... you need fix dmm6500! With 2450 that ear install's properly.

I can confirm the very same problem with DAQ6510 as well. Very bad engineering of 4299-9 RM kit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 11, 2019, 09:22:32 am
I've noticed that the placement of the DMM6500 affects this issue. When it was placed on a shelf as can be seen in the video, the issue appears. Now that I have it placed on my wooden computer desk it is back to working normally again :wtf:

My theory is that the surface of whatever the DMM is sitting on and/or my position relative to the DMM is somehow affecting the capacitance of my finger which results in a functional or non function touchscreen  :-//

Have I gone mad or does this make any sense?

Never-mind, the problem is the power source.

For some reason it works fine when powered from the wall socket in my bedroom but not in another room  :-//

How does this make any sense?! Could it be that the instrument does not work properly when power from one of the 3 phases powering my house? Could it be a question of harmonics disturbing the sensitive components inside the meter?

I tried isolating the unit form the mains by powering it up from a pure sinewave inverter using a lead acid battery but the issue persisted.
It could be a grounding issue. The touch-screen may work better if the instrument is properly grounded ( PE via the mains cable).

That could very well be the case, however the issue is that in Lebanon we do not install a ground connection for in residences so how can I properly ground the instrument to assure the touchscreen would work properly?

Could I create an artificial ground somehow?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 11, 2019, 09:35:58 am
How can I tell if the touchscreen is the culprit or a bad firmware?

Easy, when you have a buttons that do not respond anymore, go to the webinterface an try to click it with your mouse.
If it works you know it's the touchscreen.
(keep in mind that dragging with the mouse doesn't work very well, so you cannot test that)

And also if you pressed "copy to  power up" in run scripts with a bad script it could put it in a bad situation every time you reboot. (not sure if that is erased with a reset or if you have to overwrite it)
Attached the default "empty script" you can load. (remove .txt)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on August 11, 2019, 10:08:32 am

It could be a grounding issue. The touch-screen may work better if the instrument is properly grounded ( PE via the mains cable).

That could very well be the case, however the issue is that in Lebanon we do not install a ground connection for in residences so how can I properly ground the instrument to assure the touchscreen would work properly?

Could I create an artificial ground somehow?

You could use any metal plumbing in your house, but this may be illegal and could be dangerous when the dmm6500
develops a short circuit between mains and ground, at least wire in a 30mA rcd.
Better is using a separate grounding rod if soil conditions allow (wet and soft is ideal, dry and hard is not).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on August 11, 2019, 10:09:59 pm
Does the DMM6500 can show one more digits, the 7.5th Digits in the STATISTICS screen like Keysight 34465A?

In Keysight 34465A, when enable the MATH -> Statistics function, the screen can display one more digits (the 7.5th Digits) in Average, like Average: +10.000,123 V, does DMM6500 can get the 7.5th Digits in the STATISTICS screen ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on August 11, 2019, 11:35:44 pm
@Wintel

No doubleposts, please.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/someone-ask-me-to-buy-which-dmm-keysight-34465a-or-keitley-dmm6500/msg2609490/#msg2609490 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/someone-ask-me-to-buy-which-dmm-keysight-34465a-or-keitley-dmm6500/msg2609490/#msg2609490)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 12, 2019, 09:23:39 pm

It could be a grounding issue. The touch-screen may work better if the instrument is properly grounded ( PE via the mains cable).

That could very well be the case, however the issue is that in Lebanon we do not install a ground connection for in residences so how can I properly ground the instrument to assure the touchscreen would work properly?

Could I create an artificial ground somehow?

You could use any metal plumbing in your house, but this may be illegal and could be dangerous when the dmm6500
develops a short circuit between mains and ground, at least wire in a 30mA rcd.
Better is using a separate grounding rod if soil conditions allow (wet and soft is ideal, dry and hard is not).

All our plumbing is plastic, does that mean the only option is to stick a grounding rod in soil? How exactly will the power connections look like? Please explain  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 12, 2019, 10:01:02 pm
Dear drummerdimitri, try connect your hand via anti-static wrist straps to DMM chassis. Before that check resistance of the cord, it must be 1M or large.
If major cause is grounding, you should see changes.....

All my equipment, rack's, table mat and all power source has been grounded, i can't check DMM without ground.

You mean I should use an anti static wrist strap on my arm and then connect the other end to the DMM's chassis?

If so I tried it and it makes no difference. Or do you mean I should connect the chassis ground to the metal frame of my shelves?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on August 12, 2019, 11:34:51 pm
All our plumbing is plastic, does that mean the only option is to stick a grounding rod in soil? How exactly will the power connections look like? Please explain  :-//

Google installing an earth ground and you will find guides.

https://www.nachi.org/grounding-electrodes.htm (https://www.nachi.org/grounding-electrodes.htm)
https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Ground-Rods (https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Ground-Rods)


Here is the warning from the manual for reference:
Quote
The power cord supplied with the DMM6500 contains a separate protective earth (safety ground) wire for use with grounded outlets. When proper connections are made, the
instrument chassis is connected to power-line ground through the ground wire in the power cord. In the event of a failure, not using a properly grounded protective earth and grounded outlet may result in personal injury or death due to electric shock.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 16, 2019, 10:27:59 am
cnrood is selling it for 760Euro (excl. tax)
Basically you are buying tax free compared to the 950Euro list price. (-20%)

https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter (https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter)

Quote
Special Price €760.00
Regular Price €950.00
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on August 16, 2019, 10:34:26 am
cnrood is selling it for 760Euro (excl. tax)
Basically you are buying tax free compared to the 950Euro list price. (-20%)

https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter (https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter)

Quote
Special Price €760.00
Regular Price €950.00


 Price of 760€ without VAT. Standard price without VAT is 806€..  So it is cheaper, but only 45€. Still a good deal.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on August 16, 2019, 12:13:38 pm
cnrood is selling it for 760Euro (excl. tax)
Basically you are buying tax free compared to the 950Euro list price. (-20%)

https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter (https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter)

Quote
Special Price €760.00
Regular Price €950.00

Thanks for hint! Ordered and payed for :)
(Euro 760,- excl VAT, shipping is free (Denmark))
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 16, 2019, 05:13:10 pm
How can I tell if the touchscreen is the culprit or a bad firmware?

Easy, when you have a buttons that do not respond anymore, go to the webinterface an try to click it with your mouse.
If it works you know it's the touchscreen.
(keep in mind that dragging with the mouse doesn't work very well, so you cannot test that)

And also if you pressed "copy to  power up" in run scripts with a bad script it could put it in a bad situation every time you reboot. (not sure if that is erased with a reset or if you have to overwrite it)
Attached the default "empty script" you can load. (remove .txt)

How to remove the .txt extension? I cannot just rename it in windows 10  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on August 16, 2019, 07:33:12 pm
How to remove the .txt extension? I cannot just rename it in windows 10  :-//
Is it a win10 question?
Switch on the extensions here:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 17, 2019, 12:18:21 am
How to remove the .txt extension? I cannot just rename it in windows 10  :-//
Is it a win10 question?
Switch on the extensions here:

Thanks but it doesn't really help when it's in German!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on August 17, 2019, 12:26:57 am
Thanks but it doesn't really help when it's in German!
Really, some initiative would help.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on August 17, 2019, 12:57:45 am
Thanks but it doesn't really help when it's in German!

This should answer your question and help you with future computer problems.  :-+

Turn on file extentions (https://lmgtfy.com/?q=turn+on+file+extentions+windows+10)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 18, 2019, 07:23:03 pm
How can I tell if the touchscreen is the culprit or a bad firmware?

Easy, when you have a buttons that do not respond anymore, go to the webinterface an try to click it with your mouse.
If it works you know it's the touchscreen.
(keep in mind that dragging with the mouse doesn't work very well, so you cannot test that)

And also if you pressed "copy to  power up" in run scripts with a bad script it could put it in a bad situation every time you reboot. (not sure if that is erased with a reset or if you have to overwrite it)
Attached the default "empty script" you can load. (remove .txt)

I ran the script on the DMM yesterday and have had no issues using it so far. Hopefully it will remain that way  :clap:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 19, 2019, 02:14:49 am
I want to use DMM6500 together with a HPAK 34970A Switch Unit/DAQ. The 34970A has internal 6.5 digit DVM card and a 34902A 16ch 250ch/s multiplexer module. With two meters and a precison shunt, it should be possible to measure simultaneously voltage and current up to the sample rate of the 34970A (varies for 6.5/5.5/4.5 digits / slack in synchronization by Delay/External Trigger).

In GPIB this should be simple, but I would like to try to do something with a Raspberry Pi "tablet" I had shelved away. I bought an RJ45 cable and got the DMM6500 web front panel up on the RPi display. The RPi has Python installed.

I have never used an RPi or anything LAN related before. What would people with RPi / Raspian / Python skills do? Start learning  :phew:, or buy a KTTI-GPIB module :-DMM

(http://)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 20, 2019, 02:57:10 am
In GPIB this should be simple, but I would like to try to do something with a Raspberry Pi "tablet" I had shelved away. I bought an RJ45 cable and got the DMM6500 web front panel up on the RPi display. The RPi has Python installed.

You can't use LXI(RJ45 Jack) with RPi's and Python. PyVISA library require a NI-VISA software. But NI-VISA do not support RPi's  :palm:
Try use my code of LXIIDL software(link below) as example written on "C" language or see code of lxitools (https://lxi-tools.github.io/).

Thank you for your answer. The RJ45 ethernet cable was just for testing the LXI thing for the first time in my life (hence the picture). It worked. Always cool with stuff that works.

I did not know that "You can't use LXI(RJ45 Jack) with RPi's and Python". However, if I cannot use the LXI / VXI-11 stuff that is ample in the Python related web links, I might just as well change to USB. If that fails, I just buy the Kethley GPIB card.

I have read about PyVISA and PyVISA-py. If I find that I cannot use an RPi, I just dedicate an old laptop to use as logger head, and use the RPI tablet too some thing else. On Windoze7 there are many working choices.

I have read your github page (you gave me the tip a few weeks ago) and your software looks fine. I will look at it again. But for now I am thinking Python because I want to learn something that has an active and helpful web community. If I drop Python, I can just as well go for a RS232 card and use MSP430 C C++ / Arduino C++ Processing Firmata, where I have a multinode serial text based logging system running for years already on an old XP machine. Not very fancy or modern, but it does the job.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on August 20, 2019, 03:52:15 am
You can't use LXI(RJ45 Jack) with RPi's and Python. PyVISA library require a NI-VISA software. But NI-VISA do not support RPi's  :palm:

What? :) There  is no problem using LXI with RPi and Python. You don't need NI bloatware on RPi to use this connection method, little python-vxi11 is all that required.  :-+

 I have posted setup guide for RPi and E5810A gateway while ago (https://xdevs.com/guide/e5810a/#app_vxi).  Tested same setup/library with Keysight B2987A, Keithley 6221 and few scopes, all worked as expected. In fact I rarely use NI USB-GPIB-HS since I switched to E5810A, it's so much less headache with long datalogs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 20, 2019, 06:40:54 am
Thanks for this information. Just to confirm - we are talking about this stuff, correct?:

http://alexforencich.com/wiki/en/python-vxi11/start (http://alexforencich.com/wiki/en/python-vxi11/start)
https://pypi.org/project/python-vxi11/ (https://pypi.org/project/python-vxi11/)
https://github.com/python-ivi/python-vxi11/blob/master/README.md (https://github.com/python-ivi/python-vxi11/blob/master/README.md)
https://siglentna.com/application-note/programming-example-vxi11-python-lan/ (https://siglentna.com/application-note/programming-example-vxi11-python-lan/)


It says in on of the links:

VXI has a small installation size and is quite flexible.. especially when compared to VISA based applications. VISA is convenient and does allow for easy bus changes (from GPIB to USB with just a few lines of code), but it is also a large installation that isn’t always easy to use on machines that are not running Windows.

So not dependent on (((VISA))) or Windoze?

And finally, one does not need the "E5810A LAN/GPIB gateway provides remote access and control of GPIB instruments via your standard LAN connection." if the instrument has LXI itself? Nice box for vintage HP with GPIB but no LAN, that's it?

So to be sure: DMM6500 to RJ45 cable to RPi3B+ to Python 2.7 with python-vxi11 is all I need? If I put in a switch/gateway thing, I can talk to more than one instrument on the same RPi? Something in this style (and your bridge for GPIB):

Python-vxi11 doesn't need or even use VISA drivers, it talks SunRPC directly to the VXI-11 network controller.  I use it on OSX and Linux and don't have that broken VISA driver garbage and discovery services installed anywhere.  Instead, all my physical GPIB buses terminate at a pair of ICS8065 network controllers that talk VXI-11 only.  This excepts the instruments I have that can talk VXI-11 directly.  (Source https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/python-scripts-to-control-instruments-using-lxi-scpi-no-drivers-required/msg1169447/#msg1169447 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/python-scripts-to-control-instruments-using-lxi-scpi-no-drivers-required/msg1169447/#msg1169447) )

Thanks.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on August 20, 2019, 02:14:08 pm
Yes, that python-vxi11. When I tested with 6221 or B2987A I did not use E5810A, but direct RJ45 connection to these instruments.
I use E5810 for my GPIB networks for instruments that have no GPIB. And obviously python-vxi11 does not care about VISA or Windows, I run many my Python apps on Altera/Terasic DE1-SoC FPGA board as example, running linaro OS.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 20, 2019, 07:44:43 pm
Yes, that python-vxi11. When I tested with 6221 or B2987A I did not use E5810A, but direct RJ45 connection to these instruments.
...

Thank you very much. This will be my first goal.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 22, 2019, 12:55:30 am
Yes, that python-vxi11. When I tested with 6221 or B2987A I did not use E5810A, but direct RJ45 connection to these instruments.
...

Thank you very much. This will be my first goal.

The python-vxi11 module (links a few posts above) is very neat and lean. I installed windoze 7 on a old totally wiped clean HP desktop. I downloaded the latest Python 2.7 32bit and did a "pip install python-vx11" and a "pip install pyserial" from a USB aircard net connection. No other files whatsoever on the desktop. Five minutes after connecting DMM6500 RJ45 and 34970A RS232-to-USB adapter, I got it running. There are 4 measurements: One from DMM6500, followed by two from Agilent 34970A, and the last one also from DMM6500 :

Code: [Select]
import vxi11
import serial

dmm6500 = vxi11.Instrument("169.254.13.238")
daq34970a = serial.Serial('com6',9600)

print(dmm6500.ask("*IDN?"))
print(dmm6500.ask("*TST?"))
print(dmm6500.ask("MEAS?"))

counter = 1
while (counter <= 2):
    if (daq34970a.inWaiting()>0):
        myData = daq34970a.readline()
        print myData
        counter = counter + 1

print(dmm6500.ask("MEAS?"))


results in:

Code: [Select]

Python 2.7.16 (v2.7.16:413a49145e, Mar  4 2019, 01:30:55) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
>>>
=========== RESTART: C:/Python27/Scripts/first_vxi11_and_serial.py ===========
KEITHLEY INSTRUMENTS,MODEL DMM6500,04421494,1.0.04b
0
7.134677E+00
1.7491438


1.7708930


7.134674E+00
>>>


Since Python is platform-independent this means that python-vxi11 will run on ANY device capable of running Python 2.7 - including RPi.

So for me the case is solved, the rest is just coding.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AG7CK on August 27, 2019, 03:31:20 am
To whom it may concern

Re: Participation from a Keithley representative in this thread

On the 15th of this month I added this to a "Thank you. Case resolved" type email answer to the 2 Keithley employees that helped me out in my support cases (C/NEW DATA and Kickstart):

Quote:

I got Kickstart running, and new data report is fine. Thanks a lot to both of you. I will change my view of Tek service positively because of you.

In the interest of existing and potential DMM6500 users (and in my view also Keithley), I will notify you that the very helpful Brad O (the web says: Bradley Odhner is an Applications Engineer for the Keithley Instruments product line at Tektronix) has not been seen in the thread below since June 6th. The thread has almost 700 posts and a view-click number of more than 65,000. Surely several people wonder why Keithley apparently went silent, and many of the posters definitely miss the help and bug reporting channel that Brad O provided.

If I were a Keithley employee I would take a look here:

First page: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/)

First post by Brad O: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1676249/#msg1676249 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg1676249/#msg1676249)

Last post by Brad O: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2466186/#msg2466186 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2466186/#msg2466186)

The thread runs several pages long from Brad O's last post (June 6th) until now, and there are several posts that contain direct questions to Brad O. For some reason Brad O has not been able to answer nor has he or any other Keithley representaive - as far as I know -  provided any explanation for why Keithley suddenly dropped out of the thread.

Example of unanswered post directed to Brad O: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2492286/#msg2492286 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2492286/#msg2492286)

If you want me to give you more information or assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks to you solving my support cases, I now have free time.

End of Quote.

The answer was:

Quote:

Thanks, (Name) … glad you are up and running.

I’ve forwarded your message to my contact at Keithley in the marketing group who may be able to facilitate getting that involvement in the forums back.

Have a great day….

End of Quote.

Unless the marketing group needs many weeks to post a "Hello, we have been absent because .../... We look forward to come back as soon as we ... " type message, I assume that Keithley has dumped this thread.

Surely I hope I am wrong. We'll see ...


--- Edit ---
A few typos.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on August 27, 2019, 04:31:09 am
Have you try the DMM6500 will run under the older Kickstart free version 1.70 and 1.98 ?


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on August 27, 2019, 08:07:14 am
The support from Keithley is terrible: (((The device is full of glitches and nobody cares. Bred.O promised to enter the topic on 7510 but didn’t get it :(

On the forum https://forum.tek.com no one answers :(

The only successful communication experience was with KickStart support in this thread https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=283&t=141219.
This topic has a link to the email on which adequate people sit. I was heard and the new version of KickStart was already working better.

Perhaps if you need to fix KickStart you can write to this address.

I don’t know where to write and with whom to talk about the device itself. Those people from support with whom I managed to communicate unfortunately carried complete nonsense trying to protect the company.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on August 27, 2019, 03:15:13 pm
Danaher lawyers probably put a moratorium on Brad O. providing any more support here.  If we do get someone back in here from Keithley, I wouldn't be surprised if it is some useless marketing type person.  Or maybe they just won't come back, since we are a bunch of troublemakers  ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on August 27, 2019, 03:30:00 pm
It's sad  :'(
Its only because of this thread that I ordered a DMM6500 a short while ago, the same with my 2281S, that one was also acquired solely based on input on this forum.
(come to think of it, all the test equipment I have bought the last couple of years are only because they were mentioned/tested/recommended here!)
Hope Brad is coming back....
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on August 27, 2019, 05:21:06 pm
  So it turned out that I received this calibration document. I believe that this is useful and interesting for everyone. I do not have much experience using this device. But something seems to be true, and repeated very well.

 Brad, maybe this is not a very stupid recommendation - to make cursors with different colors.

 Thanks.
Hi MikeP,

Would you mind to tell me how to get the DMM6500 calibration data report ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 30, 2019, 01:48:43 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on August 30, 2019, 01:56:24 pm
Would you mind to tell me how to get the DMM6500 calibration data report ?
I got mine through the seller. Just wrote him an email and ask me to send it. They sent PDF very quickly.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on August 30, 2019, 04:48:58 pm
Would you mind to tell me how to get the DMM6500 calibration data report ?
I got mine through the seller. Just wrote him an email and ask me to send it. They sent PDF very quickly.
Thanks this is very helpful.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 31, 2019, 01:13:56 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//
You mean this one?
Shouldn't be that hard to find a similar one.
https://xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/DMM6500/lukier/dciove.jpg
(This reminds you of 56k dialup modems ;) )

Shouldn't the other one in front have blown first, or did both go?
Is a bit pointless to have a weaker fuse inside than the one that you can easy replace in front.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on August 31, 2019, 01:35:19 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//

I had blown mine, too. It was hard to find the 3.5A, but a Ebay seller from GB has them:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on August 31, 2019, 01:37:48 pm

Shouldn't the other one in front have blown first, or did both go?
Is a bit pointless to have a weaker fuse inside than the one that you can easy replace in front.

That is what I expected, too. But the front fuse was fine. It seems the internal one is a bit faster.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 31, 2019, 02:28:29 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//
You mean this one?
Shouldn't be that hard to find a similar one.
https://xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/DMM6500/lukier/dciove.jpg
(This reminds you of 56k dialup modems ;) )

Shouldn't the other one in front have blown first, or did both go?
Is a bit pointless to have a weaker fuse inside than the one that you can easy replace in front.

Yes that's the one!

It's actually extremely hard to find. Couldnt even find it on digikey or mouser which are the two largest components dealers in the world |O

It blew because i replaced the front fuse that blew prior to this one with a 3.15 A instead of the original 3 A  :--
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 31, 2019, 02:29:37 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//

I had blown mine, too. It was hard to find the 3.5A, but a Ebay seller from GB has them:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

I found that link too. Unfortunately they don't ship to Lebanon so I'm screwed :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on August 31, 2019, 02:34:21 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//

I had blown mine, too. It was hard to find the 3.5A, but a Ebay seller from GB has them:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

I found that link too. Unfortunately they don't ship to Lebanon so I'm screwed :palm:

I just ordered 2 from the ebay link above. I would not mind posting one of them to you using normal mail ?
(just checked, mail to Lebanon from Denmark is Euro 4,-)
Let me know....
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on August 31, 2019, 03:37:35 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//

I had blown mine, too. It was hard to find the 3.5A, but a Ebay seller from GB has them:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

I found that link too. Unfortunately they don't ship to Lebanon so I'm screwed :palm:

I just ordered 2 from the ebay link above. I would not mind posting one of them to you using normal mail ?
(just checked, mail to Lebanon from Denmark is Euro 4,-)
Let me know....

That would be great thanks!

I would need at least 3 pieces just in case this happens again.

Would you be willing to order more? How would I pay you for them+shipping?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on August 31, 2019, 04:04:08 pm
I have blown the 3.5A internal fuse  :palm: and can't find a suitable replacement locally.

Does anyone know who sources these and ships internationally? Can't seem to find them anywhere  :-//

I had blown mine, too. It was hard to find the 3.5A, but a Ebay seller from GB has them:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.de/itm/SIBA-Fuse-Multimeter-5019906-3-5A-DMM-1000V-AC-DC-Ultra-Rapid-50-199-06-JPSF068/281684545646?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

I found that link too. Unfortunately they don't ship to Lebanon so I'm screwed :palm:

I just ordered 2 from the ebay link above. I would not mind posting one of them to you using normal mail ?
(just checked, mail to Lebanon from Denmark is Euro 4,-)
Let me know....

That would be great thanks!

I would need at least 3 pieces just in case this happens again.

Would you be willing to order more? How would I pay you for them+shipping?

No problem. I just ordered 3 pieces more, GBP 29.70 total
If I convert that to Euro and add the postage, that totals to 37 euro.
You can send me that on paypal if ok ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 01, 2019, 03:24:18 pm
KickStart 2.1.1 released
https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/Kickstart_2_1_1_RN_26_Sep_19_KICKSTART-2.1.1.pdf

I see "Added statistics between cursors on the KickStart graph."
I hope they did it better than in the DMM6500 because they use the resolution of the screen to calculate the average  :palm:

I assume they added this later not realizing their mistake, I know it's not required for delta X or delta Y (due to cursor resolution)

average value of same region: (same problem for min. max. limits)
zoomed out: 197µA
zoomed in: 101µA

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on October 01, 2019, 03:45:31 pm
I reported a bug 3 versions ago, still not resolved

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=846300;image)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 01, 2019, 06:02:36 pm
Can you describe the problem? or make a movie.
Then we can test the same.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on October 01, 2019, 06:30:22 pm
Windows 10, 64 bit.
Most software recognises the device (e.g.: LabVIEW, the device's own web interface.)
Kickstart recognises it when I link it to the network, but throws the above error whenever it tries to talk to the device.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 01, 2019, 07:14:23 pm
Windows 10, 64 bit.
Most software recognises the device (e.g.: LabVIEW, the device's own web interface.)
Kickstart recognises it when I link it to the network, but throws the above error whenever it tries to talk to the device.
maybe the network security settings in your DMM6500 are too strict?
I will try but I think what you describe works for most people.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on October 01, 2019, 07:16:16 pm
Network restrictions aren' too strict. It also fails for USB.
It works for most of the people.
It fails for some. Documented.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 13, 2019, 08:51:44 am
Does someone know how to change the range (and step size) of the graphs with a script?
I would like to fix this not human like axis values.

A button that runs a script would have been handy in this case or a graph change event in an app to run/fix it.

(Yes Tektronix should fix that but seems like they don't put a lot of resources into firmware updates or found major problems that require rewriting big parts of their code.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on October 21, 2019, 07:21:29 am
Is there a way to get the DMM6500 to log also the secondary reading ?
When enabled, the csv file still only contains the primary value, is there a way to enable the secondary in the log ?
(I only sample with 3 samples pr second, so no fast logging needed)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on October 21, 2019, 03:42:07 pm
Is there a way to get the DMM6500 to log also the secondary reading ?
When enabled, the csv file still only contains the primary value, is there a way to enable the secondary in the log ?
(I only sample with 3 samples pr second, so no fast logging needed)

Did you download "defbuffer2" ? The primary and secondary measurements are on different reading buffers.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on October 21, 2019, 03:54:25 pm
Is there a way to get the DMM6500 to log also the secondary reading ?
When enabled, the csv file still only contains the primary value, is there a way to enable the secondary in the log ?
(I only sample with 3 samples pr second, so no fast logging needed)

Did you download "defbuffer2" ? The primary and secondary measurements are on different reading buffers.

Ahhh stupid me, didn't even think about that!
Will do, thanks a lot !
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on October 21, 2019, 05:57:01 pm
Based on the marketing copy here: https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500 (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500)

Quote
KickStart Instrument Control Software - Quickly capture data from your DMM6500 and move faster to the next stage of development. (Request your FREE license when you purchase a DMM6500.)

I thought the DMM6500 KickStart license promo was still active, but when I sent emails requesting the license to textronix they pointed me at the 60 day KickStart trial and then stopped answering my emails.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on October 21, 2019, 06:15:26 pm
I thought the DMM6500 KickStart license promo was still active, but when I sent emails requesting the license to textronix they pointed me at the 60 day KickStart trial and then stopped answering my emails.

Did you make an account and register your meter (and serial number) on Tek.com?  For me atleast, when I view my Keithley products under my account there is a link to get my license for Kickstart.

https://www.tek.com/productregistration (https://www.tek.com/productregistration)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on October 21, 2019, 07:26:47 pm
Yeah, based on this post I was reluctant to settle for that, but I might just do it.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2315400/?topicseen#msg2315400 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2315400/?topicseen#msg2315400)

Quote
That is true, [the license received by registering on tek.com] is a "locked" license so it is tied to the computer you first register the software to.  That's a separate promotion running right now I think for all of our touch screen instruments.  If you'd still like the floating license [from the DMM6500 promotion], you can reach out to the Tek office for your geographic location (www.tek.com/contact_us (http://www.tek.com/contact_us)).

Here's the email I got from Tek support:

Quote
Hey John,

It looks like the trials have been moved to our website here is the link https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart (https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart)

Once you go to the site it should guide you through on acquiring a 60 day trial!

Enjoy!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 22, 2019, 09:21:08 pm
I found a problem on my DMM6500: The terminal switch (Front/Back) had a contact problem. With the inputs shorted ohms measurement was between -0.5 and 2-3 ohms, depending on how quickly I released the switch. Put some Contact Cleaner in the switch and now it always reads -0.5 ohms. This offset goes over the whole range, even at continuity measurement (as expected). I never used the switch before, and all readings were good until I used it the first time. Seems they calibrated it in the factory with the unwanted contact resistance. The unit is eight months old, so I suspect Keithley won't recalibrate it for free? Or is Keithley customer friendly?

Magnus
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on October 22, 2019, 09:40:08 pm
I found a problem on my DMM6500: The terminal switch (Front/Back) had a contact problem. With the inputs shorted ohms measurement was between -0.5 and 2-3 ohms, depending on how quickly I released the switch. Put some Contact Cleaner in the switch and now it always reads -0.5 ohms. This offset goes over the whole range, even at continuity measurement (as expected). I never used the switch before, and all readings were good until I used it the first time. Seems they calibrated it in the factory with the unwanted contact resistance. The unit is eight months old, so I suspect Keithley won't recalibrate it for free? Or is Keithley customer friendly?

Magnus

Contact them and let us know the result. I would not mention using contact cleaner.. this is almost certainly going to void the warranty.
I would say you cycled the switch and it started happening.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on October 23, 2019, 03:04:17 pm
Adjusting the Ohms zero is often a separate adjustment point that the user is supposed to do from time to time if accuracy in 2 wire ohms matters. So one would likely not need a full recalibration, just that one zero point.
Still it is no such a good indication of quality if they do not catch a poor contact in the initial testing (maybe even the self test). Ideally the initial value at zero adjustment should have told them that the switch is bad and may need rework.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 24, 2019, 08:05:53 pm
i will contact them and see what happens.

Another thing I saw when it was open: Pressing the switch bends the pcb badly. I don't want to use this switch very often...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 24, 2019, 08:13:14 pm
Adjusting the Ohms zero is often a separate adjustment point that the user is supposed to do from time to time if accuracy in 2 wire ohms matters. So one would likely not need a full recalibration, just that one zero point.
Still it is no such a good indication of quality if they do not catch a poor contact in the initial testing (maybe even the self test). Ideally the initial value at zero adjustment should have told them that the switch is bad and may need rework.

That would be the solution, as the offset goes over the full range. Of course I can use REL, but adjusting it would be better. Any idea how to do that, does someone have the calibration manual?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on October 24, 2019, 09:01:01 pm
does someone have the calibration manual?

In the tektronix manual page, if you select the "service" as the "Manual Type" you can reach the calibration manual. This link should for a while too: https://download.tek.com/manual/DMM6500-905-01B_%20Nov_2018_cal.pdf
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 27, 2019, 07:31:32 pm
does someone have the calibration manual?

In the tektronix manual page, if you select the "service" as the "Manual Type" you can reach the calibration manual. This link should for a while too: https://download.tek.com/manual/DMM6500-905-01B_%20Nov_2018_cal.pdf

Thank you for the link. Made the zero Ohm calibration, and everything is fine now.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on October 27, 2019, 09:37:27 pm
does someone have the calibration manual?

In the tektronix manual page, if you select the "service" as the "Manual Type" you can reach the calibration manual. This link should for a while too: https://download.tek.com/manual/DMM6500-905-01B_%20Nov_2018_cal.pdf

Thank you for the link. Made the zero Ohm calibration, and everything is fine now.

Made the zero Ohm calibration by yourself?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 27, 2019, 10:46:37 pm
Yes, with the Keithley Shorting Plug.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on October 28, 2019, 10:11:52 am
Does zero calibration shift the entire scale?
Those. was 10V will become 10V - zero offset. So?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 28, 2019, 12:47:23 pm
Does zero calibration shift the entire scale?
Those. was 10V will become 10V - zero offset. So?
i only checked with Ohms: It shifts the whole range like REL does.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Magnum on October 28, 2019, 12:48:57 pm
You can try it yourself: Make the zero calibration, but don't save it. Then you can verify all reading. When you switch the unit off all changes are gone.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hugos31 on October 29, 2019, 08:02:29 am
I want to buy a second use, does anyone have one for sale? I'm in Peru (South America)  :clap:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 16, 2019, 01:47:45 pm
I'm considering buying the DMM6500.

What I like about the unit is the data acquisition possibilities. But after reading through this whole thread I also saw some issues that where pointed out.
The issue that a current trough the current measurement path interferes with the voltage measurement is a bit of a set back.
Also it seems that the technical person of Keithley doesn't interact on this thread anymore, that is a bit unfortunate.
Also In the datasheet I've read it has a fixed forced cooling, however in a video comparing the fan sounds to another device, I can hear it changing. Also in this thread 2 speeds are mentioned.
So what to expect regarding fan noise.
When I write scripts for my other devices, I mostly do that remotely anyways, but in other usages not having a lot of fan noise would be a plus.
I know every case has its best matching device, but as this being a hobby, in my situation it's sometimes otherwise. The case is then matching the device possibilities. Using and exploring gear is a large part of the hobby.
So for me the question would be: is the device fun to use (not to many crashes/bugs, fan noise) and is it accurate enough to make the efforts using it in experiments worthwhile, and also has it also matured enough in its current FW state?
(About the accuracy: I think it should be more than enough.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on November 16, 2019, 01:54:20 pm
I'm considering buying the DMM6500.

What I like about the unit is the data acquisition possibilities. But after reading through this whole thread I also saw some issues that where pointed out.
The issue that a current trough the current measurement path interferes with the voltage measurement is a bit of a set back.
Also it seems that the technical person of Keithley doesn't interact on this thread anymore, that seems a bit of a bad sign as well.
Also In the datasheet I've read it has a fixed forced cooling, however in a video comparing the fan sounds to another device, I can hear it changing. Also in this thread 2 speeds are mentioned.
So what to expect regarding fan noise.
When I write scripts for my other devices, I mostly do that remotely anyways, but in other usages not having a lot of fan noise would be a plus.
I know every case has its best matching device, but as this being a hobby, in my situation it's sometimes otherwise. The case is then matching the device possibilities. Using and exploring gear is a large part of the hobby.
So for me the question would be: is the device fun to use (not to many crashes/bugs, fan noise) and is it accurate enough to make the efforts using it in experiments worthwhile, but also has it also matured enough in its current FW state?
(About the accuracy: I think it should more than enough.)

I can answer a couple of your questions. I got a DMM6500 some months ago and liked it so much that I bought one more a few weeks ago! The fan is a total non-issue for me, my Agilent 34461A is louder (and that one does also not make much noise). Now, I also have a Keithley 2281S-20-6, and that one is LOUD !
I have had one single "blue screen" on my (first) DMM6500, this was while trying to save data from a session (24 hours, so a couple of bad words came out of my mouth....) but other than that I have had zero problems.

And I agree, it is so sad that Keithley is no longer active in this thread!!!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 16, 2019, 02:02:41 pm
I can answer a couple of your questions. I got a DMM6500 some months ago and liked it so much that I bought one more a few weeks ago!
That sure solves the second measurement issue :-+, good to hear you like it so much!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 16, 2019, 03:22:02 pm
Because of the many positive responses (1/1)  :-+ I pulled the trigger, and ordered myself a dmm6500. It's a bit too deep for my bench, so that's needs sorting out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 16, 2019, 06:43:44 pm
Yes it has issues but up to 1MS/s with touchscreen and viewable/controllable on your PC screen.
These are damn nice features for me.
It bridges the gap between scope and DMM.

I even checked the clock signal of my I2C bus with it instead of starting/connecting my scope, yes it can trigger on a waveform.  ;D   (a Rigol scope that makes much more noise)

I do wish the hum noise (also when powered off) was lower . (I think it's a bit lottery how loud yours is)

Using it for current and voltage both connected at the same time, I would just avoid unless you really know what to expect. (the same is actually true for almost all other alternatives)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 16, 2019, 07:10:02 pm
All my devices power-cables are inserted in 2 of those sockets (image), I've one screwed down on the left and one on the right. So it's easy to switch devices completely off. Having a label on the wire is handy as well. This way I can easily shut all stuff down with 2 switches when I'm done. Simple and cheap. (These are Hama's and of ok quality (1.5 mm2 wire)).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on November 17, 2019, 01:49:58 am
That’s a neat power board. I’ve seen them with individual switches or a main switch, but not individual and main switching.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 17, 2019, 12:09:04 pm
They have also some overvoltage protection  :-+ But that they are bolted down on the edges is a real space saver. In a way they are barriers to keep also other things falling of the edge.

I think that for the dmm6500 I extend my desk and create a platform for my scope at the same time. The sketch is a bit exaggerated and not scaled but shows the idea. The long bolds which tights the extension to the desk use those Ikea style nuts that are placed in sideways.

It won't be a 'pretty' solution, but otherwise the dmm is just a bit too long.

If the fan of the dmm is too noisy, I might go for a more enclosed extension with locally placed sound adsorption. That might lower it by some db's.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on November 17, 2019, 02:20:58 pm
What other equipment do you have? The 6500 fits on the same shelf I have for my keithley 2015, agilent 55320 counter, siglent AWG and rigol dp832 power supply plus a lot of other equipment.

Depending on what you plan to do in the future, you may find having a bench with the depth for the 6500 will become a lot more useful.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 17, 2019, 04:44:05 pm
This DMM will most likely be my last (measurement) device, so future proofing of space is not really needed. (For my skill level I consider myself sufficiently equipped: Scope, hand MM, psu, awg)
So I'll first see how the desk addition works out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 20, 2019, 02:02:53 pm
I got a DMM6500 some months ago and liked it so much that I bought one more a few weeks ago!
I think you also bought yours from www.cnrood.com? (http://www.cnrood.com?) Did yours come with a calibration certificate?
Mine came without one.

Also what would be the path to get the free licence for free kickstart?
https://www.tek.com/promotion/free-kickstart-software-purchase-dmm6500-or-dmm6510 (https://www.tek.com/promotion/free-kickstart-software-purchase-dmm6500-or-dmm6510)

As for the fan, I can live with the noise. It's less noisy than my scope.

Is there a way to check how much (turn on) power cycles the unit has? I want to reassure its new and not one that has been send back for whatever reason. (It did come with 2 identical power cords for instance and no certificate, which makes me wonder whether its straight from the factory. The state I got mine in is not consistent with the 2 unboxing video's on YouTube.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on November 20, 2019, 03:09:28 pm
I got a DMM6500 some months ago and liked it so much that I bought one more a few weeks ago!
I think you also bought yours from www.cnrood.com? (http://www.cnrood.com?) Did yours come with a calibration certificate?
Mine came without one.

Also what would be the path to get the free licence for free kickstart?
https://www.tek.com/promotion/free-kickstart-software-purchase-dmm6500-or-dmm6510 (https://www.tek.com/promotion/free-kickstart-software-purchase-dmm6500-or-dmm6510)

As for the fan, I can live with the noise. It's less noisy than my scope.

Is there a way to check how much (turn on) power cycles the unit has? I want to reassure its new and not one that has been send back for whatever reason. (It did come with 2 identical power cords for instance and no certificate, which makes me wonder whether its straight from the factory. The state I got mine in is not consistent with the 2 unboxing video's on YouTube.)

Yes, I got the first from cnrood (at a discount), the second one from Farnell. They both came with a calib. certificate and did not look like they had been opened previous etc!
Not sure about the turn on cycles, havn't seen that one!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 20, 2019, 03:33:16 pm
The number of turn on cycles would be odd and not that helpful for normal use. With a LM399 ref. inside the hours active for the reference would be nice to have, but I doubt they have it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 20, 2019, 03:39:14 pm
I contacted Tektronix about the certificate, which was sent to me by mail.

CN rood was mentioned as the only and very thrust worthy local distributor, so that is a plus!

So the deal (658 euro ext vat) they offer at the moment might interest more of you:
https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter (https://www.cnrood.com/en/dmm6500-6-digit-touchscreen-multimeter)

(My certificate is from dec 2018 so that might be a reason for the lower price.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on November 20, 2019, 04:04:43 pm
Is there a way to check how much (turn on) power cycles the unit has?
You can check the number of autocal cycles. (System Calibration menu )
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 20, 2019, 07:54:09 pm
Has this text always been present there for the DMM6500 Manual:
https://www.tek.com/product-support?series=DMM6500%206%C2%BD-Digit%20Graphical%20Touchscreen%20Digital%20Multimeter (https://www.tek.com/product-support?series=DMM6500%206%C2%BD-Digit%20Graphical%20Touchscreen%20Digital%20Multimeter)
Quote
This revision is intended for use with firmware version 1.7.0 and later.
They updated the demo clock application to 2.0

Are we getting a firmware update as Christmas present??
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 21, 2019, 06:23:26 am
Has this text always been present there for the DMM6500 Manual:
https://www.tek.com/product-support?series=DMM6500%206%C2%BD-Digit%20Graphical%20Touchscreen%20Digital%20Multimeter (https://www.tek.com/product-support?series=DMM6500%206%C2%BD-Digit%20Graphical%20Touchscreen%20Digital%20Multimeter)
Quote
This revision is intended for use with firmware version 1.7.0 and later.
They updated the demo clock application to 2.0

Are we getting a firmware update as Christmas present??

According to the release notes on the clock application: https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/TSPAPP-CLOCK-V2.0.0.txt (https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/TSPAPP-CLOCK-V2.0.0.txt)

"Highlights the customization capability by displaying an animated analog clock

Compatible with DAQ6510 and DMM6500 with v1.0.0 firmware minimum.
Compatible with 2450, 2460, 2461, 2470, DMM7510 with v1.7.0 firmware minimum".

So, it would appear that from this document at least, the "v1.7.0" firmware is not related to the DMM6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on November 21, 2019, 10:30:50 am
So, it would appear that from this document at least, the "v1.7.0" firmware is not related to the DMM6500.
Yes. Firmware "v1.7.0" has just appeared for 7510. And in this firmware for the first time added the ability to run applications. To interest users, the application of the clock has been fixed. Those. A new watch is needed for the 7510.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 21, 2019, 12:22:24 pm
I'm still looking into what info can be extracted from this DMM. Using the TSP (lua) language it is possible to get info on the members that can be used in scripts.

Code: [Select]
for key,value in pairs(getmetatable(localnode.fan).Setters) do print(key, value) end
results in:
Code: [Select]
level function: 2238968

Where
Code: [Select]
print(fan.level)Results in
Code: [Select]
fan.LEVEL_QUIET
However setting this property like:
Code: [Select]
fan.level = fan.OFFDoes not seem to work. But it should be the right enum value (2) to turn it off.

Exploring this metadata might become handy.  :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 21, 2019, 12:34:06 pm
This command speeds up the fan for a little second, so the device is responding to a change in this property.
Code: [Select]
fan.level = fan.LEVEL_QUIET
Also
Code: [Select]
fan.level = fan.LEVEL_NORMAL
Makes the fan a lot louder…

The problem seems that fan.OFF is not of the right type.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 21, 2019, 01:33:50 pm
I think it was mentioned by Keithley that it was already on its lowest setting and that off wasn't supported.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: goaty on November 21, 2019, 02:17:17 pm
Has anyone encountered the relay constantly clicking problem on 6500 when measuring current of a light load (~4mA, switching reagulator) ?
Setting to 1A manually works, but setting it to 10mA or 100mA results in "Overflow".
The load may have spikes, but definitely nothing in the 100+mA range.
Measuring voltage with shunt (0,1Ohm) works fine (100mV Range).

Any ideas ? Anyone encountered that ?

Thanks,
Thomas
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 21, 2019, 02:20:14 pm
So, it would appear that from this document at least, the "v1.7.0" firmware is not related to the DMM6500.
Yes. Firmware "v1.7.0" has just appeared for 7510. And in this firmware for the first time added the ability to run applications. To interest users, the application of the clock has been fixed. Those. A new watch is needed for the 7510.
I checked those release notes:
"KNOWN ISSUES" contains 1 record !?!
Maybe they mean newly added issues  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on November 21, 2019, 02:27:01 pm
Could you please remind me, does the fan is always on, or only when the unit is booted up?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 21, 2019, 02:47:45 pm
Has anyone encountered the relay constantly clicking problem on 6500 when measuring current of a light load (~4mA, switching reagulator) ?
Setting to 1A manually works, but setting it to 10mA or 100mA results in "Overflow".
The load may have spikes, but definitely nothing in the 100+mA range.
Measuring voltage with shunt (0,1Ohm) works fine (100mV Range).

Any ideas ? Anyone encountered that ?

Thanks,
Thomas

Yes but there were very short spikes that i didn't expect, it is very sensitive to very short current spikes.
Do a fast digitize if you want to see prove of those spikes.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 21, 2019, 04:41:02 pm
Could you please remind me, does the fan is always on, or only when the unit is booted up?
The fan is only on when the device is on. However a transformer hum can be heard even when the device is not on. Which can be heard in a silent room from I think 1.0 m. The fan can then be heard from 10 m.
I've heard worse. (My PC is water cooled to battle fan noise and near silent, so I'm not insensitive about fans)

My device is BTW about to be replaced by CN Rood. I hope the calibration date of the new device will be more recent. Are you tempted  :P?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 21, 2019, 08:06:09 pm
Hi All, long time lurker..

I can confirm, there is no officially sanctioned way to turn the fan off.
The specs (under all operating conditions) require the little bit of air movement inside the instrument.
Hi,

Do you think that blocking the inlet or outlet (left or right) would still provide this required little air movement?
Because you can make it much more silent by blocking it with paper on the outside.
I didn't want to keep the blocking since I saw the low voltage measurement move a little.

Also any advice on the hum, I have two one is louder than the other one, but how to know if it's out of spec and need to be returned? anything I can check/fix?

P.S. Do you speak in name of Keithley or is this more in your free time giving your own opinion?

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on November 21, 2019, 08:15:30 pm
My device is BTW about to be replaced by CN Rood. I hope the calibration date of the new device will be more recent. Are you tempted  :P?

Yeah, but I'll restrain myself :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 21, 2019, 09:46:42 pm
I work on the product analog design for Keithley.

For the fan air - you could try blocking the vents with a breathable fabric. If placed loosely nearby it should still allow some air exchange while reducing the audible noise. If it is completely blocked off, the internal temp will rise and after some time, you may see measurements have drifted. A good test is turn autozero OFF then block up your airflow.. after 30 minutes see how much drift has occurred (in addition to the normal spec) - it might be perfectly acceptable to your application. This kind of operation wasn't characterized very much.

For your transformer hum - Early units are known to exhibit this. I think if you find it too loud, you can return it for exchange if its still in warranty. Brad O can better help with that. Otherwise, this problem can be fixed but it requires something most users would rather not deal with.

Everything I do on this forum is my free time but I can help answer questions since Brad seems quite busy these days - glad to help out.

Thanks for the quick response :)

Ok so it's not like the DMM would get damaged or get a reduced lifetime if it the air inlet is always blocked, you just have to accept the drift while blocked, correct?

About the hum, it's actually the more recent version that is louder (5/2019), can I check somehow if the fix was applied or not? (both are still in warranty)
I don't like sending it and getting the same back after weeks. (since there is no hum spec, I can't say "out of spec")

edit: since you are Analog Design, is this a known issue at Keithley?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-Bcm8TbW4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-Bcm8TbW4)
Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on November 21, 2019, 11:31:00 pm
MULTI-MEASURE bug - If I understood correctly what the video was showing (when going to 100V or 1kV range), then yes its a known hardware issue that will be resolved on the next revision.

Ouch, I wonder if this will be covered under warranty or is at least a mod we can perform ourselves.. thanks for providing information btw.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 22, 2019, 12:09:20 am
Hi All, long time lurker..

I can confirm, there is no officially sanctioned way to turn the fan off.
The specs (under all operating conditions) require the little bit of air movement inside the instrument.

Welcome to the forum.
I was wondering... what happened to Brad?

In my case, I do not consider my DMM6500 noisy at all.

Are there some more noisy than others?
Is the fan speed not regulated by temperature?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 22, 2019, 12:49:42 am
MULTI-MEASURE bug - If I understood correctly what the video was showing (when going to 100V or 1kV range), then yes its a known hardware issue that will be resolved on the next revision.

Ouch, I wonder if this will be covered under warranty or is at least a mod we can perform ourselves.. thanks for providing information btw.

I am unsure about covered under warranty (you will have to contact applications ENG for that) -- I don't recall all the details ATM, I thought it might only be reproduced with open voltage input connections or something along those lines (not a common or normal use case if I am remembering right)
If you could post your setup details and how the issue is causing problems for you, we can assist in finding a workaround that could be satisfactory for you. In any case, I think the issue is logged in our system.

I know I wrote about this problem directly to Brad, made a video of my setup for him, and posted on the Tek support forums.  No one ever contacted me again.  Brad completely dropped off the forum after I brought this to his attention.  So, based on how Keithley has previously handled this issue I'm not exactly hopeful anything will be done.  I would certainly love to be proven wrong though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 22, 2019, 02:48:14 am
JxR - sorry to hear you didnt get contacted again to get a satisfactory result to your issue. I'll "remind" some guys about this to close the loop with you. I dont follow the Tek forums (where you posted)  as they seem to not be as active as this place. However, the Tek forums are the "official" place to document the reports / ask questions so you did the right thing.

Everyone here, myself included, is very happy to see Keithley back on the forum.  I hope you will continue to stay and engage with your customers.

I know you were not involved with that particular finding months ago.  Although just to be clear, 99% of the discussion was here on this forum (and through private messages between Brad and myself).  I only posted a single time to the Tek forum as a last resort once Brad stopped posting here. 

Your post earlier today is the first official response on the subject that any of us have heard. For myself, I would love to know if existing customers will have their units repaired/replaced under warranty now that the hardware is known to be at fault.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on November 22, 2019, 03:00:54 am
Perhaps it's something to do with fact that 100V/1kV ranges use high voltage divider on the front end, but lower ranges are high impedance input.

I'm also happy to see Keithley back in this thread.  :-+
May not look like much, but it does mean a lot to T&M community and loyal Keithley fans like myself.

Private messages / emails / phone calls to support are great for urgent issues, but for normal feedback process forum is a great way, as all owners can follow up the thread, instead of spending time (both user's and support team's) over similar/same topics.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on November 22, 2019, 03:39:45 am
MULTI-MEASURE bug - If I understood correctly what the video was showing (when going to 100V or 1kV range), then yes its a known hardware issue that will be resolved on the next revision.

This known hardware issue will be fixed by a firmware revision?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 22, 2019, 09:51:55 am
Some comments
MULTI-MEASURE bug - If I understood correctly what the video was showing (when going to 100V or 1kV range), then yes its a known hardware issue that will be resolved on the next revision.
Personally I'm not so worried about this 36mV jump (on 100V range) to 2.4V, 2.4V is not present on the terminal (it's still 36mV)  (the voltage terminals were not floating, 50ohm)

Maybe you can shine some light on the limitations of MULTI-MEASURE of voltage and current (excluding the 100V range bug)
In this thread we checked other DMMs (not Keithley) and also much more expensive DMMs and they all have this xx mV reading when running 1A through the device.
So that seems to be a common thing to happen, that is how it should work.
But how does Keithley or any other manufacture then say voltage can be measured while current is running through the device?  Seems to me the best you can say is it can be done but then the voltage is completely out of spec.

Anyway it's better to have it and understand what the limitations are than having it disabled.
From what I experience it's rarely a good idea to do both on one device hence why I don't really worry about the 100V range bug.

One other question: to request software improvements or report bugs what is the best way to do it so the info gets to a place were it will be logged and read by the software developers?
Although the https://forum.tek.com/ forum seem to be the place, it doesn't seem to be read by Keithley.
(I would expect at least an "We look into it" reply within a few weeks when a bug is posted)

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 22, 2019, 01:55:28 pm
Not to interrupt this thread, but I think it's only fair to mention that the new DMM I received today from CN Rood was calibrated a lot more recent (September 2019). The fan and hum are about the same loudness.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 22, 2019, 11:19:51 pm
Maybe you can shine some light on the limitations of MULTI-MEASURE of voltage and current (excluding the 100V range bug)
In this thread we checked other DMMs (not Keithley) and also much more expensive DMMs and they all have this xx mV reading when running 1A through the device.
So that seems to be a common thing to happen, that is how it should work.
But how does Keithley or any other manufacture then say voltage can be measured while current is running through the device?  Seems to me the best you can say is it can be done but then the voltage is completely out of spec.

Anyway it's better to have it and understand what the limitations are than having it disabled.
From what I experience it's rarely a good idea to do both on one device hence why I don't really worry about the 100V range bug.

I just want to clarify since we didn't really compile a list of DMMs that perform dual V/I measurements and test them.  The DMM7510 doesn't suffer from this same hardware problem, it does dual measurements fine and provides the expected results on the voltage reading.  While both the DMM6500 and DAQ6510 cannot perform a reliable dual measurements on either the 100/1000V ranges.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on November 23, 2019, 11:09:06 am
Not to interrupt this thread, but I think it's only fair to mention that the new DMM I received today from CN Rood was calibrated a lot more recent (September 2019). The fan and hum are about the same loudness.

Thanks for the clarification, like I said I am fairly sure this issue is logged. The next hardware revision will seek to improve it because we address all known defects. I can say however, that I dont know of any mechanism in place to notify you when this actually occurs. In the meantime, perhaps somebody (Brad) could work on a way for the issue to be worked around for your particular measurement situation (if there is such a way). I'm assuming you posted sufficient details on the Tek forum.

So this is a hardware issue and can't be fixed by a firmware update?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 23, 2019, 03:16:15 pm
Somewhere in the future I would like to measure temperatures with the DMM6500. I understand it doesn't measure the cold junction temperature. So the exact temp difference is somewhat hard to tell. This can be overcome to use a known cold junction/junction temperature outside the device.
Ice water could be used, but any other known stable temperature could used as well. So I might resurrect a little project I did for fun:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/very-stable-temperature-control/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/very-stable-temperature-control/)
But then using a more accurate "temperature reference". Does anybody know of an affordable sensor which is specialized to measure a narrow temperature range, but very accurate?
(I think keeping the cold junction at a known temperature can be more precise than measuring an uncontrolled one in a larger range. And off course continuously updating the junction temp setting in the DMM6500 is not trivial/handy)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on November 23, 2019, 03:32:19 pm
Somewhere in the future I would like to measure temperatures with the DMM6500. I understand it doesn't measure the cold junction temperature. So the exact temp difference is somewhat hard to tell. This can be overcome to use a known cold junction/junction temperature outside the device.

You cold also use another sensor type.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 23, 2019, 04:56:04 pm
Maybe you can shine some light on the limitations of MULTI-MEASURE of voltage and current (excluding the 100V range bug)
In this thread we checked other DMMs (not Keithley) and also much more expensive DMMs and they all have this xx mV reading when running 1A through the device.
So that seems to be a common thing to happen, that is how it should work.
But how does Keithley or any other manufacture then say voltage can be measured while current is running through the device?  Seems to me the best you can say is it can be done but then the voltage is completely out of spec.

Anyway it's better to have it and understand what the limitations are than having it disabled.
From what I experience it's rarely a good idea to do both on one device hence why I don't really worry about the 100V range bug.

I just want to clarify since we didn't really compile a list of DMMs that perform dual V/I measurements and test them.  The DMM7510 doesn't suffer from this same hardware problem, it does dual measurements fine and provides the expected results on the voltage reading.  While both the DMM6500 and DAQ6510 cannot perform a reliable dual measurements on either the 100/1000V ranges.

I'm not talking about the 100/1000V bug I'm talking about this:
50 ohm between voltage terminals, I could add a voltage and then say it's wrong but I don't see the point, it's not 0.0mV now without one.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 23, 2019, 05:11:15 pm
Somewhere in the future I would like to measure temperatures with the DMM6500. I understand it doesn't measure the cold junction temperature. So the exact temp difference is somewhat hard to tell. This can be overcome to use a known cold junction/junction temperature outside the device.

You cold also use another sensor type.
I haven't investigated other options yet. But the solution should have a good price/fun ratio  :-+
One of the advantage of a K-type sensor is that they're cheap (don't know about price vs quality) and their low thermal mass and large measurement range. But if someone knows of another affordable solution, then I'm certainly interested.
Will the need arise to do temperature measurements it's nice to have multiple options at hand.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 23, 2019, 06:41:50 pm
With just standard 4 mm connectors it is hard to use thermo-couples. I know there are / were some electronic cold junction compensator from Omega that worked quite good. However it's nearly 20 years I used them I don't know if they are still available.
The DMM  may have to use a different voltage to temperature conversion. Possibly sensors for a cold junction are PT1000, just a PN diode or NTCs. The PT1000 could get away without extra calibration.  For use with a scanner I once use an AD592 (PAT current source, 1 µA / K) as with the meter used the scanner also worked for current and turned of the current if no in use.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 23, 2019, 08:47:10 pm
Maybe you can shine some light on the limitations of MULTI-MEASURE of voltage and current (excluding the 100V range bug)
In this thread we checked other DMMs (not Keithley) and also much more expensive DMMs and they all have this xx mV reading when running 1A through the device.
So that seems to be a common thing to happen, that is how it should work.
But how does Keithley or any other manufacture then say voltage can be measured while current is running through the device?  Seems to me the best you can say is it can be done but then the voltage is completely out of spec.

Anyway it's better to have it and understand what the limitations are than having it disabled.
From what I experience it's rarely a good idea to do both on one device hence why I don't really worry about the 100V range bug.

