Author Topic: VXI11/LXI  (Read 711 times)

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Offline davorinTopic starter

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VXI11/LXI
« on: December 13, 2024, 08:59:57 pm »
Good evening

Received my Siglent SSA3021X Plus today and discovered that it isn‘t remote controllable like my Rigol DS1104Z.

With the DS1104Z I can just telnet to it and issue SCPI commands. The Siglent seems to be more complicated.

Both devices have the LXI label, but seems there are huge differences.

From the VXI11 specs I see that newer implementation must support mDNS discovery, but both don‘t do it. So someone knows how lxi tools does the discovery?

Reason for asking: Doing an own desktop software for macOS/Linux as lxi tools does only a screen dump whereas my DS1104Z tools creates the graphic from received data points for better visibilty.

 

Offline KungFuJosh

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2024, 09:11:35 pm »
The Siglent has a built in web server. Just go to the IP.
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Online tautech

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2024, 09:12:21 pm »
Good evening

Received my Siglent SSA3021X Plus today and discovered that it isn‘t remote controllable like my Rigol DS1104Z.

With the DS1104Z I can just telnet to it and issue SCPI commands. The Siglent seems to be more complicated.

Both devices have the LXI label, but seems there are huge differences.

From the VXI11 specs I see that newer implementation must support mDNS discovery, but both don‘t do it. So someone knows how lxi tools does the discovery?

Reason for asking: Doing an own desktop software for macOS/Linux as lxi tools does only a screen dump whereas my DS1104Z tools creates the graphic from received data points for better visibilty.
Assign the analyzer an IP address that's compatible with your network.
Knowing that IP address add it into a browser and hit enter.
Webserver Welcome page awaits you.
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Offline davorinTopic starter

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2024, 09:14:16 pm »
Well web page I know of…but I want to directly communicate with it via TCP socket from my own macOS software (o;
 

Offline KungFuJosh

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2024, 09:19:09 pm »
You could always try one of the...programming guides. 😉

https://siglentna.com/resources/documents/spectrum-analyzers/#ssa3000x-plus
"Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before." - Steven Wright
 

Online tautech

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2024, 09:29:24 pm »
Well web page I know of…but I want to directly communicate with it via TCP socket from my own macOS software (o;
IP plus port 5024 5025 IIRC.
RTFM.  ;)
« Last Edit: December 14, 2024, 12:33:17 pm by tautech »
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Offline bson

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2024, 09:33:43 pm »
VXI11 is built on SunRPC and is used to tunnel GPIB over a network.  The reason for an RPC (remote procedure call) protocol is that GPIB instruments can make asynchronous notifications to the host, like when there is data available in a buffer.  Just basic telnet can't do this, unless you want the instrument to start randomly spitting out text at you or your program, that it then has to figure out has nothing to do with the command it's currently trying to issue.  This is the same reason USBTMC is used over USB, just a VCP isn't sufficient.

LXI is a badge to demonstrate VXI11 certification.

I'd recommend updating your software to use VXI11... there are many implementations out there.  I like https://github.com/python-ivi/python-vxi11 myself, it's very easy to use although there might be better ones for your needs, as well as different ones for other languages.  This doesn't use Visa or anything like that, it connects directly using SunRPC.
 
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Online coromonadalix

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2024, 01:43:28 am »
no problems on controlling siglent stuff

ip  / mac  and do permit ports 5024 5025 or other related ..

even a cheap python script can do the job
 

Offline TheoB

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2024, 12:03:28 pm »
VXI11 is built on SunRPC and is used to tunnel GPIB over a network.  The reason for an RPC (remote procedure call) protocol is that GPIB instruments can make asynchronous notifications to the host, like when there is data available in a buffer.  Just basic telnet can't do this, unless you want the instrument to start randomly spitting out text at you or your program, that it then has to figure out has nothing to do with the command it's currently trying to issue.  This is the same reason USBTMC is used over USB, just a VCP isn't sufficient.

LXI is a badge to demonstrate VXI11 certification.