I just want to clarify since we didn't really compile a list of DMMs that perform dual V/I measurements and test them.  The DMM7510 doesn't suffer from this same hardware problem, it does dual measurements fine and provides the expected results on the voltage reading.  While both the DMM6500 and DAQ6510 cannot perform a reliable dual measurements on either the 100/1000V ranges.

I'm not talking about the 100/1000V bug I'm talking about this:
50 ohm between voltage terminals, I could add a voltage and then say it's wrong but I don't see the point, it's not 0.0mV now without one.

Yeah, I see what your saying.  Although one apparently produces an error of 320uV, while the other produces an error of several volts.  Both are bad, but one is 10000x more severe.  Obviously both make the DMM6500 out of spec on dual measurements.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: gamalot on November 23, 2019, 09:01:12 pm
DMM6500. Datasheet :

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2585589.pdf)

Good to see ethernet standard, even if they got it backwards  :D

It’s not easy to put the wrong name on the USB port and network port.  :-DD
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 23, 2019, 09:09:34 pm
The LMT70A temp sensor seems to be a good choice to PID control to a fixed temperature. The idea would be not use the 4mm plugs at the "cold junction" of lets say 40 deg C.
https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lmt70.pdf (https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lmt70.pdf)
Using an IC that's linear with voltage has the benefit that the sensed temperature can be easily read, so it can either be fine-tuned, or that the actual measured temp can be entered in the DMM as the cold junction temp.
Using a fixed temp instead of generating a correction voltage can be more precise as it is independent of the nonlinearities of the thermocouple curve.
B.t.w. pt1000 sensors seem affordable too.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 23, 2019, 10:18:58 pm
Somewhere in the future I would like to measure temperatures with the DMM6500. I understand it doesn't measure the cold junction temperature. So the exact temp difference is somewhat hard to tell. This can be overcome to use a known cold junction/junction temperature outside the device.

You cold also use another sensor type.
I haven't investigated other options yet. But the solution should have a good price/fun ratio  :-+
One of the advantage of a K-type sensor is that they're cheap (don't know about price vs quality) and their low thermal mass and large measurement range. But if someone knows of another affordable solution, then I'm certainly interested.
Will the need arise to do temperature measurements it's nice to have multiple options at hand.

I've been happy enough with this PT100 probe with the DMM6500.  I personally just clipped the wires and soldered on some banana plugs.  It is accurate enough that I don't feel like I need to perform a cold junction compensation for it with an ice water bath.  Unlike all the K-type probes I've used (they all required compensation).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075QC399C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075QC399C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
You can also find the same probe on aliexpress if you search around.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on November 23, 2019, 10:22:12 pm
Great to see Keithley active on the forums again. I much appreciate manufacturers showing an interest in their customers.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on November 23, 2019, 10:29:43 pm
Somewhere in the future I would like to measure temperatures with the DMM6500. I understand it doesn't measure the cold junction temperature. So the exact temp difference is somewhat hard to tell. This can be overcome to use a known cold junction/junction temperature outside the device.

You cold also use another sensor type.
I haven't investigated other options yet. But the solution should have a good price/fun ratio  :-+
One of the advantage of a K-type sensor is that they're cheap (don't know about price vs quality) and their low thermal mass and large measurement range. But if someone knows of another affordable solution, then I'm certainly interested.
Will the need arise to do temperature measurements it's nice to have multiple options at hand.

I've been happy enough with this PT100 probe with the DMM6500.  I personally just clipped the wires and soldered on some banana plugs.  It is accurate enough that I don't feel like I need to perform a cold junction compensation for it with an ice water bath.  Unlike all the K-type probes I've used (they all required compensation).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075QC399C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075QC399C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
You can also find the same probe on aliexpress if you search around.

RTD sensors (PT100, PT1000) don't need cold junction compensations. That is needed for thermocouples. RTDs are absolute value sensors. Same with thermistors, but they have quite different resistance/temperature curve..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on November 24, 2019, 08:30:02 am
RTD sensors (PT100, PT1000) don't need cold junction compensations. That is needed for thermocouples. RTDs are absolute value sensors. Same with thermistors, but they have quite different resistance/temperature curve..

A sensor I like for moderate temperatures (Up to about 100°C) is LM35. Wire it to a 9V battery and it will work for a year on any voltmeter and you do not really need to do any conversions.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 24, 2019, 11:26:38 am
With just standard 4 mm connectors it is hard to use thermo-couples.
Some thoughts on the temperature measurement subject.
I think Kleinstein addresses a problem with the thermocouple solution, every junction with different metals participates in the measurement. And if those can't be tightly controlled then accuracy will probably suffer (but how much? Especially when the non measurement junctions are kept the same between pos and neg).
So RTD's seem a better choice if they cover the range one wants to measure. But when doing "live" thermal probing, without a solid thermal connection between probe and DUT, accuracy will suffer a lot from environmental cooling of the probe.
The bottomline is that great accuracies are almost impossible to reach, without "specialized" setups.
In this prove of concept:  determining-heat-dissipation-of-3d-printed-box-is-it-any-good (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/determining-heat-dissipation-of-3d-printed-box-is-it-any-good/) I experimented in turning things around, instead of measuring different temperatures it measured how much power an enclosure can handle to keep a certain fixed temp. But that is a pretty time consuming way of getting information about thermal behavior.
So for doing quick and dirty measurements and doing reasonable accurate measurements a thermocouple seem to me the best candidate. However my hand MM has CJC, so its ready to use in that case. On the other hand there's no way of doing automated testing with it. (But that's would not be quick and dirty any more).
To conclude: creating a cold junction reference temp at 40 deg C, would (because of the handheld MM) mostly be a fun project, not one with huge benefits.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 28, 2019, 06:29:03 pm
Firmware 1.7.0 for the DMM6500 is now available!

Release notes here: https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/DMM6500-FRP-v1_7_0_November_2019_RNs_DMM6500-FRP-V1.7.0.pdf (https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/DMM6500-FRP-v1_7_0_November_2019_RNs_DMM6500-FRP-V1.7.0.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 28, 2019, 06:50:08 pm
So, I just leave the DMM6500 on all the time to read the lab temp.  With the new firmware, the temp reading is now left justified (before it was centered).  Not a huge deal, but I honestly liked it in the center.

[attach=1]
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 28, 2019, 08:18:52 pm
Nice I will try it tomorrow.
FYI it's not under Downloads but under Technical Documents & Software tab (on the same page)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on November 28, 2019, 10:49:22 pm
Link if anyone had trouble finding it: https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-graphical-touchscreen-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software-3 (https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm6500-6-1-2-digit-graphical-touchscreen-digital-multimeter/dmm6500-software-3)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on November 29, 2019, 12:06:43 am
Looks like us Canadians will have to wait, till after the US long weekend.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: gamalot on November 29, 2019, 10:17:38 am
Looks like us Canadians will have to wait, till after the US long weekend.

I can download it in Australia without any problem.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 29, 2019, 11:30:01 am
Some quick first impressions:
- The values on graphs still are not made for humans!
(in manual mode give us more step settings than 1,10,100,etc for Y-axis if you can't program it right, like 1,2,5,10, etc. or just give us Ymin and Ymax to set via script I can figure out to make it right)
- Average Y between cursors on display is not using the buffer values but the screen resolution values. (result changes when you zoom in/out)
- I got a blue screen when pressing 'analog edge trigger' in the graph menu, I cannot reproduce it.
(haven't played with the buffer sizes yet)

- There is a "measure config list" added, to group your measure settings, so you don't have to make a script for it.
Looks nice and more convenient, you can also check the settings before using it.

I didn't notice any other obvious changes (some font spacing fixed.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 29, 2019, 05:20:53 pm
My first quick impression of the new firmware v1.7 for the DMM7510 and DMM6500:

1. Much better vertical graph scaling readability
2. Menu structure and positioning of touch screen keys are much more equal between DMM6500 and DMM7510

This seems to be a very good firmware update so far.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on November 30, 2019, 08:45:21 am
Is that very last pic really from the DMM6500?  Seems like it gained a digit of resolution.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 30, 2019, 10:08:21 am
Here are 3 more screen shots from the DMM6500 (ENTER+HOME)

I really like the way they have made the menus and graphical layouts between the DMM6500 and DMM7510 the same now.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 30, 2019, 02:00:34 pm
I had the DMM6500 hooked up to a very stable LTZ1000A output.
The problem that was noticed before, with a sudden jump in the graph is still happening.

So, most likely this is a hardware problem and can not be solved in the firmware?



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on November 30, 2019, 02:16:28 pm
The jumps look a little like the "normal" level of popcorn noise from a LM399 reference.
So chances are high this is a limitation of the hardware. Besides the reference also resistors could produce a similar noise. The DMM6500 is sold as a 6 digit meter after all and not for 7 digit performance.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on November 30, 2019, 04:03:33 pm

Agree, it might be the 399 --- though I dont think I've seen it jump for that long of a time period before. When I get my loaner back, I can try this as well see what it looks like. I assume this data was taken in a very temperature stable environment with care taken with the cables and connections as well.



Yes, temperature was very stable in my lab and I used metrology grade PTFE cables.
Thanks for looking in to this.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on November 30, 2019, 10:48:31 pm
I did some experiments with an fixed cold side junction temp (about 40°C). The results seem to show that it works, even with a very cheap thermo couple.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/diy-cold-junction-compensation-on-a-dmm6500/msg2808948/#msg2808948 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/diy-cold-junction-compensation-on-a-dmm6500/msg2808948/#msg2808948)

The setup can be improved a lot, but I like the idea that it is possible to do thermocouple measurements with CJC this way.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on December 01, 2019, 07:42:15 pm
I had the DMM6500 hooked up to a very stable LTZ1000A output.
The problem that was noticed before, with a sudden jump in the graph is still happening.

So, most likely this is a hardware problem and can not be solved in the firmware?

Have you try to connect another DMM (34470A / 34465A) to the LTZ1000A at the same time?

It is easy to see that the sudden jump is only happen in the DMM6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 01, 2019, 08:35:48 pm
I had the DMM6500 hooked up to a very stable LTZ1000A output.
The problem that was noticed before, with a sudden jump in the graph is still happening.

So, most likely this is a hardware problem and can not be solved in the firmware?

Have you try to connect another DMM (34470A / 34465A) to the LTZ1000A at the same time?

It is easy to see that the sudden jump is only happen in the DMM6500.

Yes, these sudden jumps only show up on the DMM6500
Other DMM in parallel that I tested, like the 34470A / 34465A will not show this.
So, it is for sure related to the DMM6500
Also, the Keithley DMM7510 does not show this phenomenon.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 01, 2019, 09:00:42 pm
The 34465 uses the same type of LM399 reference. So similar jumps are expected for this meter too - but of cause not correlated and possibly at a different rate. Not all LM399 must behave the same, but I would still expect some popcorn type noise. There may be different levels of selection for the references.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 02, 2019, 12:26:02 pm
Hi,

On my second unit (at work) the firmware update failed:
I did return to firmware 1.0.04b and it looks like it works ok now. (although not sure)

During the firmware update I got error: 2305

Rebooting after the failed update I got  error: 1149

P.S. I submitted an official support ticket.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 03, 2019, 09:36:31 am

So is it alive again? I always thought an FPGA programming failure bricked the unit. I'll ask about it.
Yes it is working again,  (on the older firmware)
Apparently an AFPGA init failure doesn't brick it. (how many FPGA's are there?)
It will contain the previous version in it so it's not like it's not working.
Although I'm not sure if the downgrade worked as it should, I didn't get an error during downgrade though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 03, 2019, 09:42:20 am
I don't think the FPGA will still have the old code as a backup. One could be lucky that at least the part for communication and upgrade (kind of boot-loader equivalent) worked.  A possible error scenario could also be that the upgrade of one FPGA did not run at all and the errors are due to not compatible versions / failed verify . In this case the way back has a good chance to work.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 03, 2019, 11:08:05 am
how many FPGA's are there?
Judging by the photos, the device has 2 FPGA:
1. Spartan 6. (Presumably an exchange between two processors, an exchange with memory, digitizing, etc. ...)
2. Actel ProASIC3 (management of multislope ADC, maybe some other tasks.)

The analog most likely is called the second FPGA.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 03, 2019, 07:29:30 pm
The jumps look a little like the "normal" level of popcorn noise from a LM399 reference.
So chances are high this is a limitation of the hardware. Besides the reference also resistors could produce a similar noise. The DMM6500 is sold as a 6 digit meter after all and not for 7 digit performance.

Here are pictures from today.
The DMM6500 and the 34465A in parallel hooked up to a stable 10V reference.
There are no jumps to notice at the 34465A
But always some jumps with the DMM6500

Both instruments set to 1 NPLC, no filter, Auto Zero ON



 

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 03, 2019, 08:39:10 pm
It wouldn't surprise me if theses where ADC (DNL?) errors, specific to your device's ADC. In that case it may happen only on specific voltages when several bits overflow, exaggerating an analog rise/fall.
But comparing both brands is hard on those pics, the DMM6500 has what looks to be a stronger zoom on the signal.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 03, 2019, 09:25:52 pm
The Level of the jumps is about what is expected for an average LM399 - so it would be a surprise not to find it. Not all units are the same and the 34465 may have a slightly better selected ref. or just luck. The graph as shown does not have enough zoom to show the noise - there are just a few indication visible. The relatively slow popcorn noise would probably get more visible at 10 PLC.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on December 03, 2019, 09:59:41 pm
The typical jumps are 4-5uV with LM399H/AH at least here (new original LT).
Periods are ~minutes so it does not matter whether it is 10 or 100NPLC.
PS: All LT's LMs I got are > 7.05V. As Andreas elaborated the best performing LMs are those with around 6.95V made by NS (and probably with less popcorn)..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 07, 2019, 11:59:55 pm
Maybe someone can help me with the following. I've created the following trigger model:
[attachimg=1]

A simple (test) loop that waits for the SCPI "*TRG" command to cascade the trigger and do a single measurement.

The idea is to measure with an oscilloscope and the dmm at the same time. Having the DMM executing the loop, but the SCPI client doing the data handling of both devices (dmm: FETCH).

This would be easy if there was a way to let the SCPI client wait for the completion of the measurement.

So is there a solid way to wait for the "new" measurement or poll the status of it?

One way would be to have another wait block after the measurement and check whether the loop is in a waiting state, but that might introduce a delay of 100 ms before that state is set.
Code: [Select]
:TRIGger:STATe?
Waiting: The trigger model has been in the same wait block for more than 100 ms
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 08, 2019, 12:24:12 am
Any word on when the new revisions that fix the known hardware issues will appear?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on December 08, 2019, 03:07:14 am
Maybe someone can help me with the following. I've created the following trigger model:
(Attachment Link)

A simple (test) loop that waits for the SCPI "*TRG" command to cascade the trigger and do a single measurement.

The idea is to measure with an oscilloscope and the dmm at the same time. Having the DMM executing the loop, but the SCPI client doing the data handling of both devices (dmm: FETCH).

This would be easy if there was a way to let the SCPI client wait for the completion of the measurement.

So is there a solid way to wait for the "new" measurement or poll the status of it?

One way would be to have another wait block after the measurement and check whether the loop is in a waiting state, but that might introduce a delay of 100 ms before that state is set.
Code: [Select]
:TRIGger:STATe?
Waiting: The trigger model has been in the same wait block for more than 100 ms

Your probably looking for something like polling the event registers and generating a SRQ.  Check out Appendix B in the reference manual. 

You could also possibly do the entire thing with the DMM6500 collecting the data from the oscilloscope with a TSP script.  You could connect the trigger out of your scope to the DMM6500 for a sync measurement.  Then send the SCPI command from the DMM6500 to trigger the scope.  If your scope has an ethernet LXI interface, then it can sends SCPI directly from the DMM6500 via a TSP script.  Requires learning lua and the TSP commands though.  If that sounds interesting to you, check out TSP-Net in Section 10 of the reference manual.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 08, 2019, 09:39:55 am
Maybe someone can help me with the following. I've created the following trigger model:
(Attachment Link)

A simple (test) loop that waits for the SCPI "*TRG" command to cascade the trigger and do a single measurement.

The idea is to measure with an oscilloscope and the dmm at the same time. Having the DMM executing the loop, but the SCPI client doing the data handling of both devices (dmm: FETCH).

This would be easy if there was a way to let the SCPI client wait for the completion of the measurement.

So is there a solid way to wait for the "new" measurement or poll the status of it?

One way would be to have another wait block after the measurement and check whether the loop is in a waiting state, but that might introduce a delay of 100 ms before that state is set.
Code: [Select]
:TRIGger:STATe?
Waiting: The trigger model has been in the same wait block for more than 100 ms
Your probably looking for something like polling the event registers and generating a SRQ.  Check out Appendix B in the reference manual. 
That is exactly what I was looking for! It can even do SRQ callback to my SCPI client, so polling would not be needed (which would have cause a lot of network traffic).
Nice to know that the DMM can also do SCPI communications to other devices. But for now I'll be using a scripting tool which I developed myself. The script that needs this stuff will create translation interpolation (calibration) tables to do precise measurements with a scope, using those tables and letting the offset DAC "follow" a (slow) signal in combination with a sensitive range (1 mV/div or 500 uV/div). I already had some good results using that technique, but without using a precision DMM.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on December 08, 2019, 10:23:41 am
It can even do SRQ callback to my SCPI client, so polling would not be needed (which would have cause a lot of network traffic)...l
Do you happen to have a LABview example of that?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 08, 2019, 02:09:53 pm
I'm not using LabView, but here's what I found out:

My first thought was that the DMM would set the Measurement Event (MSB) bit of the "*STB?" register after each measurement. But no, that bit can only be set by event mapping.
Events are those things that end up in the eventlog info/warning/error and having a code. One can use such code to map it to a bit in another register (Questionable Event Register) which if the bit is enabled can cascade it's state to the MSB bit of the "*STB?" register.
There's also another register (Operation Event Register) which cascades to the OSB bit of the  "*STB?" register. In the following example I've used that.
Code: [Select]
INITIATE

// map bit 0 to information message 4
:STATUS:OPERATION:MAP 0, 2737

// Let bit 0 cascade to the "*STB?" register (OSB bit)
:STATUS:OPERATION:ENABLE 1

// Let the OSB bit send service request events
*SRE 128

// Clear event logs
SYSTEM:CLEAR
STATUS:CLEAR
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 08, 2019, 09:11:44 pm
There's one thing that needs some consideration when using these registers. When the STB is read via the VISA api, that is an destructive read (love the term). Which means is is read and set to 0 in one atomic operation. That's solid!
Reading the other registers don't work this way. Which mean that getting the register content and resetting it, cannot be done atomically. The danger of this is that after reading the content, a new state can be set at the device, just before clearing it. That way that status change will be unnoticeable.
The remedy against this is not clearing the register until one knows for certain that the dmm execution is in a safe state to do so.  A destructive read would have been preferable, because until that safe state event bits cannot be "reused".
Another technique might be to make the reading of the register and clearing it uninterruptible.
This could be done between:
TRIG:PAUSe
TRIG:RESume
But one does not want to do this while polling. :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on December 08, 2019, 10:08:44 pm
There's one thing that needs some consideration when using these registers. When the STB is read via the VISA api, that is an destructive read (love the term). Which means is is read and set to 0 in one atomic operation. That's solid!
Reading the other registers don't work this way. Which mean that getting the register content and resetting it, cannot be done atomically. The danger of this is that after reading the content, a new state can be set at the device, just before clearing it. That way that status change will be unnoticeable.
The remedy against this is not clearing the register until one knows for certain that the dmm execution is in a safe state to do so.  A destructive read would have been preferable, because until that safe state event bits cannot be "reused".
Another technique might be to make the reading of the register and clearing it uninterruptible.
This could be done between:
TRIG:PAUSe
TRIG:RESume
But one does not want to do this while polling. :-+

A few people on here like to use Raspberry Pis for dedicated loggers and instrument control.  One benefit I expect of such a setup is a set of GPIO pins.  If you setup a digital output trigger after the measurement is completed you could use it to trigger an interrupt.  Unfortunately digital output pins are only available if you purchase the TSP link card on the DMM6500.  Although I expect if you made a cable, you could technically use the BNC trigger out.  Both might require some level shifting to be compatible with the Pi though.

On GPIB connections the SRQ is just an output on one of the pins.  I've never actually messed around with it on an Ethernet interface.  I agree that polling is not the most efficient way to go about it.

Bringing out all the digital IO pins from my instruments and setting up a dedicated logging and control system with something like a Pi has been on my todo list for a while now...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 08, 2019, 11:19:55 pm
I have it working, no more polling!
On an ethernet interface it opens an extra incoming port on the client. Via some underlying VISA mechanics that port is probably used by the DMM to post a SRQ message.
The time it takes to:

Client: signal the notification on the DMM
DMM: to get it to do a measurement (1 NPLC, 20ms)
DMM: post an event message
DMM: handle event message, post a SRQ via network
Client - Visa: Receive a SRQ via network
Client - Visa: execute call back
Client: Handle call back, set a windows Event
Client: Waking up from a wait on that windows event
Client: Checking STB status
Client: Checking Operation Event Register

Is about 40 ms. (So happily for my purpose fast enough.) The same code should also run using a GPIB or an USB connection.

Here's a list of timestamps (one second long) which show that every measurement is a new one:
Code: [Select]
12/09/2019 07:34:59.031936162
12/09/2019 07:34:59.076551859
12/09/2019 07:34:59.115640435
12/09/2019 07:34:59.168797708
12/09/2019 07:34:59.210993405
12/09/2019 07:34:59.248885829
12/09/2019 07:34:59.294446405
12/09/2019 07:34:59.330283587
12/09/2019 07:34:59.382150042
12/09/2019 07:34:59.423579860
12/09/2019 07:34:59.464834860
12/09/2019 07:34:59.504858587
12/09/2019 07:34:59.546109829
12/09/2019 07:34:59.597500920
12/09/2019 07:34:59.638888617
12/09/2019 07:34:59.682500526
12/09/2019 07:34:59.721256405
12/09/2019 07:34:59.823268920
12/09/2019 07:34:59.878116193
12/09/2019 07:34:59.917322890
12/09/2019 07:34:59.956568860
12/09/2019 07:34:59.999881072
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 10, 2019, 07:25:37 pm
There's one thing that needs some consideration when using these registers. When the STB is read via the VISA api, that is an destructive read (love the term). Which means is is read and set to 0 in one atomic operation. That's solid!
Reading the other registers don't work this way. Which mean that getting the register content and resetting it, cannot be done atomically. The danger of this is that after reading the content, a new state can be set at the device, just before clearing it. That way that status change will be unnoticeable.
The remedy against this is not clearing the register until one knows for certain that the dmm execution is in a safe state to do so.  A destructive read would have been preferable, because until that safe state event bits cannot be "reused".
Another technique might be to make the reading of the register and clearing it uninterruptible.
This could be done between:
TRIG:PAUSe
TRIG:RESume
But one does not want to do this while polling. :-+
I found a general section of the reference manual that mentions that the register is indeed being reset after it's read. I'm glad that it does. Would have saved some time when it was mentioned in the query command as well though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 12, 2019, 07:43:30 pm
Does the C revision have the hardware issues discussed in this thread fixed?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on December 12, 2019, 08:32:27 pm
Does the C revision have the hardware issues discussed in this thread fixed?

I think the Keithley rep implied that it required a hardware revision to fix.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 12, 2019, 11:14:15 pm
I think the Keithley rep implied that it required a hardware revision to fix.
I was under the impression that this is a new hardware revision.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on December 12, 2019, 11:27:18 pm
I think the Keithley rep implied that it required a hardware revision to fix.
I was under the impression that this is a new hardware revision.

No, it's just a revision of the calibration manual.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 12, 2019, 11:31:36 pm
No, it's just a revision of the calibration manual.
My mistake.  :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 13, 2019, 03:49:55 pm
FYI about my failed firmware update to 1.7: they suggested to try again.

I booted it cold with a new stick with only 1 file on it and now it worked, so problem solved I guess.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 20, 2019, 04:40:05 pm
Does anyone know how to measure both Voltage and Current properly?

I was able to do so without any relay switching (2A and 12V or so) expect either the current or the voltage would have to be negative.

Is there a way to display both values as positive ones?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on December 20, 2019, 10:24:33 pm
Gah! I missed the firmware update. It's not showing up in their web page under the usual section and I wasn't keeping an eye on this thread. Just updated my unit and pleased to see that Keithley implemented my suggestion for the graph Y axis and improved the auto-scale for human readability. Now it's much easy to monitor stabilities etc. Thumbs up. :-+

I also noticed that the nasty bug that "user-added swipe screens crashes the system upon app-close" is now fixed. Now I can resume working on some tools and scripts. I know that the crash issue along with some others were fixed long time ago but apparently they are not found of frequent bug-fix releases, and holded those fixes until this one big update. Better late than never I guess.

While you're on it, can you also please make sure that the graph Y axis numbers show the informative, distinct digits rather than the common thus non-informative ones? Check the attached images: here the Y range is less than 100uV though in the current implementation Y axis numbers show the 10mv, 1mv and 100uV digits, totally missing the important part. Something like the second image is what I'd expect to see.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on December 21, 2019, 01:44:18 am
Hmm. Actually their implementation is slightly different from mine, if min and max values differ in the first few digits, it switches back to a mode similar to the old behavior, thus making the y-axis labels useless again. I guess that they wanted to avoid the confusion of having ...999 below the 10.000... header, as it might be perceived as 10.000999 instead of 9.999999 but in my opinion it's not a big deal and having useful labels is much more important.

(Below images have the same scaling, just different y offset values.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 23, 2019, 06:43:03 pm
Hmm. Actually their implementation is slightly different from mine, if min and max values differ in the first few digits, it switches back to a mode similar to the old behavior, thus making the y-axis labels useless again. I guess that they wanted to avoid the confusion of having ...999 below the 10.000... header, as it might be perceived as 10.000999 instead of 9.999999 but in my opinion it's not a big deal and having useful labels is much more important.

(Below images have the same scaling, just different y offset values.)

Just adding an extra grid line in orange with an 10.000 label would also take away the confusion.
And when they have finally done that they can try to figure out (I know it's easy) to make that orange grid line fall on top of a white one.
I'm still surprised by the limited creativity or know how to solve things like that.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 25, 2019, 01:34:22 am
I used a script that interacts with a triggermodel on the dmm, just like before, but now doing simultaneously the "exact" same reading with a scope.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750)
One thing that would be nice if there was a way keep the auto zero off, and do a "zeroing" somewhere in the trigger model, so it doesn't delay the actual measurement. Using the scpi command which does that is not allowed with a running trigger model. Imo it should have an action block for it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on December 25, 2019, 03:40:27 am
I used a script that interacts with a triggermodel on the dmm, just like before, but now doing simultaneously the "exact" same reading with a scope.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750)
One thing that would be nice if there was a way keep the auto zero off, and do a "zeroing" somewhere in the trigger model, so it doesn't delay the actual measurement. Using the scpi command which does that is not allowed with a running trigger model. Imo it should have an action block for it.

Section 13
pgs 98-99
[:SENSe[1]]:<function>:AZERo[:STATe]

VOLT:AZER OFF   (Turn auto zero off)
VOLT:AZER ONCE  (Perform a single reference measurement)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 25, 2019, 11:12:03 am
I used a script that interacts with a triggermodel on the dmm, just like before, but now doing simultaneously the "exact" same reading with a scope.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2842750/#msg2842750)
One thing that would be nice if there was a way keep the auto zero off, and do a "zeroing" somewhere in the trigger model, so it doesn't delay the actual measurement. Using the scpi command which does that is not allowed with a running trigger model. Imo it should have an action block for it.

Section 13
pgs 98-99
[:SENSe[1]]:<function>:AZERo[:STATe]

VOLT:AZER OFF   (Turn auto zero off)
VOLT:AZER ONCE  (Perform a single reference measurement)
While a trigger model is running that command is not allowed. Like (i assume) most SCPI commands.
Because of that, the trigger model imo should support it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 25, 2019, 11:24:43 am
The problem with zeroing may be more than just a software problem. I would expect a principle limitation from the hardware side: while the zero reading is running this would still need to complete (thus some 20ms). Even if aborted faster it would cause some delay - for a multi-slope ADC it just takes some time to restart. An extra abort of conversion would likely need low level support, so a more difficult part. So I would consider the 20 ms (16.x ms with 60 Hz) the minimum delay one has to expect.

Depending on the application this may be acceptable.
 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on December 25, 2019, 11:45:10 am
So I think having it as an action in the trigger model is a safe solution. An auto function imo should have a manual counter part. For my slow measurements it would be a good solution. Now I'm not sure how much the accuracy drifts in an hour or so. In my case it is just a fun experiment, but I can think of situations where it is critical to measure at the exact same time.
Another solution would be to do the auto zeroing after the actual measurement as an option, but doing that manually would be preferable.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 25, 2019, 12:37:09 pm
Depending on the actual HW used in the ADC, in non AZ mode there can be quite some drift and also low frequency noise (from the OPs, but also the resistors) that is suppressed with the zero reading. So it is not only about hours but already seconds can make a difference. So if time permits the zero reading can be really helpful. Doing the zero reading just after the actual signal could be a really good solution, if one can live with the extra delay for the result. However I am afraid this could be too close to the basics to be supported in the current software - so it may need a updated software. Ideally there would be different versions of the auto zero mode to choose: zero before signal, zero after signal and the current version that is likely doing some interpolation / extrapolations on the zero readings over some time frame.

The zero reading seem to be a tricky topic in the Keithley meters. It looks a little like some of the extra noise seen at the 10 seconds time scale is due to a not so good solution in doing the zero readings or taking the readings into account. This is kind of effecting the very basics of the meter, but it could be worth to get a better solution there. It may not be top priority with the DAQ6510 but a similar weakness shows up in other meters too - so kind of a legacy weakness, possibly dating back to the K2001 or even 19x times.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cozdas on December 26, 2019, 05:20:12 am
I was planning to build a DIY Solid state, 10-chan SCAN card (so that I can collect data during the night at home without the dripping tap simulation), but since DMM6500 seems to drive the 20-chan card I changed my design to double the channels (the more the merrier).

I'll let you know if I hit a problem with the DMM6500 behavior,

It's alive!!!!

I still need to buy more solid-state relays to populate the rest of the board but what's there seems to work flawlessly (so far), silent and fast. Since I was trying to keep the cost as low as possible (you can tell from the all DIY PCB board), the relays are not the best, the on state resistance of each channel is around 2 Ohm. But it's not a big deal as I have plenty of channels to use kelvin connections if needed. A $12 Atmega32u4 based board is handling all the logic.

(top board: Keithley 2000-Scan with wires attached for protocol sniffing)
(bottom board: DIY 20-chan solid state scan card)

I just released the details of this project here (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/20-channel-diy-scanner-card-for-keithley-dmms-and-daqs/) for anyone interested in.

Enjoy
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 30, 2019, 05:36:24 pm
I have unfortunately plugged my meter on the 3A front current terminal directly to 220V AC by mistake and it has blown the internal 3.5A fuse but upon its replacement, I am getting a 0.7 A current reading without anything connected t o the 3A terminals (front and rear.)

I tried testing the rear 10A input and that still works fine so not sure what damage that might have caused.

Why did the damage occur in the first place? This is a common mistake and shouldn't damage such a DMM.

What to do now?  :-// |O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 30, 2019, 06:02:25 pm
The fuse may not allays be fast enough to brake the current path, before doing damage. Beside the high current spike the spark in the fuse could cause trouble from RF interference. Ideally there should be no permanent damage except for the fuse, but it is definitely stressing things.

I first check would be so see if there is still connection in the 3 A range (e.g. a blown shunt or trace).
It could also be worth checking the very low current ranges (e.g. 100 µA).
The next step would than likely be a visual inspection to see if there is visible damage (e.g. blown trace). One could also measure (with a second meter) if there is actually a voltage aver the chain of shunt resistors.

If nothing visible it would likely be time do to some reverse engineering to see which chips are used for the current ranges. As the 10 A range and likely voltage are still working OK, the damage should be quite close to the input side of the current ranges: something like the OP for bootstrapping the protection, MOSFETs used for switching between shunts or the first CMOS switch or amplifier to see the shunt voltage.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 30, 2019, 08:57:58 pm
The fuse may not allays be fast enough to brake the current path, before doing damage. Beside the high current spike the spark in the fuse could cause trouble from RF interference. Ideally there should be no permanent damage except for the fuse, but it is definitely stressing things.

I first check would be so see if there is still connection in the 3 A range (e.g. a blown shunt or trace).
It could also be worth checking the very low current ranges (e.g. 100 µA).
The next step would than likely be a visual inspection to see if there is visible damage (e.g. blown trace). One could also measure (with a second meter) if there is actually a voltage aver the chain of shunt resistors.

If nothing visible it would likely be time do to some reverse engineering to see which chips are used for the current ranges. As the 10 A range and likely voltage are still working OK, the damage should be quite close to the input side of the current ranges: something like the OP for bootstrapping the protection, MOSFETs used for switching between shunts or the first CMOS switch or amplifier to see the shunt voltage.

So pretty much all the 3A connection shunts are not working and there is no visible damage on the board whatsoever.

Voltage and 10A remain fully operational.

I'm not qualified enough to diagnose the issue and conduct the necessary repairs so does it have to go back to Keithley for that? Bought online from RS components by the way.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 30, 2019, 10:08:25 pm

I'm not qualified enough to diagnose the issue and conduct the necessary repairs so does it have to go back to Keithley for that? Bought online from RS components by the way.

Keithley would probably make a swap of the main board and not a component level repair.
Would be interesting to know, how much they charge for that.

The repair should be possible and not too difficult.
If you open it up, can you take a few pictures of the input circuitry of the shunts and surrounding area?

 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: drummerdimitri on December 30, 2019, 11:25:03 pm

I'm not qualified enough to diagnose the issue and conduct the necessary repairs so does it have to go back to Keithley for that? Bought online from RS components by the way.

Keithley would probably make a swap of the main board and not a component level repair.
Would be interesting to know, how much they charge for that.

The repair should be possible and not too difficult.
If you open it up, can you take a few pictures of the input circuitry of the shunts and surrounding area?

Here you go.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: pmcouto on December 31, 2019, 07:44:31 am
K7 doesn't look good...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 31, 2019, 09:10:25 am
The damage should be one of the more easy repairs, as it should be located very much near the input part.
If not covered by some warranty the repair at Keithley would likely be rather expensive - possibly not worth it, especially as the voltage and ohms ranges still seem to work and shipping may be expensive too.


I don't think K7 is involved. The blob on top looks odd, but this is more like glue to hold the resistor array.

So far I can not see the higher value shunts and identify the relays / MOSFETs used for shunt switching. They may be just left to the fuse under the shield. Only the smallest shunt resistor is visible right next to CR20 (which is the rectifier used to protect the shunts. It is a possible culprit - so one could check the rectifier in circuit for shorts. The DC side of the rectifier could also be a good test point to see which voltage is present there.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 04, 2020, 05:17:22 pm
As once mentioned I have 2 master power switches to turn off all my devices. My scope has a soft power on/off, just like the dmm, but supports a setting like resume on power on, thus starting when the main switch is activated.
The dmm does not have this function, but I know it will resume when it was active before the master switch is turned off.

The question is: is it bad practice to switch it off using only the master switch. I normally do a shutdown of the device as well, but that seems shutdown immediately, so that it makes me wonder if its needed at all. The manual does not really addresses this.
But because it resumes I even think it might be a supported feature. Any idea's?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 19, 2020, 09:38:41 am
New KickStart released.

https://uk.tek.com/software/kickstart/2-2-1
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: tom321 on February 28, 2020, 08:24:59 pm
Hello,
my first post here, unfortunately reporting a problem and wondering have anyone ever seen a similar glitch.
Purchased for the Lab Keithley 6510 with 7708 40 channels scanner card, primarily for temperature measurement (both Pt100 RTD and thermocouples).
At first run I connected 12 channels Pt100 2W to test the heat exchanger, after two hours of logging measured results went blatantly weird (see picture, temperature in degC calculated from resistance).
Tested front and rear inputs with decade resistor, on continuous measurement results were Ok, but starting scanning measurement on the 7708 card readings went higher by several Ohms (!), both with Kickstarter and in the standalone mode. Tested for several days.
Borrowed new 7700 card from other department, upgraded FW to version 1.7, and for half day problem seemed solved, scanning went flawlessly.
Then after couple of hours measured resistances on the card went up and with jitter, playing with other parameters could not rectify the problem. Did not test voltage signals on the card.
At first the obvious suspect was the 7708 card, but the persistence of the problem with second card suggests problems in software.
Returned 6510/7708 under warranty to the local representative, got demo 2002 to keep working  ;D.
Does anyone have suggestion how to pinpoint the problem, as I am dubious they will test 6510 and 7708 separately and find them valid, although I have stated that problem occurs only in scanning mode?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on February 29, 2020, 10:11:04 am
Welcome to the forum,

The DMM6500 has a know problem with the PT100 measurements that is supposed to be software related but has not been fixed in any FW update, as far as I know. May be it effects the DMM6510 as well.

Best to contact Keithley help desk, they usually are very helpful, at least in Germany.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Octane on March 13, 2020, 05:46:56 am
Hello valued eevblog forum users!

I tried to download the current firmware for my DMM6500 but I can't find the download button!!
Am I stupid? I go to the firmware download page and I can download the release notes, but I can't for the life of it, not find a download button for the actual firmware file....

Please help!

Edit: yes, I'm logged in.

Thanks,
Michael
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on March 13, 2020, 06:26:29 am
 Most likely this is the desired button.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Zmogas on March 13, 2020, 08:53:49 am
Hello,

I had same problem. Instead of "Download file" on right I got "Refresh address" button (or so, I don't rememeber). Solution: you must first click on "Refresh address" and fill in yours address (because US export regulations).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Octane on March 14, 2020, 05:01:38 am
Hey! Thanks for pointing that out! I tried that, but the button didn’t change. I’ll try again shortly. At least I know I’m not delirious!

BR,
Michael
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Octane on March 17, 2020, 05:23:49 am
Ok, I got one step further now. The download button appeared. But I have to wait for:

"In compliance with U.S. Government regulation, Tektronix is required to review all software download activity. This process may take up to one U.S. business day and you will be notified when the process is complete.”

That sucks....

BR,
Michael
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on March 24, 2020, 12:52:25 am
One feature I would really appreciate is the following:
Measurements can be done using SCPI. It even allows reading values as a double float. But it would be nice if the uncertainty or accuracy of that value could be read along with it. ("Significant digit" info is a lost when using floats)
I know it depends on: calibration age, range, environment temp, nplc, value, etc. But it should be possible to have the DMM supply a best case plus/minus value. That value could then be used to display the value with appropriate significant digits. Or use it for uncertainty propagation when calculating stuff.
I could calculate it myself -using specifications-, but for instance the range that was used (when using auto ranging) can not be determined without making assumptions. And making assumptions and automation are not really best friends.

It also would be nice if the uncertainty could shown in the GUI. Now the significant digits are reduced, depending on the settings, but that is coarse: either it might show a digit that is not really certain or a digit might be "hidden" which still has meaning.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on March 24, 2020, 11:56:18 am
Reducing the resolution to the accuracy limit would be too much. Quite often more resolution is needed, e.g. for relative values, changes or ratios. A limitation to the noise limit (of at least not much beyond that) would sometimes be nice. Especially the statistics values sometimes show way to many digits. For the SCPI interface this is less important as the program can take care of it. In computer times it is OK and more like best practice to record the data with a little more resolution than the noise limit, so that there is no significant rounding happening that could be avoided.  Only writing down the significant digits is a thing of the past when writing down the numbers by hand.

It could still be useful to also calculate / show the uncertainty. Still there are unknowns wether the 30 days or 1 year specs are more appropriate.
However the 6500 is not a metrology grade meter anyway. It's strength is more the graphical display and scanner option for a good price. Still the extra information could be handy in some cases.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on March 24, 2020, 10:47:16 pm
One feature I would really appreciate is the following:
Measurements can be done using SCPI. It even allows reading values as a double float. But it would be nice if the uncertainty or accuracy of that value could be read along with it. ("Significant digit" info is a lost when using floats)
I know it depends on: calibration age, range, environment temp, nplc, value, etc. But it should be possible to have the DMM supply a best case plus/minus value. That value could then be used to display the value with appropriate significant digits. Or use it for uncertainty propagation when calculating stuff.
I could calculate it myself -using specifications-, but for instance the range that was used (when using auto ranging) can not be determined without making assumptions. And making assumptions and automation are not really best friends.

It also would be nice if the uncertainty could shown in the GUI. Now the significant digits are reduced, depending on the settings, but that is coarse: either it might show a digit that is not really certain or a digit might be "hidden" which still has meaning.

Its an interesting feature, I couldn't find any immediate examples of manufacturers offering this. Maybe in high end sci or lab gear it would make sense.

Seems like you'd have to:
- Take a measurement on auto
- Set meter to specific range based on that measurement, take another measurement
- Calculate uncertainty of that fixed-range measurement and apply whatever rounding, etc. you like

If you were plotting data, you'd have various uncertainties as you switch between ranges, which is a bit messy. Working with a fixed range is cleaner where possible.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on March 24, 2020, 11:54:56 pm
Metrix handheld MTX 3293 has SPEC mode in which it shows uncertainty interval for measurements.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on March 25, 2020, 01:04:14 am
I've added a table using the 10V range which is used for mapping a Voffset of a scope to a more precise value. It shows -if I implemented the 2 years calibration specs correctly- what uncertainty the measured value has. As can seen, it can be an order of magnitude larger than the resolution / last significant digit. (Note: the relative uncertainty drops with increasing voltage)

The voltages are generated with a channel awg using a combiner, for more details:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2864724/#msg2864724 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/battery-charging-using-a-siglent-sds1104x-and-spd3303x/msg2864724/#msg2864724)
Using this combiner one can easily generate voltages well within the uncertainty of the DMM (of the 10V range).

When tracking a slow changing signal (charging a battery) and then remapping the Voffset to the previously measured value, the used scope can do measurements of around 100 μV uncertainty as well (shown in the comparison graph).

Code: [Select]
-99,99 mV ± 50 μV -100,5349 mV
-95,00 mV ± 50 μV -95,53678 mV
-90,00 mV ± 50 μV -90,54946 mV
-84,99 mV ± 50 μV -85,52059 mV
-80,00 mV ± 50 μV -80,53651 mV
-75,01 mV ± 50 μV -75,52939 mV
-70,01 mV ± 50 μV -70,50574 mV
-65,01 mV ± 50 μV -65,54060 mV
-60,00 mV ± 50 μV -60,49446 mV
-55,01 mV ± 50 μV -55,50427 mV
-50,01 mV ± 50 μV -50,48485 mV
-45,00 mV ± 50 μV -45,49579 mV
-40,01 mV ± 50 μV -40,49002 mV
-35,00 mV ± 50 μV -35,47937 mV
-30,00 mV ± 50 μV -30,48827 mV
-25,01 mV ± 50 μV -25,48568 mV
-20,01 mV ± 50 μV -20,49384 mV
-15,01 mV ± 50 μV -15,48463 mV
-9,99 mV ± 50 μV -10,46401 mV
-4,99 mV ± 50 μV -5,454895 mV
10 μV ± 50 μV -371,5116 μV
4,99 mV ± 50 μV 4,574460 mV
10,00 mV ± 50 μV 9,595678 mV
15,00 mV ± 50 μV 14,59546 mV
20,00 mV ± 50 μV 19,54206 mV
24,99 mV ± 50 μV 24,60280 mV
30,01 mV ± 50 μV 29,59512 mV
34,99 mV ± 50 μV 34,55598 mV
40,00 mV ± 50 μV 39,55425 mV
45,00 mV ± 50 μV 44,53928 mV
49,99 mV ± 50 μV 49,54786 mV
55,01 mV ± 50 μV 54,55485 mV
59,99 mV ± 50 μV 59,58802 mV
64,99 mV ± 50 μV 64,58159 mV
70,00 mV ± 50 μV 69,57994 mV
75,00 mV ± 50 μV 74,55330 mV
80,01 mV ± 50 μV 79,55213 mV
85,00 mV ± 50 μV 84,52459 mV
90,00 mV ± 50 μV 89,52627 mV
94,99 mV ± 50 μV 94,52729 mV
100,01 mV ± 50 μV 99,51768 mV
104,99 mV ± 50 μV 104,5233 mV
109,99 mV ± 50 μV 109,5235 mV
115,00 mV ± 50 μV 114,5176 mV
120,00 mV ± 50 μV 119,5990 mV
125,00 mV ± 50 μV 124,6036 mV
129,99 mV ± 50 μV 129,6045 mV
135,00 mV ± 50 μV 134,6102 mV
140,01 mV ± 50 μV 139,6132 mV
145,00 mV ± 50 μV 144,6507 mV
149,99 mV ± 50 μV 149,6477 mV
155,00 mV ± 50 μV 154,6367 mV
159,99 mV ± 50 μV 159,6287 mV
165,01 mV ± 50 μV 164,6443 mV
170,00 mV ± 60 μV 169,6320 mV
174,99 mV ± 60 μV 174,6115 mV
179,99 mV ± 60 μV 179,6204 mV
184,99 mV ± 60 μV 184,6194 mV
189,99 mV ± 60 μV 189,6480 mV
194,99 mV ± 60 μV 194,6334 mV
199,99 mV ± 60 μV 199,6508 mV
205,00 mV ± 60 μV 204,6405 mV
209,99 mV ± 60 μV 209,6471 mV
215,01 mV ± 60 μV 214,6855 mV
219,99 mV ± 60 μV 219,6651 mV
224,99 mV ± 60 μV 224,6446 mV
229,99 mV ± 60 μV 229,6605 mV
235,01 mV ± 60 μV 234,7256 mV
240,00 mV ± 60 μV 239,6987 mV
245,00 mV ± 60 μV 244,7299 mV
250,00 mV ± 60 μV 249,7007 mV
254,99 mV ± 60 μV 254,6993 mV
260,01 mV ± 60 μV 259,7119 mV
265,01 mV ± 60 μV 264,6929 mV
270,01 mV ± 60 μV 269,6844 mV
275,00 mV ± 60 μV 274,7003 mV
280,00 mV ± 60 μV 279,7140 mV
285,00 mV ± 60 μV 284,6962 mV
289,99 mV ± 60 μV 289,6868 mV
295,01 mV ± 60 μV 294,6965 mV
299,99 mV ± 60 μV 299,6881 mV
305,01 mV ± 60 μV 304,6993 mV
309,99 mV ± 60 μV 309,6885 mV
315,00 mV ± 60 μV 314,6754 mV
320,00 mV ± 60 μV 319,6926 mV
324,99 mV ± 60 μV 324,6841 mV
329,99 mV ± 60 μV 329,6775 mV
335,00 mV ± 60 μV 334,7041 mV
339,99 mV ± 60 μV 339,6665 mV
345,00 mV ± 60 μV 344,6773 mV
350,01 mV ± 60 μV 349,7198 mV
355,01 mV ± 60 μV 354,7714 mV
360,01 mV ± 60 μV 359,7726 mV
364,99 mV ± 60 μV 364,7993 mV
369,99 mV ± 60 μV 369,7805 mV
374,99 mV ± 60 μV 374,7776 mV
380,01 mV ± 60 μV 379,7790 mV
385,00 mV ± 60 μV 384,7912 mV
390,00 mV ± 60 μV 389,7871 mV
395,00 mV ± 60 μV 394,7946 mV
400,01 mV ± 60 μV 399,8107 mV
405,00 mV ± 60 μV 404,8234 mV
410,00 mV ± 60 μV 409,8225 mV
415,00 mV ± 60 μV 414,8555 mV
420,01 mV ± 60 μV 419,8323 mV
425,01 mV ± 60 μV 424,8297 mV
430,00 mV ± 60 μV 429,8127 mV
434,99 mV ± 60 μV 434,8216 mV
440,00 mV ± 60 μV 439,8321 mV
445,00 mV ± 60 μV 444,8185 mV
450,00 mV ± 60 μV 449,7805 mV
455,01 mV ± 60 μV 454,7854 mV
459,99 mV ± 60 μV 459,7913 mV
465,01 mV ± 60 μV 464,8078 mV
470,01 mV ± 60 μV 469,8463 mV
475,00 mV ± 60 μV 474,8327 mV
480,00 mV ± 60 μV 479,8199 mV
485,00 mV ± 60 μV 484,8307 mV
490,00 mV ± 60 μV 489,8171 mV
495,00 mV ± 60 μV 494,8271 mV
500,00 mV ± 60 μV 499,8344 mV
505,00 mV ± 70 μV 504,8193 mV
510,00 mV ± 70 μV 509,8614 mV
515,01 mV ± 70 μV 514,8297 mV
520,01 mV ± 70 μV 519,8481 mV
525,00 mV ± 70 μV 524,8184 mV
529,99 mV ± 70 μV 529,8358 mV
534,99 mV ± 70 μV 534,8227 mV
540,00 mV ± 70 μV 539,8380 mV
545,00 mV ± 70 μV 544,8297 mV
550,00 mV ± 70 μV 549,8280 mV
555,00 mV ± 70 μV 554,7797 mV
560,01 mV ± 70 μV 559,8151 mV
564,99 mV ± 70 μV 564,7944 mV
570,00 mV ± 70 μV 569,8030 mV
574,99 mV ± 70 μV 574,8193 mV
580,00 mV ± 70 μV 579,8347 mV
584,99 mV ± 70 μV 584,8952 mV
590,00 mV ± 70 μV 589,8831 mV
595,00 mV ± 70 μV 594,8761 mV
599,99 mV ± 70 μV 599,8789 mV
605,00 mV ± 70 μV 604,8748 mV
610,00 mV ± 70 μV 609,8812 mV
615,00 mV ± 70 μV 614,8796 mV
620,00 mV ± 70 μV 619,8576 mV
625,01 mV ± 70 μV 624,8890 mV
630,01 mV ± 70 μV 629,9123 mV
635,01 mV ± 70 μV 634,8910 mV
639,99 mV ± 70 μV 639,8793 mV
645,00 mV ± 70 μV 644,8758 mV
649,99 mV ± 70 μV 649,8946 mV
655,01 mV ± 70 μV 654,8675 mV
659,99 mV ± 70 μV 659,8758 mV
665,00 mV ± 70 μV 664,8355 mV
670,00 mV ± 70 μV 669,8303 mV
675,00 mV ± 70 μV 674,8412 mV
680,01 mV ± 70 μV 679,8284 mV
684,99 mV ± 70 μV 684,7921 mV
690,01 mV ± 70 μV 689,8023 mV
695,01 mV ± 70 μV 694,8211 mV
700,01 mV ± 70 μV 699,8159 mV
705,01 mV ± 70 μV 704,8991 mV
710,00 mV ± 70 μV 709,8561 mV
715,01 mV ± 70 μV 714,8611 mV
720,00 mV ± 70 μV 719,8602 mV
725,00 mV ± 70 μV 724,8801 mV
730,01 mV ± 70 μV 729,8767 mV
735,01 mV ± 70 μV 734,8649 mV
739,99 mV ± 70 μV 739,8490 mV
745,00 mV ± 70 μV 744,8708 mV
749,99 mV ± 70 μV 749,8844 mV
755,00 mV ± 70 μV 754,8795 mV
760,00 mV ± 70 μV 759,8908 mV
765,01 mV ± 70 μV 764,8508 mV
770,00 mV ± 70 μV 769,8599 mV
775,00 mV ± 70 μV 774,8739 mV
780,00 mV ± 70 μV 779,9373 mV
785,01 mV ± 70 μV 784,8872 mV
790,01 mV ± 70 μV 789,8821 mV
794,99 mV ± 70 μV 794,8619 mV
800,00 mV ± 70 μV 799,8638 mV
805,00 mV ± 70 μV 804,8734 mV
810,01 mV ± 70 μV 809,8798 mV
815,01 mV ± 70 μV 814,8688 mV
819,99 mV ± 70 μV 819,9254 mV
824,99 mV ± 70 μV 824,8850 mV
830,01 mV ± 70 μV 829,9399 mV
834,99 mV ± 80 μV 834,9402 mV
840,00 mV ± 80 μV 839,9390 mV
845,01 mV ± 80 μV 844,9882 mV
849,99 mV ± 80 μV 849,9630 mV
855,00 mV ± 80 μV 854,9764 mV
860,01 mV ± 80 μV 859,9938 mV
865,00 mV ± 80 μV 864,9919 mV
869,99 mV ± 80 μV 869,9828 mV
875,00 mV ± 80 μV 874,9798 mV
880,00 mV ± 80 μV 880,0091 mV
885,01 mV ± 80 μV 885,0155 mV
890,00 mV ± 80 μV 890,0274 mV
895,01 mV ± 80 μV 895,0633 mV
900,00 mV ± 80 μV 900,0357 mV
905,00 mV ± 80 μV 905,0420 mV
909,99 mV ± 80 μV 910,0475 mV
915,00 mV ± 80 μV 915,0193 mV
920,01 mV ± 80 μV 920,0200 mV
925,00 mV ± 80 μV 925,0597 mV
929,99 mV ± 80 μV 930,0651 mV
935,00 mV ± 80 μV 935,0435 mV
939,99 mV ± 80 μV 940,0951 mV
944,99 mV ± 80 μV 945,1004 mV
949,99 mV ± 80 μV 950,0850 mV
955,00 mV ± 80 μV 955,1330 mV
960,01 mV ± 80 μV 960,0984 mV
964,99 mV ± 80 μV 965,0851 mV
969,99 mV ± 80 μV 970,0792 mV
975,00 mV ± 80 μV 975,0742 mV
980,01 mV ± 80 μV 980,0845 mV
984,99 mV ± 80 μV 985,0734 mV
990,01 mV ± 80 μV 990,0646 mV
995,01 mV ± 80 μV 995,0435 mV
1,00001 V ± 80 μV 1,000054 V
1,00500 V ± 80 μV 1,005048 V
1,01000 V ± 80 μV 1,010047 V
1,01500 V ± 80 μV 1,015038 V
1,02000 V ± 80 μV 1,020039 V
1,02500 V ± 80 μV 1,025050 V
1,03000 V ± 80 μV 1,030010 V
1,03500 V ± 80 μV 1,035022 V
1,04000 V ± 80 μV 1,040041 V
1,04501 V ± 80 μV 1,045050 V
1,05000 V ± 80 μV 1,050045 V
1,05499 V ± 80 μV 1,055102 V
1,05999 V ± 80 μV 1,060090 V
1,06500 V ± 80 μV 1,065107 V
1,07001 V ± 80 μV 1,070128 V
1,07499 V ± 80 μV 1,075121 V
1,08000 V ± 80 μV 1,080145 V
1,08500 V ± 80 μV 1,085124 V
1,08999 V ± 80 μV 1,090122 V
1,09501 V ± 80 μV 1,095173 V
1,09999 V ± 80 μV 1,100171 V
1,10499 V ± 80 μV 1,105185 V
1,11000 V ± 80 μV 1,110202 V
1,11501 V ± 80 μV 1,115209 V
1,12001 V ± 80 μV 1,120183 V
1,12500 V ± 80 μV 1,125199 V
1,12999 V ± 80 μV 1,130201 V
1,13500 V ± 80 μV 1,135184 V
1,14000 V ± 80 μV 1,140197 V
1,14500 V ± 80 μV 1,145192 V
1,15000 V ± 80 μV 1,150212 V
1,15501 V ± 80 μV 1,155170 V
1,16001 V ± 80 μV 1,160203 V
1,16500 V ± 80 μV 1,165193 V
1,17000 V ± 90 μV 1,170194 V
1,17499 V ± 90 μV 1,175242 V
1,18000 V ± 90 μV 1,180212 V
1,18500 V ± 90 μV 1,185212 V
1,19001 V ± 90 μV 1,190221 V
1,19500 V ± 90 μV 1,195222 V
1,20000 V ± 90 μV 1,200239 V
1,20500 V ± 90 μV 1,205198 V
1,21001 V ± 90 μV 1,210208 V
1,21501 V ± 90 μV 1,215216 V
1,22000 V ± 90 μV 1,220210 V
1,22499 V ± 90 μV 1,225199 V
1,22999 V ± 90 μV 1,230161 V
1,23499 V ± 90 μV 1,235163 V
1,24001 V ± 90 μV 1,240162 V
1,24500 V ± 90 μV 1,245175 V
1,25000 V ± 90 μV 1,250166 V
1,25500 V ± 90 μV 1,255178 V
1,25999 V ± 90 μV 1,260133 V
1,26501 V ± 90 μV 1,265150 V
1,26999 V ± 90 μV 1,270129 V
1,27500 V ± 90 μV 1,275117 V
1,28000 V ± 90 μV 1,280131 V
1,28500 V ± 90 μV 1,285112 V
1,29001 V ± 90 μV 1,290195 V
1,29501 V ± 90 μV 1,295198 V
1,30000 V ± 90 μV 1,300224 V
1,30500 V ± 90 μV 1,305238 V
1,31000 V ± 90 μV 1,310261 V
1,31500 V ± 90 μV 1,315252 V
1,31999 V ± 90 μV 1,320255 V
1,32500 V ± 90 μV 1,325291 V
1,33000 V ± 90 μV 1,330281 V
1,33500 V ± 90 μV 1,335280 V
1,34001 V ± 90 μV 1,340328 V
1,34501 V ± 90 μV 1,345332 V
1,35001 V ± 90 μV 1,350317 V
1,35499 V ± 90 μV 1,355310 V
1,35999 V ± 90 μV 1,360346 V
1,36501 V ± 90 μV 1,365338 V
1,36999 V ± 90 μV 1,370351 V
1,37499 V ± 90 μV 1,375338 V
1,38000 V ± 90 μV 1,380334 V
1,38500 V ± 90 μV 1,385369 V
1,38999 V ± 90 μV 1,390349 V
1,39500 V ± 90 μV 1,395348 V
1,39999 V ± 90 μV 1,400334 V
1,40500 V ± 90 μV 1,405348 V
1,41001 V ± 90 μV 1,410435 V
1,41500 V ± 90 μV 1,415393 V
1,41999 V ± 90 μV 1,420382 V
1,42500 V ± 90 μV 1,425395 V
1,42999 V ± 90 μV 1,430397 V
1,43499 V ± 90 μV 1,435426 V
1,43999 V ± 90 μV 1,440440 V
1,44500 V ± 90 μV 1,445446 V
1,45000 V ± 90 μV 1,450415 V
1,45500 V ± 90 μV 1,455428 V
1,46001 V ± 90 μV 1,460467 V
1,46500 V ± 90 μV 1,465453 V
1,46999 V ± 90 μV 1,470502 V
1,47501 V ± 90 μV 1,475483 V
1,48000 V ± 90 μV 1,480482 V
1,48500 V ± 90 μV 1,485508 V
1,48999 V ± 90 μV 1,490494 V
1,49499 V ± 90 μV 1,495504 V
1,50001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,500554 V
1,50501 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,505440 V
1,51000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,510430 V
1,51500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,515436 V
1,52001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,520466 V
1,52499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,525520 V
1,53001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,530524 V
1,53499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,535520 V
1,54000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,540514 V
1,54500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,545532 V
1,55000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,550552 V
1,55500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,555600 V
1,55999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,560545 V
1,56500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,565558 V
1,57000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,570560 V
1,57499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,575567 V
1,58000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,580626 V
1,58500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,585607 V
1,59000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,590610 V
1,59499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,595562 V
1,59999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,600561 V
1,60500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,605582 V
1,60999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,610573 V
1,61499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,615595 V
1,62000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,620537 V
1,62499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,625551 V
1,63000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,630610 V
1,63500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,635585 V
1,64000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,640646 V
1,64500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,645622 V
1,64999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,650611 V
1,65500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,655679 V
1,66000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,660636 V
1,66499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,665652 V
1,66999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,670616 V
1,67500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,675591 V
1,67999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,680624 V
1,68499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,685629 V
1,69000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,690679 V
1,69501 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,695663 V
1,69999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,700650 V
1,70500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,705666 V
1,70999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,710669 V
1,71501 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,715711 V
1,72000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,720716 V
1,72500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,725695 V
1,72999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,730690 V
1,73500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,735705 V
1,74000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,740719 V
1,74501 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,745682 V
1,74999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,750679 V
1,75500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,755712 V
1,76001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,760754 V
1,76500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,765756 V
1,76999 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,770797 V
1,77499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,775777 V
1,78001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,780775 V
1,78500 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,785800 V
1,79001 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,790793 V
1,79499 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,795787 V
1,80000 V ± 1̲00 μV 1,800816 V
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on March 25, 2020, 02:21:32 am
Reducing the resolution to the accuracy limit would be too much. Quite often more resolution is needed, e.g. for relative values, changes or ratios. A limitation to the noise limit (of at least not much beyond that) would sometimes be nice. Especially the statistics values sometimes show way to many digits. For the SCPI interface this is less important as the program can take care of it. In computer times it is OK and more like best practice to record the data with a little more resolution than the noise limit, so that there is no significant rounding happening that could be avoided.  Only writing down the significant digits is a thing of the past when writing down the numbers by hand.

It could still be useful to also calculate / show the uncertainty. Still there are unknowns wether the 30 days or 1 year specs are more appropriate.
However the 6500 is not a metrology grade meter anyway. It's strength is more the graphical display and scanner option for a good price. Still the extra information could be handy in some cases.
There's indeed a difference in showing numbers and calculating/working with them. Thats why a separate uncertainty value besides the measurement would be very handy: to keep them separate. Transferring uncertainty using significant digits, certainly with 10-based numbers is "destructive". (We should go binairy  :D)
The basic functionality of a MM is to supply a measurement value, so the output is very simple. It wouldn't hurt if manufacturers added a bit more complexity to it and calculate the uncertainty. They even could take the warmup time / temperature into account. How to display the values should then be up to the user.

From a development point of view it seem very logical to me, to expose the value (and make it "testable") which is very important to the product's value.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on March 25, 2020, 02:39:41 pm
Although the functionality is not built in, this could be implemented on the multimeter by using the TSP scripting API.  You could write a script uses 'writable buffers' to store the result of the uncertainty calculation given the measurement, function, range, etc.  A look up table for all functions and ranges would be a good way to do it...  Writable buffers appear on the graph interface too, so you could possible see a +- line above and below your actual measured signal.
Good remark. Would such a script have a required measurement loop on its own, or can it also be integrated (events?) in external loops as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on March 25, 2020, 08:15:46 pm
Just a remark about the significant zero digit presentation in the table I posted. On my iPad the underscore is under the 1, on Windows it's under the zero. I was very happy with the possibility of using a diacritic marker for that. This means one can add something to the character before the marker. However Windows renders it at the succeeding character.
Which I took for granted. Just an example of how large companies struggle with specifications and can destroy a perfectly usable tech. |O
Having the right significant digit indication should make it easy for a person to visually map the uncertainty on the measurement value.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on April 12, 2020, 08:07:29 am
 My battery died a week ago also. To my great surprise. I did not expect such a short lifetime.
 Probably now a wave of failures will begin. It makes sense to replace at a convenient time.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on April 12, 2020, 08:36:04 am
Do you leave your meters plugged in and on at the wall (red standby led on the front) or switch them off at the wall?

Most of my gear is running through a double conversion ups and left connected to mains all the time but in standby for most of the time.

I’m curious if the battery is just discharging that quickly because mains power isn’t available, or if it’s still sucking power all the time.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on April 12, 2020, 08:46:46 am
A non user replaceable battery that only lasts some 1.8 years is kind of a fail  :palm:. In the EU this could have odd implications with an mandatory 2 years minimum warranty.

This also kind of limits the interval between calibrations if you take those cal void if broken stickers serious.  A change of the battery may have to be part of the cal procedure  :popcorn:.

At least it is replaceable by slightly more experienced users, but it should really be easy accessible. It nearly is,  but probably hard / impossible  to get there without removing the front. Time to fix this in the next HW revision.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: iMo on April 12, 2020, 09:26:11 am
A non user replaceable battery that only lasts some 1.8 years is kind of a fail  :palm:. In the EU this could have odd implications with an mandatory 2 years minimum warranty.
2y warranty in EU for consumers only.. Does not apply for commercial customers..  :D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 12, 2020, 10:12:52 am
my battery is empty too, since a month or so. Unit calibrated in June 2018.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: wn1fju on April 12, 2020, 12:19:06 pm
I will add to the chorus:  my battery also died recently.  Unit purchased in Summer, 2018.  I am a little less annoyed now that I see others are experiencing the same.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 12, 2020, 03:43:06 pm
Confirming that this is very easy. If you aren't ham-fisted, you can do it.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feCA5vQYVpU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feCA5vQYVpU)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on April 12, 2020, 07:20:25 pm
Does anyone here use the Kickstart software with these and is it worth the trouble? It seems to add not that much but perhaps I am mistaken.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Joel_l on April 13, 2020, 12:45:38 am
Looking at this battery issue, seems when it comes time to do it, might be prudent to relocate it to an easier location to get to, maybe also use a bigger battery given the relatively short life.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 13, 2020, 01:50:23 am
That may be more hassle than replacing it. It's a 15 minute job.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Joel_l on April 13, 2020, 03:38:36 pm
I bought mine March 2019. I will see how it goes. I also leave mine plugged in. When I get to having to do mine, I will decide if I want to mess with it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thanasisk on April 14, 2020, 10:29:30 pm
Has anyone replaced the fan of their DMM6500? People have been complaining about that fan noise.  Saw pictures that it is a Sunon Maglev MF50100V2-1000C- (50mmx50mmx10mm 5V 25.6dbA 11CFM 0.11inchH2O). Too bad noctua doesn't yet produce their 50mm slim a series fan.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 16, 2020, 05:36:30 pm
It may be easier to add a resistor in series with the fan, since they said it is blowing harder than needed.

About the Battery, the one at work is always powered but the one at home I disconnect due to the annoying hum. (We will see how that goes.)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: wn1fju on April 17, 2020, 12:03:37 am
1.38V on my old battery, 20 months old, unit disconnected from power at the end of each day. 

Hardest part of the replacement was getting the four screws out to remove the case.  They are in there tight.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on April 17, 2020, 05:09:03 pm
Does anyone here use the Kickstart software with these and is it worth the trouble? It seems to add not that much but perhaps I am mistaken.
Should I interpret the overwhelming lack of response as an equivalent lack of enthusiasm for Kickstart?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on April 17, 2020, 09:34:01 pm
We might not be able to move the location of the battery, but I will have us investigate whether or not a better Vendor / type of battery could be used and what is the cause of the drain - might also be able to be improved.

Its highly unlikely to be an issue with Panasonic cells, I've seen thousands and only a few died prematurely. The rest of those products last for 10 years+ (RTC current is 3uA, ~9uW).
Measure the quiescent current and it should tell you right away if it is a design issue.

MPC5125 has an internal RTC but I'm not sure if that is being used as it notes a 3V minimum input.. That is right on the edge of what a CR2032 will provide. Odd voltage for them to choose.
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/MPC5125.pdf (https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/MPC5125.pdf)

MPC5125 power is rated 20uW (not sure if thats worst case or typical).
CR2032 = 220mAh = 0.66Wh/20uW = ~3.8 years

Maybe there is some additional leakage from Vbatt GPIO or diodes.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 18, 2020, 07:07:40 am
Does anyone here use the Kickstart software with these and is it worth the trouble? It seems to add not that much but perhaps I am mistaken.
Should I interpret the overwhelming lack of response as an equivalent lack of enthusiasm for Kickstart?
I do have it (it was free) but I find myself not using it. (I only have the DMM6500 for it)
I use the screen of the DMM and if I want to see/control it on my PC I use the webinterface (does not work for digitizing), and if I want the data I just save the buffer.
It could be more interesting when you have more than one keithley device in Kickstart or multi-channel.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on April 18, 2020, 02:47:26 pm
Should I interpret the overwhelming lack of response as an equivalent lack of enthusiasm for Kickstart?
I buy KickStart license some time ago(~2 year), and use it for my 2450 SMU and DMM6500, but not frequently.

It's a good software. I like it much more Keysight BenchVue. I will never buy BenchVue.
I don't remember price, but is not too high - forever use is 200-300 bucks or so....
As i hear in this topic - when you buy DMM6500 a Keithley grant KickStart for free. :-+

After buying license i created my own data logger software. But KickStart is still good for I/V curve on 2450. I don't regret about buying KickStart, in future i planned buy more Keithley SMU's, it will be very-very helpful.

Latest version 2.2.1 are fixed many bugs. It's  useful version.

I recommend it :-+ :-DMM
3 Year or lifetime KickStart license?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Wintel on April 20, 2020, 04:53:27 pm
Update on the battery Issue:

There was a clock running that was supposed to be shut down by firmware while in standby mode. This prematurely drains the battery.
Next Firmware 1.7.3 resolves this problem - I was told released in a couple of months.

For those of you replacing it on your own, please be careful as the holder has a very fragile clip that might break during the replacement.

Thanks

Can send DMM6500 to Keithley service center to replace the battery free of charge?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 21, 2020, 06:07:09 pm
Update on the battery Issue:

There was a clock running that was supposed to be shut down by firmware while in standby mode. This prematurely drains the battery.
Next Firmware 1.7.3 resolves this problem - I was told released in a couple of months.

For those of you replacing it on your own, please be careful as the holder has a very fragile clip that might break during the replacement.

Thanks

So we can assume that the battery is not extra drained when the power cord is unplugged.
Meaning it's better to disconnect the device when not used until a new firmware is available?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 23, 2020, 12:13:53 pm
Drains anyway....
Well the good news about that is that you know when and how many people will start complaining in the coming months. You may want to prepare: "Press 9 if it's about the battery"  :P

I purchased a bit more than a year ago so I still have some battery left over.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hoooooonza on April 24, 2020, 06:29:50 pm
Hello,

I am considering buying DMM6500 for measuring IOT devices - mainly sleep currents and the transitiosn to the active modes. I saw some videos and I like DMM6500 digitizer function. Can someone tell me if it is good instrument for this purpose? I read a lot about bluescreens, RTC backup battery troubles etc.. so I am little bit worried.. But there are not many competitors on the market.

Main competitors:
https://www.qoitech.com/products/standard (https://www.qoitech.com/products/standard) - nice desktop application, many interesting functions. But sampling is very slow (4ksps) so I am afraid it doesn't catch short spikes an also voltage output is <=5V.

https://www.anglercircuits.com/ (https://www.anglercircuits.com/) - interesting product, but the GUI is not as advanced as Qoitech one. Same proble with voltage output range <=6V.

For IOT development we can live with voltage range 0-5V, but sometimes we do stuff for automotive an there are units with 12-24V input so would be great to have one instrument for everything.


Is is possible to use digitizer in Kickstart app? Does Keithley have any tool for working with graphs taken by DMM6500? (I mean I will record data, store them to USB and then I can do some measurments on PC).

We have budget 2k USD.

Thank you,
Jan
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on April 24, 2020, 06:32:37 pm
I have 2 DMM6500 and love them.
But for characterizing powerconsumption on CPU's, wireless devices etc etc, I would never use anything else than my Joulescope. So much better suited for this purpose.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hoooooonza on April 24, 2020, 06:43:39 pm
Thank you for quick answer. I saw review from eevlog - did thy fix all the mentioned problems? It was mainly in GUI as far as I know.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on April 24, 2020, 06:49:00 pm
Yes, and there are updates often, new features etc
Also very open minded about suggestions from users!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on April 24, 2020, 09:44:22 pm
I have 2 DMM6500 and love them.
But for characterizing powerconsumption on CPU's, wireless devices etc etc, I would never use anything else than my Joulescope. So much better suited for this purpose.
You can take a look at the process of writing a buffer live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js-VlzWNgaE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js-VlzWNgaE)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hoooooonza on April 25, 2020, 12:08:47 am
It really takes 50 sec to get the graph? Or did they improve this in the latest FW? :-/O

Thank you,
Jan
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on April 25, 2020, 12:43:47 pm
It really takes 50 sec to get the graph? Or did they improve this in the latest FW? :-/O
I can say that in the new version for 7510 it became even slightly worse:
https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=363&t=142031

It seems that this is not a key function of the device. This is still a multimeter. Data is transmitted to the computer at a speed of 60 kS / s.

Perhaps this will all be fixed someday. But the device has been over 5 years old and I don’t see them greatly improving this function.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hoooooonza on April 25, 2020, 07:47:39 pm
Okay, thank you. I will check Joulescope then :)

Jan
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on April 28, 2020, 08:01:41 pm
How loud is the fan on these? Needing active cooling instead of the passive cooling of the 34401A and Keithley 2000 seems a huge step back.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 28, 2020, 08:14:12 pm
not loud. For me no issue while on my bench.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on April 28, 2020, 08:51:02 pm
I'm in the hear it but not bothered by it camp. It isn't intrusive in my opinion, working in a fairly silent place.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 29, 2020, 07:03:22 am
You can obviously hear it, otherwise you need to see a doctor.

My colleagues ask me to turn it off when I'm not using it due to the noise. (2-3 meters away)
Although I don't think it's very annoying, you do get the feeling "ah much better" when the noise is gone.

And if you are alone in a silent office you may also be bothered by the hum, I find that more annoying, I can hear that hum as soon as I enter the room but when the fan is on the hum isn't obvious anymore.
That is also the reason why I disconnect the power line when I don't use it. So the standby button is more a reboot button for me.

Having some music playing helps to forget the noise.

P.S my monitor or tablet do not have a noisy fan, even my laptop isn't making a sound now, not even a power adapter hum, it's certainly possible to design it silent but I guess then it will cost more or maybe they didn't care about it very much 'good enough state of mind'
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on April 29, 2020, 08:54:48 am
That is also the reason why I disconnect the power line when I don't use it. So the standby button is more a reboot button for me.
Before disconnecting the power line, does one need to bring it in standby mode first?

I also disconnect it, but bring it in standby mode first, I was wandering this is really necessary.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 29, 2020, 02:11:52 pm
I do put it in standby first before disconnecting in case there is some shut-down sequence or relays.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on April 29, 2020, 04:45:30 pm
Touch screen display and higher processing power created the need for improved cooling over the other instruments you mentioned. The fan type, location and speed was carefully chosen to be considered quiet enough in an office environment for *most* people. Of course there are those who can still hear it and be bothered by it. To that end, individual opinions about it generally won't be helpful to another individual. YMMV. Hope this is helpful.
I understand choices had to be made, it still means adding a fan to the lab. More importantly, it's adding a fan to a device which can be used for extended periods of time. It's not the end of the world as some other devices have fans too, but it's definitely a consideration. I also do understand that noise is very personal. I can stand some, but try to minimize it whenever I can. I know I tend to use noisy devices less, often unconsciously. Your posts here are much appreciated. I really welcome the engagement and helpful replies. It's good to see engineers care about the products they make.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: PTR_1275 on April 30, 2020, 03:41:03 am
If I’m in the home office and turn on the DMM6500 I can definitely hear it.

But turn on the rigol dp832, any of my HP 6632b power supplies or for a lot of noise my 6032, 6012, 6011 or any of the several kw dc loads and the noise is lost.

At the end of the day, I don’t think I’ve used the dmm6500 many times without another piece of equipment going.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 01, 2020, 10:21:39 am
Saying I have another device that is even louder on my bench will never get us silent designed devices.
The general office noise gets louder so it's 'ok' to add another loud device in the office.... |O
Everyone is starting to wear noise-canceling headphones to 'fix' it.

It's certainly possible to do it look at PC building most of the time silent only for intense processing there is a fan. This means you can leave it on like it should (since it has a warm up time) for simple measurement and people will not mind the fan speed up for heavy tasks.

De 50/100Hz hum is not something I can forgive, that's just going too cheap or bad design.  :--
I wonder if there was an engineer going "I found one we saved 5 dollar", "good job because hum is not in our spec sheet!"  And I assume it will only get louder over time.
(FYI I can hear the hum even with my WH-1000XM3 headphones on but it's gone as soon as I power the headset on, no music)

Since more people will be opening up their DMM for a battery replacement, we may as well trying to figure out a good modification for the fan noise, since it was said it blows harder than needed.

E-Design, is there a command to get the temperature of the hot parts that need this cooling?
or maybe just an warning flag in diagnostics. This way we can verify if a modification is ok or not.
Even external modification like closing x% of the holes can reduce the noise much.
(We can make it silent enough but it's harder to know if the temperature is ok or not, unless we have a probe)

The hum/noise source in one picture: https://xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/DMM6500/lukier/expconn.jpg (https://xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/DMM6500/lukier/expconn.jpg)
edit: http://www.sunon-fan.com/uploads/sunon_Date/pdf/MF50100V2-1000C-G99.pdf (http://www.sunon-fan.com/uploads/sunon_Date/pdf/MF50100V2-1000C-G99.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 01, 2020, 12:01:43 pm
What's the story with the battery? Is there any recourse for people who are stuck with a prematurely drained battery?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 01, 2020, 12:22:20 pm
The transformer hum was an issue on early units.. when did you purchase yours? Did you contact anybody about a replacement at that time? Transformer hum has been resolved for some time now.
Its first calibration was on 4/14/2019 and it's my understanding that the Hum problem should be fixed, so I assume the 'fix' is present and it was even worse before. (I have no absolute reference since there is no hum spec)

or is it possible that some old unit got returned and calibrated again and sold, or a batch without fix?

Since you asked, there might be a command to get an internal temperature (not sure a user accessible one, I could check) but you asked about temperature of hot parts? - no there isn't one that can tell you about what parts are hot. Most of the measurement circuits are actually not hot, but rather want a temperature stability in their area.
Any indicator that the device is still working within spec as before the change.
You think a lower CFM would make it go out of spec?

Also, transformer hum and fan noise are two different sources of audible noise and not related.
Obviously
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 01, 2020, 01:08:02 pm
Such 0V/100mV test seems fair enough.

Any extra hum advice?
I see the battery is within 3year warranty so maybe I take the opportunity to let them check the hum, if nothing about the hum is changed at least the battery is replaced.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 01, 2020, 03:24:43 pm
Has anyone had their DMM6500 or DAQ6510 calibrated yet and what did it cost you? I don't have much experience with Keithley calibrations but I hear they can be comparatively expensive.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 01, 2020, 05:36:55 pm
Has anyone had their DMM6500 or DAQ6510 calibrated yet and what did it cost you? I don't have much experience with Keithley calibrations but I hear they can be comparatively expensive.
This was pulled from the Tek.com website
[attach=1]

I thought I remember reading in the manual/data-sheet that the calibration period for the DMM6500 was 2-years.  I know mine was factory cal'd in 10/2008, so it isn't technically due yet.  Tek's website is now saying recommended cal period is 1-year.  Maybe they changed their mind :-//

I'm considering putting mine up for sale...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on May 01, 2020, 05:40:30 pm
Has anyone had their DMM6500 or DAQ6510 calibrated yet and what did it cost you? I don't have much experience with Keithley calibrations but I hear they can be comparatively expensive.

Welectron asks 147.06 € excl. VAT.
VAT 19%
free shipping within Germany. I don't know the price for shipping outside Germany.

I plan to drive to them. Not that far away from Brussels and I can turn it into a nice day trip.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 01, 2020, 06:11:43 pm
This was pulled from the Tek.com website
(Attachment Link)

I thought I remember reading in the manual/data-sheet that the calibration period for the DMM6500 was 2-years.  I know mine was factory cal'd in 10/2008, so it isn't technically due yet.  Tek's website is now saying recommended cal period is 1-year.  Maybe they changed their mind :-//

I'm considering putting mine up for sale...
That seems to coincide with the notion Keithley is comparatively expensive to maintain. Spare parts seem to be quite expensive too. It's surprising how much manufacturers differ in this regard. TTi is suprisingly reasonable. Keysight often has very affordable spares. Keithley seems to be quite expensive to the point of regularly not making sense and Fluke is just ridiculous, if they even grant you the privilege of buying a spare at all. Guess that's the Danaher Tax.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 01, 2020, 07:12:31 pm
At the office we only calibrate one 6.5digit yearly.
So we can use that one to check if all the other DMMs are still ok or use the 2 year specs in case of the DMM6500.

When we return to normal office work after covid-19 I will check my office and home DMM6500 against each other again, like I did when I purchased them, it's over 1 year now.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 03, 2020, 01:30:27 pm
Is there any news in regards to fixing the issue with simultaneous VI measurements? I understand this requires a hardware revision. The ability to do power measurements in a single go seems quite useful.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 04, 2020, 01:08:30 pm
There is a principle problem in measuring voltage and current at the same time: they share a common terminal - so there will always be some error from the current flow. It looks like in the current HW this error is relatively large (e.g. quite some cable and maybe even more to the internal common ground point. Chances are it can get better by not perfect, unless one has an extra terminal.

There are already 2 ADCs: the fast (likely SAR chip) and slow one (likely multi-slope). It may be possible to used both at the same time if they don't need the fast one as part of the slow conversions. With some averaging the fast ADC may be good enough for the anyway limited accuracy in the combined mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 04, 2020, 05:04:40 pm
Can you provide the tolerances now of measuring current and voltage at the same time?
(for each current range)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: SaKhan on May 05, 2020, 04:55:33 pm
Just got one for my birthday from the Swiss official distributor. I visited them, we had a chat and although they weren't aware of the battery drain issue, they checked their stock and gave me a very recently produced unit (12.04.2020). Really nice guys.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 05, 2020, 11:55:22 pm
Just got one for my birthday from the Swiss official distributor. I visited them, we had a chat and although they weren't aware of the battery drain issue, they checked their stock and gave me a very recently produced unit (12.04.2020). Really nice guys.

Did you get a detailed first calibration report?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: SaKhan on May 06, 2020, 08:27:11 am
Just got one for my birthday from the Swiss official distributor. I visited them, we had a chat and although they weren't aware of the battery drain issue, they checked their stock and gave me a very recently produced unit (12.04.2020). Really nice guys.

Did you get a detailed first calibration report?

The certificate inside the box states only that the meter is in calibration. I haven't requested any calibration services.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 06, 2020, 11:08:18 am
Just got one for my birthday from the Swiss official distributor. I visited them, we had a chat and although they weren't aware of the battery drain issue, they checked their stock and gave me a very recently produced unit (12.04.2020). Really nice guys.

Did you get a detailed first calibration report?


The certificate inside the box states only that the meter is in calibration. I haven't requested any calibration services.

This is usually part of buying a 6.5 DMM. Keithley takes the liberty of withholding the calibration data, which must be available, as an extra service. Other well-known manufacturers of prof. DMM naturally supply such a thing. In my opinion this is not so serious.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 06, 2020, 11:31:04 am
With modern meters, that are adjusted in software the test / cal just after the adjustment of the ranges should be very close to nominal. So there would be limited values to most of the numbers. If at all the AC ranges may show a little more, as not every test point may have it's own corresponding CAL constant. It would be interesting only if they do the adjustment in the factory and do the calibration / check just before delivery, so with more time in between.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 06, 2020, 12:21:29 pm
With modern meters, that are adjusted in software the test / cal just after the adjustment of the ranges should be very close to nominal. So there would be limited values to most of the numbers. If at all the AC ranges may show a little more, as not every test point may have it's own corresponding CAL constant. It would be interesting only if they do the adjustment in the factory and do the calibration / check just before delivery, so with more time in between.
Yes, maybe I'm a bit biased as I have no other choice but to measure my LTZ1000 references with the DMM6500, which is of course a bit tricky anyway as I measure beyond the given nominal values. The more exact data of the initial adjustment and calibration would help there, even the dmm is comming from relative stock.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on May 06, 2020, 06:17:00 pm
a non burned in LM399

I'm curious, do these references go through any selection process, such as a temperature coefficient or voltage?

PS crazy idea, is it possible to downclock the unit so the front panel creates less heating and doesn't need as much cooling?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 06, 2020, 07:32:47 pm
PS crazy idea, is it possible to downclock the unit so the front panel creates less heating and doesn't need as much cooling?
In the brightness settings of the display there is an item: "Display, key lights, and all indicators off: BLACkout "
My experience is that when the temperature of the front panel significantly decreases with time.
But you have to work with the device through a remote interface.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 06, 2020, 08:46:56 pm
It was found that most users / customers did not have any use for the full data report so that practice stopped in order to save processing time / cost. However, some people would still like the full report so it is available as a paid service and ordering option.

Sorry, but this "trust us" argument just doesn't cut it. After nagging support i got the cal reports for my DMM7510 and DAQ6510 respectively. Keysight gives you the factory cal report in an enclosed letter, no fuss. Who, in their right mind, would not want to have the "starting point", e.g. the initial factory calibration, of a meter with 6.5 digits or better resolution? Are customers using it as a interior decoration because of the nice colour screen, or somesuch? Most probable it's marketing dept BS made up to create the illusion of meeting customer expectations, while the real motive is increasing profit (saving a few minutes in mfg, getting some sheepish customers to pay extra for a report they should have received upfront). This is exactly like the statement "everybody has battery anxiety with electric cars, so we will only supply the cars on a lease basis. No one wants to outright buy the cars, including the 'risky' batteries, so we don't offer that option" - yeah, sure.

OTOH, I think you are doing the LM399 in the meter a disservice - my experience from a KS 34465A and a DAQ6510 is that, yes, the meters drift a little initially but the references are definitely pre-burned-in or selected for lowest drift, which is one of the things you do pay for with premium brand meters. I have another meter from a chinese mfg, SDM3065X, that very obviously had the LM399 just soldered in without any selection or pre-aging done; measurement was spot on day 1, not so much after a month (drifted out of 1y spec, even.)

I'm a bit sensitive to word weaseling, as you may have guessed, and I am quite specifically allergic to "the customers wanted this, so we listened to them" inverted argument, when the end result is bad for the customer and more $$$ for the mfg.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 06, 2020, 08:52:45 pm
It was found that most users / customers did not have any use for the full data report so that practice stopped in order to save processing time / cost.
How can you find out that your customers would rather do without this data from your comparatively very good measuring device?

Quote
However, some people would still like the full report so it is available as a paid service and ordering option.
That's what im saying. This is annoying if one has to send back his just unpacked device for an extra payment, although such a thing should be part of the basic service and self-image of such a high-quality device. Especially since there is nothing described in the advertisement about it, as far as I can see.

Quote
That being said, hwj-d PM me your unit serial, I can probably get the 10V range adjust data you are using for your instrument since you seem to want it. Also, FYI you are measuring an LTZ1000 with a 6500 which has a non burned in LM399. Are you doing a time study or a temperature study?

Thanks for the offer. The device is two years old now, and it works great.The DMM satisfies me otherwise, and the LTZ references can be measured with it.  Especially in long-term tests with several references against each other, and if one knows the characteristics of his DMM.

I know the disadvantages of a LM399 measurement on a LTZ1000 reference. After 2 years nonstop 24/7 use, it should be burned in by now. And as you can see, I also get traceable repeatable data.  ;D

After this period of time it is advisable to have the DMM calibrated anyway, if this will give me access to the missing qualified protocol. Of course, for my needs, the complete resistance measuring ranges are included in addition to all DC measuring ranges.

But I also go the other way first, and have some of my selected references calibrated, now that I know their drift and temperature behaviour 24/7 after also >2 years.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: SaKhan on May 06, 2020, 09:38:26 pm
It was found that most users / customers did not have any use for the full data report so that practice stopped in order to save processing time / cost. However, some people would still like the full report so it is available as a paid service and ordering option.

If it's not a secret, how much does it cost to get the full report?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 06, 2020, 11:52:05 pm
What I was intending to say was that we found most users do not have a direct need for the full report from the standpoint of making any use of that data (actual adjustments & uncertainties) for particular units.
:palm:
Ok, this discussion is illogical and futile and completely customer-unfriendly.

Quote
Most people can look at our specifications and that is enough for them to understand the actual accuracy. Any application that requires knowing accuracy/uncertainties better than the published specs is unusual.

Honestly, I have found that most people who buy 6.5 Digit DMMs  DO NOT need 6.5 digits for their typical application. Yes its nice to have, but you pay for it.

Um, I have concerns measuring LTZ1000 using LM399 instrument. Whatever drift you see, I dont think you can decide which reference has actually moved unless you have access to another lower drift reference to check it against. We don't publish the long term drift data for the 6500 directly - its only reflected in the 24 hour / 90 day /1 year / 2 year specs and even that has additional margin built into it.

Of course I understand. Besides the certification protocol problem, for which they don't want to show any insight, I tried what else can be done with your wonderful device. This was not a justification for anything outside the specification.

You know, we're not talking to you here in the sales room, you're here in the users' forum. And we're talking about what else you can do with this DMM. We know ourselves what is wrong or unusual outside of the specification, and we teach each other accordingly.

The forum serves to explain what is feasible and what is not, and is based on the qualified experience of the forum participants. In this sense, the implementation of your sales strategy is of secondary importance. So take part in the forum synergies, or leave it alone. On the other hand, you have to listen to the criticism of the missing certificate. For me, your justification is self-referential and not very acceptable.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on May 07, 2020, 01:19:31 am
The thermistors that they use are specified in the datasheet I believe. If you go to the thermistor manufacturer you can find/derive the parameters. Some time ago I programmed a simple script to compute temperature of custom thermistors through the Steinhart-Hart equation. https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/master/Application_Specific/Custom_Thermistor (https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/master/Application_Specific/Custom_Thermistor)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 07, 2020, 11:10:41 am
It was found that most users / customers did not have any use for the full data report so that practice stopped in order to save processing time / cost. However, some people would still like the full report so it is available as a paid service and ordering option.

Sorry, but this "trust us" argument just doesn't cut it. After nagging support i got the cal reports for my DMM7510 and DAQ6510 respectively. Keysight gives you the factory cal report in an enclosed letter, no fuss. Who, in their right mind, would not want to have the "starting point", e.g. the initial factory calibration, of a meter with 6.5 digits or better resolution? Are customers using it as a interior decoration because of the nice colour screen, or somesuch? Most probable it's marketing dept BS made up to create the illusion of meeting customer expectations, while the real motive is increasing profit (saving a few minutes in mfg, getting some sheepish customers to pay extra for a report they should have received upfront). This is exactly like the statement "everybody has battery anxiety with electric cars, so we will only supply the cars on a lease basis. No one wants to outright buy the cars, including the 'risky' batteries, so we don't offer that option" - yeah, sure.

OTOH, I think you are doing the LM399 in the meter a disservice - my experience from a KS 34465A and a DAQ6510 is that, yes, the meters drift a little initially but the references are definitely pre-burned-in or selected for lowest drift, which is one of the things you do pay for with premium brand meters. I have another meter from a chinese mfg, SDM3065X, that very obviously had the LM399 just soldered in without any selection or pre-aging done; measurement was spot on day 1, not so much after a month (drifted out of 1y spec, even.)

I'm a bit sensitive to word weaseling, as you may have guessed, and I am quite specifically allergic to "the customers wanted this, so we listened to them" inverted argument, when the end result is bad for the customer and more $$$ for the mfg.

OK guys, I got your message. I am not here to defend any decisions that went into the product development. I only offered explanations that are unsatisfactory to most people, I get it. They are not my decisions and I agree with hwj-d these discussions are futile, we all can make better uses of our time. So with that, good luck on your projects, Peace.

If you need some support, don't forget you can post on Tek.com forums.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 07, 2020, 11:32:17 am
I think we should understand and accept E-Design isn't solely responsible for the decisions made in designing and marketing this device. Criticism can be voiced but putting him on trial isn't very productive. I'd hate this becoming an example why customer interaction is a bad idea because I really appreciate it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 07, 2020, 11:35:54 am
Hello dear E-Design!

I can't find any information in datasheet about what β-value you are design for NTC 10k temperature measurements?

I try use DMM6500 on NTC 10k with β 3870K but i see it is incorrect value, when i moving from 25С to any direction i see too much error.
It's looks like as you are using β-value too different... Maybe you use β-value around 34**K?

Also - how i can measure NTC 10k in 4-wire mode? (in Keysight DMM like as 34410A i can enable that mode)

[attach=1]
Model number: 44006 is specifically mentioned for 10k thermistor in the specifications document.
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf (https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 09, 2020, 09:50:36 am
About paying extra for a detailed calibration certificate I can understand that if that means the sales price is lower without.
The only reason why I would like it is for a peace of mind that it was properly calibrated, I just check the spec sheet and the last calibration date in the device.
Many are not only buying a measuring device but also a measure reference with this one purchase.

So the sheet included that says it's calibrated is a bit pointless to me, I mean what do you expect, a sheet that says the device that you just bought does NOT comply with the PDF specs?
Maybe Tek can provide some key factory calibration numbers on their website via your account after registration. (Would be strange if they do not log the calibration data in some database somewhere)
But like I said, for me it's just a peace of mind thing that the device didn't slip through calibration, I have easy access to 4  6.5digit DMM (3 different brands) with one yearly calibrated, so I can more or less make my own peace of mind about its accuracy.

And about criticism for Tek via E-Design I'm sure he can take it and that's also part why he is here to know what we think about it, to improve if possible. uh-hum ;)
Personally I still buy the same DMM6500 again despite its flaws, it makes a nice bridge between DMM and Oscilloscope, almost all my (IoT) measurements I do with the DMM6500 only.
Some flaws are a bit like: you see the perfect smartphone but they only release it in a crap colour and then you start complaining about their colour choice.
So if people complain about it it's because they like to use the device, if they stop complaining it's because they moved on to another device. So E-Design, I'm sure you don't want us to stop complaining  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 03:52:18 pm
Calibration report with detailed data - it's good of course. But this is not a reason to quarrel with E-Design.
I think you must accept Tek rules or send a complaint to the representative office Tek.
Please, Shodan, I love your posts, but ...
E-Design is the representative of Tek. And that is exactly why he/she is in this forum.
Furthermore, an explanation such as "yes, the DMM is within its specification" as a calibration document is a real joke. You do not need a extra document for that. This is about traceable calibration data. In fact, without it, the measurements of this device are relatively worthless.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on May 09, 2020, 04:38:32 pm
E-Design is the representative of Tek. And that is exactly why he/she is in this forum.

You are assuming E-Design is here in an official capacity where his time is paid for.
I'm not sure that is the situation.
Please be polite as many people, like me, appreciate his contributions here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 09, 2020, 05:18:17 pm
Calibration report with detailed data - it's good of course. But this is not a reason to quarrel with E-Design.
I think you must accept Tek rules or send a complaint to the representative office Tek.
Please, Shodan, I love your posts, but ...
E-Design is the representative of Tek. And that is exactly why he/she is in this forum.
Furthermore, an explanation such as "yes, the DMM is within its specification" as a calibration document is a real joke. You do not need a extra document for that. This is about traceable calibration data. In fact, without it, the measurements of this device are relatively worthless.

Nope, I am not here in the capacity of Tek representative. I do not get paid for my time here... I am a design engineer and happen know a lot about many of the Keithley / Tek products as I have worked on them so I don't mind helping out some polite people if I can. Why not? Big companies tend to ignore the small hobby market. I do this on my own free time because electronics is also my hobby. . Everybody can use the forum as he/she wishes. Being an engineer, I will tell you as I see it - it doesn't matter to me whether or not you agree / disagree with it.

I enjoy reading all the comments because I make use of it for improving product design for next time. But I'm not going to argue about "trusting" specifications or needing proof calibration reports, wanting money for things or dealing with ridiculous, irrational comments like that. Everybodys got an opinion of course....  Each to their own!



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 06:37:22 pm
E-Design is the representative of Tek. And that is exactly why he/she is in this forum.

You are assuming E-Design is here in an official capacity where his time is paid for.
I'm not sure that is the situation.
Please be polite as many people, like me, appreciate his contributions here.
Please, don't go ad hominem.
Are you accusing me of rudeness? Where are you accusing me of rudeness?
You implicitly accuse me of not appreciating his contributions? Where?
Stay pragmatic with the substantive argument, and please don't try to paternalistically trigger me outside the argument. We are not children here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 07:18:10 pm
@Shodan,

my Keysight is not a Power Supply, it's a real 6.5 DMM.  ;D

Real initial Certificate Of Calibration (https://www.dropbox.com/s/pmdr9iq0l7fe8q4/Keysight%2034461A%20Calibration.pdf?dl=0)

Thanks for explainig, what's NORMAL.  :clap:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 09, 2020, 07:19:51 pm
Hey guys, no worries... lets not bicker about small things.. if I can help you about your designs, testing or application just let me know. If you need information or connect with somebody at Tek, I can trace them down and get some answers. If you want to know about the hardware design, I can help. If you want to know about firmware, I can find out.  :-+ If you want to complain - your opinion matters, and  you can take it to the Tek forums or I will relay your message to the right people who can effect change.


hwj-d, -- get me your serial, I will get your adjustment data for you on your 65xx since that's what's NORMAL to you.  ;)

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 07:54:57 pm
Hey guys, no worries... lets not bicker about small things.. if I can help you about your designs, testing or application just let me know. If you need information or connect with somebody at Tek, I can trace them down and get some answers. If you want to know about the hardware design, I can help. If you want to know about firmware, I can find out.  :-+ If you want to complain - your opinion matters, and  you can take it to the Tek forums or I will relay your message to the right people who can effect change.


hwj-d, get me your serial, I can get your adjustment data on a 65xx.

Thanks
Thank's for coming back to "normal", E-Design.  :phew:
As I was saying, my DMM6500 is now over 2 years old. So I have to have it calibrated anyway, if I will get a qualified and traceable statement about the single measuring ranges like to my Keysight, as you can see there.
Thanks for the offer, but it wasn't about me personally and it wasn't about you personally, it was about Tek rethinking his practice. I hope the message gets through.

 :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 09, 2020, 08:34:50 pm
hwj-d

If you buy standard 3458A from Keysight, you DO NOT get the calibration data. In fact most of units recently sold don't come with calibration data. They come with calibration certificate that says unit is in tolerance. That is it. And it is NORMAL (e.g. common). When you buy a ruler in a store, you don't get the calibration report with actual measured uncertainty, are you? So your expectations are a bit high here, sadly. Most of the vendors do have separate calibration services that come WITH or WITHOUT data. Obviously ones without are often little cheaper, because they don't need to proof all points separately and it could go thru less processing.

Calibration business is mostly about trust. If you don't trust accreditation of the lab, you are welcome to go higher up in chain or perform your own validation of each instrument. Even on very top level between NML, nobody using word absolute accuracy but rather degree of equivalence, meaning how big is the deviation between different NMLs from the "mean" international value.

E-Design

I hope you continue to contribute, as even people without DMM6500 can learn from your posts and information.  :-+
We all want to get all information about the product to buy, but it's just not possible. Asking for calibration data or specific instrument inner workings is like asking to publish schematics, firmware source codes and alike.
Would be great to have, but right-to-repair didn't pass yet, and nobody said it must be available for free to anyone. :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 09, 2020, 08:52:12 pm
For a second there I was just relieved that at least it wasn't me this time that chased the Keithley rep away  ;D

Glad your going to stick around E-Design, even more now that I understand your here simply because you want to be!

hwj-d, honestly I feel the same frustration.  We all know the document already exists. I feel that my purchase of the unit should more than cover the cost of printing a couple more pages out to stick in the box.  Obviously, Danaher doesn't agree and many other companies feel the same.  It is pretty nice of E-Design being willing to help you get some numbers on the side though...I would take him up on it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 09:42:48 pm
@TiN

of course I believe you. And if you say I don't need it, then of course I believe you too. With your equipment, the DMM6500 must seem like a plastic ruler.  ;)
But have you ever bought a brand new DMM from Keysight yourself? I think the black 3458A? I mean, you saw the counterevidence from Keysight from me, right? Even a 34461A plastic ruler, and this is it indeed, is delivered with a detailed first calibration report against your experience, isn't it?

But why reopen the old debate when it has now been amicably resolved.

 :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 09, 2020, 10:18:56 pm
@JxR
thanks. I'm glad if someone has the ability to avoid having to fight such debates on the personal side. The line is narrow, because subjective views always play a role, which everyone wants to claim as objective. I had been an in-house trainer and consultant for years to know the human pitfalls here. Among the opinions of different people I have never encountered the objective truth anywhere. ;)

In the post above, I already mentioned that I have to send in my dmm for calibration anyway.  :)

Thanks again.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 09, 2020, 11:27:24 pm
hwj-d
I've bought number of items, DMMs, PSUs, etc from Keysight and other vendors before, and most of it comes without uncertainty data in calibration report, and such data not available even after request without ordering calibration service with data.
Black 3458A that came also did not have data in the 1 page calibration certificate and I was not able to get that.

Thinking that it cost nothing for factory to print few pages of paper with numbers is not right. That's what triggered me, not the lack of data points in report. Not denying need in numbers, just the expectation of it for free.  :-DMM Try to get a piece of paper from PTB for your 10V reference for example. 1 page with a number will likely cost about four DMM6500s combined. Calibration is a business on its own, I've spent 3 years already on writing own software to do automated reports for my gear. Commercial MET/CAL software license cost tens of thousands a year too, so that fancy manufacturer lab gotta pay for it's maintenance somehow, unless we just accept increased cost for ALL products if the factory just include cost of callab into price of every bit sold. That will make everyone to pay to ensure few customers who actually value data are happy. ;)

My point was that I was not expecting it anyway. If you get instrument with calibration report + data, that is more of a welcome bonus. But you right, no point to discuss this, as what I get or you get does not mean what everybody who buys an insturment gets, as it can vary a lot from your distributor, geo and options you order with instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 12:23:57 am
Someday they'll sell us cars without steering wheels because you can drive straight ahead. You ask a fellow sufferer, he'll scold you. After all, he's the one who had also purchase a car driven only straight ahead. He's struggling with his own cognitive dissonance. Everything would be "normal".
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maginnovision on May 10, 2020, 12:27:28 am
I think in this case the normal doesn't REALLY matter either way. If you don't trust the company to be honest then what does it matter how many numbers they print out on a paper.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 10, 2020, 08:03:24 am
The DMM6500 is by no means a meteorological instrument. It is more like a nice low cost graphical meter for every day tasks. For such a meter one usually does not need detailed cal data. The initial calibration would be with adjustment or just after adjustment. So the read back data should be essentially spot on. However the initial drift can be quite fast, likely exceeding the small initial difference within days or weeks.

Time of use helps to improve the stability. So the real meaningful cal data would be those after 1 and 2 years. The user is free to than order calibration with data if needed. The initial calibration is not even very useful to estimate the longer time drift - so for the initial calibration the data are of very limited value.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 10:28:32 am
The DMM6500 is by no means a meteorological instrument. It is more like a nice low cost graphical meter for every day tasks. For such a meter one usually does not need detailed cal data.
...
If that meter is such a little nice "evey day task tool", than all the scanning tools and the DMAQ6510 is a not been taken seriously "nice tool", and all the Keithleys 6.5 DMM's too.
Guys, what's wrong? Has the Covid virus really kicked in yet?  :-//
 :-DD
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 10, 2020, 01:04:31 pm
Interestingly, I received a calibration report with all the numbers on the DMM7510 simply by asking him through the seller. No money or problems. Is the 6500 in some kind of special situation?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 10, 2020, 01:42:11 pm
These are my experiences:
I bought a DMM7510 and a DAQ6510 and expected a factory cal report. Before that I had bought a KS 34465A and got a detailed cal report in the shipping box, so it sort of set the expectation level for me. Well, no report. I contacted Tek support and asked for the factory cal report. They said I should have ordered it with the new meters. I THEN OFFERED TO PAY FOR A COPY OF EACH REPORT. The answer was NO, we can't do that. Volcano (me) erupts, support sends me two PDF reports free of charge.

My point is that the information that you're supposed to make your initial order in some specific way is very, very unclear.

@TiN
Regarding KS, I've bought 4 pcs of equipment new and 30+ pcs used from different sources. After registering the S/N on myKeysight, I can see all calibration reports for all my equipment online, and download as a PDF if I so choose to. Quite a service, I think, and it makes the equipment more valuable to me to have previous reference points.

Edit: Some of the KS reports, like for 34465A/70A are detailed, some are just "equipment in spec".

Edit2: Increased (doubled) the number of HPAK equipment after counting. Seems i have a TEA and is trying to fool myself.  :-DD
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 10, 2020, 02:12:47 pm
Also, some praise for Tek/Keithley:

You get a free Kickstart license after registering your product. The software is good and also frequently updated/improved.

Not only did I get licenses for two DMMs, I also can claim Kickstart licenses for old equipment I bought used: one 2400 SMU, 2 x 2602A SMUs and one 2612A SMU - a total of four unclaimed licenses for which I have no use right now. So, free licenses for 15-20 yr old stuff - very generous.

My opinion on BenchVue and it's licensing model should not derail this thread, let's just say Keithley have much better S/W and a more generous licensing model. IMHO.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 10, 2020, 03:22:33 pm
Also, some praise for Tek/Keithley:

You get a free Kickstart license after registering your product. The software is good and also frequently updated/improved.

Not only did I get licenses for two DMMs, I also can claim Kickstart licenses for old equipment I bought used: one 2400 SMU, 2 x 2602A SMUs and one 2612A SMU - a total of four unclaimed licenses for which I have no use right now. So, free licenses for 15-20 yr old stuff - very generous.

My opinion on BenchVue and it's licensing model should not derail this thread, let's just say Keithley have much better S/W and a more generous licensing model. IMHO.
How'd you get those licenses? Just register it? I have some kit that sounds it may be eligible.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 10, 2020, 03:28:59 pm
hwj-d
I've bought number of items, DMMs, PSUs, etc from Keysight and other vendors before, and most of it comes without uncertainty data in calibration report, and such data not available even after request without ordering calibration service with data.
Black 3458A that came also did not have data in the 1 page calibration certificate and I was not able to get that.

Thinking that it cost nothing for factory to print few pages of paper with numbers is not right. That's what triggered me, not the lack of data points in report. Not denying need in numbers, just the expectation of it for free.  :-DMM Try to get a piece of paper from PTB for your 10V reference for example. 1 page with a number will likely cost about four DMM6500s combined. Calibration is a business on its own, I've spent 3 years already on writing own software to do automated reports for my gear. Commercial MET/CAL software license cost tens of thousands a year too, so that fancy manufacturer lab gotta pay for it's maintenance somehow, unless we just accept increased cost for ALL products if the factory just include cost of callab into price of every bit sold. That will make everyone to pay to ensure few customers who actually value data are happy. ;)

My point was that I was not expecting it anyway. If you get instrument with calibration report + data, that is more of a welcome bonus. But you right, no point to discuss this, as what I get or you get does not mean what everybody who buys an insturment gets, as it can vary a lot from your distributor, geo and options you order with instrument.
Calibration is a business on its own but they're already doing it. At least, I sure hope they do. Making the data you already have available does represent a cost but that should be very minor once set up. While I get it's a cost saving measure it's pushing it too far if you ask me. It seems a bit silly to sell a precision instrument, only to go "lol dunno" when people ask about that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 10, 2020, 04:27:13 pm
How'd you get those licenses? Just register it? I have some kit that sounds it may be eligible.

I did just register and get the licenses.

It may have been a time limited promo, though - I had not registered the latest 2602A so I did it right now. There was no license showing up.  ??? OTOH, during registration it said something like "your serial # may not be valid", there seems to be a missing live connection with their mfg database since I got the same message when registering a 2002 DMM minutes before. Probably the serial # is verified manually or with a batch job, only after that I can say with certainty if they still give away free licenses. The license part # is KSPROMONL-BASE, which kind of indicates that it is related to a promotion and may be time limited.

I've got some 2001 DMMs that were registered at the same time as the other equipment like the 2400, and those got no free licenses. 2001 (and 2002) DMMs are not supported by Kickstart, which simply explains that. Thus, as a minimum, the equipment needs to be supported.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on May 10, 2020, 04:31:11 pm
After updating the to latest firmware I began having a problem (which might or might not me related to the update). When I press the power button when the instrument is powered on very often it just restarts the DMM, kinda like if no debouncing was performed. Have anyone else experienced this?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 10, 2020, 04:45:15 pm
... Try to get a piece of paper from PTB for your 10V reference for example. 1 page with a number will likely cost about four DMM6500s combined. ...

That seems a little out of line, even if different markets have different pricing.

Price to calibrate Fluke 732A at ri.se (equivalent of PTB, NIST, et al): 13.750 SEK+VAT (148 measurements, 1 month, k=2, 0.3 µV/V. All outputs measured: 1V, 1.018V and 10V. Not using their JJA directly but accuracy is their top offering.)

Price for new DMM6500: 10.555 SEK+VAT

Awful VAT of 25% don't change comparison; deductible for companies, not for private citizens.

The DMM6500 had a long running 15% discount that has now ended, SEK currency has taken a hit with central bank negative interest rate experiment and so forth. Still, it is very far away from 4 DMM6500's.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 10, 2020, 09:01:51 pm
hwj-d
I've bought number of items, DMMs, PSUs, etc from Keysight and other vendors before, and most of it comes without uncertainty data in calibration report, and such data not available even after request without ordering calibration service with data.
Black 3458A that came also did not have data in the 1 page calibration certificate and I was not able to get that.

Thinking that it cost nothing for factory to print few pages of paper with numbers is not right. That's what triggered me, not the lack of data points in report. Not denying need in numbers, just the expectation of it for free.  :-DMM Try to get a piece of paper from PTB for your 10V reference for example. 1 page with a number will likely cost about four DMM6500s combined. Calibration is a business on its own, I've spent 3 years already on writing own software to do automated reports for my gear. Commercial MET/CAL software license cost tens of thousands a year too, so that fancy manufacturer lab gotta pay for it's maintenance somehow, unless we just accept increased cost for ALL products if the factory just include cost of callab into price of every bit sold. That will make everyone to pay to ensure few customers who actually value data are happy. ;)

My point was that I was not expecting it anyway. If you get instrument with calibration report + data, that is more of a welcome bonus. But you right, no point to discuss this, as what I get or you get does not mean what everybody who buys an insturment gets, as it can vary a lot from your distributor, geo and options you order with instrument.
Calibration is a business on its own but they're already doing it. At least, I sure hope they do. Making the data you already have available does represent a cost but that should be very minor once set up. While I get it's a cost saving measure it's pushing it too far if you ask me. It seems a bit silly to sell a precision instrument, only to go "lol dunno" when people ask about that.

They absolutely are already doing it, since E-Design is able to look up the data.  That really was my whole point with my above comment.

1. The document already exists
2. You have already paid to have this calibration done, since it is baked into the retail price of the instrument.
3. Printing out these already EXISTING pages (or better yet just having it available online) certainly isn't costing 4x DMM6500 per unit.  No company is going to sale a product for long that cost them 4x more to produce than they can sale it for.

Regardless, from a business perspective it does make absolute sense to withhold the document and charge for its access.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 09:17:57 pm
...
Regardless, from a business perspective it does make absolute sense to withhold the document and charge for its access.

Unless the customer notices this "fraud" on him, which it is, if this data exists and is already automatically priced in by the non-existent effort.

So here it's all about the balance of power between customer vs. marketing. And on which side do we as consumers really stand?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 10, 2020, 09:57:26 pm
Unless the customer notices this "fraud" on him, which it is, if this data exists and is already automatically priced in by the non-existent effort.
So here it's all about the balance of power between customer vs. marketing. And on which side do we as consumers really stand?

Typically we fall somewhere on the loosing side.  As to which side I really fall on in this particular argument?

Well...I certainly don't feel as strongly as you do about getting this document.  Although, I will admit I would have found it useful. 

I do expect what E-Design is saying is true, in that many people don't care about having this data.  From that perspective,  it does make sense to save a bit on "actual" printing cost.  I can imagine expense of running a calibration lab is a beyond ridiculous as TiN attempted to explain.  Margins are not great on T&M gear, calibration is expensive, so why not help try and recoup some of those cost by withholding this data from the customer?  It makes sense from the business end.  I do feel like we have paid for this calibration (although I expect the cost factored into final price of the DMM6500 would be much less than a typical calibration would cost you). 

Regardless, it makes no difference if the document is not as important to me as it is to you.  I'm not arrogant enough to come in here and say your opinion doesn't matter because my opinion is different than yours. 

So, if you want a document you already paid for (imho), I'm on your side and hope you get it!  I will always be on the side of the consumer having more options, and more protections.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 10:52:54 pm
...
Margins are not great on T&M gear, calibration is expensive, so why not help try and recoup some of those cost by withholding this data from the customer?  It makes sense from the business end.
No. Either or not. Either the data are absolutely necessary for the function of the device ready for sale, in which case they are of course already priced in, or one buys an incomplete, non-functional device, which provokes a considerable price reduction. Both together is not possible.

Quote
I do feel like we have paid for this calibration (although I expect the cost factored into final price of the DMM6500 would be much less than a typical calibration would cost you). 

Regardless, it makes no difference if the document is not as important to me as it is to you.  I'm not arrogant enough to come in here and say your opinion doesn't matter because my opinion is different than yours. 

So, if you want a document you already paid for (imho), I'm on your side and hope you get it!  I will always be on the side of the consumer having more options, and more protections.
The argumentation front is not differentiated according to the different needs of individual persons (you and me), or groups of persons (power users or not), which I consider a rather obfuscating proxy argument.