I'd recommend updating your software to use VXI11... there are many implementations out there.  I like https://github.com/python-ivi/python-vxi11 myself, it's very easy to use although there might be better ones for your needs, as well as different ones for other languages.  This doesn't use Visa or anything like that, it connects directly using SunRPC.
I also found this solution, but did not try it as I could not find any documentation other than instr.ask. Am I missing something?
 

Offline RoGeorge

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2024, 12:14:56 pm »
Have you visited the first link in that github repo?
Quote
Python VXI-11 Readme
For more information and updates: http://alexforencich.com/wiki/en/python-vxi11/start
[/s]

The telnet port number used by Siglent is different than the one used by Rigol.  Have you tried to telnet with the port given by user tautech? (5024, or search the programming manual for the particular instrument to control, I don't have any Siglent so can't confirm if it is indeed 5024)
« Last Edit: December 14, 2024, 12:19:38 pm by RoGeorge »
 

Offline davorinTopic starter

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2024, 12:18:49 pm »
Interesting...nmap doesn't show port 5024, but indeed I can telnet to it (o;

Code: [Select]
klingler@Mac-Studio-2 ~ % nmap 10.0.110.1
Starting Nmap 7.95 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-12-14 13:18 CET
Nmap scan report for 10.0.110.1
Host is up (0.00052s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed tcp ports (conn-refused)
PORT     STATE SERVICE
80/tcp   open  http
111/tcp  open  rpcbind
5900/tcp open  vnc
Code: [Select]
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.52 seconds
klingler@Mac-Studio-2 ~ % telnet 10.0.110.1 5024
Trying 10.0.110.1...
Connected to 10.0.110.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
Welcome to the SCPI instrument 'Siglent SSA3032X Plus'
>>*IDN?
Siglent Technologies,SSA3032X Plus,SSA3PD1R378378,3.2.2.6.0R10

« Last Edit: December 14, 2024, 12:26:00 pm by davorin »
 

Online tautech

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2024, 12:34:28 pm »
Well web page I know of…but I want to directly communicate with it via TCP socket from my own macOS software (o;
IP plus port 5024 5025 IIRC.
RTFM.  ;)
Sorry, 5025 is the coms port.  :-[

See P5
https://www.siglenteu.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/09/ProgrammingGuide_PG0703P_E02B.pdf
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Offline RoGeorge

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2024, 12:37:13 pm »
indeed I can telnet to it (o;

 :-+

As for Python, I remember now that the VXI library (initially a project by Alex Forencich) was in a limbo state some years ago, with about 100+ forks on github.

I'm not using that anymore, but use pyvisa instead.
https://github.com/pyvisa/pyvisa
https://pyvisa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

For Mac it might also work the liblxy library, but I don't have a Mac either (though it works for BSD based OSs, too).  The author use to announce here, on EEVblog, when major features are added.  liblxi is now in the official repos of RedHat/Ubuntu, etc.  It's written in C, and has a Python wrapper, too.
https://github.com/lxi-tools/liblxi
« Last Edit: December 14, 2024, 12:40:45 pm by RoGeorge »
 
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Online tautech

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Offline TheoB

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2024, 12:51:58 pm »
As for Python, I remember now that the VXI library (initially a project by Alex Forencich) was in a limbo state some years ago, with about 100+ forks on github.

I'm not using that anymore, but use pyvisa instead.
https://github.com/pyvisa/pyvisa
https://pyvisa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

For Mac it might also work the liblxy library, but I don't have a Mac either (though it works for BSD based OSs, too).  The author use to announce here, on EEVblog, when major features are added.  liblxi is now in the official repos of RedHat/Ubuntu, etc.  It's written in C, and has a Python wrapper, too.
https://github.com/lxi-tools/liblxi
Exact. I also use pyvisa. It works fine and has documentation.
 

Offline davorinTopic starter

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Re: VXI11/LXI
« Reply #15 on: December 19, 2024, 12:11:55 pm »
Just using port 5025 now as it easier to do as using external library on macOS:
(Software is a work in progress ;o)

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