A business model always arises when there is a supply gap, i.e. a lack of services or goods. If you have a monopoly, or there is agreement on the suppliers side, you can create the shortage artificially. In this way, for example, large parts of the food are destroyed after the harvest, although there is hunger in the world. Not to even think about medicines. It is always the same method.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: TiN on May 10, 2020, 10:57:58 pm
Last bit of offtopic here from me.

Quote
1. The document already exists
Not always. Calibration certificate is somewhat more of a legal document, rather than technical. Yes, manufacturer usually have calibration results as part of their QA system when instrument is manufactured/verified. It may not be a report per ce though. Calibration certificate issued by lab have to be in line with release procedures and may be subject for audit, so for a fab it's not just a piece of paper with some numbers given by some fancy calibrator. If I connect DMM6500 to my calibrator, do bunch of tests, I still cannot provide legal calibration certificate, so me telling "this unit have 2 ppm error on 10V range" is just chit-chat and not a legal certification.

Quote
2. You have already paid to have this calibration done, since it is baked into the retail price of the instrument.
There are different levels of calibration too. Factory calibration may not include as much points as top tier 17025 service. It is not limited to T&M gear. Components have same process - you can buy opamp which will most likely be in spec, but it will not have calibration report with measurement results for your particular piece. Most parts sold usually are not even tested to all datasheet specs, but rather window pass/fail criteria. If you want, you can pay more, and get calibration report or test data from your specific opamp/batch. It will not be $3 anymore, but you can do it.

Different fabs have different capabilities/accreditations, etc. Lot of variables in play. Also instruments may be tested/adjusted at the time of manufacture, but if customer buys a unit with calibration data request, it could be recalibrated prior to shipping. In case of hwj-d, providing him calibration data from 2 years ago would be only historical value and would not mean that instrument now is still in spec (it's most likely is, but you never know until you do lot of calibrations to characterize it over time).

Quote
3. Printing out these already EXISTING pages (or better yet just having it available online) certainly isn't costing 4x DMM6500 per unit.  No company is going to sale a product for long that cost them 4x more to produce than they can sale it for.
I've included 3458A calibration report that was included. There are no existing pages with data for it.

I perhaps confused a bit, didn't mean that calibrating DMM6500 is 4 times the cost, but calibrating voltage standard in Tek/Keithley lab against top tier NMI can cost like that. NIST service listed for $2727 (https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?viewState=DetailView&cartID=&portalUser=&store=&cclcl=en_US&sku=53160C) for voltage comparison against saturated cells. Canada's NRC bit less, $1840 (https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/instrument-calibration-services/electrical-standards-calibration-services). Great that RISE is much cheaper, so was Taiwan's CMS even against PJVS. Add calibrators, resistance standards, capacitance, etc then all man-hours to maintain gear in cal, and that will make additional time spend to cook more detailed reports cost more.

There is always more to the story, rather than evil corporations keeping customers in the dark , just because they are evil. >:D
For clarity: I don't defend vendor on not including data for every single sold instrument, I'd be first to cheer if we always get data with every single piece of equipment we buy, no matter simple 4.5-digit handheld or 8.5-digit 20K$ DMM. Another more worrysome thing - calibration labs will not provide you method they used to calibrate your instrument. So even when you do get data in report, how can you know how to reproduce it on your side, if method/settings are not even known to you?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 11:05:26 pm
Quote
There is always more to the story, rather than evil corporations keeping customers in the dark , just because they are evil.
interesting option. How do one come up with that?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 11:21:45 pm
Last bit of offtopic here from me.

Quote
1. The document already exists
Not always. Calibration certificate is somewhat more of a legal document, rather than technical. Yes, manufacturer usually have calibration results as part of their QA system when instrument is manufactured/verified. It may not be a report per ce though. Calibration certificate issued by lab have to be in line with release procedures and may be subject for audit, so for a fab it's not just a piece of paper with some numbers given by some fancy calibrator. If I connect DMM6500 to my calibrator, do bunch of tests, I still cannot provide legal calibration certificate, so me telling "this unit have 2 ppm error on 10V range" is just chit-chat and not a legal certification.
...
So they sell us unapproved equipment?
Either, or not. See above.
After all, this affects the entire product line. In my opinion, an impossible argument. Imagine that being communicated as fact.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 10, 2020, 11:31:53 pm
@TiN
I understand your argument, and how you feel. You're describing the "as is" state. That's good, you're by far the more experienced one.
But you also defend it. Your boundaries are quite fluid, if I may say so.   ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 10, 2020, 11:35:19 pm
Last bit of offtopic here from me.

Quote
1. The document already exists
Not always.

1. The document (or numbers) exists because E-Design said the document exists.  That is the only reason I made that statement.  If he can offer to look up the info for you by serial number...then the data exists.

2. The calibration or check has already been done, because the document/data exists.

My entire argument is really only dealing specifically with the DMM6500.  I make zero claims about any other instrument.  I'm sure many of your points are completely valid, but we are having two separate conversations here.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 12, 2020, 06:35:06 pm
How'd you get those licenses? Just register it? I have some kit that sounds it may be eligible.

I did just register and get the licenses.

It may have been a time limited promo, though - I had not registered the latest 2602A so I did it right now. There was no license showing up.  ??? ... The license part # is KSPROMONL-BASE, which kind of indicates that it is related to a promotion and may be time limited.

Well, after some time has passed there is still no license for the newly registered 2602A - I guess the time limited promotion is over. Note that for brand new meters there should still be a license included - during the promo period some users reported getting two licenses when buying a new meter; one included in the purchase, one from the (seemingly automatic) web-promo when registering the meter at tek.com.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on May 12, 2020, 09:40:38 pm
Unless the customer notices this "fraud" on him, which it is, if this data exists and is already automatically priced in by the non-existent effort.

So here it's all about the balance of power between customer vs. marketing. And on which side do we as consumers really stand?

This is not fraud :palm:. 99% of customers have no care about the specific uncertainties measured. If they did they would be buying higher end gear or sending out the instrument to their own preferred cal-lab. Giving marketing crap for not catering to the 1% of hobbyist customers is fine, but ultimately a waste of breath.

Start a new thread to move this discussion somewhere else, not receiving a full call report is not specific to the DMM6500, it affects hundreds of brands and instruments.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 13, 2020, 12:09:37 am
@thm_w
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 13, 2020, 07:44:27 am
Unless the customer notices this "fraud" on him, which it is, if this data exists and is already automatically priced in by the non-existent effort.

So here it's all about the balance of power between customer vs. marketing. And on which side do we as consumers really stand?
We need to understand that we're probably not typical customers. Most of these will be bought with someone else's money. The hobbyist market is just a nice extra. I just don't think Danaher gives a crap about it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 13, 2020, 12:08:33 pm
I didn't go to the office yet to compare to the other DMM6500.
But in the meantime I can give this picture of an 1 year after calibration DMM6500.
Obviously the cheap verify device is just there to give me a nice stable 10V but since they were that close I thought I will share the picture. :)  (I'm pretty sure it drifted more than that in the last year)

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=990396)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on May 13, 2020, 02:41:09 pm
hwj-d, I was wondering why the specs are not enough for you. Could you give concrete/practical examples of what kind of analyses you want to do where specs are not enough and you require cal data? Or is this discussion more about the policies of test equipment companies?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 13, 2020, 04:41:43 pm
Unless the customer notices this "fraud" on him, which it is, if this data exists and is already automatically priced in by the non-existent effort.

So here it's all about the balance of power between customer vs. marketing. And on which side do we as consumers really stand?
We need to understand that we're probably not typical customers. Most of these will be bought with someone else's money. The hobbyist market is just a nice extra. I just don't think Danaher gives a crap about it.

I have come to learn that its not that the big Corp doesn't care... They do care! Everyone who has purchased a product is an important customer. In my experience that includes everybody - no exceptions. The issue is that big corp is running a business and Hobby market is not where the money is at. Therefore, many resources cant be spent on it - it doesn't make financial sense. Of course hobbyists don't agree with this for obvious reasons. But its not the whole story to say they don't care.

BTW, big corp isnt some evil marketer or manager... those people are NOT the ones who are interacting with customers generally! So its a fictitious entity really. If you as a hobbyist, interact with a big corp, you are dealing with real people who actually support your cause and work in service because they like helping people (big or small) - its just that there is no way anybody has enough time or resources (money) to spend on the smaller markets like hobby. If the company was bigger, then perhaps.. anyways it shouldn't be viewed as some personal thing like companies don't care about the little guy / hobbyist - its just a financial and resource limitation.

I myself, am a huge electronics hobbyist as well so I have a bias toward the hobby market. In my experience the lack of support or not getting help is strictly a financial issue.

In an ideal world, there would be enough people and money to go around and spend on all the markets big and small.
BTW, Danaher split off a couple years ago.. Now "Fortive" has the T&M companies including Fluke.



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 13, 2020, 06:06:47 pm
hwj-d, I was wondering why the specs are not enough for you. Could you give concrete/practical examples of what kind of analyses you want to do where specs are not enough and you require cal data? Or is this discussion more about the policies of test equipment companies?
I can tell you why this is necessary.
For example, I measured + 10V and -10V on my DMM7510. And I find that these two values are not equal. And the differences are noticeable. More than 1 ppm. And linearity is declared 2 ppm. And I'm scared. Is everything all right with the device. I open the report and see that there is a difference both in the report and in the same direction. Hooray. So the device has not deteriorated. He was like that. I became calmer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 14, 2020, 12:01:53 am
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maginnovision on May 14, 2020, 12:11:59 am
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.

You're right, some people feel one way, some feel the others. It doesn't really matter since if you want the data you can demand it and if you can't get it don't buy it. Find a manufacturer that gives you what you want.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 14, 2020, 12:37:31 am
Anyone else without a ticket?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 14, 2020, 01:03:03 am
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.

The discussion doesn't have to be held, and seems a complete waste of time for you. How about go start another thread.. this one is borderline off topic at this point.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 14, 2020, 06:39:02 am
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.

The discussion doesn't have to be held, and seems a complete waste of time for you. How about go start another thread.. this one is borderline off topic at this point.

Thanks Mr. Keithley for your statement. A company that personally mocks its clients the way you are doing right now, does not have the competence to be referenced in my firm. I will discard all Keithley gauges over time, and will advise my clients to refrain from using Keithley, citing your personally abusive behavior. Thank you for your clarification in this regard, this will protect many of my customers from similar negative experiences.
Communication closed with you.

With kind regards
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on May 14, 2020, 08:43:27 am
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.

The discussion doesn't have to be held, and seems a complete waste of time for you. How about go start another thread.. this one is borderline off topic at this point.

Thanks Mr. Keithley for your statement. A company that personally mocks its clients the way you are doing right now, does not have the competence to be referenced in my firm. I will discard all Keithley gauges over time, and will advise my clients to refrain from using Keithley, citing your personally abusive behavior. Thank you for your clarification in this regard, this will protect many of my customers from similar negative experiences.
Communication closed with you.

With kind regards

Are you saying that you will tell your clients not to buy Keithley instruments because one guy that works at Keithley asked you to create a new topic instead of continuing with an offtopic discussion? And according to you that would protect customers from similar negative experiences? The experience of joining an online forum, calling the company a fraud and then not getting the response that you expect from the Keithley worker?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on May 14, 2020, 09:50:06 am
In that class of Instrument (low end 6 digit), I would not expect extra calibration data.  Anyway with a digital adjustment expect the data read back to be essentially spot on down to the noise level.  So the read back data from the initial calibration (with adjustment) are of little use, especially as there can be quite some drift in the initial phase. The numbers may be useful for the 2nd and 3rd calibration - here it is up to the customers choice.

So I would not blame Keithley for not wasting paper on pretty useless numbers that may give ignorant people a false believe in extra accuracy.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 10:12:23 am
In that class of Instrument (low end 6 digit), I would not expect extra calibration data.  Anyway with a digital adjustment expect the data read back to be essentially spot on down to the noise level.  So the read back data from the initial calibration (with adjustment) are of little use, especially as there can be quite some drift in the initial phase. The numbers may be useful for the 2nd and 3rd calibration - here it is up to the customers choice.

So I would not blame Keithley for not wasting paper on pretty useless numbers that may give ignorant people a false believe in extra accuracy.
Let's all agree to disagree and move on. We're not going to get anywhere rehashing the same opposing views.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 02:28:33 pm
In that class of Instrument (low end 6 digit), I would not expect extra calibration data.  Anyway with a digital adjustment expect the data read back to be essentially spot on down to the noise level.  So the read back data from the initial calibration (with adjustment) are of little use, especially as there can be quite some drift in the initial phase. The numbers may be useful for the 2nd and 3rd calibration - here it is up to the customers choice.

So I would not blame Keithley for not wasting paper on pretty useless numbers that may give ignorant people a false believe in extra accuracy.
You keep insisting a DMM6500 is a low grade instrument but other than from the perspective of a rabid volt nut that seems to be pushing it. 0.0075% and that dynamic range is pretty good in the real world and bought for other reasons than say a Fluke 87V.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on May 14, 2020, 03:08:41 pm
In that class of Instrument (low end 6 digit), I would not expect extra calibration data.  Anyway with a digital adjustment expect the data read back to be essentially spot on down to the noise level.  So the read back data from the initial calibration (with adjustment) are of little use, especially as there can be quite some drift in the initial phase. The numbers may be useful for the 2nd and 3rd calibration - here it is up to the customers choice.

So I would not blame Keithley for not wasting paper on pretty useless numbers that may give ignorant people a false believe in extra accuracy.
Let's all agree to disagree and move on. We're not going to get anywhere rehashing the same opposing views.
  :D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on May 14, 2020, 03:13:33 pm
That this discussion has to be held at all is a joke, isn't it? I mean, "the helping hand" has already failed at the crucial point of withholding the crucial documentation.

The discussion doesn't have to be held, and seems a complete waste of time for you. How about go start another thread.. this one is borderline off topic at this point.

Thanks Mr. Keithley for your statement. A company that personally mocks its clients the way you are doing right now, does not have the competence to be referenced in my firm. I will discard all Keithley gauges over time, and will advise my clients to refrain from using Keithley, citing your personally abusive behavior. Thank you for your clarification in this regard, this will protect many of my customers from similar negative experiences.
Communication closed with you.

With kind regards

For the sake of all us who actually contribute and gain value from the knowledge shared in this thread, I hope we can all agree to ignore hwd-j's future posts.  He is a known troll on the forum if you aren't aware.  His antics have gotten several large threads closed already.  I have no doubt that is his aim here as well. 

You don't have to look for very long through his post history to his trolling antics.  Here's one for example:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/covid-19-virus/1925/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/covid-19-virus/1925/)

So if we want to keep the thread open, let's all just ignore this Coronavirus-denying, conspiracy-spouting moron until he finally gets banned once and for all.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 03:16:52 pm
In that class of Instrument (low end 6 digit), I would not expect extra calibration data.  Anyway with a digital adjustment expect the data read back to be essentially spot on down to the noise level.  So the read back data from the initial calibration (with adjustment) are of little use, especially as there can be quite some drift in the initial phase. The numbers may be useful for the 2nd and 3rd calibration - here it is up to the customers choice.

So I would not blame Keithley for not wasting paper on pretty useless numbers that may give ignorant people a false believe in extra accuracy.
Let's all agree to disagree and move on. We're not going to get anywhere rehashing the same opposing views.
  :D
That quote was supposed to be someone else. Back to discussing features and accuracy and such.  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on May 14, 2020, 04:43:47 pm
You keep insisting a DMM6500 is a low grade instrument but other than from the perspective of a rabid volt nut that seems to be pushing it. 0.0075% and that dynamic range is pretty good in the real world and bought for other reasons than say a Fluke 87V.

DM6500, Keysight 34460, 34461, 34465 and all similar instruments are not metrology grade instruments. Sorry to disappoint.

They all come with datasheets that exactly specify what are their measurement uncertainties (that are in several tens of ppm in best ranges) .  Even if you have calibration data that shows that you instrument had zero error on say 10V range three months ago, today, all anybody knows is that you should be in 90 days accuracy spec that for DMM6500 would be 20ppm + 5ppm ±(% OF READING + % OF RANGE) ), meaning 10 V ± 250uV. You might be better than that (and probably would be) but if you had even 248 uV of error (meaning last 2 digits would be wrong) you still would be in specification and instrument would be considered in good shape. On other ranges situation is much worse actually.  Keysight 34460 that is also 6.5 digit meter, is much worse on 10 V range. It has 90 days spec of (50 ppm + 5ppm ±(% OF READING + % OF RANGE) ) that translates to error of max ±550 uV on 10 V voltage, before it is out of spec. More than half of millivolt.. And that is for 90 days. More than 1 years after calibration, 34460 can have ±1 mV error when measuring 10V and still would be in spec. That would mean, that at that point, last 2 digits are completely meaningless in terms of absolute accuracy..

Most of instruments in that class do much better than spec, but manufacturer guarantees only that they will be in spec.  And if you use those instruments in your work, all you can guarantee to your customers is that you measured with instrument that is in spec..

That is for absolute accuracy measurements. For relative measurements, all you can guarantee is 24 hour specs.

So when you accept those facts, why would manufacturer give you data that is meaningless, except statement instrument is in specification... If you want play with instrument pretending it is something it isn't, that is users problem. But, even if you calibrate DMM6500 every day and it has no error for 5 years, and suddenly one day it has 13ppm error on 10V range, it would still be fully in spec.

Actually, compared with competition, DMM6500 has very impressive specs that almost seem too optimistic. It has better 2 year specs than Keysight 34465 1 year's spec on 10 V range for instance..

But none of those are Keysight 3458, or Fluke 8508A, and calibration practice is not the same...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 14, 2020, 04:52:48 pm
,Now i see all E-Design posts are disappear from that thread. I think it is bad sign.
I confirm. From the topic about DMM7510, all messages also disappeared. In my opinion this is ugly :(
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hwj-d on May 14, 2020, 05:38:06 pm
Calling me a troll is an insult. And this from a contestant with a whole thanks of 3 times, compared to my 183rd. Ok, I'll pull some of Mr.Keysight's that I guess weren't quite so serious. I never thought that I would have to refer to such a score here in the forum, but here it shows, where this "troll screaming" comes from. From people who simply run out of arguments. Instead of accepting different opinions, they switch to the personal level and fire what they can, even if the whole forum cohesion breaks down. Seems to be a depravity of a modern discourse culture, incapable of accepting a different opinions. They prefer to ramble on about ignorance lists, so that they would rather not see the other opinion.
Dear people, this is pure socialism. In the end, there is an anthill of individuals who are completely conformist. But only a pluralistic view of things brings creativity and cultural awareness.
I stand behind my opinion. Even if some people can't handle it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on May 14, 2020, 05:52:17 pm
I stand behind my opinion. Even if some people can't handle it.

You have full right to have any opinion you want, even delusional ones..

What you have no right to is to demand anything from anybody here and order around other people who don't owe anything to you, and then be rude to them if they refuse to cooperate..

And you have no f**king clue what socialism is... That is my opinion.. And don't worry, I don't require four you to do anything about it, thank you.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 14, 2020, 06:09:16 pm
,Now i see all E-Design posts are disappear from that thread. I think it is bad sign.
I confirm. From the topic about DMM7510, all messages also disappeared. In my opinion this is ugly :(

Well he is technically still here.  In hindsight, maybe he regrets not remaining anonymous.  Regardless of his motivations he has his reasons.  He already stated he is not here in official capacity, so better to remove previous posts that lead many of us to believe otherwise.  I choose to interpret it as a not so subtle hint that some boundaries are being put up that we should respect.  I personally plan to just let him enjoy his off time like any normal forum user and leave him alone.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 06:31:39 pm
DM6500, Keysight 34460, 34461, 34465 and all similar instruments are not metrology grade instruments. Sorry to disappoint.

They all come with datasheets that exactly specify what are their measurement uncertainties (that are in several tens of ppm in best ranges) .  Even if you have calibration data that shows that you instrument had zero error on say 10V range three months ago, today, all anybody knows is that you should be in 90 days accuracy spec that for DMM6500 would be 20ppm + 5ppm ±(% OF READING + % OF RANGE) ), meaning 10 V ± 250uV. You might be better than that (and probably would be) but if you had even 248 uV of error (meaning last 2 digits would be wrong) you still would be in specification and instrument would be considered in good shape. On other ranges situation is much worse actually.  Keysight 34460 that is also 6.5 digit meter, is much worse on 10 V range. It has 90 days spec of (50 ppm + 5ppm ±(% OF READING + % OF RANGE) ) that translates to error of max ±550 uV on 10 V voltage, before it is out of spec. More than half of millivolt.. And that is for 90 days. More than 1 years after calibration, 34460 can have ±1 mV error when measuring 10V and still would be in spec. That would mean, that at that point, last 2 digits are completely meaningless in terms of absolute accuracy..

Most of instruments in that class do much better than spec, but manufacturer guarantees only that they will be in spec.  And if you use those instruments in your work, all you can guarantee to your customers is that you measured with instrument that is in spec..

That is for absolute accuracy measurements. For relative measurements, all you can guarantee is 24 hour specs.

So when you accept those facts, why would manufacturer give you data that is meaningless, except statement instrument is in specification... If you want play with instrument pretending it is something it isn't, that is users problem. But, even if you calibrate DMM6500 every day and it has no error for 5 years, and suddenly one day it has 13ppm error on 10V range, it would still be fully in spec.

Actually, compared with competition, DMM6500 has very impressive specs that almost seem too optimistic. It has better 2 year specs than Keysight 34465 1 year's spec on 10 V range for instance..

But none of those are Keysight 3458, or Fluke 8508A, and calibration practice is not the same...
That was pretty much my point. Comparing meters to a 3458A or Fluke 8508A and saying they don't compare well is saying no one lives in a nice house because the Palace of Versailles is nicer. While true it's also besides the point and appears to show little sense of scale.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 14, 2020, 06:39:37 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

I got rid of some of my old posts because I am not an Apps Eng or here for any official reasons related to Tek or Keithley. I'm just here on my own accord. I dont want to misrepresent myself or cause confusion!
Sorry about that.


If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

No worries, hopefully some tech discussion gets us back on topic.  :-+

Now.. how about those cal certificates.. (just kidding!)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 06:40:56 pm
Calling me a troll is an insult. And this from a contestant with a whole thanks of 3 times, compared to my 183rd. Ok, I'll pull some of Mr.Keysight's that I guess weren't quite so serious. I never thought that I would have to refer to such a score here in the forum, but here it shows, where this "troll screaming" comes from. From people who simply run out of arguments. Instead of accepting different opinions, they switch to the personal level and fire what they can, even if the whole forum cohesion breaks down. Seems to be a depravity of a modern discourse culture, incapable of accepting a different opinions. They prefer to ramble on about ignorance lists, so that they would rather not see the other opinion.
Dear people, this is pure socialism. In the end, there is an anthill of individuals who are completely conformist. But only a pluralistic view of things brings creativity and cultural awareness.
I stand behind my opinion. Even if some people can't handle it.
The point is not that your opinion is wrong, but that it's out of place here when it goes on for too long. At that point it's steering the actual thread off course and changing it into something else. That's when opening another thread starts becoming more suitable. No one says you can't express your views but no one likes it when that one guy goes on and on about his at the Christmas party. At some point he's kindly asked to move along.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 06:45:02 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

I got rid of some of my old posts because I am not an Apps Eng or here for any official reasons related to Tek or Keithley. I'm just here on my own accord. I dont want to misrepresent myself or cause confusion!
Sorry about that.


If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

No worries, hopefully some tech discussion gets us back on topic.  :-+
Can you tell us something about the decisions involved in picking the hardware for this meter, especially the front end UI hardware part? It seems there are incredible options available in the form of ridiculously powerful and efficient phone SoCs. Do you have any insights how and why you ended up with the machine we see today? I understand this may not be your cup of tea, so please feel free to tell us about your part. :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on May 14, 2020, 07:00:08 pm
The discussion about whether a bare bones base model dmm6500 should come with or without a call report
is rather pointless.
As always, you get what you pay for, and you don't get what you don't pay for.

The first time I've purchased a brand new car it came with a less than half full fuel tank,
although disappointed because my expectation was different I really had no right to because
the friendly dealer delivered what I had ordered, no agreements were made on the amount of fuel in the car.
If I had at time of purchase made a agreement with the dealer to deliver the car with a full tank of fuel
he had certainly done so, but I hadn't.
Maybe even could have worked in a inflatable pink crocodile into the deal, but also hadn't, so have to accept that I have to continue live without one, unless I purchase one.

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 14, 2020, 07:27:28 pm
The discussion about whether a bare bones base model dmm6500 should come with or without a call report
is rather pointless....
:horse: :horse: :horse:

Lets just let it die.  The White Knights of the Holy Order of the Sacred Calibration have already come down from Volthalla to remind us how pathetic our 6.5 digit peasant meters are. No silly piece of paper, free or paid for can remove the shame of our large measurement uncertainties.  /s   :-DD
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on May 14, 2020, 08:01:16 pm
The discussion about whether a bare bones base model dmm6500 should come with or without a call report
is rather pointless.
As always, you get what you pay for, and you don't get what you don't pay for.

The first time I've purchased a brand new car it came with a less than half full fuel tank,
although disappointed because my expectation was different I really had no right to because
the friendly dealer delivered what I had ordered, no agreements were made on the amount of fuel in the car.
If I had at time of purchase made a agreement with the dealer to deliver the car with a full tank of fuel
he had certainly done so, but I hadn't.
Maybe even could have worked in a inflatable pink crocodile into the deal, but also hadn't, so have to accept that I have to continue live without one, unless I purchase one.

(Attachment Link)
Please, let it go. We're going to endlessly continue the discussion if individual members keep bringing it up again no matter how well intended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HtACLaRDk0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HtACLaRDk0)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on May 14, 2020, 08:47:40 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

Hello E-Design,

I recently (after upgrading  the firmware) began experiencing some issues with the power button of the DMM6500. When I press the button to turn it off sometimes (maybe 30% of the times) it immediately turns on again, as if it was some kind of debouncing issue. Are you aware of any modification to the firmware that could have caused that or do you think the problem is not related to the firmware at all?

I'm getting a 2450, and I was checking the TSP-Link addon of the DMM6500, but then I found it apparently is possible to use the LAN to communicate between Keithley instruments (which of course would spare me some money). What are the differences between using TSP-NET and TSP-Link to communicate between Keithley instruments?

Thanks in advance
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 14, 2020, 09:20:51 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

I got rid of some of my old posts because I am not an Apps Eng or here for any official reasons related to Tek or Keithley. I'm just here on my own accord. I dont want to misrepresent myself or cause confusion!
Sorry about that.


If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

No worries, hopefully some tech discussion gets us back on topic.  :-+
Can you tell us something about the decisions involved in picking the hardware for this meter, especially the front end UI hardware part? It seems there are incredible options available in the form of ridiculously powerful and efficient phone SoCs. Do you have any insights how and why you ended up with the machine we see today? I understand this may not be your cup of tea, so please feel free to tell us about your part. :)

The whole project was driven to be 'low cost' - As you know, thats a subjective term.. low compared to what? Well the intention is that the 65xx replaces Model2000, Model 2700, Model 2701 - these are older DAQ and DMM instruments. Being older tech with with many of the components mature and undergoing years of cost reductions, those meters were at a fairly low cost point already so the mission of 65xx was to provide an updated display, user interface and some new features . It also aimed to make it more consistent with our other class of products like 2450 and DMM7510. The displays on those meters were much too costly to use.

To do this in a low cost way, all the hardware was drastically simplified and so,  the front display for example - while there are a great many choices in the marketplace - we really had to find one that was reasonably capable, matched the other newer products mentioned and yet had a good cost for us. So that playing field narrowed pretty quickly to what we have on the instrument today. Its not the greatest, but its a great deal better than the older VFD's IMO (not everybody agrees with this!) Same goes for touchscreen... it brings the meters into a more modern user experience that people expect these days (again, a lot of people do still disagree)

Another big driver was the longevity - a lot of the cool UI / displays today are connected to industry trends that are tied to cell phone and IOT markets - SUPER VOLATILE.. Here today, gone tomorrow. We just cant fathom designing a meter with a continuously going obsolete display so we demanded something that will be around for a long time (working with our vendors)

So the biggest factor was cost, longevity and the necessary look and features. So we're pretty happy the fact that we released a modern DMM/DAQ update with new features, preserving specs while also releasing it at a price that's comparable to those older models / competition. In other-words, customers are getting more for the same price (more or less)

As far as UI features go, we have followed some systems and guidelines from "UX" design methodologies to develop interfaces that "most" people can work with right away and not have a frustrating experience (hopefully)

Hope it helps clarify how we ended up with what we got today

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 14, 2020, 09:31:48 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

Hello E-Design,

I recently (after upgrading  the firmware) began experiencing some issues with the power button of the DMM6500. When I press the button to turn it off sometimes (maybe 30% of the times) it immediately turns on again, as if it was some kind of debouncing issue. Are you aware of any modification to the firmware that could have caused that or do you think the problem is not related to the firmware at all?

I'm getting a 2450, and I was checking the TSP-Link addon of the DMM6500, but then I found it apparently is possible to use the LAN to communicate between Keithley instruments (which of course would spare me some money). What are the differences between using TSP-NET and TSP-Link to communicate between Keithley instruments?

Thanks in advance

Your power button behavior, I have seen/heard about that once or twice before.. sometimes it gets a little glitchy like that.. I did not investigate it directly, but I'm guessing its is hardware related and is caused by a tolerance issue on the switch debounce circuits / logic in there. As you can guess, setting that just right is sort of a tuning exercise where you dont want to have to depress for too long but also if its too short then switch bounce might screw things up. Something in there (on some units) is right on the edge of too short or too long.

I am going to log it as an issue in our system so we can investigate / consider adjusting it slightly.  - thanks for the feedback!

I will ask your TSP-NET, TSP-LINK question to the apps guys. I dont know enough about it to give a meaningful answer.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on May 14, 2020, 09:42:51 pm
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

Hello E-Design,

I recently (after upgrading  the firmware) began experiencing some issues with the power button of the DMM6500. When I press the button to turn it off sometimes (maybe 30% of the times) it immediately turns on again, as if it was some kind of debouncing issue. Are you aware of any modification to the firmware that could have caused that or do you think the problem is not related to the firmware at all?

I'm getting a 2450, and I was checking the TSP-Link addon of the DMM6500, but then I found it apparently is possible to use the LAN to communicate between Keithley instruments (which of course would spare me some money). What are the differences between using TSP-NET and TSP-Link to communicate between Keithley instruments?

Thanks in advance

TSP-NET
Goes over your LAN (so instruments don't need to be right next to eachother)
Can be used to open sockets to dump data to computer or server
Cheaper
Higher synchronization latency between instruments (still pretty low)
Nondeterministic transfer speed (due going through 3rd party network hardware)

TSP-link
Custom network, connect point to point and daisy chain along instruments
More expensive (if have to buy accessory card)
Lower sync latency between instruments (check spec sheet)
More deterministic transfer speed between instruments (depends on how many instruments/nodes in network)

They have similar learning curves
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 14, 2020, 09:50:12 pm
As far as UI features go, we have followed some systems and guidelines from "UX" design methodologies to develop interfaces that "most" people can work with right away and not have a frustrating experience (hopefully)

Hope it helps clarify how we ended up with what we got today

Keithley's TTI UI is the best in the industry in my humble opinion.  I wish everyone making meters, power supplies, etc. would borrow from it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on May 14, 2020, 10:06:07 pm
...........
the intention is that the 65xx replaces Model2000, Model 2700, Model 2701 -
...........

I'd guess also the tek 4000 series?
Is there a dmm5050 in the works?  :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 14, 2020, 10:55:32 pm
...........
the intention is that the 65xx replaces Model2000, Model 2700, Model 2701 -
...........

I'd guess also the tek 4000 series?
Is there a dmm5050 in the works?  :popcorn:

I think 65xx probably replaced the Tek 4000 from a functional / specs standpoint, but I am not aware of it being on our list of intended replacements. Some of its driven by obsolete parts and the Tek 4000 was a different generation / design.

As far as a DMM5050.. who knows... we are always working on something next!  :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 15, 2020, 01:36:39 am
Hey guys, I am still here and willing to help anybody out (even hwj-d) because I am happy to do it and participate in all the cool projects, discussions and topics.

If anybody wants some help or support with KI or Tek products , I can work on it for you or at least get you connected to the right people.

Hello E-Design,

I recently (after upgrading  the firmware) began experiencing some issues with the power button of the DMM6500. When I press the button to turn it off sometimes (maybe 30% of the times) it immediately turns on again, as if it was some kind of debouncing issue. Are you aware of any modification to the firmware that could have caused that or do you think the problem is not related to the firmware at all?

I'm getting a 2450, and I was checking the TSP-Link addon of the DMM6500, but then I found it apparently is possible to use the LAN to communicate between Keithley instruments (which of course would spare me some money). What are the differences between using TSP-NET and TSP-Link to communicate between Keithley instruments?

Thanks in advance

Regarding TSP-NET and TSP-Link some additional from apps eng...

In general, TSP-Link is the way to go.  TSP-Link offers a number of advantages like the shared error queue, TSP-Link triggering (which is the preferred triggering method), and the simplicity of directly controlling other instruments or accessing their memory with the node[n] syntax. 

The key thing to remember with TSP-Net is that it solely operates over LAN and is very close to a standard sockets connection.  This gives it the advantage of being able to operate over long distances as you can connect through local networks (theoretically you could operate over the internet, but I haven’t tried that and I’m sure you’d have firewall problems).  The interface of TSP-Net is largely limited to simple read() and write() commands, though you do have dedicated commands to execute scripts and a couple other key TSP features.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 15, 2020, 07:13:15 am
Another big driver was the longevity - a lot of the cool UI / displays today are connected to industry trends that are tied to cell phone and IOT markets - SUPER VOLATILE.. Here today, gone tomorrow. We just cant fathom designing a meter with a continuously going obsolete display so we demanded something that will be around for a long time (working with our vendors)
We had the same discussion at the office some years ago, the screen will always be old for devices that are supposed to have a long live time and take time to develop with limited resources. So we decided to go black box and let an industrial panel, PC or tablet be an added choice at that time. "You want a bigger nice screen? then buy one!".
That's why I like the browser interface you have, although the update rate is lower, speed is always increasing in the next designs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 15, 2020, 12:06:08 pm
Quote
TSP-NET and TSP-Link
Are there any good examples of using one and the two?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on May 20, 2020, 10:21:36 pm
Quote
TSP-NET and TSP-Link
Are there any good examples of using one and the two?

Here is one taken from the Keithley Github.

It uses two DMM6500's in tandem to send/wait for triggers from eachother to measure current and voltage simultaneously.  Then one pulls data from the other to unify the data from both and print out the power measurement (I * V) on screen

https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/blob/bc4f0be5caf5437a802412ac09ada6720a4831dc/Instrument_Examples/DMM6500/TSP-Link%20Examples/measPower_2xDMM6500.tsp
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on May 20, 2020, 10:24:08 pm
Quote
TSP-NET and TSP-Link
Are there any good examples of using one and the two?

Here are TSP-NET examples.  Although none connect 2 KEI instruments together, only to other companies equipment.  But you could use those as an example to see how to adapt 2 Keithley instruments together.

https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/627a9bb2436d08186655742097693691885a7c89/Instrument_Examples/TSP-NET_Seed_Ideas
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 21, 2020, 12:08:24 pm
I have wasted a lot of time trying to get TSP-Link to work. I even bought an additional card for the DAQ6510.

I could not find any good docs on TSP: some basic illustrations showing daisy-chaining, telling me to use crossover Cat5 cables and set unique node numbers. Well, I've tried all that but must have missed something essential.

There is no marking for "in" or "out" on the TSP connectors. My best guess is that it is connector-xfmr-instrument-xfmr-connector, but I'm not sure.

Also, connecting >2 instruments always causes an error. I've used different cables and the strange thing is that identically connected cables give different results - some refuse to work. Any shielded (S/FTP) cable is a no-no. And, yes, I know how a crossover cable is wired, even from memory.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on May 21, 2020, 12:15:15 pm
I know how a crossover cable is wired, even from memory.

You also know there are two different rj45 pinout standards?
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8a/94/0f/8a940f1bccf6adb70201a148ffac401d.gif)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: z01z on May 21, 2020, 12:24:56 pm
You also know there are two different rj45 pinout standards?
Electrically these look the same, the orange and green markings are the only difference.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on May 21, 2020, 12:42:18 pm
You also know there are two different rj45 pinout standards?
Electrically these look the same, the orange and green markings are the only difference.

Yes, but if he started out with a pre-made cable which uses 568A on one side and he wired the other side as (crossed) 568B
it would cause trouble, still something worth to check.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on May 21, 2020, 12:49:40 pm
Yes, but if he started out with a pre-made cable which uses 568A on one side and he wired the other side as (crossed) 568B
it would cause trouble, still something worth to check.

I've so far only used pre-made molded cables. Checked electrically for 1-3, 2-6, 3-1, 6-2. Also optically; the wires can clearly be seen through the transparent connectors.

EDIT: Also, all cables work OK as GigE network cables.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 21, 2020, 07:18:50 pm
Yes, but if he started out with a pre-made cable which uses 568A on one side and he wired the other side as (crossed) 568B
it would cause trouble, still something worth to check.

I've so far only used pre-made molded cables. Checked electrically for 1-3, 2-6, 3-1, 6-2. Also optically; the wires can clearly be seen through the transparent connectors.

EDIT: Also, all cables work OK as GigE network cables.

The cables supplied by Keithley for TSP are wired in the following config:
1-3
2-6
3-1
4-4
5-5
6-2
7-7
8-8
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on May 21, 2020, 08:16:06 pm
Quote
The cables supplied by Keithley for TSP are wired in the following config:
1-3
2-6
3-1
4-4
5-5
6-2
7-7
8-8

Interesting.
So a T-568A to T-568B cross-over cable?

(https://i2.wp.com/typeonscreen.info/resource/photos/rj45-wall-socket-wiring-diagram-australia-socket-wiring-diagram-cat5e-rj45-socket-wiring-diagram-rj45-wiring-48-19103.jpg)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on May 21, 2020, 08:20:40 pm
Interesting.
So a T-568A to T-568B cross-over cable?

Yessir, that looks correct.  :-+

I can confirm 3 working TSP-Linked instruments with this cable config.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 22, 2020, 05:18:11 pm
The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from. ;) (Andrew S. Tanenbaum)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ivonenand on May 23, 2020, 06:51:58 am
Hi Guys,
Has anyone used the Raw Socket communication over LAN with the DMM6500? With the instruments I've used in the past I would use Putty and just type in commands, but with the DMM6500 I cannot get it to even return a *IDN? command. Any tips? The manual says that raw socket communication is on port 5025, which is what I've used (with no luck). The TCP/IP connection does get established, but I cannot get the DMM to return anything.

Thanks for any tips,
Ivo
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on May 23, 2020, 07:31:23 am
Hi Guys,
Has anyone used the Raw Socket communication over LAN with the DMM6500? With the instruments I've used in the past I would use Putty and just type in commands, but with the DMM6500 I cannot get it to even return a *IDN? command. Any tips? The manual says that raw socket communication is on port 5025, which is what I've used (with no luck). The TCP/IP connection does get established, but I cannot get the DMM to return anything.

I have not seen any problems with TestController (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/program-that-can-log-from-many-multimeters/).
You can use TestController like Putty, its command line goes to the connected and selected device.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 23, 2020, 06:03:48 pm
Hi,

I just made a short video to show a bug in the displayed values that I like to see fixed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCwwfbn6KRE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCwwfbn6KRE)

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ivonenand on May 23, 2020, 07:44:00 pm
Has anyone used the Raw Socket communication over LAN with the DMM6500?

I use Raw socket with lxi library (https://github.com/lxi-tools/liblxi) at least 6-9 months, no problem.
I found only one issue with raw sockets - after each command need send "\n" control character to instrument.


a *IDN? command.

I'm not sure, but "*IDN?" it's SCPI command.
Try switch dmm's to SCPI command set.

Also - i think you can't talk with dmm's directly via Putty. When i use LXI i must set "instance" to "inst0", without that dmm no answer anything. Probably need some special to set that when you send data directly.
Try use telnet to talk with dmm directly(DMM6500-901-01 Rev. B / September 2019 page 2-20).

Thanks for this! I will try the Telnet option. May I ask which port you are using? My bet is that you are using 1024, which is ment for VXI-11 (LXI) communication.

I'm trying to use port 5025, which should be basically printf over TCP/IP. At least that's what I've been used to with other instruments I've used SCPI with. I'm a fairly old-style programmer and I write my scripts mostly in C and Linux. To communicate the raw socket way with a device, I don't need any libraries, just standard BSD sockets (which every programming language has built in).

I will try the same method, but with Port 23 and I'll report on how that went.

Regards,
Ivo
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on May 23, 2020, 07:58:24 pm
I'm trying to use port 5025, which should be basically printf over TCP/IP. At least that's what I've been used to with other instruments I've used SCPI with. I'm a fairly old-style programmer and I write my scripts mostly in C and Linux. To communicate the raw socket way with a device, I don't need any libraries, just standard BSD sockets (which every programming language has built in).

Don't act silly, the port is 5025 and it works nicely with standard raw socket ascii communications.
As I wrote TestController has no trouble using it. If you want to see exactly what bytes are send and received you can use debug mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 28, 2020, 07:08:13 pm
I found on Keithley web-site contacts of Fluke Moscow, but he decline my request. He answer - We are not an authorized service center for Keithely DMM's :horse: And forward me to unknown lab, i create request and waiting....
There is a site http://www.actimaster.ru/ (http://www.actimaster.ru/) they brought the device into the state registry. Perhaps they can calibrate it ...

http://www.actimaster.ru/upload/iblock/a7a/a7a7f02185694fa5c60f3893f0daf762.pdf (http://www.actimaster.ru/upload/iblock/a7a/a7a7f02185694fa5c60f3893f0daf762.pdf)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 28, 2020, 07:20:37 pm
If they make me Z540.1 w/Data calibration and provide official traceability Keithley certificate i use it.
I try... thanks.
I'm afraid they will calibrate it according to the Russian method in accordance with the type certificate. Those. relative to Russian standards. Not Fluke standards.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 28, 2020, 07:24:30 pm
Here is the calibration instruction.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on May 28, 2020, 07:47:33 pm
If it's true, i do not buying Keithley anymore.
In my opinion this is a common Russian practice. If you want the instrument to be checked by the Keithley laboratory, you will have to send them the device by mail. Perhaps sellers of this firm can help with this.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Anders Petersson on June 06, 2020, 09:44:15 am
Is Keithley attentive to bugs in DMM6500? I'm not having luck on their forum https://forum.tek.com/viewforum.php?f=617&sid=c4090531a5c98f5d82a60b915ee4c334
I got a 2000-SCAN card and I see a lot of bugs; I think the list is approaching 10 bugs. I can report bugs but I won't waste my time if Keithley aren't listening.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on June 06, 2020, 10:06:13 am
What bugs have you seen, in relation to the 2000-SCAN card specifically?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Anders Petersson on June 07, 2020, 02:22:59 pm
First, a disclaimer that I'm impressed by the level of functionality of DMM6500 in general, and I understand there's a lot of extra firmware complexity in supporting multiple channels like 2000-SCAN. I think it will be a popular model. However, there are still some bugs to iron out.

Specifically for 2000-SCAN:

*) When setting up channels, the displayed unit doesn't update until the channel is manually switched, making it quite confusing what is going on.

*) The graph scale is not updated when changing what channel is viewed (when changing from viewing 24 C temperature to a channel with 100 ohm resistance, the graph will show 24 ohm, when it should be 100 ohm). When Y-axis SmartScale is active, the axis is zoomed when the next reading appears but not sooner. For a slow scan sequence, the graph can have the wrong range settings for quite a while.

*) At this point, pressing the plus-like arrow button in the upper right to autoscale the graph does *not* correct the Y scaling until a new sample is taken. Besides, the autoscale is quite unhelpful as it prevents manually scrolling afterwards.

*) When looking at the graph of one channel that takes a burst of readings (count=10) every 10 seconds or so. Settings: X-axis=SmartScale, Y-axis=Autoscale. The Y-axis only adapts to the latest burst in some cases; some bursts go past without autoscaling.

I have also seen a bunch of other bugs, relating to sampling, graph grapics and especially the histogram view. I also lost a night of logging when the DMM froze when I attempted to view the graph in the morning.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on June 07, 2020, 05:28:27 pm
First, a disclaimer that I'm impressed by the level of functionality of DMM6500 in general, and I understand there's a lot of extra firmware complexity in supporting multiple channels like 2000-SCAN. I think it will be a popular model. However, there are still some bugs to iron out.

Specifically for 2000-SCAN:

*) When setting up channels, the displayed unit doesn't update until the channel is manually switched, making it quite confusing what is going on.

*) The graph scale is not updated when changing what channel is viewed (when changing from viewing 24 C temperature to a channel with 100 ohm resistance, the graph will show 24 ohm, when it should be 100 ohm). When Y-axis SmartScale is active, the axis is zoomed when the next reading appears but not sooner. For a slow scan sequence, the graph can have the wrong range settings for quite a while.

*) At this point, pressing the plus-like arrow button in the upper right to autoscale the graph does *not* correct the Y scaling until a new sample is taken. Besides, the autoscale is quite unhelpful as it prevents manually scrolling afterwards.

*) When looking at the graph of one channel that takes a burst of readings (count=10) every 10 seconds or so. Settings: X-axis=SmartScale, Y-axis=Autoscale. The Y-axis only adapts to the latest burst in some cases; some bursts go past without autoscaling.

I have also seen a bunch of other bugs, relating to sampling, graph grapics and especially the histogram view. I also lost a night of logging when the DMM froze when I attempted to view the graph in the morning.

I will log these issues and bring them to the attention of the firmware team. Thanks for the feedback
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 10, 2020, 07:57:08 pm
In countries with a limited infrastructure / cal labs there can be a problem with more modern instruments. Still if there is a Keysight cal lab available, they may be able to also do the calibration for a other brand meters or comparable grade.  I would not expect DMM6500 much different test points from the 34410 - maybe just a different software module to do it automatic. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 11, 2020, 01:00:15 pm
They do support verification for the DMM7510.
Maybe Keithley doesn't want that for these cheaper devices?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 11, 2020, 02:03:41 pm
So far it only looks like Keysight does not want the manual route and Fluke does not yet support it in there SW. From times when Fluke and Keithley belonged to the same group I had expected better support there. Should not be so complicated - unless there are some bugs in the CAL part of the DMM6500.

The DMM6500 is still relatively new, not many need calibration yet and with such a meter some users may not want to spend the money on a calibration so soon.   As long as the cal software for the cal labs does not support this meter the calibration may be more expensive (manual job) and thus less attractive. It does not look so exotic / low volume so I would expect support in future, at least for the normal DMM part without the fast digitizing mode.



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: hugos31 on June 15, 2020, 03:19:12 pm
please help me .. why does this message come out .. multimeter restarts ... i update time..switch off computer. I disconnect from the voltage network. I reconnect equipment .. turn on and message returns to show   (https://i.imgur.com/OfSX4ke.jpg)   (https://i.imgur.com/Hst3Nqw.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/YygxsCm.jpg)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 15, 2020, 04:48:41 pm
The message about system time not set suggests that the battery is empty  :(. This make sense after some 21 months.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on June 15, 2020, 08:14:28 pm
.... and a few pages back are the instructions (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg3010984/#msg3010984), if you want to replace it yourself.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on June 16, 2020, 10:01:26 pm
I've try contact with Tek again, but no answer received about calibration.

Now i do perform "the last try" - tek thread (https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=142291) started.

I bumped your message along.. we'll see if some answers come..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on June 17, 2020, 03:43:58 pm
I have a few questions for @E-Design. How much time and people it takes to make a product like DM6500? How it compares to DMM7510? Why DMM7510 is not called DMM7500? :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 19, 2020, 06:27:32 pm
The 34410 is not accurate enough to serve as a reliable calibration source for the DMM6500. So one should not use is for an adjustment. One can of cause do a cross check and note the ratios.


The shown readings look a little odd. When comparing the positive and negative readings, there seem to be quite some turn over error. This could be a problem with things like thermal EMF or the zero adjustment. One should check this first and also do the turn over test with just swapping cables not just reversing the source setting (likely 2450).
I think one should also check the cables / reproducibility to see how much thermal EMF is about causing errors.

p.s. The BNC cables do not look good for precision DC.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on June 19, 2020, 07:28:48 pm
The values in the table show quite some turn over error. I have not checked the specs, but it looks like at least borderline for the linearity specs, if not over. The error looks a lot like it could be an offset problem (e.g. some 5 µV). The table is kind of missing the zero points.

So the first step would be to really check the zero offset and turn over error on both meters and preferably with 2 completely different sets of cables ( just in case).

For the zero offset of the DMM6500 there may be an additional adjustment point. The good thing here is that it does not need a special reference, just a short (e.g. a well bend copper wire).  So an zero adjustment may make sense. At least a check of the zero makes absolute sense. I would do that even more often than once a year and before any critical / sensitive measurement.

We don't know the details of the DMM6500, but I would highly suspect that it follows the same scheme as the Keithley 2000, 2001, 2002 with an zero drift buffer at the input and the auto zero mode only behind that buffer. So a drift in the input buffer would not be corrected. Though called zero drift, those OPs may show some drift over time, especially in the first few months.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on June 19, 2020, 07:56:05 pm
If I see correctly the input is switched to 10 megohms .. In my opinion, it is better to switch to AUTO. At least the DMM7510 has a serious 5μV error if the input impedance is 10 MΩ. I don’t know how it is in 6500. But I would be safe.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on June 23, 2020, 05:27:04 pm
... We are working on documentation for the apps to release sometime later this year, the commands are still very fluid as we make some apps ourselves and figure out how we'd like the commands to work.  If you have some ideas for what you'd like to do with the interface could you send them along to me?  We're trying to put together a "wish list" of apps, I could also send you some of the documentation we have right now....
Is that documentation available? I checked the DMM650 download area and the latest TSB help files, but couldn't find an App tutorial/API.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on June 29, 2020, 03:28:31 pm
After beating around the bush for way too long I bit the bullet and bought one of these puppies. My decision was almost exclusively based on the excellent review by Shahriar of The Signal Path. I cannot stress enough how instrumental his reviews are to get a good understanding of these kinds of tools. Keithley, please send him all your stuff.

The functionality of the meter is amazing. I've been working my way through the various features and there are so many possibilities. The previous generation of meters was excellent in its own right but this really is a world apart. From the perspective of functionality it's an incredibly useful tool. I was curious how well the touch screen would actually work but it's perfectly fine and doesn't get in the way.

Unfortunately, this meter is going back as it seems to suffer from a few quality issues.
-It hums. I bought this unit from an official dealer after being repaired and recalibrated and recertified by Keithley, as it was reported to suffer from the humming issue by a previous owner. Unfortunately it still produces a noticeable mains hum which can be heard across the bench, unlike various other meters and devices.
-The right side touch screen moves 0.5-1mm back and forth when touched. The left side seems attached as is to be expected.

- Other quirks I noticed are that the front terminal led indicator also seems to illuminate a small square section of the front panel through the plastic, sort of between the terminal selection switch and the socket above it. This is most visible with less ambient light.
- Finally the fan is isn't horrible loud, although it isn't exactly quiet either. But does it ever whine. It easily cuts through other ambient sounds. I don't think I've encountered a product with such a whiny fan in a long time.

This leaves me wondering whether Keithley pushed a bit too hard in their pursuit to bring the price down or the profit margin up. The actual device and its functionality are great, but there are a few details which let it down and which unfortunately go a long way in determining the liveability. I'm unsure whether it's an issue with quality control or with quality standards, but one of those is not what I'd expect it to be. What's your experience?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on June 29, 2020, 04:12:03 pm
After beating around the bush for way too long I bit the bullet and bought one of these puppies. My decision was almost exclusively based on the excellent review by Shahriar of The Signal Path. I cannot stress enough how instrumental his reviews are to get a good understanding of these kinds of tools. Keithley, please send him all your stuff.

The functionality of the meter is amazing. I've been working my way through the various features and there are so many possibilities. The previous generation of meters was excellent in its own right but this really is a world apart. From the perspective of functionality it's an incredibly useful tool. I was curious how well the touch screen would actually work but it's perfectly fine and doesn't get in the way.

Unfortunately, this meter is going back as it seems to suffer from a few quality issues.
-It hums. I bought this unit from an official dealer after being repaired and recalibrated and recertified by Keithley, as it was reported to suffer from the humming issue by a previous owner. Unfortunately it still produces a noticeable mains hum which can be heard across the bench, unlike various other meters and devices.
-The right side touch screen moves 0.5-1mm back and forth when touched. The left side seems attached as is to be expected.

- Other quirks I noticed are that the front terminal led indicator also seems to illuminate a small square section of the front panel through the plastic, sort of between the terminal selection switch and the socket above it. This is most visible with less ambient light.
- Finally the fan is isn't horrible loud, although it isn't exactly quiet either. But does it ever whine. It easily cuts through other ambient sounds. I don't think I've encountered a product with such a whiny fan in a long time.

This leaves me wondering whether Keithley pushed a bit too hard in their pursuit to bring the price down or the profit margin up. The actual device and its functionality are great, but there are a few details which let it down and which unfortunately go a long way in determining the liveability. I'm unsure whether it's an issue with quality control or with quality standards, but one of those is not what I'd expect it to be. What's your experience?

We do try and send as much as we can to The Signal path.

Whats your SN ? I will find out when it was built and if the issues you described should have been checked. There is still some old stock out there that might have those issues present.
 You can send it PM, I will investigate.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on June 30, 2020, 06:12:32 am
 Dear friend E-design.

 I must join the previous speakers and repeat the remark about a very noisy fan. It really poisons life.  :horse:

 I have a question or request. There are two scripts for measuring power. One was created by Keithley staff, and the second is written by Mike Green. Unfortunately, both programs have flaws and turn work into torment. This includes the need to restart the device, the impossibility of an operative stop and restart of the measurement, difficult access to the buffer, the lack of access to control the filter and the NPLC parameter .......

 If it is possible to take the best of both programs and remove the defects? The script could become a full and essential function.

 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 30, 2020, 11:53:59 am
About your power measurement, if the power supply voltage is a constant, it will work much easier just to use the linear conversion of the DMM. (it's possible to change the unit X but it must be done with a script)
Depends on how accurate you need it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 01, 2020, 01:45:25 am
I must join the previous speakers and repeat the remark about a very noisy fan. It really poisons life.  :horse:

I always have to wonder if either: I have serious hearing loss, the fan is defective, or the owner has super hearing, etc.  I have to turn mine off and on more than once just to convince myself there is even a fan in the thing it is so quiet.  Hopefully there is just something wrong with the fan, and it can be swapped out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 01, 2020, 02:21:09 am
After beating around the bush for way too long I bit the bullet and bought one of these puppies. My decision was almost exclusively based on the excellent review by Shahriar of The Signal Path. I cannot stress enough how instrumental his reviews are to get a good understanding of these kinds of tools. Keithley, please send him all your stuff.

The functionality of the meter is amazing. I've been working my way through the various features and there are so many possibilities. The previous generation of meters was excellent in its own right but this really is a world apart. From the perspective of functionality it's an incredibly useful tool. I was curious how well the touch screen would actually work but it's perfectly fine and doesn't get in the way.

Unfortunately, this meter is going back as it seems to suffer from a few quality issues.
-It hums. I bought this unit from an official dealer after being repaired and recalibrated and recertified by Keithley, as it was reported to suffer from the humming issue by a previous owner. Unfortunately it still produces a noticeable mains hum which can be heard across the bench, unlike various other meters and devices.
-The right side touch screen moves 0.5-1mm back and forth when touched. The left side seems attached as is to be expected.

- Other quirks I noticed are that the front terminal led indicator also seems to illuminate a small square section of the front panel through the plastic, sort of between the terminal selection switch and the socket above it. This is most visible with less ambient light.
- Finally the fan is isn't horrible loud, although it isn't exactly quiet either. But does it ever whine. It easily cuts through other ambient sounds. I don't think I've encountered a product with such a whiny fan in a long time.

This leaves me wondering whether Keithley pushed a bit too hard in their pursuit to bring the price down or the profit margin up. The actual device and its functionality are great, but there are a few details which let it down and which unfortunately go a long way in determining the liveability. I'm unsure whether it's an issue with quality control or with quality standards, but one of those is not what I'd expect it to be. What's your experience?

Congrats on the new meter, although that is unfortunate it has so many issues that shouldn't be there.  Hopefully you will be able to get the meter returned/replaced with little fuss.  Overall I've been fairly happy with my DMM6500.  Besides the dual V/I measurement fiasco, The only other problem I feel worth mentioning is the blue screens.  Although I honestly haven't had one of those in a long time. 

I came really close to selling the DMM6500 not too long ago, but decided to keep it in the end.  The DMM7510 is going up for sale soon though.  That one was only purchased for a specific project, and I've just been stalling/trying to convince myself that I need a 7.5 digit meter at home (I don't).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 02, 2020, 02:09:01 am
After beating around the bush for way too long I bit the bullet and bought one of these puppies. My decision was almost exclusively based on the excellent review by Shahriar of The Signal Path. I cannot stress enough how instrumental his reviews are to get a good understanding of these kinds of tools. Keithley, please send him all your stuff.

The functionality of the meter is amazing. I've been working my way through the various features and there are so many possibilities. The previous generation of meters was excellent in its own right but this really is a world apart. From the perspective of functionality it's an incredibly useful tool. I was curious how well the touch screen would actually work but it's perfectly fine and doesn't get in the way.

Unfortunately, this meter is going back as it seems to suffer from a few quality issues.
-It hums. I bought this unit from an official dealer after being repaired and recalibrated and recertified by Keithley, as it was reported to suffer from the humming issue by a previous owner. Unfortunately it still produces a noticeable mains hum which can be heard across the bench, unlike various other meters and devices.
-The right side touch screen moves 0.5-1mm back and forth when touched. The left side seems attached as is to be expected.

- Other quirks I noticed are that the front terminal led indicator also seems to illuminate a small square section of the front panel through the plastic, sort of between the terminal selection switch and the socket above it. This is most visible with less ambient light.
- Finally the fan is isn't horrible loud, although it isn't exactly quiet either. But does it ever whine. It easily cuts through other ambient sounds. I don't think I've encountered a product with such a whiny fan in a long time.

This leaves me wondering whether Keithley pushed a bit too hard in their pursuit to bring the price down or the profit margin up. The actual device and its functionality are great, but there are a few details which let it down and which unfortunately go a long way in determining the liveability. I'm unsure whether it's an issue with quality control or with quality standards, but one of those is not what I'd expect it to be. What's your experience?

Congrats on the new meter, although that is unfortunate it has so many issues that shouldn't be there.  Hopefully you will be able to get the meter returned/replaced with little fuss.  Overall I've been fairly happy with my DMM6500.  Besides the dual V/I measurement fiasco, The only other problem I feel worth mentioning is the blue screens.  Although I honestly haven't had one of those in a long time. 

I came really close to selling the DMM6500 not too long ago, but decided to keep it in the end.  The DMM7510 is going up for sale soon though.  That one was only purchased for a specific project, and I've just been stalling/trying to convince myself that I need a 7.5 digit meter at home (I don't).

All, it was never designed to support a power measurement. I know there are scripts, but the only clean way to do this is to have 2 simultaneous A/D conversions (one for I and one for V).
The hardware wasn't architect-ed to do this.

Every implementation tends to be a hack that have issues. We know its an important feature, but it never made the list of essential requirements.

Yes, I understand the frustrations with blue screens.. please try to find steps to reproduce and take a photo of the screen --then report it, I can have firmware engineers look at it - its the only way to solve these bugs.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 02, 2020, 02:12:53 am
Dear friend E-design.

 I must join the previous speakers and repeat the remark about a very noisy fan. It really poisons life.  :horse:

 I have a question or request. There are two scripts for measuring power. One was created by Keithley staff, and the second is written by Mike Green. Unfortunately, both programs have flaws and turn work into torment. This includes the need to restart the device, the impossibility of an operative stop and restart of the measurement, difficult access to the buffer, the lack of access to control the filter and the NPLC parameter .......

 If it is possible to take the best of both programs and remove the defects? The script could become a full and essential function.

 Thanks.

Sorry to hear about your fan noise.. everybody's experience and sensitivity to it is different. It is required to meet the 6.5 digit specs that presumably you needed in the instrument.

Its likely possible to improve your script, but I wouldn't be a suitable person to try it for you.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 02, 2020, 03:25:37 am
All, it was never designed to support a power measurement. I know there are scripts, but the only clean way to do this is to have 2 simultaneous A/D conversions (one for I and one for V).
The hardware wasn't architect-ed to do this.

Every implementation tends to be a hack that have issues. We know its an important feature, but it never made the list of essential requirements.

That is fine, and certainly understandable.  I really never took issue with it not working.  I kind of take issue with the limitation not being documented, and both the user and reference manual both have pictures showing dual V/I measurement setups. I feel that it is still implied that it works (unless you stumble upon this thread).

So, I would just prefer to see it documented, and/or remove the ranges that cause issues if configured for dual V/I measurement.  Either way, I'm more than over this issue and I still highly recommend the meter.

Edit: This now appears to be documented.  DCV/DCI in a primary/secondary measurement pairing is not guaranteed to provide in spec measurements. 


Yes, I understand the frustrations with blue screens.. please try to find steps to reproduce and take a photo of the screen --then report it, I can have firmware engineers look at it - its the only way to solve these bugs.

If it ever happens again I will certainly try and take a screenshot.  It really has been a while though since I've had one.  Moving the graph around, pinch/zoom, etc was the area that it always seemed the most likely to occur in my experience.

Thank you for the candid responses, E-Design they are appreciated!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 02, 2020, 01:15:10 pm
That is fine, and certainly understandable.  I really never took issue with it not working.  I kind of take issue with the limitation not being documented, and both the user and reference manual both have pictures showing dual V/I measurement setups. I feel that it is still implied that it works (unless you stumble upon this thread).
or this one: https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141896 (you can also get there via youtube)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 02, 2020, 09:05:12 pm
That is fine, and certainly understandable.  I really never took issue with it not working.  I kind of take issue with the limitation not being documented, and both the user and reference manual both have pictures showing dual V/I measurement setups. I feel that it is still implied that it works (unless you stumble upon this thread).
or this one: https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141896 (you can also get there via youtube)

Wow, forgot about that post and they even responded!  Of course the problem still exists even with their recommended pairing of Primary:DCV, Secondary: DCI.  So the warning about specifications not being met doesn't cover that the primary measurement is the one that is actually wrong in this pairing when on the 100/1000V ranges.

Double checked the linked post again: so DCV/DCI is not considered a valid pairing anymore.  Well, it is documented now which is good enough for me.  I don't want to beat this dead horse anymore.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 02, 2020, 09:56:23 pm
With the shared terminal, there is no way that simultaneous I and V can be really accurate. There may be improvements in the HW, but this would not solve the limitation. It may still be acceptable, especially if the voltage range is suitable.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on July 03, 2020, 07:52:59 pm
 The power measurement script uses an external shunt. The accuracy of this measurement is quite high. Unfortunately, the biggest inconvenience is management and settings. Actually the main function performs very well.

  I will try to contact the authors of these small programs.

  In general, it is surprising to me why this script is not interesting to anyone.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 12, 2020, 03:41:23 pm
I really hope they didn't need 8 months since 1.7.0 just to make the apps exit properly.(assuming it exits properly now)
Why label it noncritical if you are going to release a new firmware for it. (I must be missing something here)

edit: installed it without problem to the first one, I will update the other one tomorrow.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jancumps on July 12, 2020, 05:33:38 pm
No need to only release firmware for crirical issues. Frequent release is a good thing. You're not obliged to update your instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on July 12, 2020, 06:55:28 pm
The problem is not so much that the update did (kind of) correct a minor bug. The problem is that there are other known bugs that are more critical (e.g. fast draining battery) that seem to be still here.

If there is nothing more fixed, this is more like a bad sign of currently not much support going on. This may be due to the special times we have - though fixing software is one of those things that might by done from the home office too. There could be other reasons (e.g. new HW coming, a mayor SW update in the making) for delays.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Sighound36 on July 12, 2020, 07:34:31 pm
Noisy unit here as well both electrically (low level hum when in stand by) and fan wise.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MathWizard on July 12, 2020, 09:07:41 pm
How do u guys find the screen on 6500 ? Is it responsive or laggy? What do u clean it with ? I assume its some matte finish.

Also, how long are these supposed to last, before the screen goes crazy ? I few real buttons would be nice.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 12, 2020, 09:50:03 pm
How do u guys find the screen on 6500 ? Is it responsive or laggy? What do u clean it with ? I assume its some matte finish.

Also, how long are these supposed to last, before the screen goes crazy ? I few real buttons would be nice.
It's surprisingly good. I was worried about it but it just works. It's not up to the 120 Hz goodness of modern smartphones but I never feel it's laggy.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on July 12, 2020, 09:53:07 pm
The problem is not so much that the update did (kind of) correct a minor bug. The problem is that there are other known bugs that are more critical (e.g. fast draining battery) that seem to be still here.

If there is nothing more fixed, this is more like a bad sign of currently not much support going on. This may be due to the special times we have - though fixing software is one of those things that might by done from the home office too. There could be other reasons (e.g. new HW coming, a mayor SW update in the making) for delays.
The time to fix the battery problem is running out for many people so I hope that has some priority.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 12, 2020, 11:22:47 pm
The problem is not so much that the update did (kind of) correct a minor bug. The problem is that there are other known bugs that are more critical (e.g. fast draining battery) that seem to be still here.

If there is nothing more fixed, this is more like a bad sign of currently not much support going on. This may be due to the special times we have - though fixing software is one of those things that might by done from the home office too. There could be other reasons (e.g. new HW coming, a mayor SW update in the making) for delays.
The time to fix the battery problem is running out for many people so I hope that has some priority.

I am going to ask about it / find out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on July 15, 2020, 01:14:39 pm
Hi. This will be my first EEVBLOG post. I have been lurking the YouTube channel for a while and enjoy it a lot. This is a great community!

I found this thread while searching the web to discover if anyone else has had a blue screen problem. I came across the HJK post here. Their Keithley DMM6500 may have been experiencing the blue screen because of old firmware issues, judging by the date of the post, but I wanted to see if the community has experienced more of these blue screens.

My Keithley DMM6500 has experienced blue screens twice now. This instrument was recieved in October of last year and I started to use it for the first time last month. I left it running in DCV mode while I pressed the graph button to enlarge the figure, it crashed unexpectedly without any connections. I proceded to update the firmware as technical support suggested. However, this did not fix the problem.

Again, I encounted a "fatal error" when I was browsing the menu while analysing a DCV of an op-amp output. A picture is attached. When this happened, I immediately sent it in for inspection to the distributor company that I purchased it from. They suggested I update the firmware, but they could not find anything wrong with it. They also recommended that I pay for a calibration. I told them that it was out of the question because the product is still under warranty and is not the customers problem that the product is defective -- I already paid good money to ship it with insurance. They are likely returning it to the factory for a "warranty repair evaluation."

Questions: What are my rights here as a consumer in Canada? Has anyone experienced this problem after firmware updates? Is this a software or hardware issue? Would it be typical in this situation to recieve a loner DMM while I wait for this repair?

Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you EEVBLOG.





Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 15, 2020, 01:47:59 pm
Hi. This will be my first EEVBLOG post. I have been lurking the YouTube channel for a while and enjoy it a lot. This is a great community!

I found this thread while searching the web to discover if anyone else has had a blue screen problem. I came across the HJK post here. Their Keithley DMM6500 may have been experiencing the blue screen because of old firmware issues, judging by the date of the post, but I wanted to see if the community has experienced more of these blue screens.

My Keithley DMM6500 has experienced blue screens twice now. This instrument was recieved in October of last year and I started to use it for the first time last month. I left it running in DCV mode while I pressed the graph button to enlarge the figure, it crashed unexpectedly without any connections. I proceded to update the firmware as technical support suggested. However, this did not fix the problem.

Again, I encounted a "fatal error" when I was browsing the menu while analysing a DCV of an op-amp output. A picture is attached. When this happened, I immediately sent it in for inspection to the distributor company that I purchased it from. They suggested I update the firmware, but they could not find anything wrong with it. They also recommended that I pay for a calibration. I told them that it was out of the question because the product is still under warranty and is not the customers problem that the product is defective -- I already paid good money to ship it with insurance. They are likely returning it to the factory for a "warranty repair evaluation."

Questions: What are my rights here as a consumer in Canada? Has anyone experienced this problem after firmware updates? Is this a software or hardware issue? Would it be typical in this situation to recieve a loner DMM while I wait for this repair?

Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you EEVBLOG.

Did you update your firmware as the distributor recommended(it is not completely clear if you did this)?  I haven't gotten a blue screen in a quite a while.  Latest firmware is 1.72 I believe.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on July 15, 2020, 02:01:59 pm
Welcome to the eevblog forum, leighcorrigall

I have been using my DMM6500 a lot and since one of these FW updates, I never had a blue screen again.
Maybe something else is wrong with your unit.
So, it seems to be a good idea to be checked out by the manufacturer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 15, 2020, 02:09:09 pm
Are you sure you didn't had some error/warning messages during the update?
I had it but reverting to the previous one fixed it, retrying the update fixed it.
You can try firmware 1.7.2 to see if that one updates without error.

Can you also give an idea how frequent you have these problems, many times a day?
It has been a while (months) since I had a blue screen.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on July 15, 2020, 02:43:07 pm
Hi. This will be my first EEVBLOG post. I have been lurking the YouTube channel for a while and enjoy it a lot. This is a great community!

I found this thread while searching the web to discover if anyone else has had a blue screen problem. I came across the HJK post here. Their Keithley DMM6500 may have been experiencing the blue screen because of old firmware issues, judging by the date of the post, but I wanted to see if the community has experienced more of these blue screens.

My Keithley DMM6500 has experienced blue screens twice now. This instrument was recieved in October of last year and I started to use it for the first time last month. I left it running in DCV mode while I pressed the graph button to enlarge the figure, it crashed unexpectedly without any connections. I proceded to update the firmware as technical support suggested. However, this did not fix the problem.

Again, I encounted a "fatal error" when I was browsing the menu while analysing a DCV of an op-amp output. A picture is attached. When this happened, I immediately sent it in for inspection to the distributor company that I purchased it from. They suggested I update the firmware, but they could not find anything wrong with it. They also recommended that I pay for a calibration. I told them that it was out of the question because the product is still under warranty and is not the customers problem that the product is defective -- I already paid good money to ship it with insurance. They are likely returning it to the factory for a "warranty repair evaluation."

Questions: What are my rights here as a consumer in Canada? Has anyone experienced this problem after firmware updates? Is this a software or hardware issue? Would it be typical in this situation to recieve a loner DMM while I wait for this repair?

Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you EEVBLOG.

Did you update your firmware as the distributor recommended(it is not completely clear if you did this)?  I haven't gotten a blue screen in a quite a while.  Latest firmware is 1.72 I believe.

I am using the latest software. The Keithley DMM6500 experienced the blue screen before and after the firmware update.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on July 15, 2020, 02:54:37 pm
Are you sure you didn't had some error/warning messages during the update?
I had it but reverting to the previous one fixed it, retrying the update fixed it.
You can try firmware 1.7.2 to see if that one updates without error.

Can you also give an idea how frequent you have these problems, many times a day?
It has been a while (months) since I had a blue screen.

Everytime I used the instrument I had an error in the first hour of use. Both instances were in VDC mode while I was using the touch screen. There might be a pattern here, but I didn't bother to check it out thoroughly. As soon as the second blue screen occurred I packed it up and sent it back for inspection. When a "fatal, unrecoverable error" occurs on something this expensive I send it in. This is my first Keithley purchase and it might be a lemon.

The first blue screen was with whatever firmware it was shipped with in October. The firmware was likely something recent because it was built and calibrated in the same month I purchased it. I updated the firmware to 1.7.2 and I received no error message when I uploaded it on a USB. I used Tera Copy to verify that the transfer to the USB was correct by performing a hash check. Other than the blue screens, this device seems to behave as intended. Blue screens don't give me much confidence in the designer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on July 15, 2020, 02:57:20 pm
Welcome to the eevblog forum, leighcorrigall

I have been using my DMM6500 a lot and since one of these FW updates, I never had a blue screen again.
Maybe something else is wrong with your unit.
So, it seems to be a good idea to be checked out by the manufacturer.


Yup. It is going overseas to be dismantled.

Also, thank you everyone for your fast replies. I was expecting at least a day before a response. This community is strong.

 :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JxR on July 15, 2020, 03:58:37 pm
Sounds like you just got a dud.  Mine is on 24/7 and has gone weeks without a reboot, and its been a good while since I've had a crash.  I'm still on 1.71 firmware. I can't speak for the latest version, but it is a reliable meter in my experience.  Good to hear your getting it straightened out with your distributor.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on July 15, 2020, 11:09:33 pm
I asked this question on Teks forum, but I didn't get a response after my the replay. So I'll ask here in case anybody knows (maybe E-Design?)

I'm having trouble with "trigger.BLOCK_WAIT", it doesn't behave as I would expect, unless I'm missing something. Here is a piece of code that produces the unexpected behavior:

Code: [Select]
local function timerSetup()
    trigger.timer[1].reset()
    trigger.timer[1].delay = 1.
    trigger.timer[1].start.stimulus = trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1
    trigger.timer[1].start.generate = trigger.OFF
    trigger.timer[1].count = 0
    trigger.timer[1].enable = trigger.ON
end

local function modelTiming()
    timer.cleartime()
    trigger.model.initiate()
    waitcomplete()
    print(timer.gettime())
end


reset()

timerSetup()
trigger.model.load("Empty")
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_NOTIFY, trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
modelTiming()

timerSetup()
trigger.model.load("Empty")
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_NOTIFY, trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
modelTiming()

timerSetup()
trigger.model.load("Empty")
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_NOTIFY, trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
modelTiming()

timerSetup()
trigger.model.load("Empty")
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_NOTIFY, trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_DELAY_CONSTANT, 0.2)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
modelTiming()

timerSetup()
trigger.model.load("Empty")
trigger.model.setblock(1, trigger.BLOCK_NOTIFY, trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1)
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
trigger.model.setblock(3, trigger.BLOCK_DELAY_CONSTANT, 0.3)
trigger.model.setblock(4, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1)
modelTiming()


That piece of code outputs:

Code: [Select]
1.000224076
1.000238197
2.00022641
1.200241196
2.000275546

while I was expecting instead to get:

Code: [Select]
1
2
3
2
2

Any ideas why this occurs?
Also, is there any way to restart the timer without having to "reset()" it (since reset() also clears all the timer parameters)?

Thanks

"Andreas C" from the tek forum replied to me:

Quote
Event detectors can latch events.
Since your event timer is essentially free running (count = 0), your BLOCK_WAIT is proceeding (too soon) due to a latched timer event from an "old" EVENT_TIMER1.

You can optionally clear as you enter wait blocks:
trigger.model.setblock(2, trigger.BLOCK_WAIT, trigger.EVENT_TIMER1, trigger.CLEAR_ENTER)

With that, you'll get your expected 1, 2, 3, 2, 2 reported duration.

To which I replied:

Quote
Thanks for the response!

Manual says "Set the count to zero (0) to cause the timer to generate trigger events indefinitely.", so the timer still needs a trigger.EVENT_NOTIFY1, to start. If I set "trigger.timer[1].count = 3" I get the exact same results. If an event detector had a latched event I would expect the first model not to ever wait, but instead it waits 1s, just like the second model (with 2 waits).

Yes, the "trigger.CLEAR_ENTER", fixes it, but I want to be able to check for events occurring before entering the wait block (not in this particular example model but in a real model). Now oddly enough a "trigger.CLEAR_ENTER" on the first wait block doesn't fix anything, but one on the second, it does.

It appears to me that the first wait delays the clearance of the event ~0.25 s after it detects it. So unless I add a 0.3 s delay after the first wait, the second wait will be bypassed as it detects the exact same event detected by the first wait.

And I didn't receive any further response (since 2 weeks)...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 15, 2020, 11:46:55 pm
Are you sure you didn't had some error/warning messages during the update?
I had it but reverting to the previous one fixed it, retrying the update fixed it.
You can try firmware 1.7.2 to see if that one updates without error.

Can you also give an idea how frequent you have these problems, many times a day?
It has been a while (months) since I had a blue screen.

Everytime I used the instrument I had an error in the first hour of use. Both instances were in VDC mode while I was using the touch screen. There might be a pattern here, but I didn't bother to check it out thoroughly. As soon as the second blue screen occurred I packed it up and sent it back for inspection. When a "fatal, unrecoverable error" occurs on something this expensive I send it in. This is my first Keithley purchase and it might be a lemon.

The first blue screen was with whatever firmware it was shipped with in October. The firmware was likely something recent because it was built and calibrated in the same month I purchased it. I updated the firmware to 1.7.2 and I received no error message when I uploaded it on a USB. I used Tera Copy to verify that the transfer to the USB was correct by performing a hash check. Other than the blue screens, this device seems to behave as intended. Blue screens don't give me much confidence in the designer.

The blue screens you have unfortunately experienced, are almost certainly firmware bugs. The firmware team is continuously working on these problems and posting updates to the website/ You can certainly send your unit in for service if you think there is something wrong with the hardware operation. Since you are having these blue screens rather frequently, it would seem that its quite reproducible for you. If you are willing to share the steps / sequence or code you are running, those details can get logged with the issue and the team can easily resolve it. Unfortunately, many of the bugs that go unfixed for so long is due in a large part to being intermittent in nature (non-reproducible)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 15, 2020, 11:52:28 pm
The problem is not so much that the update did (kind of) correct a minor bug. The problem is that there are other known bugs that are more critical (e.g. fast draining battery) that seem to be still here.

If there is nothing more fixed, this is more like a bad sign of currently not much support going on. This may be due to the special times we have - though fixing software is one of those things that might by done from the home office too. There could be other reasons (e.g. new HW coming, a mayor SW update in the making) for delays.
The time to fix the battery problem is running out for many people so I hope that has some priority.

I am going to ask about it / find out.

The battery fix will be released in v1.7.3. I am told it is in the testing stage.. nobody would give me a date though..  :( I have reminded the team of the urgency of draining batteries and the difficult workarounds.. so we'll see...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: gdombi on July 16, 2020, 03:48:39 am
Hi E-Design,

I’m considering getting the DMM6500 and would like to know if KickStart software is still free with this model? I cannot find this info on the product page https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500. (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500.)

Thanks,
Gaston
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 16, 2020, 04:53:43 pm
Hi E-Design,

I’m considering getting the DMM6500 and would like to know if KickStart software is still free with this model? I cannot find this info on the product page https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500. (https://www.tek.com/tektronix-and-keithley-digital-multimeter/dmm6500.)

Thanks,
Gaston

It is not free any longer. That was a special promotional / intro offer that has apparently run out.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 17, 2020, 07:26:43 pm
Compare for fun, looks good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxvIR4LqjL4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxvIR4LqjL4)

P.S. if you are wondering about that extra digit look at:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2590593/#msg2590593 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg2590593/#msg2590593)

Edit: the new 3 Sept 2020 fluke calibration is confirming that it is a little too high on 10V.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on July 27, 2020, 09:43:03 am
This update makes sense, I upgraded to this 1.7.3c without problem.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Z-Force on July 29, 2020, 12:12:58 pm
Oh, good news Keithley finally solved the battery issue, but it's too late for me. :palm:

Got my DMM6500 in 2019/11 (manufactured 2019/09), battery ran out at May this year.  :-//

I have to admit that I didn't use it very often (rare indeed), and the power supply was cut off almost all the time. But 7-8 months battery life for a bench device was really a very bad experience. |O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on July 29, 2020, 08:46:25 pm
What KickStart license type did you get with the DMM6500? I got a node-locked, and found its also HDD-locked. Happens that I changed my HDD and the "Host ID" of KickStart changed and license doesn't work anymore. Is anyone aware of any workaround?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 29, 2020, 09:43:42 pm
What KickStart license type did you get with the DMM6500? I got a node-locked, and found its also HDD-locked. Happens that I changed my HDD and the "Host ID" of KickStart changed and license doesn't work anymore. Is anyone aware of any workaround?

 :--
I will ask about it.
In the meantime, I think there are techniques for "MAC and HOST ID spoofing" that might work. Googles got answers.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Neuromodulator on July 30, 2020, 03:30:13 am
:--
I will ask about it.
In the meantime, I think there are techniques for "MAC and HOST ID spoofing" that might work. Googles got answers.

Thanks E-Design, my MAC address didn't change, I just changed my HDD. I tried spoofing the HDD volume serial, but that didn't work at all (Host ID didn't change at all).
 
The ugly alternative might be to use sandbox or a virtual machine, and use it as trial ad infinitum.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 30, 2020, 01:08:23 pm
:--
I will ask about it.
In the meantime, I think there are techniques for "MAC and HOST ID spoofing" that might work. Googles got answers.

Thanks E-Design, my MAC address didn't change, I just changed my HDD. I tried spoofing the HDD volume serial, but that didn't work at all (Host ID didn't change at all).
 
The ugly alternative might be to use sandbox or a virtual machine, and use it as trial ad infinitum.

Attached is some instructions for something to try.. this came from an Application Engineer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on July 30, 2020, 02:05:30 pm
:--
I will ask about it.
In the meantime, I think there are techniques for "MAC and HOST ID spoofing" that might work. Googles got answers.

Thanks E-Design, my MAC address didn't change, I just changed my HDD. I tried spoofing the HDD volume serial, but that didn't work at all (Host ID didn't change at all).
 
The ugly alternative might be to use sandbox or a virtual machine, and use it as trial ad infinitum.

More info from Tech support...

They will need to contact support to reset their license in Tek AMS.  I’ve copied them on this email.  Can you connect them to the customer?

If this was a purchased license, they should have exited the floating license prior to decommissioning the system.  The free license given when you purchase a Nighthawk is fixed and can’t be moved, though I believe it gives you a grace period to install it a few times.

If you don't get the help you need, PM me.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510, TSP-Link problems
Post by: eplpwr on July 31, 2020, 04:39:23 am
As reported before, I have some problems with TSP-Link, i.e. to get multiple instruments talking TSP to each other:

I have wasted a lot of time trying to get TSP-Link to work. I even bought an additional card for the DAQ6510. [Edit: type KTTI-TSP.]

I could not find any good docs on TSP: some basic illustrations showing daisy-chaining, telling me to use crossover Cat5 cables and set unique node numbers. Well, I've tried all that but must have missed something essential.

There is no marking for "in" or "out" on the TSP connectors. My best guess is that it is connector-xfmr-instrument-xfmr-connector (Edit: i.e. fully symnetrical, electrically), but I'm not sure.
...

Well, there is a rather good document from Tek Support:
"KTTI-TSP Communication and Digital I/O Accessory Instruction Sheet"

Some highlights:
- The two RJ45 connectors on each TSP-Link capable instrument are interchangeable; no "in" or "out" port.
- With a daisy-chain of instruments, only the master may use USB/Ethernet/GPIB for communication a PC. For the non-master nodes I interpret this as those connections must be physically disconnected, or "Link down" for Ethernet.
- It is recommended/required when using a mix of DAQ6510/DMM6500/DMM7510 AND SMU2600:s to use the KTTI-TSP (equiped DMM) as the master. This could be 'cause these newer instruments have some sort of superset of the protocol and needs to be master. My guess is that also the DMM7510 may qualify as master, only that whats on the KTTI-TSP card is built-in. Whether the newer SMU 2450/60/61/70 can be masters is unclear, I don't own any.

Well, I sure got some testing to do... Most of my SMU26xxA/B are disassembled at the moment, waiting for fresh capacitor replacements.

Attaching document:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ulli on August 09, 2020, 03:56:32 pm
In my opinion, this is a very decent meter for advanced bench-usage.

I like the new approach on the user-interface.
Every setting related to the actual measurement-mode is easily and contextual sorted available. And it reminds you to frequently wash hands ;D
I also like, that there is no need to employ your computer to do some quick-setup monitoring and trending.

There, i would find it very useful to have a reset button for the limits if you set "Auto Clear" to off and one ore both limit(s) to on. One Button for both would be absolute ok.
For example, you just want to know if a monitored voltage trips the limit somewere in time. You set up the scenario and turn your intrerest to the thing on the other bench.
Somewhat later your back and "oh it has tripped - lets do this and that and give it another go"
You just had to press the (imaginary yet) reset-button instead of fiddeling around with the limit-settings.
(The actual setting of the limit-related stuff is imho fine)

This might be done via TSP-Script, and hae a Button on the user-swipe, but if it whre in the firmware ...

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/?action=dlattach;attach=1043970;image)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 11, 2020, 07:38:20 am
This might be done via TSP-Script, and hae a Button on the user-swipe, but if it whre in the firmware ...
You can press "No Script" and then select your reset command script.
They didn't implement linking a hardware button to a script because they thought it was already easy enough.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MathWizard on August 12, 2020, 07:02:11 pm
There's basically no reviews of the DMM6500 on youtube. There's "1" of the similar DAQ6510, but that's basically it.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on August 12, 2020, 09:46:03 pm
There's basically no reviews of the DMM6500 on youtube. There's "1" of the similar DAQ6510, but that's basically it.
The DAQ6510 is essentially the same machine and the review is excellent. You really don't need much more. If you do watch the SMU and DMM7510 reviews on the same channel as they have similar capabilities.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 13, 2020, 04:57:10 pm
There's basically no reviews of the DMM6500 on youtube. There's "1" of the similar DAQ6510, but that's basically it.
Is there somethings specific you want to see tested?  there are also the comments here from users.

Edit you will also find some here:
https://www.element14.com/community/roadTestReviews/2910/l/keithley-bench-digital-multimeter-review (https://www.element14.com/community/roadTestReviews/2910/l/keithley-bench-digital-multimeter-review)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ulli on August 15, 2020, 06:41:19 pm
You can press "No Script" and then select your reset command script.
...
or take the UI API-Tour (nothing fancy) with the information found on this forum. (There is not very much in the manual)

btw.: "display.setevent(SwipeID, display.EVENT_SHOW, "onSwipeShow()")"

works fine (see Attachement)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ercapoccia on August 15, 2020, 08:49:34 pm
How mature is the firmware of the DMM6500? From the this thread seems that blue screen are almost gone and battery drain has been patched.
Are there other major flows that still need to be fixed?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 16, 2020, 10:53:20 am
You can press "No Script" and then select your reset command script.
...
or take the UI API-Tour (nothing fancy) with the information found on this forum. (There is not very much in the manual)

btw.: "display.setevent(SwipeID, display.EVENT_SHOW, "onSwipeShow()")"

works fine (see Attachement)

I tried it, the buttons work nicely you can even still run an extra script (tsp) while that one is running.
It has all the basics to make your own variant of an extra output/button screen.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on August 16, 2020, 11:53:07 am
Does someone have a working 'loadimage' tspa script, I'm trying it but can't get it to work I get syntax errors based on the current syntax examples. (expect '=' near ...)

With a working one I can at least know if they changed the commands in the firmware or if there is something wrong with my file.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MathWizard on August 28, 2020, 09:18:32 pm
There's basically no reviews of the DMM6500 on youtube. There's "1" of the similar DAQ6510, but that's basically it.
Is there somethings specific you want to see tested?  there are also the comments here from users.

Edit you will also find some here:
https://www.element14.com/community/roadTestReviews/2910/l/keithley-bench-digital-multimeter-review (https://www.element14.com/community/roadTestReviews/2910/l/keithley-bench-digital-multimeter-review)
No nothing in particular, and I'm sure it has more features than I'd currently need. It's just a shame, no big channel like EEVB-Dave's has done this one. I think he did the 7550?

In general, looking up 6 and 1/2 /6.5 digit DMM on youtube doesn't show up much, in the way of reviews, let alone in-depth ones.

I used to buy a lot of cutting edge gaming PC tech, there's new models all the time, and loads of review's. Too many in-fact.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on August 28, 2020, 09:46:45 pm
No nothing in particular, and I'm sure it has more features than I'd currently need. It's just a shame, no big channel like EEVB-Dave's has done this one. I think he did the 7550?

In general, looking up 6 and 1/2 /6.5 digit DMM on youtube doesn't show up much, in the way of reviews, let alone in-depth ones.

Shahriars reviews are incredibly in depth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lezd27BzQLo (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lezd27BzQLo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT7aOK0q17Q (http://youtube.com/watch?v=yT7aOK0q17Q)

You can always read the manual too.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MathWizard on August 28, 2020, 10:21:09 pm
Yeah the so the DAQ6510 is basically the same thing. I've watched some that video before, but now I'll pay a lot more attention.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: amead on October 20, 2020, 06:45:59 am
Just found out Kickstart now costs ~$1500AUD ex GST. This is a deal breaker for me. How much did this cost previously?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on October 20, 2020, 07:29:27 am
Just found out Kickstart now costs ~$1500AUD ex GST. This is a deal breaker for me. How much did this cost previously?

You mean software? Afaik, used to be included for free with DMM6500, not sure which edition. Checking on the Internet for a standalone versions gives prices from 215 pounds for base edition to pretty much the price you mentioned.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on October 20, 2020, 07:43:19 am
Just found out Kickstart now costs ~$1500AUD ex GST. This is a deal breaker for me. How much did this cost previously?

You mean software? Afaik, used to be included for free with DMM6500, not sure which edition. Checking on the Internet for a standalone versions gives prices from 215 pounds for base edition to pretty much the price you mentioned.

It used to be free with purchase of a DMM/DAQ/SMU, but no longer. When the offer was active, I got a total of 5 licenses when I registered equipment. Two of those I "checked out" and got installed (node-locked) to two different PC:s. On my "Licenses" page there was still three licenses with a "Redeem" button. A year later, I replaced one of my PC:s and did "Redeem" for one of my 3 remaining licenses - nothing happened. It seems Tek quietly took back what they had promised.

In an earlier post, I wrote very positively of Kickstart. This is now totally inverted; Tek is a greedy company that does not keep their promises.

Solution: Virtual machine that you reinstall every 60 days, running in evaluation mode.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on October 20, 2020, 11:48:42 am
Just found out Kickstart now costs ~$1500AUD ex GST. This is a deal breaker for me. How much did this cost previously?

https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart (https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart)

Website shows $593 to $999 USD. Which is close to what you found.. not sure what the differences are in the range.

ISTR that it used to cost ~ $250 USD

The special deal for it included free with a DMM6500/DAQ6510 has expired and is no longer offered.

eplpwr,
The virtual machine idea sounds like a good workaround. Did you contact somebody about your license that disappeared after redeeming?  Its likely a matter of bugs in the website/system and not malice or greed.   :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: eplpwr on October 20, 2020, 01:38:29 pm
eplpwr,
The virtual machine idea sounds like a good workaround. Did you contact somebody about your license that disappeared after redeeming?  Its likely a matter of bugs in the website/system and not malice or greed.   :-//

I opened a case with Tek support 29th of July.  The case was even escalated to a Tek Manager, Alexander Ulyanov, who I heard from last time the 3rd of August. The case is obviously stone cold. The attention I got initially was based on the (wrong) assumtion that I was using a website for paying Tek S/W customers.

When it became clear that I was trying to redeem promo licenses that I had gotten "for free" upon registration of two pieces of newly bought meters (DAQ6510 and DMM7510 respectively), and three pieces of used SMU:s from eBay, the interest in helping me redeem the licenses dropped to zero. Tactically, I should have redeemed the licenses related to the SMU:s initially, then I could have referred to the equipment I bought new ... but unfortunately I did it the other way around. Anyway, I think the code to send out promo licenses is disabled since the promo ended - too bad they left the redeem button in place.

One thing Keysight got right with BenchVue is that the equipment is the license - when a qualified piece of equipment is found the related software is activated. That's a solution Keithley should copy.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on October 22, 2020, 04:48:44 pm
My DMM6500 arrived today. Pretty nice instrument. Shame the Kickstart offer expired, but alas.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: uski on October 22, 2020, 05:56:20 pm
I ordered a DMM6500 a few days ago. Anything I need to know ?
I already know that I need to make sure it has the latest firmware, due to the battery drain issue.
I also know the Kickstart offer expired but honestly I don't really care, plus I got a good price on the meter
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on October 23, 2020, 01:55:48 am
Haven't used it enough yet. Btw, 5 minutes with dnSpy can make your trial eternal and remove the nag dialog :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on October 23, 2020, 07:36:23 pm
I ordered a DMM6500 a few days ago. Anything I need to know ?
I already know that I need to make sure it has the latest firmware, due to the battery drain issue.
I also know the Kickstart offer expired but honestly I don't really care, plus I got a good price on the meter
It's quite easy to get started without reading a manual, especially compared to many other meters. As with any tool of this grade, there are things worth reading the manual for. I can't remember anything major, but a few things which will improve your understanding of what you see like what auto impedance mode means exactly.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 26, 2020, 10:18:28 am
Don't forget to have fun with your new Keithley but maybe not too much ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7OdvOeuLog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7OdvOeuLog)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JimKnopf on November 04, 2020, 08:19:50 pm
Is it possible to set or view the testfrequency on DMM6500 when measuring Capacitors? Usually Capacitors are tested with 120Hz by manufacturer for specification purposes. I couldn't find any information about that in the datasheets.

On my Der EE DE-5000 LCR-Meter i can set different testfrequencys. Even the more cheaper  Peaktech 3705 has information about this (not unimportant) information in it's datasheet. I noticed, that the DMM6500 uses different testfrequencies and voltages for different capacitors.

As an example: With the DE-5000 i measure a 100µF electrolytic capacitor at 100Hz. It show me 93,25µF. With an Oscilloscope i measure 0,835V and 107Hz.
Measuring the same capacitor with the DMM6500, it show me 100,64µF. But the testvoltage is 0,76V and the testfrequency is 2,56Hz.
I have a some examples in a small table. Up to 10µF the capacitance readings are equal to the DE-5000. But there is a gap on higher capacitor values. I know (thanks to bob91343) that:
                                  "You can't measure capacitance.  What you can measure is the effect the capacitance has and then compute
                                    what capacitance  would have that effect."
So my question is, how can set the testfrequency or show it on the display. Is there a script for that? I'm using the latest 1.7.3 firmware.
"

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on November 04, 2020, 10:56:09 pm
The test frequency is not well defined and depends on the measured capacitance.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on November 05, 2020, 01:04:11 am
Is it possible to set or view the testfrequency on DMM6500 when measuring Capacitors? Usually Capacitors are tested with 120Hz by manufacturer for specification purposes. I couldn't find any information about that in the datasheets.

On my Der EE DE-5000 LCR-Meter i can set different testfrequencys. Even the more cheaper  Peaktech 3705 has information about this (not unimportant) information in it's datasheet. I noticed, that the DMM6500 uses different testfrequencies and voltages for different capacitors.

As an example: With the DE-5000 i measure a 100µF electrolytic capacitor at 100Hz. It show me 93,25µF. With an Oscilloscope i measure 0,835V and 107Hz.
Measuring the same capacitor with the DMM6500, it show me 100,64µF. But the testvoltage is 0,76V and the testfrequency is 2,56Hz.
I have a some examples in a small table. Up to 10µF the capacitance readings are equal to the DE-5000. But there is a gap on higher capacitor values. I know (thanks to bob91343) that:
                                  "You can't measure capacitance.  What you can measure is the effect the capacitance has and then compute
                                    what capacitance  would have that effect."
So my question is, how can set the testfrequency or show it on the display. Is there a script for that? I'm using the latest 1.7.3 firmware.
"

The instrument uses the DC current source to charge the capacitance under test. As such, to understand the test waveform, it isn't a question about the test "frequency". Its a matter of current source range (used in Ohms) and the capacitance value. The capacitor is calculated by measuring the voltage slope of the charge and discharge curves. The current source range is chosen based on the capacitance range. Hard coded in firmware.

Put a scope on your capacitor if you want to see more details.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 06, 2020, 01:24:45 pm
If you want to measure it based on/for a Sin wave (at a certain frequency) you need a function generator and use your DMM6500 to measure the AC voltage or current.
You can let the DMM6500 do the math.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JimKnopf on November 06, 2020, 02:37:54 pm
If you want to measure it based on/for a Sin wave (at a certain frequency) you need a function generator and use your DMM6500 to measure the AC voltage or current.
You can let the DMM6500 do the math.

How exactly can i let the DMM6500 do the math? Do i need to write a script for that? Or are there existing solutions?

 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on November 07, 2020, 09:20:19 am
Yes you will need to write somethings.
If you only need it for a few times you can do it in excel, if you want to put more time in it you can make a DMM6500 script.

Since you have a DE-5000 that is using a frequency and not a charge speed measurement (DC measurement) I assume you want to measure it only a few times on the DMM6500.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 08, 2020, 06:09:34 pm
Hi all,

Received my DMM6500 today, first impressions were good so I started to set up an experiment whereby I would use the 10MΩ input impedance as a shunt resistor in DCV mode to measure the leakage of a capacitor when 10V applied to the other side of the capacitor.

To my surprise, both the 100mV and 1V manual range setting gave me "Overload" even though the reading in the 10V range is 0V (1PLC).

Going back to basics, I disconnected everything and the overload disappeared. Then I attached the input leads with nothing connected on the ends; Overload.

Switching from Measure to Digitizer, at the slowest rate 1KSPS, I can clearly see lots of 50Hz mains on the graph.
(I'm assuming both ADCs use the same input amplifier circuitry)

In my lab, it ranges from 1Vpp-3Vpp. (various combinations of switching equipment off & lights off & using grounding wriststrap)
In my outdoor workshop, it ranges from 100mVpp-200mVpp. (lights off, then on)

So that explains the why; the input amplifiers are saturating and triggering hardware overload detection.

A couple of acquaintances of mine fired up their 34401A's, attached floating leads and placed them in worse case positions (near SMPS and power strips) and the 34401A works fine on the minimum range.

Is my DMM6500 faulty, or does it have poor isolation by design? Perhaps I need to shield everything or scale back my expectations?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 08, 2020, 07:36:38 pm
The HP34401 has quite a bit of capacitance at the inputs.  Another point may also if it uses the 10 M input impedance more.
1 m of cable give some 100 pF of capacitive coupling to the environment. So a few nF at the input can make a difference.
The DMM6500 is relatively, at least in the digitize mode and for this reason it may have considerable lower input capacitance.

One usually does not use open leads. Sensitive measurement from high impedance source should use shielded wired and maybe connect the low side input (or a separate guard terminal if present) to a kind of ground.

One can get a crude estimate of the input capacitance: use a small coupling capacitor (e.g. some 10--100 pF) to a function generator and check the amplitude ratio.

In Germany one could try reversing the mains plug to see if this make a difference. In the UK the phase pin is fixed, though for some reason it may not be the best way around (e.g. swapped in the meter or mains wiring). Also check it PE is connected - I don't know the details on the DMM6500, but it may use PE for EMI suppression caps.

To see if there is much hum coming from the meters, one could measure the 50Hz current flow from PE to the low side input of the meter. One may be able to measure it with the DMM6500 itself: AC current mode and current input (hi) to PE.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 08, 2020, 08:29:31 pm
To see if there is much hum coming from the meters, one could measure the 50Hz current flow from PE to the low side input of the meter. One may be able to measure it with the DMM6500 itself: AC current mode and current input (hi) to PE.

As suggested, I connected a lead from the PE screw on the rear panel, to the current input, digitize mode with 100uA range. 140nApp. Attached screenshot shows this, followed by unplugging of lead halfway through the trace.

It's difficult for me to know whether this is to be expected or not? Would a Keysight 3446x meter perform better?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 08, 2020, 08:47:11 pm
The 140 nA_pp are at least within the specs ( < 600 nA_pp).

The number looks relatively good - it corresponds to something like 1 pF towards 100 V AC, if my calculation is correct. This is at least way better than just an of the shelf transformer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 09, 2020, 03:13:01 am
Kleinstein is a keen observer.

The transformer is indeed a special design. And because of the digitizer function, the front end has higher bandwidth and does respond more quickly to brief overloads. Meters with lower input bandwidth / more input filtering generally filter the signal enough to avoid the brief overload (as shown with the Keysight instrument).

These behaviors macaba has seen are normal and expected for this instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 09, 2020, 07:36:33 am
My thanks to Kleinstein and E-Design, we’ve covered the why and the how. It’s now a good reason for me to throw together a JFET OA TIA.

I see the max. spec for linearity on the datasheet, is there any public data on typical linearity?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 09, 2020, 09:45:19 am
Linearity measurement at the 1 ppm and below level is a tricky thing.  The INL measurement gets extra difficult (and slow) with a meter with a relatively noisy reference like the LM399, as the INL tests would usually use an external precision source (e.g. high end calibrator).

There is a thread on DMM linearity testing, but AFAIR this are mainly more higher end examples that are shown.

The INL error can vary between different units. Some INL contributions depend on resistor matching or TC matching and this can vary quite a bit from near perfect to poor with bad luck.

The INL specs are to be taken with a grain of salt, especially if they are good. I would not take them to serious. It is more like a reasonable estimate with quite some uncertainties.  There are examples where the official INL specs are overly optimistic.

Because of the time needed, I would not expect very much production testing of the INL, especially not with a more low cost type like the DMM6500. There should be a basic test, likely the classic turn over test and maybe the test if 2 x about half the voltage sums up correctly. This would catch most cases of things like a poor resistor array. The turn over part is usually even part of the calibration procedures, though maybe not with enough repeats to get a reliable INL point.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 09, 2020, 12:52:36 pm
The linearity and noise are mostly guaranteed by design and do vary from unit to unit. Error budgets and statistical analysis have provided comfortable margins in guaranteeing these specs for production.
Kleinstein is correct again - this instrument is positioned for a lower cost and thus cannot do many of the production tests other higher end meters might be doing.

While there are no specific production tests evaluating full linearity, I could check into finding some typical test data if its useful to you? I don't think any of it is public, but I don't think that kind of data is confidential either.
Keithley in general, is pretty open to reasonably sharing technical data with customers.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 09, 2020, 01:41:05 pm
Haven't used it enough yet. Btw, 5 minutes with dnSpy can make your trial eternal and remove the nag dialog :)

I am getting my 6500 in a few hours  :) :-DMM
I have been reading all the reviews and parts of this thread. Can you please point me to what "dnSpy" is and what it does?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 09, 2020, 02:57:30 pm
I could check into finding some typical test data if its useful to you?

Yes please, it's useful to me by virtue of educational value, and it's probably useful for others to add to DMM comparison charts. I may do my own INL testing (mostly for the educational value to learn procedure, etc) so the data will give me a broad benchmark for what the output from my testing should look like.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 09, 2020, 04:44:57 pm
A basic INL test is a good exercise to learn about precision measurements. It's mainly one type of test one can do:  Have two external (isolated from the DMM, but possibly linked to each other) reference voltages and check if they sum up correctly.  So the measurement of the two sources separate is compared to both sources in series. The turn over test can be seen as a special case where the same source is used with both polarities.

The two source can be directly linked, like one reference and a divider and simple buffer. Getting a stable (needs to be short time only) source is already some effort, but still doable - for this thread it gets a bit far off topic.
It usually need several measurement cycle and it could be better to use some switches instead of swapping cables by hand (this can cause thermal EMF trouble for some time, so it's slow). Comparing the cycles gives a good idea on how good the readings are.

The < 1 ppm  INL spec. for the DMM6500 is quite good. So it gets tricky to check this - it needs quite some care with thermal EMF, possible EMI  and drift / popcorn noise of the reference.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 09, 2020, 07:58:42 pm
I just joined the club a few hours ago  :-DMM :-DMM  ;D ;D
I connected this 4 wire short circuit to the device and let it warm up for an hour or so

here are the ohm and mV DC

is there anything I should be concerned about?

I cannot say I am disappointed but perhaps I was expecting a little better than this

Firmware 1.0.0.4b

EDIT: I used rate of 2 and Filter ON
also the resistance value never quite settles, the last two digits (only) keeps moving around that average
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 10, 2020, 09:42:48 pm
I cannot say I am disappointed but perhaps I was expecting a little better than this

What in particular could have been better? The peak to peak noise looks good to me.

I did some testing with a voltage reference (VRE102CA) that I've confirmed to have no popcorn noise and a much lower 0.1-10Hz noise than a typical LM399.

2 images attached.

5 NPLC, no filter, AZ off

Looks good, there appears to be a hint of popcorn noise from the onboard LM399. (Edit: popcorn doesn't show up in further captures, probably just a random occurrence)

5 NPLC, no filter, AZ on

While it's well within the expectations of a 6.5 digit meter, I would say there's a slight bug here as shown by the periodic waveform. Looking at the CSV sample data, it appears that the time for each sample is 2x 5 PLC + 2.09ms (202.09ms). I presume that 2.09ms is the total mux settling time for the AZ mode, but I'd say the duration should ideally be 2 PLC, 1 PLC before each phase. Just a guess though, the cause could be something else. Does the DMM6500 synchronize to actual AC frequency? (Edit: I would guess it might; time between samples in non-AZ mode corresponds to 50.016 Hz)

I did find a software bug where if you set up a waveform trigger, use it, then clear all the triggers, you still can't change the range to 'Auto' (gives an error about being in analog trigger mode, despite the triggerflow model being empty).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 10, 2020, 11:14:01 pm
Does the DMM6500 synchronize to actual AC frequency? (Edit: I would guess it might; time between samples in non-AZ mode corresponds to 50.016 Hz)...



Yes it does.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Vgkid on December 11, 2020, 04:04:44 am

I cannot say I am disappointed but perhaps I was expecting a little better than this

also the resistance value never quite settles, the last two digits (only) keeps moving around that average
Thats rather good. Your results are not unexpected. On the voltage, you are looking at microvolt level input voltages. Rather hard to measure with good stability without specialized equiptment. IE a nanovoltmeter, or microvoltmeter. On my 34420a you can watch it increment nanovolts as the machine warms up.
With the resistance you have good results. When it comes to measuring ohms that low, you need to force in more current, with a high gain(running a pulsed dc current to cancel out the thermal offsets), or inject an ac signal, also with a high gain.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 11, 2020, 10:49:46 am
In the non AZ mode, there can be additional popcorn noise from the ADC or amplifier part, not just the reference. The non AZ result looks quite good. For use with the high speed digitizing mode good performance also without AZ is kind of needed.
Part of this could be the configuration of the input stage in the modern Keithley meters (from K2000 on): they use a chopper stabilize buffer (amplifier in some cases) at the input and the auto-zero mode only comes after this. This can also explain the slight offset even in AZ mode. It needs an adjustment for the input part from time to time.
I am not even so sure the jumps are true popcorn: they look a little aligned to a 3 second grid, a little like the spikes in the AZ mode.

In contrast most HP/Keysight meters use the AZ mode all the way to the front and have no extra chopper stabilization at the input. So there the non AZ mode also adds extra LF noise from the input, but also reduces the higher frequency noise of the input - so the difference between AZ and non AZ mode is larger there.  Both solutions have there pros and cons.

The periodic background in the AZ mode looks a little odd, though still at a low level. I don't know for the DMM6500, but with other Keithley meters the AZ mode is or seems to be more than just the simple difference between an input and zero reading. There is also some measurement of the gain and zero readings seem to be averaged over some time. The period of some 3 seconds may fit the cycle time there. A reference measurement instead of a zero may effect the next signal reading and thus cause a periodic glitch.

One may call this a design decision or in some sense also call it a software bug: it helps a little with the shorter time scale noise and measuring the ADC gain (at least done with the old meters and K2001 and likely also DMM7510) helps with a stable gain. However it also comes at a price: it adds to noise on a longer time scale (e.g. 100 PLC). I don't know if it's a problem for the DMM6500, but it is a weak point with the DMM7510 and 2002.  Ideally the user would have the choice between a simple AZ mode (lower noise at 100 PLC) or the current mode (slightly lower noise at 1 PLC).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 11, 2020, 11:50:01 am
Thanks Kleinstein. :) having built a successful integrating ADC that you helped me with earlier this year, that all made sense to me!

I agree that it would be ideal to have more choice over the low level workings but I suspect fixing the egregious software bugs would deliver more value at this point in time.

analogRF - I've attached my results of your experiment. By this point, the meter has been switched on for around 20 hours, perhaps you might want to repeat in a few days.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 11, 2020, 12:19:55 pm
Thanks Kleinstein. :) having built a successful integrating ADC that you helped me with earlier this year, that all made sense to me!

I agree that it would be ideal to have more choice over the low level workings but I suspect fixing the egregious software bugs would deliver more value at this point in time.

analogRF - I've attached my results of your experiment. By this point, the meter has been switched on for around 20 hours, perhaps you might want to repeat in a few days.

yeah this is more like what I expected...I'll try it again for several hours this time but it seemed it was pretty stabilized when I posted my results

probably the environment around is also important, isn't it? or the AC power line? but my lab is not noisy though...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 11, 2020, 02:13:46 pm
Because the DMM6500 is sensitive to overload
Usually one of the first remarks of new users even if they don't know that is the reason.

I thought lets measure it and see how small it can be to trigger an overload. (and compare it with my DM3068)

I did a few measurements and there is a very big difference that is clearly not due to input capacitance or BW differences.

Test method:
Set the DMM to 1PLC DCV 100mV and sent very short square pulses (<10ns rise time) up to 200mV to it, 1 every 10ms so: 2 square pulses every 50Hz power cycle. (The coax was terminated with 50 ohm before the DMM input) (DG4102 used as source, burst mode)

DMM6500:
When the overshoot was increased the required pulse width to trigger overload was lower (seems logical)
Example measurement:
170mV square (70mV above max range) of 4.05µs triggers the overload  (Pulse Duty Cycle = 0.04%)
130mV square (30mV above max range) of 9.1µs triggers the overload

DM3068:
Doing the same on the DM3068 (200mV range) was a wast of time I basically had to increase the pulse until the average value was too high: 80% DC of 300mV square pulse or 8ms high 2ms low * 2 in 1PLC  (100Hz)

So we are talking in the range of a factor 1000 difference between both DMM.
Since we are comparing 'µs' spikes while doing an 1PLC DCV measurement 'ms'
I'm assuming that the fast digitize ADC or another very fast ADC is keeping track of the min. max. input.

Maybe E-Design can elaborate on this design difference?

Not sure if this is a blessing or a curse when doing 1PLC measurements. I would think just average those spikes out (analog), but maybe you want to know they are there although you decided not to use the fast ADC.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 11, 2020, 04:19:20 pm
Thanks for revealing those results KedasProbe... it is a bit of a curse I'd say. A switchable LPF on the input would have gone far here. As it is, I'll probably make a small LPF PCB in a form factor similar to the 4 wire short PCBs.

Edit: I felt it important to clarify to E-Design that there is no ill intent in this post, the design is a work of art in the vast majority of it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 11, 2020, 05:50:41 pm
We have heard this feedback before about the sensitivity to the overloads. Thanks for the comments!

Design for it either way has trade-offs and this graphical digitizing DMM leans more towards faster input response vs only capturing DC levels. Some users want to see as true of signal as possible, others only DC.  Unfortunately, a switchable built-in input filter wasn't in the cards for cost (and calibration / specs  / test) reasons. Its easy to add one externally if needed. If you find your signal has noise on it,  you can try to go up one range and likely still have acceptable / usable readings.






Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 11, 2020, 05:59:07 pm
I could check into finding some typical test data if its useful to you?

Yes please, it's useful to me by virtue of educational value, and it's probably useful for others to add to DMM comparison charts. I may do my own INL testing (mostly for the educational value to learn procedure, etc) so the data will give me a broad benchmark for what the output from my testing should look like.

Typical linearity of a 65xx instrument. Of the ones I looked at, this one has a very common shape. The data is represented as error / allowable error.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on December 11, 2020, 06:38:53 pm
Typical linearity of a 65xx instrument. Of the ones I looked at, this one has a very common shape. The data is represented as error / allowable error.

Wow, that's by far better than most ADCs I've heard of. As I understand the max non-linearity is 1ppm, and is typically below 0.5ppm. Do you have similar data for dmm7500? I wonder how the two compare to each other.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 11, 2020, 07:15:04 pm
The linearity data look indeed quite good. The file has a few odd labels, saying ppm where the data are µV, but the graphs seem to be OK again ,giving µV.

If the data where recorded in just one run, so all 10 readings for each voltage done in a row, the curve may show additional effects from reference drift and possibly popcorn noise from the DMMs reference.  So not all the error shown may be INL.

On the other hand the data are separate for the positive and negative side - so there may be some glitch near zero that is not caught in the test.  A problem here is that even a Fluke 5700 calibrator as source may show some errors when switching sign - so it makes sense to separate the curve in two.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 11, 2020, 08:23:28 pm
Thanks for revealing those results KedasProbe... it is a bit of a curse I'd say. A switchable LPF on the input would have gone far here. As it is, I'll probably make a small LPF PCB in a form factor similar to the 4 wire short PCBs.

Edit: I felt it important to clarify to E-Design that there is no ill intent in this post, the design is a work of art in the vast majority of it.

Yes it can be a curse sometimes..    :(

 if you do make an input filter....  I would suggest using film capacitors for any caps (polypropylene) and not use too large of series input resistor to preserve the noise floor. Also consider not only the differential (HI-LO) filter but also a common-mode filter to earth as well. By balancing the impedance from HI-EARTH and LO-EARTH you will be able to filter out common mode noise sources which will improve your measurements if you have floating setups. The input capacitance from HI-Earth and LO-Earth is naturally unbalanced, so you can equalize the impedance by your filter component choices.

If you are doing low resistance measurements, filtering the SLO and SHI pathways likely wont help much because  the noise on the 1 Ohm range is dominated by the input protection resistors (internal) just FYI...



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 11, 2020, 08:28:53 pm
The linearity data look indeed quite good. The file has a few odd labels, saying ppm where the data are µV, but the graphs seem to be OK again ,giving µV.

If the data where recorded in just one run, so all 10 readings for each voltage done in a row, the curve may show additional effects from reference drift and possibly popcorn noise from the DMMs reference.  So not all the error shown may be INL.

On the other hand the data are separate for the positive and negative side - so there may be some glitch near zero that is not caught in the test.  A problem here is that even a Fluke 5700 calibrator as source may show some errors when switching sign - so it makes sense to separate the curve in two.

This example isnt the best nor the worst I have seen but fairly typical.

Yes the Flukes do glitch and there is extra care taken to avoid those switching / ranging scenarios.

Additionally, sometimes we get just a random flyer reading from noise or who knows what (unattended) and it causes a very bad data point so we routinely sweep through it again looking for systematic errors related to the linearity and not random events. It can take  a long time to cover the whole range adequately so these tests have been automated.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 12, 2020, 10:25:06 am
Does anyone know what the tiny vertical lines on the chart trace are supposed to indicate?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: exe on December 12, 2020, 09:11:30 pm
Does anyone know what the tiny vertical lines on the chart trace are supposed to indicate?

Do you still get them with leads disconnected or shorted? If not, then they come from environment, i.e., noise :). If they still present... well, may be it also comes from environment, or may be not.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 12, 2020, 10:00:16 pm
The thin lines look a little like glitches, however they are suspicious equal in size, so there may be some internal, possibly software reason behind them.  They are quite small in in many normal applications would not be noticed. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 14, 2020, 08:25:33 am
I recently received a brand new DMM6500. I made a super basic unboxing video with my first impressions on the unit :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE)

It's a great instrument, I love it. I hope this video will help others trying to decide if they want one or not.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on December 15, 2020, 10:36:57 am
Hi, I have had my 6500 for nearly 2 years now and have a question please.
It has always been a bit twitchy, blue screens, locking up etc but I persevered as I hoped firmware updates would resolve these issues as many others seemed to be experiencing similar problems.
I upgraded to 1.7.3c a month or so ago and this seemed to solve the prolems.  I was really having trouble with the meter just halting readings while in continuous mode |O, meaning I would return to the lab to find no readings had been taken >:D
However, I still have one issue remaining which is a real nuisance. If the meter does lock up (I accept that while writing scripts it may get into a muddle sometimes)  and a power off reset is performed it often hangs on the first Keithley logo screen. The only way I have found to escape this is to turn off the meter (the power button still functions) and have to remove the mains power for a while (about 30 minutes usually does it but on rare occasions may need longer) this is a major problem which the latest firmware has not helped with.  Any advice or similar experiences would be interesting to hear about.
A quick thank you to E-Design for offering inside support and help, it was because of Brad's input way back that made me choose this meter.
Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 15, 2020, 12:30:38 pm
Hi, I have had my 6500 for nearly 2 years now and have a question please.
It has always been a bit twitchy, blue screens, locking up etc but I persevered as I hoped firmware updates would resolve these issues as many others seemed to be experiencing similar problems.
I upgraded to 1.7.3c a month or so ago and this seemed to solve the prolems.  I was really having trouble with the meter just halting readings while in continuous mode |O, meaning I would return to the lab to find no readings had been taken >:D
However, I still have one issue remaining which is a real nuisance. If the meter does lock up (I accept that while writing scripts it may get into a muddle sometimes)  and a power off reset is performed it often hangs on the first Keithley logo screen. The only way I have found to escape this is to turn off the meter (the power button still functions) and have to remove the mains power for a while (about 30 minutes usually does it but on rare occasions may need longer) this is a major problem which the latest firmware has not helped with.  Any advice or similar experiences would be interesting to hear about.
A quick thank you to E-Design for offering inside support and help, it was because of Brad's input way back that made me choose this meter.
Mike

Yes, fortunately the recent firmware releases have cleaned up a lot of bugs. However, I am sorry to hear you can still experience a lockup. Needing to leave the meter off for 30 minutes or more to resolve seems odd and makes me think it might be related to the meter being warmed up.

Even though it may be intermittent, Is it the same script running when you experience it?
Do you know the date of manufacture (or purchase) ? There could be other possibilities if it is always a hang at the boot screen.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 15, 2020, 02:36:32 pm
I recently received a brand new DMM6500. I made a super basic unboxing video with my first impressions on the unit :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE)

It's a great instrument, I love it. I hope this video will help others trying to decide if they want one or not.
I'm surprised you're so positive about the fan noise. It's easily the most annoyingly instrument in my lab. It's reasonably loud but above all it whines. I do have a comparatively early model so maybe the fan was upgraded since. Don't get me wrong, it's a great meter. I just feel the fan is a letdown.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on December 15, 2020, 03:04:59 pm
Hi, I have had my 6500 for nearly 2 years now and have a question please.
It has always been a bit twitchy, blue screens, locking up etc but I persevered as I hoped firmware updates would resolve these issues as many others seemed to be experiencing similar problems.
I upgraded to 1.7.3c a month or so ago and this seemed to solve the prolems.  I was really having trouble with the meter just halting readings while in continuous mode |O, meaning I would return to the lab to find no readings had been taken >:D
However, I still have one issue remaining which is a real nuisance. If the meter does lock up (I accept that while writing scripts it may get into a muddle sometimes)  and a power off reset is performed it often hangs on the first Keithley logo screen. The only way I have found to escape this is to turn off the meter (the power button still functions) and have to remove the mains power for a while (about 30 minutes usually does it but on rare occasions may need longer) this is a major problem which the latest firmware has not helped with.  Any advice or similar experiences would be interesting to hear about.
A quick thank you to E-Design for offering inside support and help, it was because of Brad's input way back that made me choose this meter.
Mike

Yes, fortunately the recent firmware releases have cleaned up a lot of bugs. However, I am sorry to hear you can still experience a lockup. Needing to leave the meter off for 30 minutes or more to resolve seems odd and makes me think it might be related to the meter being warmed up.

Even though it may be intermittent, Is it the same script running when you experience it?
Do you know the date of manufacture (or purchase) ? There could be other possibilities if it is always a hang at the boot screen.
Hi E-Design, thanks for responding.
I bought it from Farnell UK in early April 2019 S.No 04415206
There is no consistency regarding when it is going to freeze, or for what reason. All I can say is that, apart from script lockups, it has the habit of occasionally just stopping the continuous measurement usually sometime during the first 30 minutes after power on in the morning, sometimes different button presses and random combinations will allow it to start but not able to discern any definite procedure. This is not the serious problem, the main gripe is when a power off reset is made it often hangs on the opening Keithley screen before even the relay clicks.  I am a repair tech so am more than happy to investigate if you can offer any information. Leaving it in the off condition but with power applied doesn't work, must be unplugged from the power.  One possible clue is that usually  it has just crashed when I perform the reset, if I turn it off then on from working state I don't seem to have the boot up problem :-//
Thanks for any help you can offer.  Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on December 15, 2020, 05:01:52 pm
I recently received a brand new DMM6500. I made a super basic unboxing video with my first impressions on the unit :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMuEESXJhE)

It's a great instrument, I love it. I hope this video will help others trying to decide if they want one or not.
I'm surprised you're so positive about the fan noise. It's easily the most annoyingly instrument in my lab. It's reasonably loud but above all it whines. I do have a comparatively early model so maybe the fan was upgraded since. Don't get me wrong, it's a great meter. I just feel the fan is a letdown.

I bought mine very recently and while the fan's kinda loud the most annoying thing is the transformer noise, especially when it's off. Have to power off the entire strip so it doesn't annoy me when not in use.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 15, 2020, 05:08:00 pm
I bought mine very recently and while the fan's kinda loud the most annoying thing is the transformer noise, especially when it's off. Have to power off the entire strip so it doesn't annoy me when not in use.
Mine has the same issue. Transformer noise can be heard from across the room.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 15, 2020, 05:49:15 pm
I bought mine very recently and while the fan's kinda loud the most annoying thing is the transformer noise, especially when it's off. Have to power off the entire strip so it doesn't annoy me when not in use.
Mine has the same issue. Transformer noise can be heard from across the room.
They cheaped out on that important part, production may have already changed that test to '= True' or increased the tol. to high because they had to much 'problems'.
I would have gladly paid 10Euro more for one without so much hum, I also kill the power strip if not in use.
Just so you know an active noise canceling headset is also fixing it (I tested it)
But I think al these big vibrations in the unit can't be that good on the long term.

Maybe next time they should provide a DC power input at the back so you can do it right yourself. (It's Cheaper!!)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 15, 2020, 06:01:02 pm
Hi, I have had my 6500 for nearly 2 years now and have a question please.
It has always been a bit twitchy, blue screens, locking up etc but I persevered as I hoped firmware updates would resolve these issues as many others seemed to be experiencing similar problems.
I upgraded to 1.7.3c a month or so ago and this seemed to solve the prolems.  I was really having trouble with the meter just halting readings while in continuous mode |O, meaning I would return to the lab to find no readings had been taken >:D
However, I still have one issue remaining which is a real nuisance. If the meter does lock up (I accept that while writing scripts it may get into a muddle sometimes)  and a power off reset is performed it often hangs on the first Keithley logo screen. The only way I have found to escape this is to turn off the meter (the power button still functions) and have to remove the mains power for a while (about 30 minutes usually does it but on rare occasions may need longer) this is a major problem which the latest firmware has not helped with.  Any advice or similar experiences would be interesting to hear about.
A quick thank you to E-Design for offering inside support and help, it was because of Brad's input way back that made me choose this meter.
Mike

Yes, fortunately the recent firmware releases have cleaned up a lot of bugs. However, I am sorry to hear you can still experience a lockup. Needing to leave the meter off for 30 minutes or more to resolve seems odd and makes me think it might be related to the meter being warmed up.

Even though it may be intermittent, Is it the same script running when you experience it?
Do you know the date of manufacture (or purchase) ? There could be other possibilities if it is always a hang at the boot screen.
Hi E-Design, thanks for responding.
I bought it from Farnell UK in early April 2019 S.No 04415206
There is no consistency regarding when it is going to freeze, or for what reason. All I can say is that, apart from script lockups, it has the habit of occasionally just stopping the continuous measurement usually sometime during the first 30 minutes after power on in the morning, sometimes different button presses and random combinations will allow it to start but not able to discern any definite procedure. This is not the serious problem, the main gripe is when a power off reset is made it often hangs on the opening Keithley screen before even the relay clicks.  I am a repair tech so am more than happy to investigate if you can offer any information. Leaving it in the off condition but with power applied doesn't work, must be unplugged from the power.  One possible clue is that usually  it has just crashed when I perform the reset, if I turn it off then on from working state I don't seem to have the boot up problem :-//
Thanks for any help you can offer.  Mike

Mike, thanks for the info. When I return to the office after holiday break I will discuss these symptoms with a firmware engineer and we can go from there.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 15, 2020, 06:13:09 pm
I bought mine very recently and while the fan's kinda loud the most annoying thing is the transformer noise, especially when it's off. Have to power off the entire strip so it doesn't annoy me when not in use.
Mine has the same issue. Transformer noise can be heard from across the room.
They cheaped out on that important part, production may have already changed that test to '= True' or increased the tol. to high because they had to much 'problems'.
I would have gladly paid 10Euro more for one without so much hum, I also kill the power strip if not in use.
Just so you know an active noise canceling headset is also fixing it (I tested it)
But I think al these big vibrations in the unit can't be that good on the long term.

Maybe next time they should provide a DC power input at the back so you can do it right yourself. (It's Cheaper!!)

Thanks for the feedback. We are aware that some users consider the transformer and fans loud. BUT If you have big vibrations, you should consider that you have a faulty unit and send it in for service. I am fairly certain no units ship with big vibrations or excessive audible noise (it is checked). Some people are more sensitive to it than others.  :-//

The DC power input at the back (mechanical switch) was investigated and was not lower cost than the soft power. That being said, if there is another generation meter -- it likely won't be at this price point and thus it will probably have the power input filter with switch like most other products. Those are much nicer indeed.




Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 15, 2020, 06:38:13 pm
Thanks for the feedback. We are aware that some users consider the transformer and fans loud. BUT If you have big vibrations, you should consider that you have a faulty unit and send it in for service. I am fairly certain no units ship with big vibrations or excessive audible noise (it is checked). Some people are more sensitive to it than others.  :-//

The DC power input at the back (mechanical switch) was investigated and was not lower cost than the soft power. That being said, if there is another generation meter -- it likely won't be at this price point and thus it will probably have the power input filter with switch like most other products. Those are much nicer indeed.
Keithley 2000 and 34401A transformers are near perfectly silent. The DMM6500 can be heard from across the room. At what point noise becomes an issue can be personal but a large difference can objectively be established.
Title: Y
Post by: KaneTW on December 15, 2020, 07:50:33 pm
Yep. My electronics equipment is in my bedroom. All my R&S stuff is dead silent. Keithley hums unbearably. Really annoying :(
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 15, 2020, 09:17:31 pm
Thanks for the feedback. We are aware that some users consider the transformer and fans loud. BUT If you have big vibrations, you should consider that you have a faulty unit and send it in for service. I am fairly certain no units ship with big vibrations or excessive audible noise (it is checked). Some people are more sensitive to it than others.  :-//

The DC power input at the back (mechanical switch) was investigated and was not lower cost than the soft power. That being said, if there is another generation meter -- it likely won't be at this price point and thus it will probably have the power input filter with switch like most other products. Those are much nicer indeed.
Keithley 2000 and 34401A transformers are near perfectly silent. The DMM6500 can be heard from across the room. At what point noise becomes an issue can be personal but a large difference can objectively be established.

Of course, no disagreement here. The 65xx transformer was designed from scratch as the KI2000 model was too expensive and not suitable for 65xx (due to the DAQ model) As such, we did take steps to reduce the transformer hum and even quantify it to a level that most people found acceptable. However, since it is not silent, there will be those who are bothered by it. A new design to make it quieter without costing more, might be feasible in the future.. only time will tell. I dont think enough formal complaints have been made to drive change though - and there are a lot of these units in the field.

I am always looking to improve the design and can better do so with formal reports filed by customers (not me representing web forums.. haha)   :)
ahem, management likes reports, statistics and data, not complaining design engineers..  :-DD


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: bgm370 on December 15, 2020, 09:43:30 pm
My DMM6500 was initially silent but over a course of the first year it developed that same annoying transformer noise (even when off). I contacted the Keithley support and was told that it is a known issue related to the power transformer windings. So the unit was serviced under the warranty and even recalibrated, the turnaround was around 10 days. The transformer is dead silent now.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rernexy on December 16, 2020, 02:52:51 am
I bought mine very recently ....

Do you know when it was assembled/manufactured?
Even though you purchased it recently, maybe it was from an old production run. Admittedly it's unlikely that is the case, but you never know.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 16, 2020, 02:58:38 am
My unit is super silent ! But it is also brand new, and I bought it straight form Tektronix USA. So maybe they fixed this issue ?

The fan nosie of my 2280S-60-3 power supply is much stronger and much more annoying. I somehow didn't really notice it when I reviewed it, but after a while I really started to notice.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 16, 2020, 03:14:31 am
Regarding the transformer noise issue, earlier units were more susceptible to having the audible noise problem. Additional measures and improvements were made since then and have reduced the magnitude of the problem. But I think some units can still be noticed by some people.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on December 16, 2020, 04:22:05 am
I bought mine very recently ....

Do you know when it was assembled/manufactured?
Even though you purchased it recently, maybe it was from an old production run. Admittedly it's unlikely that is the case, but you never know.

No idea. Factory calibration happened in Sep '20.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rernexy on December 16, 2020, 07:29:06 am
So the unit was serviced under the warranty and even recalibrated, the turnaround was around 10 days. The transformer is dead silent now.
How long ago did you get it serviced under the warranty?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 16, 2020, 09:12:16 am
I have been playing some more with the meter and got a couple of blue-screen while doing screen dumps:
As in you saw blue screens while taking a screenshot? Do you have any other info on how you got them?
Not much more info, I was on the mains screens, it happened on the statistic (twice) and on the settings screen.
Is there anything else on that flash drive?  One of our co-ops remembered seeing a bug during development where the DMM would sometimes crash after having the flash drive inserted for some time.  He believed it was related to what files were on the drive but doesn't know what file would've caused it since he erased the drive.  We haven't seen anything like that since then, and there's not an obvious reason why any process that reads the flash drive would cause a crash, but it's something to go on.  If there are other files on it, could you PM me a list of the file names and extensions (NOT the contents)?

Just purchased a DMM6500 and updated it to the current FW (Version 1.7.3). First impressions are very positive.

But I also do got to see a crash making a screen dump to a USB thumb drive. No other files on that drive really, just an empty, regular FAT32 formatted drive.

[attachimg=1]

 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on December 16, 2020, 10:50:14 am
This is a great meter which I enjoy using but, as you have seen, it still has a blue screen shit-the-bed moment every now and again :P

At least you got the Program Counter value, maybe something for the softies to chew on.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rernexy on December 16, 2020, 11:18:38 am
A crash before the screen protector has been taken off :-DD
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 16, 2020, 11:46:46 am
Quote
At least you got the Program Counter value, maybe something for the softies to chew on.
Yes... even if I had to use my phone for that...

Quote
A crash before the screen protector has been taken off
You are right indeed  :-[

Earlier posts suggested that the instrument might have issues with certain USB thumb drives or files on it. Even though this was an empty drive (with only the FW file on it, but that should not hurt), I will probably re-format the drive. In many photo camera's it is possible (and recommended!) to format the drive/card with the camera itself. Measurement instruments however seldom offer this option, but could benefit from it. 
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 16, 2020, 04:17:25 pm
Tried a bit more and the problem is persistent, actually quite repeatable... I had 8 crashes within 5 minutes when trying to do screen dumps. Five times the shown error code was "PC=002F6B2C" and three times it was "PC=00080CFC =3". Tried different USB thumb drives.

But the remarkable thing is: I also get these crashes without any USB drive in the slot at all! Every time I press HOME + ENTER within a few seconds apart, a crash appears at the second time. So that does not sound like a specific incompatibility with the thumb drives I used, or with the files on it.

Can some other DMM6500 user try the same thing? Power up the instrument without USB drive inserted, wait 10 seconds, and then twice make a screen dump? Do you get crashes too? And which FW are you running?


Thanks!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: bgm370 on December 16, 2020, 04:47:26 pm
So the unit was serviced under the warranty and even recalibrated, the turnaround was around 10 days. The transformer is dead silent now.
How long ago did you get it serviced under the warranty?

November 2020.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 16, 2020, 07:52:58 pm
Tried a bit more and the problem is persistent, actually quite repeatable... I had 8 crashes within 5 minutes when trying to do screen dumps. Five times the shown error code was "PC=002F6B2C" and three times it was "PC=00080CFC =3". Tried different USB thumb drives.

But the remarkable thing is: I also get these crashes without any USB drive in the slot at all! Every time I press HOME + ENTER within a few seconds apart, a crash appears at the second time. So that does not sound like a specific incompatibility with the thumb drives I used, or with the files on it.

Can some other DMM6500 user try the same thing? Power up the instrument without USB drive inserted, wait 10 seconds, and then twice make a screen dump? Do you get crashes too? And which FW are you running?


Thanks!

I tried it several times with and without USB stick and nothing bad happened. w/o flash drive it gives an error and w/ flash drive saves the screenshot. the flash drive has bunch of stuff on it and not formatted. It's an old Kingston 8GB
I got my unit last week and flashed the latest firmware 1.7.3

and no transformer annoyance or excessive fan noise either. Transformer is really silent and fan is normal, no louder than my agilent multimeter
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Simi-DT on December 16, 2020, 10:11:10 pm
Tried a bit more and the problem is persistent, actually quite repeatable... I had 8 crashes within 5 minutes when trying to do screen dumps. Five times the shown error code was "PC=002F6B2C" and three times it was "PC=00080CFC =3". Tried different USB thumb drives.

But the remarkable thing is: I also get these crashes without any USB drive in the slot at all! Every time I press HOME + ENTER within a few seconds apart, a crash appears at the second time. So that does not sound like a specific incompatibility with the thumb drives I used, or with the files on it.

Can some other DMM6500 user try the same thing? Power up the instrument without USB drive inserted, wait 10 seconds, and then twice make a screen dump? Do you get crashes too? And which FW are you running?


Thanks!

Hello!

With my new DMM6500 and firmware 1.7.3c I can confirm the crash after second try to capture a screenshot with HOME + ENTER without an USB stick inserted.
With an USB stick it is fine until now. I only tried an older stick with 2 GB.

Simon
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 17, 2020, 08:22:58 am
Thanks analogRF and Simi-DT for trying this out!  :-+

My tentative conclusions is that for at least for some of us, the dmm6500 with FW1.7.3:
PS1. The drive I experienced problems with was a SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ33-016G-G35). I like to use these tiny drives on front panel applications (instruments, car radio, etc.) because they don't stick out and reduces the risk you break something. But I cannot say whether the problem with this drive is systematic; it might be just ste specific copy I used. My drive worked before on the dmm6500 and was actually used to upgrade it to FW1.7.3... I just took a brand new drive of this type, reformatted it 'fully' on a Windows 8 laptop (so not relying on the reformatting of the manufacturer of the drive) and that one seems to work without crashes now. Need to test longer, though.

PS2 When no USB drive is present, the first attempt for a screen dump you see a popup saying "Saving screen capture" so it seems as if it was a success. But then note the tiny red icon on the right top of the screen. If you click it, it says "Error 2224 USB flash drive not present". (This is when all errors and warnings are turned on.) So if Keithley fixes the crash, they could also make a clearer error message that a screen dump failed!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 17, 2020, 03:04:21 pm
Update: a representative of Tektronix/Keithley just informed me that they were able to replicate the crashes there as well. He passed this on  and hopes this will be fixed in a future FW releases. So let's wait (and not try to hit the HOME and ENTER buttons when there is no flash drive inserted)...

I do appreciate their very fast response, I should add.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Simi-DT on December 17, 2020, 05:04:36 pm

and no transformer annoyance or excessive fan noise either. Transformer is really silent and fan is normal, no louder than my agilent multimeter

Regarding the fan noise: Did someone already a DIY improvement? I feel a bit disappointed with the noise level. For my device I measure 52 dBA close to the fan and 40 dBA appox. 0.5 m away. Blocking only the inlet area increases the temperature inside the device and some drift in the measurements becomes visible.

Thank you!

Simon

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JimKnopf on December 17, 2020, 07:42:39 pm
To my surprise i have the problem when no USB-Stick is plugged in. It crashes with the blue screen.
Never had this Problem with a USB-Stick plugged in.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 17, 2020, 07:44:59 pm

why does it only affect some instruments but not all?

I tried again and no problem, just gives an error (#2224 I guess it was) when no USB stick is inserted
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 17, 2020, 08:24:20 pm
Dear analogRF,

Quote
why does it only affect some instruments but not all?

To be honest: no idea... Just to be sure: you did try two attempts to make screen dumps in a row, right? In my case, the first time it gives error "Error 2224 USB flash drive not present", and the second time it crashes.

For you, does it give this error both times?

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 17, 2020, 08:32:32 pm
yes I did many many attempts and it gives that 2224 error every time
and if there is a USB stick in it, it saves screendump. and USB stick is full of other stuff...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 17, 2020, 08:47:03 pm
yes I did many many attempts and it gives that 2224 error every time
and if there is a USB stick in it, it saves screendump. and USB stick is full of other stuff...

OK, I see. So it is unresolved, for the time being, why some experience this crash, and others do not...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 17, 2020, 08:55:38 pm

and no transformer annoyance or excessive fan noise either. Transformer is really silent and fan is normal, no louder than my agilent multimeter

Regarding the fan noise: Did someone already a DIY improvement? I feel a bit disappointed with the noise level. For my device I measure 52 dBA close to the fan and 40 dBA appox. 0.5 m away. Blocking only the inlet area increases the temperature inside the device and some drift in the measurements becomes visible.

Thank you!

Simon

Close to the fan isn't a realistic use case for the measurement. But 40dBA at 0.5m seems a bit on the high side,  but not excessive.

If you are willing to void your warranty (as many people are) -- there are things that can be done to improve the audible noise. Some were mentioned earlier in this thread...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 18, 2020, 05:21:32 pm
I put together a precision PWM DAC and automated a test with 0.5V steps from -9.5V to +9.5V.
DMM6500 set to 1NPLC, high impedance input, autozero enabled.
Per step; 80 seconds to allow the PWM DAC output to settle, approximately 1 minute of samples acquired and averaged to give a single value for the chart.

Linearity chart is attached.

I'm mostly certain that the majority of the error shown in the chart originates from the DMM6500 rather than the PWM DAC.

(The error in a PWM DAC, due to switch resistance mismatch [0.71 ohms in my case], is a smooth inverse x^2 curve with max error around the midpoint which I have corrected in the DAC firmware, not at all visible as even the slightest x^2 curve trend in the chart so I'm comfortable that this source of error is eliminated)

It's comparable to the typical factory test data spreadsheet given earlier in this thread and it's well within tolerance, which is pleasing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Simi-DT on December 18, 2020, 05:59:03 pm
I did some tests with a funnel over the inlet openings (left side with the fan). This helps to make the noise more pleasant for me, but not really silent. The unpleasant spikes at e.g. approx. 337 Hz disapper. Temperature wise it is not a perfect solution (plus 2 or 3 K) and need some improvements. I did not want to open the case in the first years, so some external sound blocking measures are welcome.

Simon
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 19, 2020, 06:38:09 am
Pressing HOME+ENTER the first time without a USB flash drive creates an error in the log.
Doing it again creates a BSoD (see attached photo)

I can however do a screenshot multiple time in a row, with a USB drive inserted, without triggering a crash.

For good measure I have filed a ticket with Keithley referring to this thread.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 19, 2020, 06:49:31 am
I did some tests with a funnel over the inlet openings (left side with the fan). This helps to make the noise more pleasant for me, but not really silent. The unpleasant spikes at e.g. approx. 337 Hz disapper. Temperature wise it is not a perfect solution (plus 2 or 3 K) and need some improvements. I did not want to open the case in the first years, so some external sound blocking measures are welcome.

What equipment are you using to do these fancy noise graphs ? Are they calibrated ? Super nice !
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Simi-DT on December 19, 2020, 09:49:23 am
I did some tests with a funnel over the inlet openings (left side with the fan). This helps to make the noise more pleasant for me, but not really silent. The unpleasant spikes at e.g. approx. 337 Hz disapper. Temperature wise it is not a perfect solution (plus 2 or 3 K) and need some improvements. I did not want to open the case in the first years, so some external sound blocking measures are welcome.

What equipment are you using to do these fancy noise graphs ? Are they calibrated ? Super nice !

Hello!

The graphs were processed with an external sound card with mic preamp (TASCAM UH-7000), a mic with less noise (Rode NT1-A) and the freeware REW Room EQ Wizard from John Mulcahy. Only DIY calibration. May be 2 or 3 dB out of real levels, but not that critical for this case - looking for peaks, harmonics and differences.

Simon
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 19, 2020, 11:54:10 am
is there any chance that one day FFT and THD will be added to the firmware?
all the hardware is there, it's just a matter of programming
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 19, 2020, 01:16:01 pm
is there any chance that one day FFT and THD will be added to the firmware?
all the hardware is there, it's just a matter of programming

Why YES there is a possibility.
IIRC, there are apps created already that do these features.. (I think)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 19, 2020, 01:25:38 pm
is there any chance that one day FFT and THD will be added to the firmware?
all the hardware is there, it's just a matter of programming

Why YES there is a possibility.
IIRC, there are apps created already that do these features.. (I think)

well, with 1MS/sec speed, I think there are many potential applications (at least in power and audio electronics) for having spectrum analysis (FFT) and THD measurement (and possibly even other freq domain measurements).

So, is it possible that Keithley will consider adding those features in the future?

since I am new to this (just got mine last week), I have not found any apps doing these stuff yet. Can somebody confirm if such apps exist and where they can be found?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 19, 2020, 01:39:17 pm
Please can anyone explain why I'm seeing a step change in voltage reading when I switch settings (using config list & triggerflow model)?

Attached are two examples. Meter starts in 1 NPLC mode, runs for 10 seconds, then switches to either 10 NPLC or x10 filter for 10 seconds.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on December 19, 2020, 01:47:35 pm
Looks like I'm able to resolve it with Line Sync = on. The noise sensitivity of this meter is turning out to be the biggest flaw especially as in this case the source impedance is 50 ohms (DAC set to ~0V).  :palm:

See attached screenshot. Looks like line sync isn't 100% effective judging by the occasional spike in the first half.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 19, 2020, 01:53:07 pm
In which mode and range are the measurements done ?
When using a non AZ mode, there may be new zero phase when changing the speed.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 19, 2020, 02:40:06 pm
Yes changing settings (like NPLC) will flush the backgrounds..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on December 19, 2020, 02:52:21 pm
is there any chance that one day FFT and THD will be added to the firmware?
all the hardware is there, it's just a matter of programming

Why YES there is a possibility.
IIRC, there are apps created already that do these features.. (I think)

well, with 1MS/sec speed, I think there are many potential applications (at least in power and audio electronics) for having spectrum analysis (FFT) and THD measurement (and possibly even other freq domain measurements).

So, is it possible that Keithley will consider adding those features in the future?

since I am new to this (just got mine last week), I have not found any apps doing these stuff yet. Can somebody confirm if such apps exist and where they can be found?

Well, if they were released, I think they would be here

https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models (https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models)

But alas, I dont see them. I do recall them being worked on so I will have to check on that when I return to the office.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 19, 2020, 03:17:16 pm
is there any chance that one day FFT and THD will be added to the firmware?
all the hardware is there, it's just a matter of programming

Why YES there is a possibility.
IIRC, there are apps created already that do these features.. (I think)

well, with 1MS/sec speed, I think there are many potential applications (at least in power and audio electronics) for having spectrum analysis (FFT) and THD measurement (and possibly even other freq domain measurements).

So, is it possible that Keithley will consider adding those features in the future?

since I am new to this (just got mine last week), I have not found any apps doing these stuff yet. Can somebody confirm if such apps exist and where they can be found?

Well, if they were released, I think they would be here

https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models (https://www.tek.com/keithley/tsp-applications-for-touch-test-invent-models)

But alas, I dont see them. I do recall them being worked on so I will have to check on that when I return to the office.

thanks, that would be awesome.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 20, 2020, 12:30:44 am
We miss having Keithley support staff in this product thread like Siglent or R&S are doing in the other threads about their products.
There is a lot of relevant input here from their customers that could be useful. Many ideas going to waste because noone is looking at them

Personally I really wish a mini oscilloscope-like interface in the Digi modes with the high sample rate. I want to see things like V/div and ms/div, not sample counts for instance
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: analogRF on December 20, 2020, 01:58:20 am
We miss having Keithley support staff in this product thread like Siglent or R&S are doing in the other threads about their products.
There is a lot of relevant input here from their customers that could be useful. Many ideas going to waste because noone is looking at them

Personally I really wish a mini oscilloscope-like interface in the Digi modes with the high sample rate. I want to see things like V/div and ms/div, not sample counts for instance

there is at least one of the Keithley engineers very active as far as I know. Just take a look at the previous couple of pages...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 20, 2020, 05:18:06 pm
If you want to have a bit of a comparison for Hum (50Hz/60Hz and Multiples)
I put my Android smartphone on top of the DMM6500 and let the Spectroid app run.

50Hz and 60Hz is probably too low for good measurement but 100Hz isn't a problem.
I got Silence, Hum only and Hum+Fan noise.

I must say that I do think it's not as loud as it was when I bought it so it's probably not very stable either meaning it could pas the production test and then get much worse/better after.
(normally you would expect it gets worse over time)


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on December 21, 2020, 12:41:56 pm
Hi !

I made a small video at the request of one of my viewer, who was asking for information about the dual measurement mode of the DMM6500 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7sYUL85jTc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7sYUL85jTc)

Hoping some of you find this useful. Enjoy !
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 23, 2020, 08:41:57 am
I think you forgot to mention the limitation that the meter will not work within specifications when you combine Voltage and Current. (there can be a big error depending on your settings)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on December 23, 2020, 10:25:51 am
@KedasProbe

Quote
I think you forgot to mention the limitation that the meter will not work within specifications when you combine Voltage and Current. (there can be a big error depending on your settings)

Interesting! I might have experienced this, unknowingly, when I was getting measurements that seems to be plainly wrong...

Yan you elaborate please?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on December 23, 2020, 11:04:34 am
The principle problem is the shared common for the current and voltage reading. There is always the resistance of the plug, that will add an error to the voltage reading.

In addition it looks like there is some extra resistance internal to the DMM6500 that adds to this. So the common ground point is not at the plug, but more like on the low side of the smallest shunt resistor. This is the natural choice when using a 4 wire shunt. The resistance of the cable would than add to the troublesome part.

So when there is a significant current flow, don't expect highest accuracy for the voltage reading.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on December 27, 2020, 12:28:00 pm
The Voltage & Current range combinations without relay activity are DC 1A/3A and 10A combined to a DC voltage range (excluding the 1000V range)

These are about the errors you can expect: (at least on my device)
Front 3A: -37.9 mV/A
Back 3A: -59.6 mV/A
Back 10A: -1.11 mV/A
You have to subtract or add it to the displayed value depending on your current direction (not tested but assumed)

So using the back 10A is your best option.

Edit:
You also want to avoid the 100V range because then you get an extra -2.45 V bonus error. (no I did not forget the 'm')
https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=617&t=141896&sid=3146fff8749d5978945e90c5c2ab204c
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on December 28, 2020, 12:59:16 pm
I put together a precision PWM DAC and automated a test with 0.5V steps from -9.5V to +9.5V.

Perhaps there is a topic about this DAC? Or his scheme? Or any other information?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on December 29, 2020, 04:01:21 pm
Hello,
I just got myself a DMM6500 and it mostly fulfills my expectations. However, aside from being annoyingly noisy, the screen quality on my unit is kind of abysmal. When the unit stands on my desk and is, consequently, viewed from a 45° downwards direction, the contrast ratio of the screen gets incredibly low, the image gets blurry and shows a very pronounced doubled image with a strong vertical offset (see attached image). When viewed directly from the front or from an upwards viewing direction, the image looks OK. But when viewed from just a slight 10° downwards direction, the double image issue is very pronounced and reading small text becomes incredibly tiring to the eyes. To me, it looks like the build in panel has bad viewing angles, combined with a reflection issue between the display/touch layers. I cant remember ever seeing a small sized touch screen with such a bad image quality, not even on cheap smartphones. Now, I am trying too figure out if this is normal or if my screen is defective. Has anybody here experienced similar issues with the DMM6500? I tried to compare the screen quality of my unit to several youtube videos using roughly the same viewing conditions, but could not see this effect there.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on December 29, 2020, 04:58:51 pm

.... Now, I am trying too figure out if this is normal or if my screen is defective. Has anybody here experienced similar issues with the DMM6500? I tried to compare the screen quality of my unit to several youtube videos using roughly the same viewing conditions, but could not see this effect there.

The screen of my DMM6500 is very crisp and I am very happy with it.
Something is wrong with your screen and you should exchange the instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Joel_l on December 29, 2020, 05:11:06 pm
That seems odd about the screen. Did you take the protective film off?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on December 29, 2020, 05:54:35 pm
Thank you for your replies. The screen protector is off. I have attached two more images including small text.
Just found a probably related topic on the Tek forum with a reply which seems to be from a Keithley official: https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?t=140802
Looks like a known issue.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 02, 2021, 04:11:41 pm
This is my little Christmas endeavor, contribution into making my Keithley DMM6500 much more quiet.

I bought the instrument more than two years ago. I really like things to be quiet in my Lab so this new wonderful Keithley came to shame
with its really loud fan. It was also very buggy, blue screens almost all the time. Some Firmware revisions later, 1.03, and it was usable.
Due to the fan it became a dust collector, just using it occasionally for some special measurements and not as my every day companion in the lab.
Some weeks ago when turning the instrument on the dates where reset back to 1970. Digging into this it became clear that Keithley
had made a mistake draining the backup battery to quickly and there was also a new FW that should correct it to some extent.

This battery issue became the start of the modification. To summarize:

    • Change of Battery. (Broke the battery holder, had to make a special solution).
    • Update to latest Firmware (FW). Not painfree, but almost.
    • Ventilation holes in lid.
    • Move the original Fan and modify it with a diode in series to slow it down.
        ◦ It could probably have been run Fan-less, see measurements and links at the end.

Sorry to say but Keithley seems to have cut corners in this design, especially around the power supply, thereby wasting a lot of power into heat.
    • They have used two transformers in parallel with low primary inductance's making the standby power more than 6 W.
       So yes, have a switch turning the instrument of completely!
    • Used linear regulation for the analogue parts with very large voltage margins.

See attched PDF with my report. Not complete in any way but I hope it helps !

)) Per

N.B ! Disclaimer. If you do this you do it at your own risk. I can't be held responsible in any way!
(Should probaly not have to write this here :) )
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on January 02, 2021, 04:40:54 pm
The linear regulators need some voltage drop (a few volts) to function properly, but yes anything above is wasted as heat.
If your mains voltage is nice and stable, you could run the meter on a lower mains voltage from a external (diy) autoformer or variac.
How much lower depends on the voltage margins on the regulators and the stability of the mains.

According to the datasheet it shouldn't be a lot tho, they specify only a 10% mains voltage margin.

Quote
Power supply 100 V, 120 V, 220 V, and 240 V (±10%)

I don't get why the mayor brands can't produce fan-less precision devices anymore.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on January 02, 2021, 04:53:39 pm
A problem with transformers switched between 230V and 115 V is that the US also has 60 Hz and Europe 50 Hz. If they ignore the 50Hz the transformer would be driven to higher magnetization and has quite a bit of no load current.  In the US they may have got transformers for 230 V 60 Hz.
The supplies to the analog and digital board need good isolation from each other - a single transformer would need to be very special. With 2 transformers only the one for the analog supply needs to be a little special (with shield, but still a standard bobin).

It is a little odd they need so much power - here the large scree probably needs quite some power.
The problem can be running such a DMM in a hot rack - there you may need a fan already with a relatively low power level.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 02, 2021, 06:00:57 pm
Thank you for your responses.

You will have to design a 50/60 Hz transfomer for 50Hz then the 60 Hz won't be a problem. I have not checked if this transfomer i easily switchable between
115 and 230 VAC. They migth have two different transformers.

Linear regulators. Yes, you need to drop some voltage but there are readily available LDO's (or you can design a discrete one if you are price sensitive)
and then you can drop far less. An LM317, LM337, which Keithley uses need some 1.5 to 3V drop to work properly.

The current design has -22.6 VDC after rectification on one of the rails, the negative, feeding a LM337 to -15V. If we count backwards. -15V +20% = -18V and a LDO wiith 1V margin,
then we end up with -19V. The positive rail is regulated to 16.7V and not 15V. My guess is that it became too much for the LM317 so they decided to increase this rail
to 16.7V to take some heat on the connected circuits on the PCB instead. (For sure, they migth have had resons which we don't see for the desisions they have made).

I can say it's a joy using the instrument now :)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 02, 2021, 07:12:38 pm
If I remember correctly, the DMM design itself can work without fan it's the added heat on the front/display panel that is the 'problem'
And they can't just update the display, that's part of a bigger plan.
But I think they are probably already busy thinking on the next screen to be used for the next updated design platform.

It's also possible to turn the display off and only watch the screen via LAN, maybe someone should test the temps/drift with fan and screen on vs display off and fan off.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on January 02, 2021, 07:39:40 pm
A problem with transformers switched between 230V and 115 V is that the US also has 60 Hz and Europe 50 Hz. If they ignore the 50Hz the transformer would be driven to higher magnetization and has quite a bit of no load current.  In the US they may have got transformers for 230 V 60 Hz.
The supplies to the analog and digital board need good isolation from each other - a single transformer would need to be very special. With 2 transformers only the one for the analog supply needs to be a little special (with shield, but still a standard bobin).

It is a little odd they need so much power - here the large scree probably needs quite some power.
The problem can be running such a DMM in a hot rack - there you may need a fan already with a relatively low power level.
Risking repeating myself, but it seems multiple generations of earlier devices were able to deal with different voltages and frequencies no issue. If the screen is that much more power hungry, maybe a hybrid with a transformer for the reference and sensitive parts and a switching module for the power hungry part could be a solution. Switchers can deal with different inputs without issue or much compromise.

Mind you, I understand that I don't know much about the compromises made so maybe there are very good reasons for this approach. It's just such a shame to have those niggles which impact liveability in an otherwise superb machine.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on January 02, 2021, 08:22:50 pm
A problem with transformers switched between 230V and 115 V is that the US also has 60 Hz and Europe 50 Hz. If they ignore the 50Hz the transformer would be driven to higher magnetization and has quite a bit of no load current.  In the US they may have got transformers for 230 V 60 Hz.
The supplies to the analog and digital board need good isolation from each other - a single transformer would need to be very special. With 2 transformers only the one for the analog supply needs to be a little special (with shield, but still a standard bobin).

It is a little odd they need so much power - here the large scree probably needs quite some power.
The problem can be running such a DMM in a hot rack - there you may need a fan already with a relatively low power level.
Risking repeating myself, but it seems multiple generations of earlier devices were able to deal with different voltages and frequencies no issue. If the screen is that much more power hungry, maybe a hybrid with a transformer for the reference and sensitive parts and a switching module for the power hungry part could be a solution. Switchers can deal with different inputs without issue or much compromise.

Mind you, I understand that I don't know much about the compromises made so maybe there are very good reasons for this approach. It's just such a shame to have those niggles which impact liveability in an otherwise superb machine.

Yep, efficient multi-rail switchmode psu's are cheap and plentiful these days, everything digital in the dmm can be run straight from it or thru a LDO if needed.
The analog section (and adc) need to be isolated (5KV?) that could be efficiently done with a (small) multi-tap high frequency transformer powered from the smpsu and traditional LDO as post regulators.
Can't see this being any more costly than the transformer setup in the dmm6500.

@Kleinstein, yes I know all about 19 inch racks, stacking equipment and managing btu's, I've looked
at the dmm6500 product page and there isn't even a rackmount available.
Mounting two side by side wouldn't work anyway because it would block the fan openings on the side.
So maximum one (22 Watt) dmm per two rack heights, nothing a well vented rack couldn't handle.

Overall it seems it could have been designed/engineered a little bit better.

Ps, no hard feelings E-design, we are being very picky.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on January 02, 2021, 10:45:49 pm
A problem with transformers switched between 230V and 115 V is that the US also has 60 Hz and Europe 50 Hz. If they ignore the 50Hz the transformer would be driven to higher magnetization and has quite a bit of no load current.  In the US they may have got transformers for 230 V 60 Hz.
The supplies to the analog and digital board need good isolation from each other - a single transformer would need to be very special. With 2 transformers only the one for the analog supply needs to be a little special (with shield, but still a standard bobin).

It is a little odd they need so much power - here the large scree probably needs quite some power.
The problem can be running such a DMM in a hot rack - there you may need a fan already with a relatively low power level.
Risking repeating myself, but it seems multiple generations of earlier devices were able to deal with different voltages and frequencies no issue. If the screen is that much more power hungry, maybe a hybrid with a transformer for the reference and sensitive parts and a switching module for the power hungry part could be a solution. Switchers can deal with different inputs without issue or much compromise.

Mind you, I understand that I don't know much about the compromises made so maybe there are very good reasons for this approach. It's just such a shame to have those niggles which impact liveability in an otherwise superb machine.

Yep, efficient multi-rail switchmode psu's are cheap and plentiful these days, everything digital in the dmm can be run straight from it or thru a LDO if needed.
The analog section (and adc) need to be isolated (5KV?) that could be efficiently done with a (small) multi-tap high frequency transformer powered from the smpsu and traditional LDO as post regulators.
Can't see this being any more costly than the transformer setup in the dmm6500.

@Kleinstein, yes I know all about 19 inch racks, stacking equipment and managing btu's, I've looked
at the dmm6500 product page and there isn't even a rackmount available.
Mounting two side by side wouldn't work anyway because it would block the fan openings on the side.
So maximum one (22 Watt) dmm per two rack heights, nothing a well vented rack couldn't handle.

Overall it seems it could have been designed/engineered a little bit better.

Ps, no hard feelings E-design, we are being very picky.

Haha   :)  I know you all are a picky crowd indeed! Its great to see all the feedback (good and bad)
I consider the user base on here expert and very knowledgeable. So its a good thing. You might be surprised about how difficult it can be to get good feedback from large / corporate customers.  :palm:

Switch-mode power supplies would be more expensive for this design considering the isolation and noise requirements. Of course a switch mode design *could* be done, but for cost & performance reasons it didnt make sense for this product (both DMM and DAQ) Some design aspects were leveraged from the older DAQ Models 2700 and 2701

Also regarding the heat issue and fans.. the front panel processor and the power needs for the DAQ module drove the requirement for a small fan. Many of the folks on here do not have the DAQ model, but the transformer design accommodates both products so there were some considerations for that model that went into the X-former design. And rack mounted equipment can get quite warm. As such the product specs to 50C ambient.. and BTW, I am surprised to see there is no rack mount kit? If I recall, certainly no new rack kit was designed, but perhaps another kit is compatible with it. I can find out for sure if anybody is interested.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 03, 2021, 09:12:53 am
Yes, really good feedback can be hard to get by and when you get it, it's almost alway too late in the process.

In my litte report on the previous page I have linked to several of Brad O's comments about turning off the Fan should be okey.
Do also realize that I have read that in the current design it is not possible to turn the Fan off, you just have two settings,
LOW and HIGH and default is LOW. If you don't want the Fan to spin you can always unplugg the Fan connector . You have to remove the front to do that.
(Brad O proposed to just block the Fan from the outside). If you block or disconnect the Fan the instrument will get quite hot even on the outside,
that is why I kept the Fan. (My personal guess is. if running fan-less, that the hotest components on the PCB's will be 75-80C with a 20C ambient and
more or less freestanding instrument. So, yes, at 50C ambient things will start to get too hot !)

E-Design, why not engage us for your next design. A DMM6500 Mk II ?  ;)  it's been done...
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 04, 2021, 09:09:40 am
Without fan you do reduce the lifetime and it will not be within spec, so you have to consider if that's ok for you.
a bit reduced fan speed is probably a good middle ground for everyone.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on January 04, 2021, 01:36:32 pm

....
@Kleinstein, yes I know all about 19 inch racks, stacking equipment and managing btu's, I've looked
at the dmm6500 product page and there isn't even a rackmount available.
...

Just FYI for anybody interested. part#s  4288-1 for single and 4288-2 for double are the rack mount kits for Model 65xx.

https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=4288-1 (https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=4288-1)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Soulman on January 04, 2021, 02:31:18 pm

....
@Kleinstein, yes I know all about 19 inch racks, stacking equipment and managing btu's, I've looked
at the dmm6500 product page and there isn't even a rackmount available.
...

Just FYI for anybody interested. part#s  4288-1 for single and 4288-2 for double are the rack mount kits for Model 65xx.

https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=4288-1 (https://www.tek.com/search?keywords=4288-1)



Thanks, but how would the double mount work with respect to the ventilation openings?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on January 04, 2021, 02:58:57 pm
There's a spacer that should be sufficient.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on January 04, 2021, 05:24:51 pm
With the rack mount kit's check with the length of the screws:  with some of the newer meters there was a problem with too long screws that could hit something on the inside.  You don't want to damage the screen or touch some high voltage or only reduce the needed clearance to much.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 04, 2021, 07:34:21 pm
Keithley / Tektronix / Kickstart , a heads-up

Your “permanent” Kickstart License that came with your DMM6500 or other Keithley or Tektronix test gear as a promotion, was false advertising, and a bait and switch scheme to get you to pay for it later.
 
I reinstalled window on the same PC, no hardware changes, reinstalled KickStart, and it generated a new “Host ID” making the .LIC file I was sent unusable. Contacted customer support, and was told sorry nothing we can do, your options are buy a license or “The most likely solution beyond that would be to try to recover the original windows installation” So the software is good for one install only, any changes render it useless. As quoted by Keithley “The license we provided at no charge is still functioning as intended.” As in you will be paying for it soon enough.

 To realize just how bad this is, I was looking to buy 32 DMM6500 for our labs, because the software at that time was free (always looking for the best bang per buck in a School environment) so compared to other options, this was a big plus.

Now imaging after I recommended these meters (I bought one with my own money to test and use at home) That My IT department decided to upgrade the computer in the Labs, and now all the software stops working. I now have to go to my Boss and ask for $42,000 to buy the software, that I told everyone was free (and why I chose the meters), or the 100’s of man hour spent developing new Lab course material will be wasted and have to be rewritten, 100’s of more man hours. I believe I would keep my job, but?

The main thing that stopped this scenario from playing out was budget cuts. The meter is great, the support and customer service, not so much. Of the hundreds of pieces of test equipment I will be purchasing over the next few years, not thinking any will have the Keithley Tecktronix logo on them, does not seem they need or want my business, or care.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: idolclub on January 04, 2021, 09:38:28 pm
DMM6500 New Firmware v1.7.5 Release - 04/Jan/2021:

https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/DMM6500-FRP-v1_7_5_Dec_2020_RNs_DMM6500-FRP-V1.7.5.pdf



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 05, 2021, 07:42:07 am
Keithley / Tektronix / Kickstart , a heads-up

Your “permanent” Kickstart License that came with your DMM6500 or other Keithley or Tektronix test gear as a promotion, was false advertising, and a bait and switch scheme to get you to pay for it later.

Actually it was not but they sure made it confusing (due to an second promotion) to get what they promised.
If you bought the device when the promotion was still running then you can claim the full license. (but you had to contact them)
The node locked license you get when you register your device is not the free license that you could get, that's the one time install license. (I think it was (is?) valid for all touchscreen devices)

I bought two, one for home and one at work, both are still using the one time install license because I haven't changed the PC yet (I had to wait to get the other one) but I also have 2 accounts each with an unused license waiting for me that I can move from one computer to another.
https://www.tek.com/products/product-license (https://www.tek.com/products/product-license)  (if you bought them during the promotion you should get them in here: see screenshot)

There is more info in this long thread about it, the promotion ended now but if you ordered it on time you can claim the free license that you can move around.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 05, 2021, 11:40:45 am
Quote
There is more info in this long thread about it, the promotion ended now but if you ordered it on time you can claim the free license that you can move around.
How do you claim your right to the software ?

Reading in the link below does not get me too excited, but perhaps I missunderstand ? (Interpretation: From october 2021 you are stuck with that version of Kickstarter, if you want the latest you will have to pay)
https://www.tek.com/support/faqs/kickstart-licensing-faqs (https://www.tek.com/support/faqs/kickstart-licensing-faqs)

Answer :
1. I see that KICKSTARTFL-BASE is going away. Will the existing KICKSTARTFL-BASE license still work in KickStart version 2.4.0?
a. Yes.
b. However, by October 2021, existing KICKSTARTFL-BASE users will need to purchase KICKSTARTFL-SUITE-UP to use their Base licenses with KickStart software versions released after that date.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 05, 2021, 02:34:46 pm
Quote
There is more info in this long thread about it, the promotion ended now but if you ordered it on time you can claim the free license that you can move around.
How do you claim your right to the software ?
Ask the seller first, if they can't figure it out ask a Customer Sales Representative of your country (@tektronix.com), they will ask for serial number etc.
For my work I went via the seller, for home I went directly to @tektronix.com that did go much faster.
But since the promotion ended it may be trickier to get it done for an old purchase, not sure.

Yes indeed I see they won't give free updates anymore after end this year, ah well, didn't expect much updates anyway.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 05, 2021, 02:55:01 pm
DMM6500 New Firmware v1.7.5 Release - 04/Jan/2021:

https://download.tek.com/software/supporting_files/DMM6500-FRP-v1_7_5_Dec_2020_RNs_DMM6500-FRP-V1.7.5.pdf
fixes for scan cards...

Does anyone have an practical idea/example how this below was a problem?
Quote
The "Branch to Block" setting on various branch blocks on the Trigger Flow screen on the front panel now allows a minimum value of 0.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 05, 2021, 03:08:21 pm
KedasProbe, Thanks for the information, I went to the page you posted, and I show no licenses.

This information just made the the whole thing worst. First and foremost, I did not move the software, that was my grounds for asking for a new KEY, second the "Product Line Manager for Kickstart software" was involved, and they did not mention this as a possible solution, or at all. So if it is a possibility, and they should know that it is, they are knowingly trying to get me to pay for the license I already have.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 05, 2021, 03:28:29 pm
KedasProbe, Thanks for the information, I went to the page you posted, and I show no licenses.

This information just made the the whole thing worst. First and foremost, I did not move the software, that was my grounds for asking for a new KEY, second the "Product Line Manager for Kickstart software" was involved, and they did not mention this as a possible solution, or at all. So if it is a possibility, and they should know that it is, they are knowingly trying to get me to pay for the license I already have.
It will not add itself there, you will get some instructions by email to add it there with given codes.
example email:
Quote
Thank you for your order number ******* (Purchase Order:DMM6500: Free KickStart)  of 1 new software licenses for your Tektronix products. Included in this email are instructions on how to obtain those license keys.

Here is a list of the products purchased on this order:
1 - KICKSTARTFL-BASE License; KickStartFL-BASE for all base apps of KickStart 2.0; Floating


To manage the Check In and Check Out process, we have developed TekAMS, a free, web-based application available using your tek.com account.  Access TekAMS at the following URL:

http://www.tek.com/products/product-license (http://www.tek.com/products/product-license)

After you login, enter the Software License application by clicking on the "Software License" link at the top of the page, then click on the "Redeem a Claim Check" link on the page and enter your personalized code:

****** (case-sensitive)

This claim check is only good for 1 year and is specific to a MyTek account with the user name of *****@telenet.be. Please redeem your claim check now.

After you have redeemed your claim check, you will have full access to check out and check in your floating licenses using this TekAMS application.

http://www.tek.com/products/product-license (http://www.tek.com/products/product-license)

Thanks for buying Tektronix!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 05, 2021, 03:55:46 pm
I claimed the license 27-may-19, and have been using it since then, I searched my email for "TeKAMS" and nothing came up. My license show as permanent (AKA Oct 2021) again questionable practices. When I go to the License Manager Home page, In big bold letters it has "No Active Customer Relationship", sound about right  :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 05, 2021, 04:02:53 pm
When I go to the License Manager Home page, In big bold letters it has "No Active Customer Relationship", sound about right  :palm:
LOL they do keep the website up to date ;)
You were never given the free license, because you didn't asked for it at the time of purchase, (yeah you had to ask, annoying I know)
So try to make your case that you still want that free license. (if possible)

P.S. for your course material you are probably better off using the web browser control panel screen to control it remotely and get the csv file of the buffer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 05, 2021, 04:41:22 pm
To me the whole thing is mind-boggling, it's more important to them to screw me out of $160 (and more come Oct 2021, if I did not read the fine print) Then keep potential sales in the 100's, not to mention product recognition (something that a little company call Apple did) for a generation of student, numbering in the thousands...Just wow...

Anyway, thanks for your input and help, but this is a dead horse. Damage done Tektronix Keithley.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jjoonathan on January 05, 2021, 05:12:39 pm
I purchased a DMM6500 during the floating license promo. When I asked for the floating license, my distributor said to contact Keithley and Keithley said to contact my distributor.

It never did get resolved, I just put on my big boy pants and did everything in python/scpi.

Agreed: Damage done.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 05, 2021, 05:43:10 pm
Hmm, just getting into python to program 32 bit micro's, still at the begging of the learning curve, will have to investigate using it with my DMM6500. Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Evodad on January 05, 2021, 06:48:04 pm
Quote
It never did get resolved, I just put on my big boy pants and did everything in python/scpi.
I have had the thought but it comes down to where to spend my time. Anyhing you would like to share as a starting point ?

"Kedas", thank you for your input regarding the licensing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on January 05, 2021, 10:50:54 pm
How useful is the Kickstart software in reality? Looking into buying a DMM6500, obviously the promo is done but is it worth worrying about the software at all? (Other than worrying about Tek being dicks about this means they will be about other stuff?)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on January 05, 2021, 11:20:12 pm
.......(Other than worrying about Tek being dicks about this means they will be about other stuff?)

That, I believe the is morale of the story here..

OTOH I never saw much use for this type of prepackaged software, too limited usually and not flexible/customisable enough for real world.

In real life mostly controlling meter remotely is combined with some specific use or type of automation. So either Visual Studio + NI API or Python+Libraries for control/logging. And something to analyse data, from Excel to any other math/plotting tool and/or custom code...
I think teaching students to control instruments by writing their own code and learning to analyse it by using various tools would be of great benefit to them.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Bugsyson on January 05, 2021, 11:45:15 pm
The meter is great, I really enjoy using it. It is a bit over kill for the home lab, depending on what you are doing of coarse. I buy old test equipment and fix it up, and needed something that was at least 10X more accurate to do the calibrations before I resell (so I can buy more test equipment....Yes I should joint the TEA thread) I "sorta cal", the test equipment I repair for work (real calibration not needed) The bad is how Tek deals with things, Like the clock battery issue, not sure how all that played out for the effected people, lost track of that, and of coarse my resent rant (don't buy it because they offer you something for free, or free to pay later as it were).

The software for home use was nice but not a game changer, mostly used it so I could read the small fonts when graphing, they did release an update that made that a bit better, and a few other things.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thetechnick on January 07, 2021, 10:48:13 am
Got my DMM6500 yesterday and I am very happy with it.
The build quality is great and I really like the interface, it's easy and quick to navigate.
All functions are quick to access. As an electronics beginner I really value the amount of information and help hints that I can access directly in the UI.

And the amount of features is just amazing at that price.
(972,49 Euro with VAT from welectron.com, Germany)

My unit was calibrated on the first of december at Tektronix in China and came with firmware 1.7.3c preinstalled.

Only downside is the already known transformer hum.
My unit is about as loud as my fridge (with the compressor running.) which might not be horrible, but it still feels excessive.
Especially because the
Another comparison might be hum from a fluorescent tube that needs replacement.

When the DDM is on, the hum is gone (as far as I can tell.)

I think I would not mind it in an office environment, but at home the hum is just too loud and I need to cut power to it when not in use.
Btw. is there a good source explaining where that transformer hum is coming from?

The fan is noticeable, but completely ok. (I actually rather have the fan running than the transformer hum ;D)

E-Design:
If your offer still stands, could you have a quick check of my Serial Number? (Cal Certificate states Revision as 00, if thats of any help)
I would rather talk to Keithley/Tektronix support to fix the hum (if a fix is available), than trying to be lucky switching units because I definitely want to keep a DMM6500!
Thank you very much in advance!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on January 07, 2021, 12:59:32 pm
@thetechnick: Got my DMM650 from the same dealer. On my unit, the fan is quite loud but I did not notice any transformer hum. However, I have an issue with strong screen doubling when viewing the screen in a downwards direction, as described earlier in this thread. Does your unit also exhibit this issue?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thetechnick on January 07, 2021, 02:38:33 pm
@Pinörkel Same here with the screen. (Didn't notice, because I have it stacked to about eye level on my bench).

I would say viewing angle left to right on center high or slightly above is very good.
Being directly in front of the device and looking from below is also very good.

Screen quality (doubling/ghosting) is getting worse when looking from an angle from below.
Looking at the screen from above is worst. I start to notice it getting worse from 10 deg, at 45 deg straight it really bad.
Looking from top and the side seems to be better again.

Sorry no pictures due to poor lighting in that corner of my desk :D
But I don't think mine is different to your pictures.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on January 07, 2021, 05:06:59 pm
@Pinörkel Same here with the screen. (Didn't notice, because I have it stacked to about eye level on my bench).

I would say viewing angle left to right on center high or slightly above is very good.
Being directly in front of the device and looking from below is also very good.

Screen quality (doubling/ghosting) is getting worse when looking from an angle from below.
Looking at the screen from above is worst. I start to notice it getting worse from 10 deg, at 45 deg straight it really bad.
Looking from top and the side seems to be better again.

Sorry no pictures due to poor lighting in that corner of my desk :D
But I don't think mine is different to your pictures.
Hmm, that does not sound promising. I just wrote my dealer that I accept his offer to exchange the unit because I got advice in the official support forum from a Keithley employee that, based on my photos, an exchange is likely to bring an improvement. Maybe it's a particularly bad batch? I cannot imagine that this is normal on a screen of a unit of this price point. Every cheap (non-oled) smartphone touch-screen I have seen until now, even really old resistive ones, performs way better. How could such a screen pass quality control in the design process of a device whose main input and output device is the touchscreen?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on January 07, 2021, 11:32:38 pm
My DMM6500 was successfully RMA'd under warranty for the transformer hum issue. It's not back yet, though, but RMA status shows "parts have been ordered"
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jeroncic on January 16, 2021, 02:06:20 pm
I bought also DMM6500 also from welectron and i have the same issue with hum. It is great to hear that this is under the warranty.

Did you have any difficulties with the return ? Or u had to prove something ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on January 16, 2021, 09:15:26 pm
No questions asked. The return documentation said something like "31dB when off, 34dB when on, spec is 40dB so it's ok" but now it doesn't hum anymore so I guess they fixed it?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maex on January 17, 2021, 06:09:16 pm
Is there a KICKSTARTFL-BASE lifetime License included from welectron?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 18, 2021, 03:39:59 pm
No questions asked. The return documentation said something like "31dB when off, 34dB when on, spec is 40dB so it's ok" but now it doesn't hum anymore so I guess they fixed it?
3dB difference between on and standby and max 40dB spec that could be useful.

If you clearly hear that it is different then it will be different, there is also the possibility that transport had an impact on something unstable making it different.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on January 18, 2021, 03:51:10 pm
It's actually 38dB when on but yeah, the old issue is definitely gone. Could be transport, could be that they fixed something--the report isn't entirely clear.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on January 18, 2021, 06:21:20 pm
Is there a KICKSTARTFL-BASE lifetime License included from welectron?
On mine there wasn't any Kickstart license included. Anyways, didn't this whole free Kickstart license promotion of Keithley end several years ago?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 02:04:52 pm
I want to use the DC ratio function to measure the current amplification (at 180 μA) and measure Vbe using a scope to be able to match pnp transistors on those parameters using the posted test circuit. (The transistors will be used in a current mirror configuration.)

Edit: transistor should be vert. mirrored.

However my current measurement resistor for the base current is 1M. The question is how high is the input impedance of the sense terminals when doing a measurement on the 10V range?

I know the sense measurement range is fixed at 10V, so the 1M resistor is intended for keeping the resolution high.

Swapping sense en input (and selecting a lower range), would lead to the issue of not be able to measure the collector current sense voltage to fine tune that current by changing VCC.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on January 29, 2021, 02:32:16 pm

Yup. It is going overseas to be dismantled.


As a follow-up, the Keithley DMM6500 was found to have a defective board and it was replaced under warranty. It took a bit of whining on my end to convince them that the instrument was faulty, but the factory fixed it. They even calibrated the unit free of charge, so the instrument is good for another year. This was not a firmware issue like the technical support thought it to be.

Trust in yourself and don't let others tell you what they think before they inspect it.  :box:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 02:51:25 pm
I want to use the DC ratio function to measure the current amplification (at 180 μA) and measure Vbe using a scope to be able to match pnp transistors on those parameters using the posted test circuit. (The transistors will be used in a current mirror configuration.)

However my current measurement resistor for the base current is 1M. The question is how high is the input impedance of the sense terminals when doing a measurement on the 10V range?

I know the sense measurement range is fixed at 10V, so the 1M resistor is intended for keeping the resolution high.

Swapping sense en input (and selecting a lower range), would lead to the issue of not be able to measure the collector current sense voltage to fine tune that current by changing VCC.
It got me thinking, maybe putting a voltage follower on the transistor base to lessen the "load" on it would be better?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on January 29, 2021, 04:10:29 pm
The sense inputs should be high impedance, similar to the normal voltage input in high impedance mode (so > 10 G) range. There may be however slightly higher bias current and maybe slightly higher noise from the switching and protection part that is often lower grade than with the main input.  So there is no real need for an extra buffer.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: samofab on January 29, 2021, 04:21:26 pm

Only downside is the already known transformer hum.
My unit is about as loud as my fridge (with the compressor running.) which might not be horrible, but it still feels excessive.


I also got my DMM6500 from welectron and it was quite loud. After some investigation, the unit was set to 220V. After I switched it to 240V, the hum is almost inaudible. Hope that helps.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 04:45:19 pm
The sense inputs should be high impedance, similar to the normal voltage input in high impedance mode (so > 10 G) range. There may be however slightly higher bias current and maybe slightly higher noise from the switching and protection part that is often lower grade than with the main input.  So there is no real need for an extra buffer.
Because the tests will be (semi) automated, and I only have one scpi enabled dmm, there's also the issue of the scope measuring Vbe. I think its impedance is about 10M with 10x attenuation. That measurement might require a buffer after all.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 04:53:40 pm

Only downside is the already known transformer hum.
My unit is about as loud as my fridge (with the compressor running.) which might not be horrible, but it still feels excessive.


I also got my DMM6500 from welectron and it was quite loud. After some investigation, the unit was set to 220V. After I switched it to 240V, the hum is almost inaudible. Hope that helps.
Mentioned it before: all my devices (dmm6500 as well) are switched using 2 powers trips. Bolted down at each side (left, right) of the bench. No hum and very practical.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 06:13:30 pm
I want to use the DC ratio function to measure the current amplification (at 180 μA) and measure Vbe using a scope to be able to match pnp transistors on those parameters using the posted test circuit. (The transistors will be used in a current mirror configuration.)
When calculating values in the test circuit,  I didn't take into account that the sense inputs are referenced to negative input and cannot exceed 10V to that point. (I think the manual mentions 12V).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 29, 2021, 10:09:25 pm
Not the most interesting circuit in the world, but now it should be correct  :-+. I added a voltage follower, just so scope measurement cannot interfere with the low base current.
The idea is get to a precise collector current, fine tuned by VCC using a programmable PSU based on the dmm's secondary measurement.
Then the dmm's DC ratio measurement needs to be scaled to get the current amplification.
Also Vbe will then be measured. I will do that for 60 x 2N3906's and run them through a matching script, which I hope will deliver 2 x matched pairs for the 4 transitor current mirror.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on January 30, 2021, 01:57:06 am

Only downside is the already known transformer hum.
My unit is about as loud as my fridge (with the compressor running.) which might not be horrible, but it still feels excessive.


I also got my DMM6500 from welectron and it was quite loud. After some investigation, the unit was set to 220V. After I switched it to 240V, the hum is almost inaudible. Hope that helps.



Oh, wow. I think this might have been my issue as well (Datatec, not welectron, but voltage is closer to 240 here anyways)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on January 30, 2021, 08:53:32 am
Not the most interesting circuit in the world, but now it should be correct  :-+. I added a voltage follower, just so scope measurement cannot interfere with the low base current.
The idea is get to a precise collector current, fine tuned by VCC using a programmable PSU based on the dmm's secondary measurement.
Then the dmm's DC ratio measurement needs to be scaled to get the current amplification.
Also Vbe will then be measured. I will do that for 60 x 2N3904's and run them through a matching script, which I hope will deliver 2 x matched pairs for the 4 transitor current mirror.
The circuit does not work this way, with the FB from the collector to the inverting input. Taking the signal from the collector inverts the signal - so wrong polarity. In addition the collector usually adds gain so just swaping the OP inputs may still not work but oscillate.

I would consider a slightly simpler circuit: just an emitter follower with a rather large resistor at the base. for a fixed voltage before the resistor one would than measure the voltage at the base an emitter. The collector current would not be absolute constant, but one could still measure the base and emitter current from the voltage drops. Matching pairs would also have a current very close.

Ideally the DMM6500 could also measuren the votlage from one sense input to com. Not sure if this is supported by the software.  The hardware should allow this and it would be a nice feature, not just for this measurement.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 30, 2021, 10:38:02 am
Not the most interesting circuit in the world, but now it should be correct  :-+. I added a voltage follower, just so scope measurement cannot interfere with the low base current.
The idea is get to a precise collector current, fine tuned by VCC using a programmable PSU based on the dmm's secondary measurement.
Then the dmm's DC ratio measurement needs to be scaled to get the current amplification.
Also Vbe will then be measured. I will do that for 60 x 2N3904's and run them through a matching script, which I hope will deliver 2 x matched pairs for the 4 transitor current mirror.
The circuit does not work this way, with the FB from the collector to the inverting input. Taking the signal from the collector inverts the signal - so wrong polarity. In addition the collector usually adds gain so just swaping the OP inputs may still not work but oscillate.

I would consider a slightly simpler circuit: just an emitter follower with a rather large resistor at the base. for a fixed voltage before the resistor one would than measure the voltage at the base an emitter. The collector current would not be absolute constant, but one could still measure the base and emitter current from the voltage drops. Matching pairs would also have a current very close.

Ideally the DMM6500 could also measuren the votlage from one sense input to com. Not sure if this is supported by the software.  The hardware should allow this and it would be a nice feature, not just for this measurement.
Thanks for mentioning the opamp input issue. Should have seen that one myself..
I'll try swapping the inputs first and see how it behaves. It would be something I would do in a normal circuit as well  :-//. Will do some research on it why it might be tricky. It's probably due to phases, a concept I yet need to familiarize with.
I had thought of a setup which used the dc-signal of an awg at the base (+resistor) to control the collector current. But that would take more time to tune for each transistor, so not ideal.

From what I know, there's not a supported way of acquiring the individual sense voltages programmatically. Only primary and secondary measurements. Measurements are done via buffers, with only 2 flavors: with or without secondary measurement. Having more optional properties would be nice. For instance each measurement could also contain the range (when auto ranging) that was used for that measurement. So one could also determine the accuracy of it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 30, 2021, 02:07:59 pm
From my understanding when a ratio measurement is done it consists of 3 distinct sequential measurements of the potential between negative input vs sens-, sens+, input+.
If one would like to minimize noise due to measurement wires of about 0.5 m, what would be a good approach.
My little test circuit would use dedicated wires with banana plugs soldered to them.
Using one twisted pair to the sense lines would not make sense, unless it were 2 twisted pairs, both using negative input. But that would result in 3 wires carrying negative input. Don't think noise get canceled out then..
The other option would maybe using shielded cables, but should the shield be connected to earth and on which ends?
I'm thinking about just using individual wires, but if there's an easy way to improve the setup that would be nice. I only have some coax cable lying around to use as shielded cable. But I think some low noise signal cable should be bought for in the toolbox. Any recommendations for comparable measurements?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: leighcorrigall on January 30, 2021, 03:27:32 pm
As a follow-up, the Keithley DMM6500 was found to have a defective board and it was replaced under warranty. It took a bit of whining on my end to convince them that the instrument was faulty, but the factory fixed it. They even calibrated the unit free of charge, so the instrument is good for another year. This was not a firmware issue like the technical support thought it to be.

What bad luck. I feel like I jinxed something yesterday because the same day I posted this message the instrument failed again.  :palm:

New symptoms:  :-BROKE
- DCI is displaying a constant overcurrent ( > 3 A).
- ACI initially starts at high amps and quickly decays to a noisy uA reading.

I tried updating the firmware (1.7.3 -> 1.7.5), checking the fuses through the APP, reinitializing it, switching to rear mode. I am going to ask for a complete replacement of this instrument and then possibly sell it.

The Keithley DMM6500 is absolute garbage. The instrument has failed on me twice in 6 months, even after a factory repair. For the price, buy something less complicated and more reliable. I bought the instrument believing that the name had the same quality as the older Keithley models like the 200X, 648X, or the 23X. It's a great paperweight.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on January 30, 2021, 04:26:14 pm
I've cut a firewire cable which is shielded and also contains 2 shielded twisted pairs, besides 2 unshielded wires.
That cable might be useful because of the shielding but it had been more suited if it had 3 twisted pairs. (If twisted pairs are even beneficial in this case.)
It is mildly flexible so that's a plus.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 01, 2021, 12:39:18 am
I implemented the circuit and tested it for oscillation. And it did as Kleinstein predicted and as shown in the scope screenshot (across R104).
So I added - a quick fix - a feedback cap C101, that makes it almost stable, but now and then the Vbe voltage (across vcc-ch1) rises, as shown in the 2nd screenshot.
But this happens only each second or so.

Part from that, I do like the circuit. The collector current can be measured and regulated well. The ratio gets measured ok. The base voltage can be measured.
And all those measurements don't fluctuate much. Touching the transitor and heating it only a bit has an effect though. So swapping needs to be done with pliers, and without much temp fluctuations in the room while doing the complete batch.

For the wires to the dmm I took the firewire cable and use the pairs as one combined wire.

While doing this experiment I had to laugh because of the worry about noise I had while looking at large oscillations on screen.  ^-^

Advice to stabilize it further is welcome,  otherwise I'll just add more capacitance  : :)


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 01, 2021, 07:22:19 am
Even a little oscillation is not good for a good DC measurement. Especially the VBE measurement can be off in this case.

I would try another additional cap at the transistors from base to collector, to slow down the transistor. To capacitor already added is good and needs be there also.  This should also reduce the sensitivity to external radio signal pic-up.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 01, 2021, 09:47:15 am
Will do that  :-+
If it gets to be very rare, I can discard the measurement because of the scope measuring Vbe and it will then be "out of bounds" for a lot of samples.
The scope measurement should then be overlapping the dmm's. Good enough for the Netherlands  ;D
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 01, 2021, 12:06:44 pm
The issue might be more interesting..
I implemented a new circuit, but nothing really changed. However I found out it happens very regulary. About every 832 ms.
But even more strange only when sense+ is connected to the dmm  :-//
That line isn't even an input of something and also not really high output impedance.
I haven't given it much thought yet, but I suspect the dmm measurering interferes with the circuit in someway.

After writing this: I should check whether it also happens when sense- is disconnected and sense+ is connected and other combinations as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 01, 2021, 12:31:21 pm
Might have remebered the wrong connector (or it doesn't replicate), it is input+that needs to be connected to get the interference.
Which also makes more sense, because it is connected to the opamps input.
Also the ratio function should be on, if it's off then no issue, it then measures voltage at the same terminals just fine.

I think I'll add another voltage follower and everything is Huncky Dory!

But this issue kind of restricts the usage of the ratio measurement function to a degree, I've got the freedom to adapt the circuit for it, but in other cases?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 01, 2021, 12:54:52 pm
The sense inputs are measured not all the time, but the are switched to the main amplifier from time to time. This switching can cause current spikes at the inputs and these may interfere with the circuit. Another possible problem is from capacitive loading - the TL072, like most other OPs does not like capacitive load at the output. With more than a few 100 pF (this may be just 1-2 m of cable) it can start oscillating. So the ouputs from the TL072 should have some series resistors like 100 Ohm to prevet this.


The capacitor just from the base to ground does not help that much, the more effective point is for the collector and especially the collector to base version.

Capacitance at the collector could be also an issue:  it can help with stabilit and if the DMM switches to measure at the sense input the capacitance can become smaller.

Anyway things drift a bit off topic -- this thread is about the DMM650 , not about the circuit to measure transistors.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 01, 2021, 01:35:49 pm
The capacitor just from the base to ground does not help that much, the more effective point is for the collector and especially the collector to base version.
My wrong, I've misread your advise as put a capacitor at the base, not specifically between collector and base. (Will think about the difference.)
Thanks for helping out, eventhough off topic! (I didn't want to bring in a circuit with issues, just the "test setup")

The sense inputs are measured not all the time, but the are switched to the main amplifier from time to time. This switching can cause current spikes at the inputs and these may interfere with the circuit.
Probably the remaining issue.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on February 02, 2021, 02:03:31 pm
I also got my DMM6500 from welectron and it was quite loud. After some investigation, the unit was set to 220V. After I switched it to 240V, the hum is almost inaudible. Hope that helps.
Europe does have 230V and we have 220V and 240V to choose from, I left it on 220V but maybe we should set it to 240V?
If it reduces the HUM and works equally as well.... (haven't tested it)

That's something for Keithley to answer if 240V is also ok or even preferred on an 230V net?

Edit: I changed it to 240V since I think we are always above the allowed bottom limit of 240V net
It gives the impression that there is less hum, I could only measure less 400Hz hum, 100Hz and 200Hz are the same.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on February 02, 2021, 11:21:54 pm
I also got my DMM6500 from welectron and it was quite loud. After some investigation, the unit was set to 220V. After I switched it to 240V, the hum is almost inaudible. Hope that helps.
Europe does have 230V and we have 220V and 240V to choose from, I left it on 220V but maybe we should set it to 240V?
If it reduces the HUM and works equally as well.... (haven't tested it)

That's something for Keithley to answer if 240V is also ok or even preferred on an 230V net?

Edit: I changed it to 240V since I think we are always above the allowed bottom limit of 240V net
It gives the impression that there is less hum, I could only measure less 400Hz hum, 100Hz and 200Hz are the same.

With mains at 230V, setting to 240V should be ok. If the internal voltage is a problem (too low in this case), the unit has some ability to detect it and provide an error on startup.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 03, 2021, 08:45:53 am
Hi E-Design, glad to see you are still on this forum.
A while ago I was describing ongoing problems I have had with my DMM6500.  These have now worsened to the point where it is almost unuseable.
The continuous sampling just stops and starts completely at random with messages in the reading table, while in the non sampling mood, which mean nothing to me. The annoying thing is that sometimes the meter will run faultlessly for several days and then will suddenly start misbehaving. It is in a temperature stable workshop, in a permanent position in an equipment stack with good ventilation. HELP!! PLEASE it is driving me mad :scared:
I am attaching a screen shot, which clearly shows the periods when no sampling is occuring, I also have the csv file from the reading table which shows the messages in the table while it is not sampling, maybe they could give you a clue? Unfortunately this is too large to attach to this post.
Any help would be appreciated since this problem has plagued me since new, although it is now becoming so serious that the meter cannot be relied on.
Thank you and regards Mike
AAAGH!  it's just stopped again after only being on for 20 minutes, screen shot and csv attached
Have had to change csv extension to txt to upload attachment :-/O
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 03, 2021, 09:04:08 am
The times marked look really odd: the data look like they are not even in the right sequence - like 2 streams of data coming in with some 5 seconds off.

The CVS file shows 2 data streems : one from the main ADC and one from the digitizer. So there is something odd with the settings. This should not happen and the data from the 2 source should go to separate buffers.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 03, 2021, 09:40:09 am
Yes I noticed Digitizer in the csv but I am not using the digitizer, this just appears at random. While it is in this fault condition the meter sort of locks up, some hard buttons do nothing, some perform the wrong function, the screen is non responsive.  If I prod butons at random, I have not been able to repeat a sequence that helps, it will suddenly wake up and carry on as if nothing happened but leaves a gap in the readings.  It used to stop until I intervened but now if I leave it alone it does, eventually, restart by itself, this can be seen on the home screen image which shows several hours of data. It is a shame because when it works correctly this meter is a superb piece of equipment. When I initially bought it other people were reporting blue screens, freezing etc so I assumed it was a firmware problem and Keithley would sort it out, unfortunately I am now suspecting a possible hardware issue :palm:   
Let's see if E Design can throw any light on it :-+
Thank you for your input, regards Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: The Bootloader on February 03, 2021, 10:13:19 am
As a follow-up, the Keithley DMM6500 was found to have a defective board and it was replaced under warranty. It took a bit of whining on my end to convince them that the instrument was faulty, but the factory fixed it. They even calibrated the unit free of charge, so the instrument is good for another year. This was not a firmware issue like the technical support thought it to be.

What bad luck. I feel like I jinxed something yesterday because the same day I posted this message the instrument failed again.  :palm:

New symptoms:  :-BROKE
- DCI is displaying a constant overcurrent ( > 3 A).
- ACI initially starts at high amps and quickly decays to a noisy uA reading.

I tried updating the firmware (1.7.3 -> 1.7.5), checking the fuses through the APP, reinitializing it, switching to rear mode. I am going to ask for a complete replacement of this instrument and then possibly sell it.

The Keithley DMM6500 is absolute garbage. The instrument has failed on me twice in 6 months, even after a factory repair. For the price, buy something less complicated and more reliable. I bought the instrument believing that the name had the same quality as the older Keithley models like the 200X, 648X, or the 23X. It's a great paperweight.

Have you contacted Keithley technical support about it ? They have been pretty responsive to me when I reported bugs to them
Just curious as to what they would have to say for the issues you are reporting
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on February 03, 2021, 12:49:41 pm
Yes I noticed Digitizer in the csv but I am not using the digitizer, this just appears at random. While it is in this fault condition the meter sort of locks up, some hard buttons do nothing, some perform the wrong function, the screen is non responsive.  If I prod butons at random, I have not been able to repeat a sequence that helps, it will suddenly wake up and carry on as if nothing happened but leaves a gap in the readings.  It used to stop until I intervened but now if I leave it alone it does, eventually, restart by itself, this can be seen on the home screen image which shows several hours of data. It is a shame because when it works correctly this meter is a superb piece of equipment. When I initially bought it other people were reporting blue screens, freezing etc so I assumed it was a firmware problem and Keithley would sort it out, unfortunately I am now suspecting a possible hardware issue :palm:   
Let's see if E Design can throw any light on it :-+
Thank you for your input, regards Mike

Hi Mike, sorry to hear you are having trouble, you mentioned it can run just fine for hours so thats not usually a characteristic of a hardware problem (though its possible, just not as likely)

Couple of things...

1) Did you contact support? If you did, I can work with them to nudge the progress along if you are not getting any satisfactory help.
2) What vintage is the instrument. If you PM the serial, I can look it up to see if its an earlier unit that may have had some intermittent digital board issues (that was a hardware issue)
3) A bit of a long shot, but can you verify the instrument has a proper earth ground for your mains connection? Its not enough to just check that the pin on the cable is connecting to the instrument - but rather that wherever it is plugged in, does actually have a sufficient connection to earth. We have seen some sometimes strange display and digital behavior when the instrument isnt properly grounded in some environments or with very high voltage potentials nearby. Hopefully, its an easy thing for you to verify..
4) Try actually downgrading the firmware to something that is several versions ago (off hand, I dont know what the latest release is..) but try something significantly older and then let it run for long periods doing the same testing you have been doing.. sometimes this can help establish when a particular firmware issue might have been introduced- and sometimes its just a waste of time unfortunately.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 03, 2021, 03:09:31 pm
Hi E Design, thank you for the information.  I will answer your questions in turn

1)  No.  As I thought it was  a known issue I was watching on the forum and hoping a firmware upgrade would eventually fix it. If I go down that route can you suggest a contact point please?  I am in Cyprus. It was bought from UK.
2)  I bought it from Farnell UK in early April 2019 S.No 04415206
3)  The L-PE impedance at the wall outlet is 3.54Ω,  at the IEC connector to the DMM6500 it is 4.19Ω   The mains supply is 243volts and the DMM6500 is set to 240volts input.
4)  Have not tried this as it has had problems from when first received and it had a very early firmware installed then. I will try it if you think that may shed some light on the problem. It is currently running 1.7.3c

Thanks in advance, Mike



Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 03, 2021, 03:12:43 pm
Sorry E Design I didn't include the L-N impedances in question 2 without which the L-PE wont mean as much.   The L-N impedance at the wall outlet is 0.66Ω, at the IEC connector to the DMM6500 it is 0.95Ω
Regards Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on February 03, 2021, 07:09:59 pm
Sorry E Design I didn't include the L-N impedances in question 2 without which the L-PE wont mean as much.   The L-N impedance at the wall outlet is 0.66Ω, at the IEC connector to the DMM6500 it is 0.95Ω
Regards Mike

Hi Mike,

When the operation become strange, do you get some kind of message or error ? if so, what is the exact error stated?

and if I am understanding your setup, it looks like you just setup DCV 100mV range (not *digitize V) and let it fill the default buffer with readings.. sometime after say 20 minutes or some hours, then it misbehaves by what looks like digitzer readings polluting your default buffer. Additionally, the front panel / buttons become unresponsive or misbehave.... and it could appear to be frozen for sometime until it just snaps back into working..

do I have this description right?

Thanks
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 04, 2021, 06:46:23 am
Hi again E Design

When it stops there is no error message, it just freezes and the two rotating arrows next to the CONT on the top left of the screen stop rotating.
Randomly pushing physiacal buttons can usually make it restart, I say randomly because there is no definite sequence I have found that always makes it restart. Also when in his stuck mode the physical buttons often actuate a dufferent function from the one they are meant to start :-//  More recently, as you realise, if left it will restart after a random time, this is a new feature but no changes to the setup have been made to cause this |O

The 100mV range is automatically selected by the meter, it is not runnung any script, the unit is starting up in default mode other than the DEF1 buffer is set 1,000,000 readings and Filter ON (Repeat 10)

If it is power cycled while in the fault state it hangs permanently on boot at the red Keithley logo, before the relay clicks, no beep nor front terminal indicator lamp lights, hope this may help.
Thank you
Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on February 04, 2021, 11:36:10 pm
Mike G, check your PM
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 05, 2021, 06:28:33 am
Thank you E Design :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 05, 2021, 11:59:05 am
Sometimes (maybe 33% of the times) when doing a ratio measurement and a clear buffer, the first reading in the buffer is that of a secondary measurement,  thus voltage.

I think I understand what's happening. Setting up a secondary measurement creates a 2nd buffer. When the default buffer is cleared it may be unavailable for a moment so the 2nd buffer is used.
The creation of a second buffer in the ratio case was not know to me, so there seems to be 2 ways of getting the input voltage of a ratio measurement via scpi, one via the extra value of the default buffer. And one by setting up a secondary measurement.

Edit:
The extra value contains the sense voltage (difference between SenseHi and SenseLo).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 05, 2021, 04:31:29 pm
I've been tuning the circuit and my measurement setup to a degree of repeatability I'm happy with.

The SenseLo, SenseHi, InputHi are all buffered with a generic TL082, and smoothed with a 1k/10uF RC filter and 10uF capacitors at the terminals.

Considering this and the fact each dc ratio measurement consists of 3 sub measurements separated in time, this 12 min graph seems very acceptable, and good enough to be able to distinguish between different transistors.

The amplification of a transistors is very dependent on even slight temperature differences at this "level of accuracy". Now that is becomes noon and a bit colder this seems already affect the measurements. Having to do 60 transistors under controlled circumstances (same temp) might be tricky. However for me the end result is not the most important.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on February 06, 2021, 02:57:01 pm
Hi E Design
I have replied to your PM but as I have never sent a PM before please can you confirm receipt?
Thanks, Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 06, 2021, 03:22:54 pm
I've been reading the reference manual, but I cannot find a way to set the secondary measurement function using a scpi command's.

Then I thought maybe just use a configuration list.. But secondary measurement seem not to be managed by them.

Also swapping between primary and secondary measurements doesn't seem to have a corresponding scpi command, so a dead end as well.

Then I tried to record related actions in a macro and have a look inside such a script. But these secondary measurement actions are not recorded.

Maybe someone had more success and/or knows how?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 07, 2021, 11:41:19 am
I think I understand why the secondary measurement can not be configured remotely. Here's my view on the matter..

One of my ongoing project is to sync the states of my scope, awg, psu, dmm with an inifile, so the settings are documented and can be recalled later on. On most devices this works by setting up the user interface via scpi commands. On my scope even menus are switched accordingly.. (this slows things down unnecessary).  Or another example: when you change two dependent parameters in a single command like low/high level. One of them might be discarded, because if you would manually change them in that order the bounds wouldn't (momentarily) make sense. (High bound lower than low bound). But in an api I think you owe it to the user to just buffer them and check them in buffer.. (Now one needs first read the current state, to change the parameter order accordingly..) So some manufacturers make it too easy on them selves...

The dmm6500 is different in this regard. It more like the user interface can setup a (hidden) trigger model. In which the primary and secondary measurements are configured in a configlist that are switched during measuring. The secondary measurement (dc-voltage) of a dc-ratio function is (from what I understand) a new measurement,  eventhough it is already part of one of the 3 sub-measurements.

So a way to do a secondary (and "tertiary"..) measurement via scripts is to (directly) setup such an trigger model ourselves. However determining what secondary function is active seems not possible. So no way of documenting/restoring that state.

One challenge that I face is that I need to cache the settings of a function to determine the 2 year calibration accuracy of the measurement. This is used to show the significant digits, instead of 7 or 17 (real). But also in calculations, in which these measurements are used the accuracy is (automatically) propagated.  :-DMM

It would great if the dmm would calculate the accuracy instead!! (user may select the used "calibration duration")

This settingscache at the moment does a "write through" to the active state of the device. But due to the need of alternating functions these settings now need to remain in a config list. One problem here: with TSP commands it is possible to change settings without making them active, but when using scpi commands it is not. For my scripts it would have been nice to be a be able to do a two way sync. Having to make a function active to change a setting in a configuration list,  makes it less flexible. (For instance changing the range of a function in script while running the trigger model, would be disruptive)

One thing I've also been thinking about is that each measurement (all rows of the buffer) could have it's own "configuration reference" (an index in a system maintained configlist). That way the uncertainty determination (for instance) could be done without caching settings. But that would be a nice challenge for the Keithley developers.  :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 09, 2021, 01:49:09 pm
I made the script and ran it.

The script runs the attached trigger model and each time the event is logged, my script gets notified that 2 values can be read from 2 seperate buffers after which the dmm gets triggered to continue.

This is done via a Visa callback and requires no polling.

The measured shunt voltage is then used to adjust the powersupply to get closer to the target voltage of 4.8375 V ± 700 μV  :-DMM. This needs a few cycles. The powersupply has a UI resolution of 1 mV, but using scpi commands more can be achieved. When using dmm feedback it has very high accuracy as well.

In the setup I used a 3 (female) pin low quality mounting strip for the transistor under test, I think this may have added extra noise. So I'll be soldering them to some male pins. This will heat up the transistor of course, but by letting the script watch the transistor amplification go down due to cooling and get stabilized this can be used to take the final measurement.

PS
I just had to put 4.8375 V ± 700 μV in the above text, this value and accuracy was aquired from the measured shunt resistor of 27.025 kΩ ± 4 Ω. Having accuracy info besides the values can give some indication what margin of error one has or need to maintain during experiments. Normally my script would show accuracy by limiting the significant digits, only verbose mode shows it with ± xx.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 09, 2021, 02:13:04 pm
This is done via a Visa callback and requires no polling.

It is very interesting. Could you tell us more about how you do this?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 09, 2021, 02:55:32 pm
My scripting tool/script is a bit specific, but it still good to show the steps using it as an example:
At the dmm side of things:
Code: [Select]
<Execute Statement="Dmm.MapEventToOperationRegister(TEventCode.InfoMessage4, TRegisterBit.B1)"/>
<Execute Statement="Dmm.OperationRegisterCascadeMask:= TRegisterBits.B1"/>
<Execute Statement="Dmm.ServiceRequestMask:= TDmmSTBFlag.OSB"/>
<Variable Identifier="OSBState" Type="TRegisterState" Init="Dmm.StatusState[TDmmSTB.OSB]"/>

Which will lead to the following scpi output.
Code: [Select]
Sending: :STATUS:OPERATION:MAP 1, 2737
Sending: :STATUS:OPERATION:ENABLE 2
Sending: *SRE 128
ReadSTB: 0
Sending: :STATUS:OPERATION?
Received: 0

Status bit are read using destructive reads, so I manage changes in those bits using large integers (TRegisterState). So if a certain bit is set, then a corresponding integer is incremented. This way checking bits can be done at several locations in the script, without "destroying" a state change.

Essentially a report type (TEventCode.InfoMessage4 = 2737) is mapped to a certain bit. Than this bit is enabled to send a ServiceRequest when it is logged.

At the script side of things the used tool should register a ServiceRequest callback/handler using the Visa api.
Code: [Select]
    RetValue := viInstallHandler(FVisaResource.FSession, VI_EVENT_SERVICE_REQ, VisaEventHandler, Self);
    RetValue := viEnableEvent(FVisaResource.FSession, VI_EVENT_SERVICE_REQ, VI_HNDLR, 0);
In my tool this registered handler (under water) sets a win32 Event on which the script can use to wait for to be signalled.
Code: [Select]
<Variable Identifier="ServiceRequestEvent" Type="TVisaEvent" Init="Dmm.VisaResource.ServiceRequestEvent"/>
<Execute Statement="ServiceRequestEvent.Enabled:= True"/>
Which is used for waiting and checking the right status:
Code: [Select]
<RepeatUntilLoop Expression="Dmm.OperationChanged(TRegisterBit.B1, NewMeasurementState)">
  <RepeatUntilLoop Expression="Dmm.StatusChanged(TDmmSTB.OSB, OSBState)">
    <Suspend>
      <Resume.EventHandle Handle="ServiceRequestEvent.Handle"/>
      <Resume.BreakRequest IssueExit="True"/>
    </Suspend>
  </RepeatUntilLoop>
</RepeatUntilLoop>
Which results in these scpi commands:
Code: [Select]
ReadSTB: 192
Sending: :STATUS:OPERATION?
Received: 2
It may look like the loop is polling, but this loop is just too ensure the right event (InfoMessage4) has happened, it will only do that if and SRQ notification was send by the dmm (Visa will open a dedicated network port for that).
The loop can also be used without waiting, but than it's more like polling the dmm (Sending many queries).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on February 11, 2021, 01:04:27 pm
Hello, I just noticed something strange with my new DMM6500. The push button that switches between front and rear panel inputs has kind of a scratchy feel and a comparatively high resistance when pressing it. Through the venting holes on the right side I can see that the button is connected via a diagonal rod to a switch on the PCB at the top of the instrument. Each time I actuate the button and switch it to the rear inputs, this PCB flexes momentarily at least 5mm in an upward direction, which looks extremely unhealthy. The actuation force is so high that it is impossible to actuate the button without holding the meter in place on the table. Is this normal, or is it likely that my switch has a way too high mechanical resistance and is actually defective?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on February 11, 2021, 04:25:25 pm
Mine doesn't seem to be harder than usual, the meter doesn't slide. I can also see the board flexing a few mm.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Pinörkel on February 12, 2021, 01:56:37 pm
Mine doesn't seem to be harder than usual, the meter doesn't slide. I can also see the board flexing a few mm.
Thank you for checking the PCB flex on your device. I just measured the actuation force on my button and it is approximately 800g. That is about 50% more than the force for most of the push buttons on my vintage devices, but none of the latter have that scratchy feel while pushing the button.

As for the flexing, this looks like really bad design to me. Bending a PCB like that is kind of a predetermined breaking point for the traces on it. The only sound reason I can imagine for constructing it like this is, to make the bending of the PCB act as a strain relief for the solder joints of the push button switch.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 17, 2021, 11:29:21 pm
I had some fun using the ratio functionality to measure the input/output current ratio of the attached current mirror circuit. The input current was derived from the extravalue which can be get from a full style buffer. This current is set using a few cycles tuning with an awg. From gnd (and dmm com) vs sense lo, is a about -7 V at the highest currents, this way the "fixed 10 V range" is used more like a 20V range.

Did some averaging myself (running average of about 30 s of samples, until stddev of the running samples was lower than 0.0001).

The transitors were measured and "best matched" (out of 15 in total) using a different circuit (also using the ratio functionality to determine current amplification).

At higher currents the ratio climbs a bit, probably due to uneven warming up of the transistors.

The current mirror seems very usefull in this current range.  :-DMM
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 10:04:54 am
Here's a nice science vid from Applied Science of a dmm6500 in action as a precision (differential) temperature measurement device. (Don't be shocked about the water spill)
https://youtu.be/9wZ0wTqJIxY (https://youtu.be/9wZ0wTqJIxY)
I was wondering though, wouldn't a 4 wire measurement not be better? Now a small part of the leads contribute to an unknown/unwanted resistance change as well.

Buying a sensor like this:
https://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Measurement-Specialties/PTFM101T1A0/?qs=e%2Fel81Nv5ixCDfWDEYh9tw%3D%3D (https://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Measurement-Specialties/PTFM101T1A0/?qs=e%2Fel81Nv5ixCDfWDEYh9tw%3D%3D)

And attaching 4 wires to it (and some electrical isolation) would make for a cheap (3€), but maybe better measurement setup, no?

Edit:
After thinking about it some more, his calibration propably rules out the wire resistance change. Looking at the addition of water, the amount does not need to be precise as well  ;D
However between different measurements both water amount and cm of sensor lead in water must be the same. And the leads should have comparable heat response (lineair).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 11:57:57 am
I wanted to experiment with 2 transistor constant current source, to measure the Vbe voltages of a certain transistor at a range of currents (controlled by awg dc offset).

Having only one dmm6500 I tried to use the ratio functionality to measure 2 voltages at the "same time". The switching the dmm does between sub-measurements seems to make this method unusable. (I've tried adding delays).

One can see the difference in the shunt voltages measured (sense Hi vs Lo). When using the ratio functionality combined with a separate voltage measurement, the voltages seem to be jumping between 3 distinct levels (besides some noise). This I find somewhat fascinating..

Previously I buffered the signals to the dmm, to get around this issue. But the need of having to change the circuit under test is inconveniant. Maybe someone has another solution?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 23, 2021, 01:31:11 pm
The second voltage reading (from the ratio data) look odd. The points high are som 130 mV higher than the rest.  If this a artifact from the meter this would be a huge error.
As far as I heard there is detailed info on the buffer data - so more than just voltage readings, but also data on the source and time. This may help to show why some points are off so far.

A voltage reading of some 5 V is odd for the given ciruit. 5 V for B to E is a bit high for Q102  :-//.

The more straight forward way would be using a scanner card that is available for the 6500.
Otherwise using the ratio mode should be OK as a workaround to get 2 readings - it would be however much better if the SW would support this directly.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 01:57:23 pm
Thanks for responding, the measured 5V is the voltage across R101. The "constant" current voltage  :).
In the ratio measurement it is measured between the sense lines. Technically using 2 sub measurements between sense hi/lo and com (so it can be time related).
In the normal measurement, between input hi and com.
The strange thing is that it can be stable for a short period, and then it jumps a level. Then after a shorter period it jumps back.
 Using the awg, makes it difficult to do a normal scope measurement across R101, but I could use 2 channels and substract. I could also try a ratio measurement of a simple resistor divider and check its behavior on a scope.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 02:52:46 pm
I measured a simple resistor divider (51k vs 51k) and (only) once I got a jump.

The wires I used have crimped connectors on them and I'm starting to suspect them not being optimal. If thats the case this can be given funny business for some time now, maybe invalidating my previous findings on interference on ratio measurements.

However I'm a bit skeptical of a loose wire being the issue. The measurements I do are mostly remote, thus without physical inteference. And why would the jumps be so alike..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 03:46:02 pm
Wires and connectors are checked:
Code: [Select]
Blue 63,8 mΩ ± 200 μΩ
Green 64,4 mΩ ± 200 μΩ
Black 32,5 mΩ ± 200 μΩ
White 32,1 mΩ ± 200 μΩ
(Black and white are thicker)

Also wiggling them around had never an effect on the problem.

My script tests for these currents, with corresponding shunt voltages:
Code: [Select]
10 mA 5,0710 V
8,2 mA 4,1582 V
6,8 mA 3,4483 V
5,6 mA 2,8398 V
4,7 mA 2,3834 V
3,9 mA 1,9777 V
3,3 mA 1,6734 V
2,7 mA 1,3692 V
2,2 mA 1,1156 V
1,8 mA 912,8 mV
1,5 mA 760,7 mV
1,2 mA 608,5 mV
1 mA 507,1 mV
820 μA 415,8 mV
680 μA 344,8 mV
560 μA 284,0 mV
470 μA 238,3 mV
390 μA 197,8 mV
330 μA 167,3 mV
270 μA 136,9 mV
220 μA 111,6 mV
180 μA 91,3 mV
150 μA 76,1 mV
120 μA 60,9 mV
100 μA 50,7 mV
By tuning the awg to a certain shunt voltage, the actual measurement begins. But only after that shunt voltage is stable.
It seems to really depend on the current measured whether it becomes jumpy (And this is not always the same target current).

Attached is now the 6,8 mA - 3,4483 V target.
The 10 mA-5,0710 V and 8,2 mA   - 4,1582 V targets have then successfully passed. (Those failed previously)

At the beginning there's tuning. Which was now heavily osccillating due to the problem. After 30 s, it became stable during 10 reads so the measurement enters the final stage. In this stage no more tuning, just waiting for the measurement to have a low running std dev. Which will not happen..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 23, 2021, 04:27:26 pm
I rewrote the script, which now only uses one measurement (shunt voltage R101) and thus is useless.
But look now the measurments are just fine (pretty precise tuning :):
The rows indicate:
target current: total averaging time (minimum of 30 s), running average measured shunt voltage, running standard deviation measured shunt voltage
Code: [Select]
10 mA: 39.10, 5.07171, 0.000209
8,2 mA: 30.85, 4.15821, 0.000126
6,8 mA: 32.98, 3.44836, 0.000171
5,6 mA: 31.38, 2.83963, 0.0000477
4,7 mA: 31.28, 2.38344, 0.0000456
3,9 mA: 31.28, 1.97755, 0.0000568
3,3 mA: 31.13, 1.67344, 0.0000620
2,7 mA: 31.22, 1.36911, 0.000119
2,2 mA: 30.89, 1.11570, 0.0000319
1,8 mA: 31.12, 0.912941, 0.0000985
1,5 mA: 30.85, 0.760737, 0.000107
1,2 mA: 30.91, 0.608708, 0.0000843
1 mA: 30.89, 0.507387, 0.0000672
820 μA: 30.93, 0.415905, 0.0000390
680 μA: 31.66, 0.344852, 0.0000158
560 μA: 30.87, 0.284076, 0.0000963
470 μA: 30.89, 0.238457, 0.0000269
390 μA: 30.85, 0.197997, 0.0000311
330 μA: 30.93, 0.167316, 0.0000212
270 μA: 30.89, 0.136969, 0.0000465
220 μA: 31.37, 0.111924, 0.0000481
180 μA: 31.00, 0.0913745, 0.0000170
150 μA: 30.82, 0.0761302, 0.0000215
120 μA: 31.04, 0.0607542, 0.0000356
100 μA: 30.86, 0.0507703, 0.0000393
So it really seems that the DC ratio function has some strange quirks, under "certain conditions". Will run the simple script with different wires connected to rule out loose wires.
Edit: different wires run just fine as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 24, 2021, 05:23:07 pm
The more straight forward way would be using a scanner card that is available for the 6500.
The scanner card I find too expensive,  as well as the digital io card, which both would be very nice to use for experiments though.

In another experiment I used a scope by tuning  the offset voltage to do precise measurements (0.1 mV accuracy @ around 1.5V), but that needs also a whole process of calibrating the offset.

So too keep it simple I made my 2 channel scanner wire  ;) with just a relay and diodes and will control that using the 2nd channel of the awg. Switching will be done using DC offset, with or without polarity inverse. With my awg that switching is without relays. (Going from 0V dc to 10V dc has some range relay switching.)

Too bad the ratio switching seems to have some issues, but this way I'll get my data as well.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on February 24, 2021, 05:37:05 pm
A few people have made their own scanner cards compatible with the DMM6500, check out these:

https://github.com/macgeorge/SCAN2000STM32 (https://github.com/macgeorge/SCAN2000STM32)
https://github.com/cozdas/CozScan2020 (https://github.com/cozdas/CozScan2020)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/circuit-studio/example-project-relay-scan-card-for-k2000-dmm/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/circuit-studio/example-project-relay-scan-card-for-k2000-dmm/)

The only reason a MCU is involved in 2 of the above designs is it avoids pissing about with latching relays - would otherwise be able to be done with a few logic ICs and the appropriate connector (see the last example).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on February 24, 2021, 06:26:44 pm
...and another 20 channel SSR card:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/circuit-studio/example-project-20-channel-solid-state-scan-card-for-k2000-dmm/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/circuit-studio/example-project-20-channel-solid-state-scan-card-for-k2000-dmm/)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 25, 2021, 10:22:26 am
I ran an updated script. One fase (tuning) of a measurement cycle measures only current voltages, the last fase measures also Vbe voltages. This way there's less channel switching.
I would have like to use only one trigger model, which I would the steer with my own script. This seems almost impossible. There is a way to sync with the dmm: let it wait for a *TRG command. But that cannot pass info. And there's no way to way to sqeeze in info some other way, except for lan events. These can have 8 different id's, so they could be used for steering.
Did some research and with some more effort lan events (broadcasting a udp packet) could have worked.
However I went the route of swapping between different trigger models.
The funny thing is that without the ratio measurement,  I still get the jumps some times.
The solution is to have large delays between measurements. I think I went for 1 s, but that might not even be enough. Will experiment further, because it seems to depend on what is measured and at what range. This makes me also wonder of secondary measurements, in what way is are they different to what my trigger model is doing? Why would it result in either a jump, or no jump, but not much in between. (Except sometimes there seem to be 3 levels)
Fascinating..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 25, 2021, 12:06:02 pm
Yesterday I had a successfull run of all target currents using 2x 1 s delay , which means good stability over 30 s at every target current.

Today with 2 x 2 s delay, I got this attached result.  :-//

I'm pretty sure it has to do with doing 2 measurements, but what might be the underlying cause?

A warning says that using 2 reading buffers in a triggermodel might impact performance (says the eventlog), but I don't think it means this kind of performance, I hope..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 25, 2021, 12:58:58 pm
I've been babysitting the measurements...

I've 2 series with a delay of 2 x 5 s.

Before the combined measurements they both reach a stable target voltage (is mentioned in filename) for at least 10 reads.

Then the combined measurements start. In one situation the jump up is the exception, in the other the target voltage becomes the exception. (Resulting in a "stable measurement" by the criteria I've set)

Hope some one can point out that I'm doing it all wrong.. When using a scanner card similar switching happens doesn't it?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 25, 2021, 02:01:10 pm
I came to the marvelous idea to let my handheld meter read the voltages as well. And it seems that it's reading the same jumps. So they might actually be real.

In that case a measurement of Vbe, might disturb the circuit in such way that the constant current takes a jump. Another possibility could be that the awg, starts misbehaving. But nothing special can be seen at the Vbe measurements.

I actually prefer the circuit being at falt. It would hopefully mean that adding a buffer would make things ok.

Maybe capacitative coupling bewteen the powerlines plays a role?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on February 25, 2021, 02:18:27 pm
Maybe capacitative coupling bewteen the powerlines plays a role?
What does the oscilloscope show connected to this line?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 25, 2021, 06:52:39 pm
I made a collection of screenshots. Vertically which measurement wires where connected differ. Horizontally which measurement was switched to.

Channel 1 just measures the awg voltage, which feeds the base of the transitor via a 560 ohm resistor. Channel 2 shows the voltage at the relay.

Switching my 2 channels causes a lot of disturbance at a point which has a buffer cap, and only 50 ohm output resistance on which the difference is measured (total: 560+50). So at the base the disturbance is larger..

This was not even a measurement which had jumps from what I know. This to me already shows that the measurement voltages need to be buffered. The strange thing is however that current (and not vbe) measurement wires (connected vs disconnected) seems affect the disturbances the most.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on February 25, 2021, 08:08:29 pm
The transitor circuit is oscillating. The cables add capacitance, and this alone may make enough difference to go from just stable to oscillating or strong ringing.

The circuit looks a little difficult to make stable. A first try would be a capacitor (e.g. some 1 - 100 nF)  of Q102 collector to ground. I am not sure this is enough - it is not one of the more usualy circuits. If not enough add some resistance before the base of Q102 and than the capacitor from collector to base.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 26, 2021, 10:20:24 pm
The capacitor Kleinstein mentioned made the circuit stable.
The circuit was taken from this page https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/360175/leftover-voltage-when-using-constant-current (https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/360175/leftover-voltage-when-using-constant-current).
It has some lengthy explanation on its workings. Putting it in my experimental setup with all the wires and awg to control the current probably made the circuit unstable (but the cap stays :D).

Together with the characterized transistors, used in the validated current mirror, I'll be using it to have a lineair ramp circuit which can be speed up. (Will check that for stability!)

I added the results of the measurments. To me they look solid and give some idea what the accuracy will be and what base resistor to use.

When using the ratio functionality, more samples were taken and averaged, but that is a big pro of not having to wait the relay switching. The room temperature was quite different, so that probably explains the shift upward (B: colder). Would be a nice project to have the temperature measured (remotely) and added to the experiment report. Here's a page I found about creating selfmade scpi devices.
https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/homebrew-scpi-controllable-instruments-with-arduino-controllers/ (https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/homebrew-scpi-controllable-instruments-with-arduino-controllers/)
Besides the temperature measurement, switching relays via lan for example would have a ton of uses. To bad the digital io card is expensive, because those 6 lines could also be controlled from within the dmm.  :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on February 26, 2021, 11:33:35 pm
I think (but am not sure) that you can close/open arbitrary relays on a scanner card if they don't have a measurement function assigned. Would mean that a DIY scanned card can act as a LAN controller for some relays if you wanted (wired to not connect to the measurement terminals). Can probably be tested using the virtual scanner you can activate for script testing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HendriXML on February 26, 2021, 11:44:05 pm
I think (but am not sure) that you can close/open arbitrary relays on a scanner card if they don't have a measurement function assigned. Would mean that a DIY scanned card can act as a LAN controller for some relays if you wanted (wired to not connect to the measurement terminals). Can probably be tested using the virtual scanner you can activate for script testing.
According to the manual I think you're right. That's something to keep in mind.  :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on February 28, 2021, 04:50:28 pm
I think (but am not sure) that you can close/open arbitrary relays on a scanner card if they don't have a measurement function assigned. Would mean that a DIY scanned card can act as a LAN controller for some relays if you wanted (wired to not connect to the measurement terminals). Can probably be tested using the virtual scanner you can activate for script testing.

Eh, no.
The relays connect input terminals to the measurement bus.
Activating multiple relays can create a dangerous situation where voltage on one input is routed out of another.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on February 28, 2021, 05:17:04 pm
I think (but am not sure) that you can close/open arbitrary relays on a scanner card if they don't have a measurement function assigned. Would mean that a DIY scanned card can act as a LAN controller for some relays if you wanted (wired to not connect to the measurement terminals). Can probably be tested using the virtual scanner you can activate for script testing.

Eh, no.
The relays connect input terminals to the measurement bus.
Activating multiple relays can create a dangerous situation where voltage on one input is routed out of another.
Key passages in my post were "DIY scanned card" (*scanner) and "(wired to not connect to the measurement terminals)" - the Keithley one will have the issue you describe, but a DIY one can be designed to have a few isolated relays with no connection to the measurement bus. You get up to 20 channels, so you can have a fair bit of flexibility - I'm planning on a reference temp sensor channel plus a few thermo-couple, relay, SSR, current sense and isolated channels when I get around to building mine.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on February 28, 2021, 05:25:22 pm
As I said, activating multiple relays can create a dangerous situation where voltage on one input is routed out of another.
You seem to think the dmm firmware will allow this to happen. Be prepared for a dissappointment.

Edit:
Hmm, OK, I concede. Having read the manual it does sound like it allows multiple channels to be closed. I find that surprising.
The firmware on my 20 channel card wouldn't allow that, it opens all relays before closing any, with safety in mind.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on February 28, 2021, 07:16:52 pm
You seem to think the dmm firmware will allow this to happen. Be prepared for a dissappointment.
I said "I am not sure" as this is certainly something I'd want to at least try using the virtual card option before concluding that is is possible, regardless of the fact that the manual says that it will work. Did you try with your scanner card on a DMM6500? Or an older card compatible instrument?

I would say that there some sense in allowing arbitrary channel closure (though as you say, care is required) - you could have some selectable currents shunts or something (filter capacitors?) available that you want to be able to switch across the measurement bus, maybe this is why it's even an option in the manual (and presumably DMM).

In theory I should have a DMM6500 in my hands in about 2 weeks time - hopefully will be able to do more than just infer things based on the manual then!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on March 06, 2021, 05:32:15 am
I accidentally discovered that my new DMM6500 has an 11A Bussmann fuse inside, and not 3.5A like everyone else. Absolutely new meter, production date: January 2021. Is this normal or a manufacturing error and should be replaced urgently with 3.5A?

There is also a wire. connecting the K7 optorelay to U32 chip under shield. The wire is installed very neatly (at the factory?) By the way, the chip (U32) to which the wire goes is not installed at all on earlier boards (according to the photo from the forum). Do I have some kind of new revision with improvements?

The device was produced in January 2021, purchased from an authorized dealer as completely new. I was the first to open the box (the box was sealed with Keithley's branded  tape).
Not refurbished.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on March 06, 2021, 03:00:46 pm
The 3A fuse is inside the banana jack on the front & rear panel.
The 10A banana jack is on the rear panel - you already found the fuse for that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on March 06, 2021, 03:52:01 pm
I accidentally discovered that my new DMM6500 has an 11A Bussmann fuse inside, and not 3.5A like everyone else. Absolutely new meter, production date: January 2021. Is this normal or a manufacturing error and should be replaced urgently with 3.5A?

There is also a wire. connecting the K7 optorelay to U32 chip under shield. The wire is installed very neatly (at the factory?) By the way, the chip (U32) to which the wire goes is not installed at all on earlier boards (according to the photo from the forum). Do I have some kind of new revision with improvements?

The device was produced in January 2021, purchased from an authorized dealer as completely new. I was the first to open the box (the box was sealed with Keithley's branded  tape).
Not refurbished.

You do not have a refurbished instrument.
These are both perfectly normal and are product improvements. However, it is not a new hardware revision (which we are working on).

Your internal 11A fuse is a safety item only and is present in case of some accidental high voltage connection to amps or other catastrophic internal event. The panel 3A fuses are for your convenience if you accidentally blow it during normal use, you can easily access it and the fuses are low cost. You shouldn't ever need (hopefully) to get to the internal 11A.

Hope this helps clear up your concerns.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mr. Scram on March 06, 2021, 04:53:46 pm
You do not have a refurbished instrument.
These are both perfectly normal and are product improvements. However, it is not a new hardware revision (which we are working on).

Your internal 11A fuse is a safety item only and is present in case of some accidental high voltage connection to amps or other catastrophic internal event. The panel 3A fuses are for your convenience if you accidentally blow it during normal use, you can easily access it and the fuses are low cost. You shouldn't ever need (hopefully) to get to the internal 11A.

Hope this helps clear up your concerns.
What does this hardware revision entail? And does this mean recertifying the model? I've always wondered about that.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on March 06, 2021, 05:39:15 pm
The 3A fuse is inside the banana jack on the front & rear panel.
The 10A banana jack is on the rear panel - you already found the fuse for that.

The 11A fuse for "10A" terminal is located in the rear terminal module. Inside there is a second fuse for the 3A terminals, common for the front and rear inputs. Most of the DMM6500 have a nominal value of 3.5A. In my meter, the internal (for the 3A measuring circuit) is 11A.
The purpose of the fuse in the current measuring circuit is to save the shunt from burning out when the current is significantly exceeded. An 11A fuse will not save a 3A shunt, it is more correct to have a 3.5A fuse there. (I know about the 3А glass fuses inside the current terminals).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on March 06, 2021, 06:01:48 pm
The shunt _may_ have a voltage clamp across it, plus it has the 3A fuse as a first line of defence - I assume something has to go badly wrong to put the shunt at risk (e.g. you've shorted out a source higher than the meter's rated CAT II 300V).

I suspect the change to 11A is to improve the burden voltage (the 11A fuse will have a significantly lower resistance than a 3.5A one), or to reduce the chance of it blowing before the external 3A fuse. I personally would prefer the 11A in that location if it is judged suitable as it seems it has been (unless the hardware has been updated to enable the higher rating to be used).

I would also like to know the details of the hardware changes/improvements - I have a DMM6500 scheduled to arrive next week but it is an ENCORE (refurb) model, so manufacture date may not be so recent.

Edit: yep, looks like there is a chunky bridge rectifier literally glued to what looks to be the 4-terminal high current range shunt. I would assume this is to limit the voltage across the selected shunt in a fault condition to ~1.4 volts (two diode drops), and should easily hold up until the fuse clears with any reasonable overload.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on March 06, 2021, 07:11:22 pm
I accidentally discovered that my new DMM6500 has an 11A Bussmann fuse inside, and not 3.5A like everyone else. Absolutely new meter, production date: January 2021. Is this normal or a manufacturing error and should be replaced urgently with 3.5A?

There is also a wire. connecting the K7 optorelay to U32 chip under shield. The wire is installed very neatly (at the factory?) By the way, the chip (U32) to which the wire goes is not installed at all on earlier boards (according to the photo from the forum). Do I have some kind of new revision with improvements?
If you get the chance, could you check what U32 is? (I assume you've put it back together though, I am not asking you to open everything again!). Also would you be able to check the burden voltage of the 3A range at say 1A (source 1A from a PSU, measure voltage across the input terminals of the DMM). Would be interesting to compare with a 3.5A fused instrument.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on March 06, 2021, 08:33:27 pm
The 3 A range would not see much protection from the diode bridge. The shunt for the 3 A range would be somerhing like 20 or 50 mOhms, so even with 30 A this would be only some 600-1500 mV. The Diode brigde is more to protect the smaller ranges. The critical would be the next with something like an 1 Ohms shunt. This may get quite hot with a higher current before tripping the fuse.


U32 is likely some logic chip like 4094 to provide more control lines. The additional wire could give the HW more control to switch the photo-mos schwitch independently from the relais. This may help reducing wear on the relay contacts when switching (e.g. 1000 V and 10 V range) under high voltage conditions.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on March 06, 2021, 09:39:29 pm
The 3 A range would not see much protection from the diode bridge. The shunt for the 3 A range would be somerhing like 20 or 50 mOhms, so even with 30 A this would be only some 600-1500 mV. The Diode brigde is more to protect the smaller ranges. The critical would be the next with something like an 1 Ohms shunt. This may get quite hot with a higher current before tripping the fuse.
1A/3A shunt is 100milliohms, so would hit 2 diode drops at ~14A, still quite a bit of power (~20W), but this is all assuming that the 3A fuse is arcing over, so you'd assume the 3.5/11A HRC one would go open in short order.

Note that the max burden voltage spec on the 1A/3A ranges is awful - 1.7V at 3A, obviously mostly due to the resistance of 2 fuses in series (and add another half volt for using the rear terminals). If the 11A fuse is safe and drops it down a bit then it would certainly be welcome. Before people run off and buy a 34461A because of this, the Keysight meter is even _worse_ at 2V burden (though it has the major advantage of putting the 10A input on the front, and they basically tell you to ignore the 3A range unless you need it for 34401A compatibility - use the 3A input for <1A, and 10A for >1A).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxwell3e10 on March 07, 2021, 02:21:30 am
If there is a hardware revision, I wonder if it will be possible to fix the problem discussed on page 25 of this thread (reply 600 on), which has to do with undesirable interaction between current shunts and the high voltage 1:100 divider. When current is passed through current terminals and a voltage is measured at the same time, it has an offset of 10-20 mV. This is largely unavoidable. But when the voltage range is set to 100 or 1000V range, the offset becomes several volts! Other meters don't have this problem.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on March 07, 2021, 05:38:39 am
To keep the offset at 20-30mV, use the 10A terminal on the rear panel to current measure. In this case, even in the 100V and 1000V range, the V-offset remains about  20-25mV for 1A.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on March 07, 2021, 11:26:14 am
If you get the chance, could you check what U32 is? (I assume you've put it back together though, I am not asking you to open everything again!). Also would you be able to check the burden voltage of the 3A range at say 1A (source 1A from a PSU, measure voltage across the input terminals of the DMM). Would be interesting to compare with a 3.5A fused instrument.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on March 07, 2021, 11:48:41 am
Thanks, makes think it might be what maxwell3e10 is suggesting. Also good to know the 10A input doesn't suffer the offset issue - I suspected this was the case due to the use of a remote shunt but nice to have a confirmation. Did you ever do the offset test with the 3A input on your "improved" unit?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on March 07, 2021, 02:19:14 pm
Who makes those DG444 analog switches? I don't recognise the logo.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kean on March 07, 2021, 02:42:15 pm
Who makes those DG444 analog switches? I don't recognise the logo.

Vishay Siliconix.  I was also wondering and so I did a Google image search on "siliconix logo" to confirm,  It looks awful when laser etched.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on March 07, 2021, 03:15:33 pm
Did you ever do the offset test with the 3A input on your "improved" unit?

Yes. My device behaves exactly like everyone else in this case when using 3A terminals. When using 10A terminal, the offset does not depend on the  range and is about 25mV per 1A.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on March 20, 2021, 05:20:49 pm
Maybe folks are aware of this but maybe I've found a bug.
On latest firmware 1.7.5b
Measuring on 10V range (manual ranging) record some data, then go overrange (and stay there a while).
The sample buffer fills up very quickly and within about 30 seconds it loops around and all your data from before the overrange event is gone.
100K buffer, NPLC 2, continuous triggering, 10Vdc range...probably similar behaviour on other settings, haven't tried.

You could say its not a bug, the overrange sample just happens in a fraction of the time that a normal in-range sample does.
But I would prefer when at a given NPLC, all samples (even overrange) have the same memory recording interval.
Or would that break somethng else I haven't thought about?

Anyway, it's something to be aware of if you are datalogging on manual range - don't go overrange!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 24, 2021, 05:31:04 pm
I have 1.7.3c

I couldn't really see the same thing you describe the time steps stay the same.
I tried 1V and 10V 1PLC (no zero) and if I graph the buffer on the DMM6500 or in CSV the time scale is correct.
with a 50% duty cycle I had an equal amount of overflow (9.9E+37) as normal measurement points

And this screenshot is also an example about how their raster choice deserves a facepalm.  :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on March 24, 2021, 06:51:11 pm
Hmmm, yeh, it seems there is some funky combination or sequence to get into that 'fast buffer fill' state.
I couldn't reproduce it until I switched to MANual trigger and then back to CONTinuous trigger, go in and out of overflow, then it seems to do it quite readily.
I'm not complaining, I really like this meter, this is just something minor and overall the firmware has improved a lot since the early days.

How is your build of the mux card coming along?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Joel_l on March 25, 2021, 12:07:02 am
Where are you finding FW 1.7.5? Last version I see is 1.7.3.

Joel
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on March 25, 2021, 07:44:41 am
1.7.5 was mentioned before in this thread, I will need to update before using my scanner card.
https://www.tek.com/sitewide-content/software/m/o/d/model-dmm6500-firmware-revision-175-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/sitewide-content/software/m/o/d/model-dmm6500-firmware-revision-175-and-release-notes)

How is your build of the mux card coming along?
I have all the parts for 2 cards, assembly is on the to do list. :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rej on March 26, 2021, 03:16:57 pm
The KickStart software gives me an error (something like "can not connect") when I try to connect to my DMM6500. I use the latest firmware 1.7.5 and the latest Software 2.4.0. I connect the multimeter and the laptop with a LAN cable. The communication with the web interface works fine. KickStart detects the multimeter, but throws en error, when I try to connect to the device. Some time ago everything worked without a problem, but I can't remember which firmware/software I used.

Is there anyone else who has this problems?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: skander36 on April 09, 2021, 06:20:47 pm
For me is not working at all. It start see the DMM and immediately close without any warning or error.
LabView work with him without any problem.
Using last  fw.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on April 27, 2021, 01:27:31 pm
Just wanted to say a big thank you to E-Design and the service team at Keithley in Munich, Germany.
Having had problems for a couple of years, which I had thought were firmware issues but updates failed to solve, E-Design examined the symptoms and suggested it was most likeley a hardware issue.  He set the ball rolling and the service manager at Keithley Munich contacted me with an RMA number. From there on the meter was shipped back to Germany by Keithley, repaired in two days and then couriered back to me with a total round trip time of 7 days :-+  and this was from and back  to Cyprus, amazing, and under the three year warranty.
So far the meter has been absolutely perfect, I am still learning something new every time I use it, what a piece of kit :clap:
The icing on the cake was that it came back with a 10 page calibration certificate and report, now I can see for myself that these meters don't just meet their specs, they blow them into the weeds :)
All in all one very happy customer, trying to justify a SMU now to keep it company :-DD
Thanks again E-Design and team :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on April 30, 2021, 11:56:49 am
Version 1.7.7 is released with 2 fixes:
NS-2025
Symptom:While running a test loop in an application that sends the reset()command as part of the code, a blue screen appears after running the test for several days.
NS-2043
Symptom:While remotely communicating with the instrument, if a new error is displayed on the front panel shortly after a previous error is being cleared from the front panel, the instrument may become unresponsive or inoperative.
https://www.tek.com/sitewide-content/software/m/o/d/model-dmm6500-firmware-revision-177-and-release-notes (https://www.tek.com/sitewide-content/software/m/o/d/model-dmm6500-firmware-revision-177-and-release-notes)

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 11, 2021, 02:47:17 pm
If anyone is interested I have improved the power reading script.
Just change the file extension back to .tsp and should be fine.
I accept no liability for it's use, just for fun or improvement.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 13, 2021, 02:27:45 pm
I was wondering if the power measurement script could be using CONTINUOUS buffers with buffer.fillmode = buffer.FILL_CONTINUOUS (instead of readings for 1 to 500)
This way it would be running until you want it to stop and remembers the last 500 readings. (like the default buffers do)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 13, 2021, 03:31:45 pm
Yes, no reason why not, the basic script is there for anyone to adapt to their own ideas.  The screen shot just is an example that was running when I "snapped" it.
If you run it yourself you will find that in the  "Change Setup" menu the shunt value, shunt power rating, number of readings, delay between readings and Filter on/off may be specified and any change are updated on the "Current Setup" part of the swipe screen. Also while the script is running the other swipe screens are available for more information, stats, graph etc.
Default start up values are in the script and can be easily edited for individul preference, my shunt is 1.157 ohms so that is the default :-+
Currently exploring an elegant way of pausing, restarting or exiting the  loop that takes the readings :-//
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 15, 2021, 02:36:33 pm
Ok I admit being baffled :-//  Please can someone throw me a lifeline?
In a For i=1, readings  Do loop in the power read script I am trying to give an option to cancel the readings before the set number is reached.  I have made the START button change to a STOP button once the reading loop starts, have made the function called by the button activate RESET().  On pressing STOP during a readings run nothing happens until the number of reading set has completed and only then does the RESET() run. It seems as though the button press is seen and logged but the command does run until the end, does anyone know anything that may help explain why this happens and, more importantly, suggest a way round this please |O
If I have posted this in the wrong place I apologise.
Thanks, Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 17, 2021, 05:05:16 pm
Maybe setting it to manual trigger will stop the loop, so it will not be the stop button but still stop it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 18, 2021, 04:24:21 am
Morning Kedas Probe, a worthy suggestion but, sadly, one I have already investigated.
It seems as though the meter sees the STOP button press but does not act upon it until the loop has completed. I have substituted a WHILE loop and put the button action within that loop and tested its condition at the end of each loop round, it still will not break out of the loop.  I have proved that the button press is seen during the loop but is then stored until the loop finishes and then performs the function. Is this to do with interrupts?  I am an ageing, old school hardware engineer so this software business is a very steep learning curve for me. To give you an idea of what I mean, when I learnt my trade semiconductors were the new things in town.
Regards Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: simsys.pl on May 22, 2021, 05:56:25 pm
Hi everyone,
I have tried to write some script to improve/repair awful default diode test. My script works as on good old flukes (e.g. model 45) - as old as me probably ;)

Here is what script can do:
-one beep: when you are in range (0,25V..0,8V).
-no beep: when you are above,
-contstant beep: when you are below.
-frequency for sound is 2kHz (not this original shitty sound).

All seems to be fine when script is running BUT I observed some really big problem: after switch-off script and go to regular mode e.g. voltage measuring all is ok. When I switched-on script again meter became unusable. Sometimes is just one sequence on-off-on, sometimes two when unit is stop responding. The only rescue is reboot unit.

Could one of you can confirm this? Please find tsp file in attachment.
I thought that in my script some routine at the end like "reset buffer on exit"  is missing however I dint find something like this.
What is wrong?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 23, 2021, 05:45:46 am
Hi simsys
I have tried your script and it seems to run fine on my meter.  I have aborted it   and restarted many times with no problem.  I am running firmware 1.7.5b
If you can describe the exact sequence that causes you a problem I will try and reproduce it.
Regards Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: simsys.pl on May 23, 2021, 07:49:59 am
Hi Mike,
Let me be more clear. So first of all I have FW 1.7.7b

Here is the sequence:
1. start script (press on "Noscript at the top screen and choose script Diode_test_1_1 from saved list).
2. switch to DCV; unit ask me to confirm "local control". Also I need to switch in DCV trigger from Idle to Continous mode.
3. start script again, first issues:
-sometimes it works but there is no beep,
-there is info "NoScript" at the top (should be as on screen 2 with name of script + icon),
4. Switch again to DCV. From this point unit is in some loop and still measuring Diodes instead of voltage.
5. After some minutes in this "hang-up" mode receive error 2350 + constant sound alarm. Like I mention, only I can do at this point is to switch off and on unit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 23, 2021, 08:18:00 am
Hi again.  I have copied your method exactly and maybe the problem is that you are coming out of remote control, I believe this means it is running the script.
I merely start the script and it works fine. Although the indicator says IDLE the script is running, I confirmed this by looking at the readings buffer which is being filled continuously.

I attach some screen shots to demonstrate. I have renamed your script as Diode Buzzer. To exit your script I tap the script name on the top line, select yes to abort then run auoexec to reinitialise my meter.

One interesting thing I have learnt from your script is that on the top info line the name of the script is shown, on the scripts I have written this shows NO SCRIPT even thouigh it is running my script, I will investigate this later to find the reason.
Hope this may help :-//
Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: simsys.pl on May 23, 2021, 11:38:25 am
One interesting thing I have learnt from your script is that on the top info line the name of the script is shown, on the
scripts I have written this shows NO SCRIPT even thouigh it is running my script, I will investigate this later to find the reason.

Well I poke around a little bit and discover, that I am able to quit from script only once per unit power cycle (see normal reaction on screen).
After second start of script (name DiodeTest_1_1 and icon from the top are gone and also there no more option "Abort script.."

I will check behaviour with other scripts..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 23, 2021, 11:54:01 am
That is definitely different from my meter's behaviour.
Have you thought about changing the firmware to 1.7.5b and seeing if this makes a difference?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: simsys.pl on May 23, 2021, 12:27:38 pm
Can you try run script from internal memory?
Observed that there is a different behavior when I start script internal or from USB pendrive plugged.
It looks like run directly from USB everything is ok ;)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 23, 2021, 12:30:00 pm
I am running it from internal memory, I loaded it in direct from PC using text script builder
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: JimKnopf on May 23, 2021, 04:38:38 pm
I can confirm that the script produces strange behavior of the DMM6500. I tried it on 1.7.3, 1.7.5 and 1.7.7.
Doesn't matter if i run the script from USB or from internal as script or from internal as autoexec.
When aborting the script and using any other measurement option, no value will show up on Display.
I have to restart the device.

But it's a nice function.  I hope for a working update of the script.
Thank you for your commitment and sharing this script.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 24, 2021, 03:59:58 am
Interesting to hear someone else has the same problem where my meter runs fine :-//
One question is how old are your meters that show the problem?
Mine was originally purchased April 2019 and I had various problems with freezing and crashing for over 2 years, I persevered hoping a firmware upgrade would eventually solve these problems. In the end Keithley had the meter in for repair, apparently replaced most boards and since then it has run 100%.  Does this indicate a possible hardware change since the early models and hence why mine runs the script with no problem?  Just wondering :-+
REgards Mike
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on May 24, 2021, 04:09:39 am
Just one more point, I have autoexec as a basic setup to DCV  with filter on and 1,000,000 buffer size, otherwise standard. I run this after exiting any script or app just to get things back to normal.  It leaves the meter in IDLE and I just have to set to CONTNUOUS manually, don't know why, but it then is totally back to normal.
I still believe this is the best performing and best featured meter in it's price bracket by a very long way. I use it every day both as a tool and for hobby script development, keeps my ageing brain active :-/O, and it never ceases to impress me.
No I am not employed by Tektronix sales department but over the last 50 years I have used quite a range of test gear so feel I am qualified to have an opinion on what is good, or what is not not :phew:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on May 24, 2021, 01:54:22 pm
I am having similar issues to the script's author on a 1.7.5 fw unit (a loaner, made late-2020). Got stuck saying no script running while it clearly is, can't stop it or change modes etc. Can put the latest FW onto it but doesn't sound like that will help.

At some point I'll have my own somewhat older meter back to compare, but it's currently off for a RMA due to transformer noise; took a month to arrive in Germany (thanks brexit customs bullshit!) and I have a placeholder ETA of 2049 (!!) for completion, so no idea when I'll get it back.

Hopefully this issue is fixable with a script tweak or a FW update - a similar script was on my to-do list, this sort of flexibility was one of the reasons I got a DMM6500 in the first place. simsys.pl - thanks for your effort making it before I got off my lazy ass and got around to it myself :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: simsys.pl on May 24, 2021, 07:28:39 pm
Well thanks for confirmation, at least partially ;)
I will try to rewrite script, clean up all useless stuff, maybe use other functions instead of "while" or something else. Let me poke around a little bit.

This will be last try before I contact Keithley or local distributor.

Anyway compiler says that everything is ok so I expect the same from unit that class.

BTW Mike:
-my unit is brand new (6m),
It leaves the meter in IDLE yes, after out from script I have to switch to CONT every time (really annoying to be honest).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on May 30, 2021, 08:35:31 am
I tried by using the trigger status but that's doesn't seem to work as expected.
You could maybe find some inspiration in these tspa files:
https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/pr/5/TSP_Apps

Wasn't there supposed to be an App build guide/manual planned by Keithley, or did they give that up?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on May 30, 2021, 01:02:08 pm
I tried by using the trigger status but that's doesn't seem to work as expected.
You could maybe find some inspiration in these tspa files:
https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/pr/5/TSP_Apps

Wasn't there supposed to be an App build guide/manual planned by Keithley, or did they give that up?

It hasnt been given up on as far as I know. I can guess that it has been delayed due to higher priority work. I suppose I could check in on its progress.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on May 31, 2021, 09:54:26 pm
It hasnt been given up on as far as I know. I can guess that it has been delayed due to higher priority work. I suppose I could check in on its progress.
That's great to hear, and please do check in - would love some more info, even just a command/syntax listing (rather than a full step-by-step guide) would be better than nothing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on June 01, 2021, 03:06:15 am
Yes I also totally agree with Hydron, that would indeed be a massive help.
Reverse engineering existing scripts is a time consuming way of learning :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on June 01, 2021, 03:10:05 am
I heard they were giving away the the display UI guide and document if you ask them at tti-apps@keithley.com

But what do i know, i'm just an innocent Bit Wrangler  :popcorn:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on June 01, 2021, 08:53:04 am
command/syntax listing
Oh, that's not a problem. The lua language lives inside. Documentation about it is available and open source. The version can be found by calling the command print (_VERSION). In my opinion there is 5.0.4 but I could be wrong. I've watched this for a long time.

Here is the description for this version.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on June 01, 2021, 11:12:42 am
It's not so much the Lua syntax as this is well documented, it is more the instrument specific syntax ie for GUI commands etc.
A bit of help from Keithley in this department would be much appreciated
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on June 14, 2021, 08:17:00 am
Anyone else has the problem that the pop-up is included in the screenshot?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on June 14, 2021, 08:26:17 am
Anyone else has the problem that the pop-up is included in the screenshot?

No, I never had this on any of my Keithley instruments and I am using the screen capture a lot

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: teletypeguy on August 12, 2021, 05:23:50 am
Apologies up front if this has been asked here, but I have not made it through all of the 55 pages (so far) of this thread.  I just got a DMM6500, with ver 1.7.5b.  Just had a chance for a first peek, and I see two screens that are cut off at the bottom -- sys settings, and calc settings (pics attached).
Has anyone seen this?  Hope that a fw update will fix it.
Other than that my first impression is wow!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on August 12, 2021, 06:54:52 am
Apologies up front if this has been asked here, but I have not made it through all of the 55 pages (so far) of this thread.  I just got a DMM6500, with ver 1.7.5b.  Just had a chance for a first peek, and I see two screens that are cut off at the bottom -- sys settings, and calc settings (pics attached).
Has anyone seen this?  Hope that a fw update will fix it.
Other than that my first impression is wow!

That thick vertical line on the right is scroll bar. You can just scroll the screen with the finger, just flick it up and down..
I agree it feels unnatural on an instrument like that..
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: AaronLee on August 12, 2021, 07:11:54 am
Apologies up front if this has been asked here, but I have not made it through all of the 55 pages (so far) of this thread.  I just got a DMM6500, with ver 1.7.5b.  Just had a chance for a first peek, and I see two screens that are cut off at the bottom -- sys settings, and calc settings (pics attached).
Has anyone seen this?  Hope that a fw update will fix it.
Other than that my first impression is wow!

Look at the thin blue bar on the right side of the screen, and you'll notice it doesn't extend down all the way. I believe it's a scroll bar that you can just scroll down to see the remainder of the screen. Typical handphone style, which many people are used to, but still those types of situations always catch me off-guard and I don't realize how to scroll until I look carefully at the screen.

Edit: I see 2N3055 already responded with the same information.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: teletypeguy on August 12, 2021, 07:40:45 am
Ahh, though I did go through docs before I got to play, I missed the scroll bar bit -- thx
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: optotester on September 20, 2021, 08:58:47 am
Hi all,

Just bought DMM6500 (manufactured in Mar/Apr 2021) and looks like hardware quality did not really improve. I was hoping that two years after release the quality issues would have been fixed. Transformer 'hum' is there but the most annoying is really the screen. If put on a bench (so viewing from slightly above) it is almost impossible to read text due to reflections in the TFT layers...
Are all units affected the same or am I just unlucky ? I am considering switching to 34465A instead although price is different and it seems to have less functions.

Regards
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on September 20, 2021, 09:17:12 am
I have the DMM flat on my workbench, under my monitor. Sitting at my desk, I can read it clearly, no problem.
It does hum slightly, if I listen for it, but doesn't annoy me. Seems like this varies between units.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: LordXaos on September 20, 2021, 09:28:02 am
I did have it standing on my bench and nowadays have it up on a shelve, with no viewing issues whatsoever - but I did remove the protective plastic.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: optotester on September 20, 2021, 09:36:55 am
When I unpacked it I thought, ok, it is just the protective plastic but then I removed it a little and noticed that display was looking equally bad without it (so I did not peel it off completely and just put everything back in the box).
Right now I hesitate between:
- Returning to seller and buying 34465A (but it is much more expensive)
- Sending for warranty to Tektronix and hope that everything will be fine afterwards
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Kleinstein on September 20, 2021, 09:49:46 am
The reflections of the screen are not nice, as the limit the viewing angle for small details. The large main numbers shoud still be OK though.
I think this is more like a weakness in design and nothing a warranty rapair could fix. It just is this way on all units. I would be defect only if they for some reason forgot an anti reflective coating. So the question is, if other units are also that way.
Without the protective foil it may be a little better, though likely not much. Refelxtions and fingerprints are kind of the price you pay for a touchscreen.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on September 20, 2021, 10:12:29 am
Although I find the screen of the DMM7510 a little better to read in comparison, I really have nothing to complain about the DMM6500 screens readability.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: optotester on September 20, 2021, 10:41:37 am
Thank you all for the feedbacks  :). I am not that picky, I am actually very satisfied with my other bench equipment (SDS1104X-E and SPD3303X-E) even if they have drawbacks too (like the bezel of the oscilloscope hiding the first line and fan noise).
One of the issue is that my lab room is quite small so the bench is less that 80cm deep. Although the previous picture viewing angle is a bit extreme, real use case is almost as bad as that. Keysight DMM being shorter it may help a lot for readability.

Or maybe DMM6500 can be fully controlled with a mouse from the web UI ? If it is the case, then maybe it could be ok to keep it ? ("hum" noise is not that much of an issue, I can take the plug off anyway).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on September 20, 2021, 11:06:37 am
Or maybe DMM6500 can be fully controlled with a mouse from the web UI ? If it is the case, then maybe it could be ok to keep it ? ("hum" noise is not that much of an issue, I can take the plug off anyway).
With digitizing you could get update problems on the WebUI also multi touch for zooming isn't an option.

I don't have any viewing angle issues. I use the WebUI just to see the graphs bigger.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on September 20, 2021, 11:29:09 am
I've had two different units here with widely spaced build dates - the earlier one had a bad transformer hum (bad enough to be sent back for transformer replacement), but the screens were pretty similar, and both showed the issue at the same specific angle.

I also wish that they had managed to do better with the panel, but it's still usable and I decided to put up with it in exchange for the significantly better price and features vs the Keysight equivalents. This is especially true now that Keysight has decided to not support anyone in europe who isn't a VAT registered business - I would have been completely fucked with the KS even for calibration once the warranty ended. The Tek salesman on the other hand managed to dig up an ex-demo unit for me to save money on when I told him I was buying as a hobbyist (ex-demo being the reason for the unit being older - the other was a new one I was loaned due to brexit-related delays in shipping/servicing).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thm_w on September 20, 2021, 11:26:59 pm
I never noticed any hum people were discussing here. Yesterday I picked up the unit while powered on and when it was at an angle it started to hum very loudly, until horizontal again.
Which makes me think it can be an internal mechanical issue, that could easily be fixed with some rubber washers, etc? Of course if its a new unit and you don't want to take it apart that is understandable.

As for the LCD issue, do what you can to angle it upwards or set it at eye height.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on September 22, 2021, 12:26:34 am
The hum is a combination of running the transformer a little closer than is ideal to saturation and not having enough damping for noise/vibrations. When I compared the noisy vs quieter units they both pulled similar magnetising current, so it seems that the improvements to the revised transformer design are mostly mechanical.

Note that my mains runs close to 250V @ 50Hz so is pretty much worst case for saturation - both 60Hz and lower mains voltage would significantly reduce the issue, though the revised transformer is quite acceptable from a noise perspective.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on September 24, 2021, 03:07:44 am
The hum on my Keithley is barely present after an RMA but it does scale with line voltage.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on September 24, 2021, 11:36:03 am
The hum issue is one that has been improving over time but proven quite difficult to resolve completely.

The transformer supports both the DMM and DAQ model. As such, there are 2 transformers that are present in the instrument, 1 for the DMM and 1 for the DAQ that powers the switch modules.
In order to fit both of these transformers into the instrument (for both models), they required being bolted together in a metal frame that is affixed to the chassis.

The transformer design and housing is the way it is completely for cost and mechanical reasons. However, this has actually made the hum problem worse.
It turns out that this metal bracket actually vibrates and sort of resonates the sound not only from the natural transformer vibration but introduces larger harmonics of it.

The transformers are *double* dipped in varnish AND the metal bracket has an epoxy fillet along the perimeter of the mounting to help dampen vibrations. Yet still, some hum can be heard in some cases.

The factory has some controls in place to make sure it is not "too bad" -- again though, this is subjective!

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on September 24, 2021, 02:34:46 pm
I must have been very lucky because my DMM6500 has no hum at all.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on September 24, 2021, 09:25:43 pm
I must have been very lucky because my DMM6500 has no hum at all.
I'm surprised that you're saying "no hum at all", but if your mains voltage is on the low side (especially if you've got it in the 240V setting) then it could be minimal - I found a fairly strong dependence on mains voltage, with a ~10% drop making a major reduction in noise. Not unexpected given the physics involved, just a shame the design was so on-the-limit for saturation in high-line 240V/50Hz areas.

E-Design - interesting to hear about the reason for the double unit; is the second (DAQ supply) transformer actually used in a DMM6500? Or just when an optional scanner card is plugged in?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: skander36 on September 24, 2021, 10:43:48 pm
I must have been very lucky because my DMM6500 has no hum at all.
I'm doubt. Maybe you have in the same room other sources of hum which your mind is used to ignore.
Put the meter in a quiet room and see.
For me it is the only and most terrible source of hum from my bench.
Siglent SDM 3065 has also a linear power source in standby but it doesn't make any noise.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: rcjoy on September 24, 2021, 11:57:03 pm

No transformer hum at all on my 2019 DMM6500.

Also, I keep the unit at eye-height on my instrument stack, and the display looks perfect.  It does wash out somewhat at extreme angles, but that has not been a problem for me.
I'm really happy with the unit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on September 25, 2021, 12:47:11 am
I must have been very lucky because my DMM6500 has no hum at all.
I'm surprised that you're saying "no hum at all", but if your mains voltage is on the low side (especially if you've got it in the 240V setting) then it could be minimal - I found a fairly strong dependence on mains voltage, with a ~10% drop making a major reduction in noise. Not unexpected given the physics involved, just a shame the design was so on-the-limit for saturation in high-line 240V/50Hz areas.

E-Design - interesting to hear about the reason for the double unit; is the second (DAQ supply) transformer actually used in a DMM6500? Or just when an optional scanner card is plugged in?

Yes, 1 transformer is for analog supplies only (both models) and the second one powers the digital system (on both models and also the scanner cards)
These 65xx models are the upgrade for the Model 2700 and 2701 and the transformer design was leveraged from those models. However, those older models do not have a dual arrangement with the bracket configuration.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: cgroen on September 25, 2021, 06:51:36 am
I got 2 DMM6500, also no hum (230VAC). Both are from 2019
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on September 26, 2021, 12:02:15 am
The older of the two (2019 I think) I had was totally unacceptable - the whole thing was vibrating when you touched it, let alone the noise!
RMA'd it and it got sorted, came back similar to the newer unit (the loner which then went back). No significant change in magnetising current though.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: mawyatt on September 26, 2021, 02:46:23 pm
Looked around and couldn't find anything on how the DMM6500 measures RMS AC. Does anyone know how this is done, an analog RMS chip converter, or like the KS3446x using the computed values from the ADC?

Believe the Siglent SDM3065X using an analog RMC converter chip and not a computed value like the KS.

Also, how does the DMM6500 behave with high crest factor waveforms?

Thanks for the reply.

Best,
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on September 26, 2021, 11:48:38 pm
Looked around and couldn't find anything on how the DMM6500 measures RMS AC. Does anyone know how this is done, an analog RMS chip converter, or like the KS3446x using the computed values from the ADC?

Believe the Siglent SDM3065X using an analog RMC converter chip and not a computed value like the KS.

Also, how does the DMM6500 behave with high crest factor waveforms?

Thanks for the reply.

Best,

The digitizer hardware is used to capture the waveform and then the RMS value is calculated. There is no RMS converter IC present. As far as high crest factor performance,  IIRC, it was mostly comparable to the IC solution. It might be slightly better or worse in a few particular cases. Consult the datasheet for details.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on October 21, 2021, 08:53:41 pm
New firmware 1.7.10

The captions on the charts have become beautiful.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on October 22, 2021, 06:55:53 am
Quote
New firmware 1.7.10
The captions on the charts have become beautiful.

Nice! I see they also solved one issue that I reported a while ago to Keithley (and shared (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg3372884/#msg3372884) here on the forum), which was a crash when hitting the print screen button twice within 10 seconds or so. 


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on October 22, 2021, 07:04:20 am
Nice! I see they also solved one issue that I reported a while ago to Keithley (and shared (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keithley-dmm6500/msg3372884/#msg3372884) here on the forum), which was a crash when hitting the print screen button twice within 10 seconds or so.
Can you tell me where you wrote to report the problem? My messages have been ignored for years.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: RBBVNL9 on October 22, 2021, 07:17:42 am
Quote
Can you tell me where you wrote to report the problem? My messages have been ignored for years.

I reported the issue around December 2020 to Keithley. After a couple of further email exchanges in the days after, a representative of Tektronix/Keithley informed me that they were able to replicate the crashes I was experiencing there as well. But it took several more firmware updates until they addressed it in new firmware.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on October 22, 2021, 07:43:36 am
Quote
Can you tell me where you wrote to report the problem? My messages have been ignored for years.

I reported the issue around December 2020 to Keithley. After a couple of further email exchanges in the days after, a representative of Tektronix/Keithley informed me that they were able to replicate the crashes I was experiencing there as well. But it took several more firmware updates until they addressed it in new firmware.
I also reported the problem to 2020 and they confirmed to me that they see it. Maybe we need more time :)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: mawyatt on October 22, 2021, 03:22:14 pm
New firmware 1.7.10

The captions on the charts have become beautiful.

We just received a new DMM6500 with cal date 9/31/21 and has firmware version 1.7.7b.

Never used or owned a Keithley Product before and must say this is a nice DMM, really like the display and features :-+

Best
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: macaba on October 22, 2021, 06:01:46 pm
New firmware 1.7.10

The captions on the charts have become beautiful.

I must be blind, just did the update and don't see a difference. Please point it out!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MegaVolt on October 22, 2021, 07:36:54 pm
I must be blind, just did the update and don't see a difference. Please point it out!
I left a screenshot above. Look at the Y-axis caption. They are better than they were. More readable.

I missed the update 1.7.7 maybe new captions appeared in it.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 24, 2021, 03:44:31 pm
My update went weird again.
I had a stick with 1.7.10b on it no other firmwares

I started from 1.7.7
after 'update' I got 1.7.5b  :-//
Since I had an upgrade problem before that got fixed by downgrading first I pressed the downgrade button.
it downgraded to 1.7.1b  :-//   (I didn't provide the file)
I pressed update after that and then I got 1.7.10b

But only the downgrade to 1.7.1b took long with progress bars the others were like skipping parts of the upgrade.
And why 1.7.1b, does the DMM6500 have some backup firmware on it stored?? (it wasn't on my USB)

I certainly don't want to put money on which firmware I really have now.
Later I will see if I have this extra LAN command that was added, if not......  :-//

Looks like it has an identity crisis  :palm:
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on October 24, 2021, 04:40:23 pm
If you read the readme of the 1.7.10 update it mentions that there is a bug in the version number display of older firmwares which causes it to appear as 1.7.1 (and requires the use of the "downgrade" button to trigger the update). So a little confusing, but it sounds like you got there in the end (no idea where you got the 1.7.5 from though!).

Really begs the question why they didn't label it as 1.8.0 or something to avoid the issue, but I guess there may be internal reasons (rigid numbering schemes or something).
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on October 24, 2021, 04:57:21 pm
Indeed I should have read that. (and indeed 1.8, are they afraid of running out of numbers)
About the 1.7.5b my idea is that probably the previous version (1.7.5b) wasn't properly upgraded to 1.7.7 and it corrected the version number after pressing the upgrade button.

Quote
When you load the 1.7.10 firmware into your instrument, system messages will display the firmware version as 1.7.1. This is only a cosmetic issue and does not impact the performance of the unit. Subsequent firmware upgrades will display a two-digit firmware version number.
To install firmware version 1.7.10 on your instrument, use the Downgrade to older option from the front panel or use the downgrade remote commands. See "Upgrading the firmware" in your instrument's Reference Manual for more information.

it's a 'cosmetic issue' if you saw that after pressing the upgrade button.
it not a 'cosmetic issue' if you have to press the downgrade button to upgrade.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on October 24, 2021, 05:27:57 pm
Yeah they should have said something like "The only functional impact of this is the requirement to use the "downgrade" button to apply the update, it is otherwise cosmetic only".  Anyway, pretty minor thankfully.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 5q5r on January 02, 2022, 03:03:02 pm
Hi all, thanks for all the good info on the DMM6500 from this thread!

I have been using mine to to a bit of resistor binning for a circuit that was touchier than expected, and I found out that the DMM6500 has a sorting/binning script as an example, that uses the digital IO lines. But: I don't have digital IO lines, because I don't have a comms card!

I have already been looking at making a DIY channel card, and I figured I would look at the comms card interface as well, but that seems to be completely shrouded in secrecy! I can't even find a picture of the KTTI-[RS232, TSP, GPIB] boards anywhere to get just a hint of the circuit!

Is there anyone who has one of those cards who would be kind enough to provide pictures of the circuit board? Or has any sort of info on how it works, and whether it's possible to DIY a board for it? Thanks!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on January 02, 2022, 03:15:39 pm
There is very little info on those KTTI cards, probably because they are niche requirement, rarely used.
I think for resistor binning there will be another solution.
What are the IO lines used for in that script anyway, LED blinking?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on January 02, 2022, 04:39:20 pm
I would also be interested in seeing if a KTTI card could be DIY'd, but I agree that there would be other options. Firstly I believe that more than one channel on a scanner card can be activated at once (I think it's a setting somewhere), so a DIY scanner card could use this to expose some IO. Alternatively a script running on the DMM6500 can send messages over the LAN - should be able to use an external device (e.g. a raspberry pi or even an ESP32) for extra IO.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 5q5r on January 02, 2022, 06:19:11 pm
The IO lines would be used for example for an automatic sorter, or in my case, just to light up which bin to put the component into so I can turn off my brain while doing it ;-)

I was going to do the raspberry pi etc thing at first, but then looking at the scripting examples, I realized that they actually had an example for exactly this use case! Shame that they are so rare, at least among us hobbyists. I should check if we have a GPIB one somewhere at work, once we are allowed back in the office.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on January 02, 2022, 11:37:17 pm
Hi all, thanks for all the good info on the DMM6500 from this thread!

I have been using mine to to a bit of resistor binning for a circuit that was touchier than expected, and I found out that the DMM6500 has a sorting/binning script as an example, that uses the digital IO lines. But: I don't have digital IO lines, because I don't have a comms card!

I have already been looking at making a DIY channel card, and I figured I would look at the comms card interface as well, but that seems to be completely shrouded in secrecy! I can't even find a picture of the KTTI-[RS232, TSP, GPIB] boards anywhere to get just a hint of the circuit!

Is there anyone who has one of those cards who would be kind enough to provide pictures of the circuit board? Or has any sort of info on how it works, and whether it's possible to DIY a board for it? Thanks!

For the "comms" cards, I am familiar with the designs --I would say it is not a straightforward bit-bang IO interface that would have made it easy to DIY unfortunately.
A simplified IO model of the KTTI digital IO can be found in the accessory instruction sheet - but it would not include details about the interface.

Some pics of the boards - taken with my crummy phone. :-[
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on January 02, 2022, 11:43:16 pm
Another pic topside (some components for the DIO)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on January 02, 2022, 11:46:50 pm
Another pic bottom side (some components for the DIO)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 5q5r on January 03, 2022, 02:58:30 am
Thanks for the pictures and the info! An FPGA for an RS232-interface and a few I/O lines seems like overkill, but I guess the design is similar across all 3 versions. 😊 I will have to look out for a cheap second hand card or go with the raspberry pi for now.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on January 04, 2022, 09:52:48 am
I have been planning to make a scripts that sends out data over to our 'cloud' at work.
Since the required reaction time is slow in your case you can probably do the same and just MQTT subscribe to the value(s) on your light control device, it should make the software easier and flexible but it would make it network dependent.
The plus side is you have some extra logging.
(it may be more work if you have to setup a cloud first)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on January 11, 2022, 09:53:42 am

Looks like trigger on 6500 is software, ...
Yes, I think this was confirmed by Keithley.

Maybe the DMM7510 will work for you on this project, I think its trigger system is hardware based.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: BitWrangler1001 on February 22, 2022, 07:30:06 pm
I have been planning to make a scripts that sends out data over to our 'cloud' at work.
Since the required reaction time is slow in your case you can probably do the same and just MQTT subscribe to the value(s) on your light control device, it should make the software easier and flexible but it would make it network dependent.
The plus side is you have some extra logging.
(it may be more work if you have to setup a cloud first)

The device can also send to a cloud service natively!
Check out
https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/ (https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KedasProbe on February 22, 2022, 08:31:09 pm
The device can also send to a cloud service natively!
Check out
https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/ (https://www.initialstate.com/keithley/)

I know, it's based on their script that I'm trying to make a version called the InitialThingsboardState.
But I haven't got it to work yet, I have to figure out some errors.
I use a local free Thingsboard CE instance in a VM as 'cloud' (https://thingsboard.io (https://thingsboard.io))
It has the limitation that it only has 1ms time resolution but they may later add nanosecond timestamps.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aronake on May 26, 2022, 04:26:07 am
When calibrating a DMM6500 is each calibration point individual and can be made individually? I.e. no need to do a whole range or all measurements.

Reason I ask is that i just got a DMM6500. On a very certain 5.00000 volt source it show 4.99985. Still in spec, but a bit too far out for my liking.

I can generate very exact 0.1V, 10V, 100V and 1000V, so would want to do own calibration for DC voltage only.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aronake on May 26, 2022, 04:57:01 am
When calibrating a DMM6500 is each calibration point individual and can be made individually? I.e. no need to do a whole range or all measurements.

Reason I ask is that i just got a DMM6500. On a very certain 5.00000 volt source it show 4.99985. Still in spec, but a bit too far out for my liking.

I can generate very exact 0.1V, 10V, 100V and 1000V, so would want to do own calibration for DC voltage only.

How about I read the manual? ;)

It apparently clearly say that any point can be calibrated individually.

Page 71:
"The following sections provide the preparation and command parameters that you need to complete adjustments to you DMM6500. The preparation sections provide information necessary for making connections and other equipment needed for that adjustment. The command parameter tables are meant to run through in any order allowing you to adjust just the parameters you need. For a complete adjustment, run through these sections in order, making the preparations and running all of the command parameters."
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on May 26, 2022, 09:55:13 am
Make sure to check and maybe adjust the ZERO calibration before starting to change any other values.
Also, if the ZERO has drifted, it would be best to calibrate step by step all DC values as suggested by the manual.

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aronake on May 26, 2022, 10:28:59 am
Make sure to check and maybe adjust the ZERO calibration before starting to change any other values.
Also, if the ZERO has drifted, it would be best to calibrate step by step all DC values as suggested by the manual.

Thanks! Good point. Have you done your own calibration of a DMM6500?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: frankvh2 on June 02, 2022, 05:14:13 am
Perhaps this has already been said. But for those upgrading the firmware of the DMM6500. If your 6500 currently has a version less than 1.7.10, consider doing what I did and first install 1.7.10. You need to use the "downgrade" button to perform that update. Then, after 1.7.10 is installed, use the "upgrade" button to install the latest version - 1.7.12 as I write this.

In my case, my DMM6500 had 1.7.5 installed. So I downloaded both 1.7.10 and 1.7.12 from the Tek website. First installed 1.7.10 using the "downgrade" button, then installed 1.7.12 using the "upgrade" button. Why? So that the firmware version displays correctly. Doing it this way avoids that annoying bug where only 1.7.1 is displayed.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aronake on June 08, 2022, 11:25:57 am
Hello dear E-Design!

I can't find any information in datasheet about what β-value you are design for NTC 10k temperature measurements?

I try use DMM6500 on NTC 10k with β 3870K but i see it is incorrect value, when i moving from 25С to any direction i see too much error.
It's looks like as you are using β-value too different... Maybe you use β-value around 34**K?

Also - how i can measure NTC 10k in 4-wire mode? (in Keysight DMM like as 34410A i can enable that mode)

(Attachment Link)
Model number: 44006 is specifically mentioned for 10k thermistor in the specifications document.
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf (https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf)

This is helpfull, but have anyone found other thermistors that work well?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: aronake on June 08, 2022, 12:15:18 pm
Hello dear E-Design!

I can't find any information in datasheet about what β-value you are design for NTC 10k temperature measurements?

I try use DMM6500 on NTC 10k with β 3870K but i see it is incorrect value, when i moving from 25С to any direction i see too much error.
It's looks like as you are using β-value too different... Maybe you use β-value around 34**K?

Also - how i can measure NTC 10k in 4-wire mode? (in Keysight DMM like as 34410A i can enable that mode)

(Attachment Link)
Model number: 44006 is specifically mentioned for 10k thermistor in the specifications document.
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf (https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/261/44006-275331.pdf)

This is helpfull, but have anyone found other thermistors that work well?

Some more research and this seems to be the beta value for the different thermistors:

Model   25C ohm    Beta
44004    2252            3978
44007    5000     3976
44006    10000    3694

A beta which is 200 wrong gives an error of around 1 degree at 40 degrees. So depending on intended use, can be quite OK to have a beta wich is 100 or so off.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: thom on August 14, 2022, 05:01:02 pm
Hi everyone,
I have tried to write some script to improve/repair awful default diode test. My script works as on good old flukes (e.g. model 45) - as old as me probably ;)

Here is what script can do:
-one beep: when you are in range (0,25V..0,8V).
-no beep: when you are above,
-contstant beep: when you are below.
-frequency for sound is 2kHz (not this original shitty sound).

All seems to be fine when script is running BUT I observed some really big problem: after switch-off script and go to regular mode e.g. voltage measuring all is ok. When I switched-on script again meter became unusable. Sometimes is just one sequence on-off-on, sometimes two when unit is stop responding. The only rescue is reboot unit.

Could one of you can confirm this? Please find tsp file in attachment.
I thought that in my script some routine at the end like "reset buffer on exit"  is missing however I dint find something like this.
What is wrong?

this script is wonderful and solves my only real complaint with this meter, but it locks up my meter after closing it once or twice. meter build july '22 running FW 11b. I'm going to play around with it  and see if I can get it to work without crashing. strange that it works fine for some people and crashes for others
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jord4231 on November 12, 2022, 12:24:48 am
I've had a bit of a search around and have not seen this come up yet (although it may have)
Am I going crazy or is this a bug?
The issue is with the notify command forgetting its assigned to timer.

I think its a bug.
Anyone seen this before  :wtf:
https://youtu.be/g9NauzUXyR0
 (https://youtu.be/g9NauzUXyR0)
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: E-Design on November 12, 2022, 05:19:45 pm
I've had a bit of a search around and have not seen this come up yet (although it may have)
Am I going crazy or is this a bug?
The issue is with the notify command forgetting its assigned to timer.

I think its a bug.
Anyone seen this before  :wtf:
https://youtu.be/g9NauzUXyR0
 (https://youtu.be/g9NauzUXyR0)

Does look like something buggy going on. If it is not too inconvenient for you, I would suggest post your issue here:
https://my.tek.com/tektalk/digital-multimeters

Some developers might see it and possibly log the issue for you.


EDIT: Nevermind! I see that you did already.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jord4231 on November 14, 2022, 07:00:35 pm
Ah turns out it's user error :palm:
As pointed out to me in that Tektronix fourm when modifying the timer I must then click enable timer!
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jimjam on February 13, 2023, 01:07:22 pm
So it's now February 2023. If I were to buy a new DMM6500, would it still have these problems?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: KaneTW on February 13, 2023, 02:45:41 pm
No transformer hum on my unit after a RMA (although they said nothing was changed). Viewing angle is subjective, so can't answer that (it's ok for me). No idea about the firmware bugs.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on February 13, 2023, 03:07:26 pm
My unit was one of the early deliveries.

1. I never had any transformer hum
2. The viewing angle is perfect for me
3. Since the firmware has been updated significantly, I also have no problems there.


Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: zrq on February 13, 2023, 03:28:37 pm
I would be more interested in where can one get it as cheap as few years ago  ;) .
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HighVoltage on February 13, 2023, 03:31:10 pm
I would be more interested in where can one get it as cheap as few years ago  ;) .
Those days probably never come back.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: zrq on February 13, 2023, 03:54:29 pm
I would expect it will slowly come back as now China has ended zero-COVID and back to 100% productivity. There are some uncertainty given the geopolitical situations though.
Also with the pressure of Chinese DMMs, just like how Rigol and Siglent changed the low end oscilloscope market. I have no idea how good those meters are compared to A brands, but more competition is certainly a good thing.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Hydron on February 13, 2023, 04:45:05 pm
The old prices were conspicuously low compared to the KS competition, so I wouldn't be so sure they'll get down to that level again. I had to RMA mine for the transformer thing but it was an early unit, and no regrets about the purchase (especially at the old price :) )
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: zrq on February 13, 2023, 05:30:05 pm
Well, but the Keysight competitors are also few hundred bucks cheaper few years ago. So I'd still wait a bit.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: jimjam on February 13, 2023, 11:17:24 pm
The FOMO in me says "What if it goes up even more!"
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: goaty on February 14, 2023, 06:41:16 am
Wow what happened there? I paid roughly 1k€ new unit when it came out, now it's at 1,6k€ in some places. Inflation ?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on February 14, 2023, 07:13:40 am
 Hello.

 Please help. Is it possible to configure a trigger to turn the multimeter into a window comparator? That is, keep the trigger output high at a certain voltage range. Or is it necessary to write a script for such a task?

 Besides I ask to assume high-speed performance of this system. Yes, I understand that there is a direct relationship with accuracy. Is a reaction time of less than one tenth of a second achievable for an error of tens of millivolts in the 10V range?

 Or is it still easier to assemble an "iron" comparator :)

 Perhaps someone is familiar with the solution, I will be grateful for the hint.

 Thanks.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: HKJ on February 14, 2023, 07:32:30 am
Please help. Is it possible to configure a trigger to turn the multimeter into a window comparator? That is, keep the trigger output high at a certain voltage range. Or is it necessary to write a script for such a task?

Why not use the limit settings in the Calculations menu.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: 2N3055 on February 14, 2023, 07:43:16 am
Hello.

 Please help. Is it possible to configure a trigger to turn the multimeter into a window comparator? That is, keep the trigger output high at a certain voltage range. Or is it necessary to write a script for such a task?

 Besides I ask to assume high-speed performance of this system. Yes, I understand that there is a direct relationship with accuracy. Is a reaction time of less than one tenth of a second achievable for an error of tens of millivolts in the 10V range?

 Or is it still easier to assemble an "iron" comparator :)

 Perhaps someone is familiar with the solution, I will be grateful for the hint.

 Thanks.

There is a Reference Manual for the meter.
https://download.tek.com/manual/DMM6500-901-01_A_April_2018_Ref_DMM6500-901-01A.pdf
Chapter 9-17,  Analog Triggering. 

Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: MikeP on February 14, 2023, 05:50:12 pm
 Thank you friend! This is exactly what I was looking for.  :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: ar__systems on March 23, 2023, 11:26:33 pm
Got DAQ6510+7700.

Using a PC to drive repeated scan of 11 channels. The reason for using the PC is that I also need to control a power supply (turn it on for the duration of the scan, then off). The power supply has only USB interface.

Pretty cool piece of equipment, I should say. The reason I got here is that I first tried to configure the 7700 to control the power to the DUT, which is possible, but only if you use fewer than 11 channels for measurements, and I have 11 :) Found some posts floating ideas of replicating the 7700. I started to think of modifying the 7700 to allow that with more than 10 channels. Probably will never do it: I don't want to ruin my brand new device, and it is easy to add a serial port controlled relay with FTDI or something like that. ...and I still need to drive everything from a PC since I need to also take an image from a camera.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: qmichl on April 23, 2023, 05:54:15 pm
If somebody is interested I want to share some update to the MeasurePower script that has been published by Mike G earlier here. The major changes are:

The changes are based on this description of unoffical functions: https://github.com/tektronix/keithley/tree/main/TTI_Apps/TTI_Display_API

Rename the txt file to tsp file to use it on the instrument.

Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that the unoffical functions still work after a firmware update, I tested on 1.7.12b. So, no warranty.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Mike G on April 24, 2023, 05:07:23 am
Thanks to qmichl for the link to the unofficial information which I was not aware of. 
I have not had time to work with more projects for the 6500 lately but have some ideas for the future. 
Some of the information in this unofficial guide I had already worked out the hard way but there are several very interesting features in here that I was not aware of.
Thanks again qmichl :-+
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: Baltazar on July 31, 2023, 06:57:06 pm
As some have reported, operating the front/rear terminal switch bends the PCB. So the idea is to avoid using it as much as possible.

If the switch is in FRONT position, can I still use the 10A & INPUT LO connectors on the back with the specified accuracy to measure current in the 10A range?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on September 09, 2023, 06:41:18 pm
This simple part prevents the PCB deformation  when the front/rear input switch button used.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: voltsandjolts on September 09, 2023, 06:56:21 pm
Is this part fixed to the metal case, with double sided tape or such like?
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: maxspb69 on September 09, 2023, 07:30:57 pm
No, this part simply fits over the PCB edge and prevents it from bending upward when the button is pressed. The upper part  rests on the cover of the device housing.
No additional fastening is required.
Title: Re: New Keithley DMM6500 and now DAQ6510
Post by: bateau020 on September 14, 2023, 04:57:52 pm
Maybe it is the print house I used, but with 0.1mm resolution in PLA Pro, it fits really tight. So tight that the friction between the PCB and the sidewall is enough to stop the pcb from flexing. And it is really snug to the top. As I'm using the rear/front switch a lot (along with my custom scanner card and breakout box) this is perfect for me.