Dear Members,
 
I finally am able to use Visual Basic 6 and Visual C++ 6 to control the HP
8591E.  Thanks to those who have helped, especially the member who have have
provided me a free downloard program and guided me step-by-step. 
 
In summary, the HP 8591E (and HP E2078) was not recognized by the NI IBIC
which was based on NI 488.2.  "*IDN?" command cannot be recognized by the HP
8591E.  All the commands need to be the original IEEE 488 commands to avoid
any error message.  
 
Best regards,
Grace
 
On 10/17/06, Brian O'Connell <[email protected]> wrote: 

I would limit driver code to 488.1 stuff for the 8590 series; and so would
probably not use the E2078 SICL library. If possible, use basic C to control 
the instrument. I gave up on VB, for other then making the user interface,
in a previous life.

The SRQ message may indicate a service request is active and/or may have
timed out.

1. Avoid programmatic control until you can tweak and verify both controller 
and instrument configuration (e.g., EOI, EOC, EOL, EOS, etc) using a tool
similar to National's ibic.
2. read the status register after every I/O until basic comm and control is
ok.
3. look at appendix A in 
http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/08590-90301.pdf
4. use very simple low-level development tools.
5. Verify the controller with ibfind gpib0 
6. verify the controller's address with gpib0:ibpad 0
7. verify the bus with
   gpib0: ibrsc 1
   gpib0: ibsic
8. verify instrument comm with gpib0: ibdev 0 x -> 'x' is the 8590 gpib
address
  and then ibwrt "*idn?" 

It should be noted that the oldest computer you can find will probably
result in the most favorable ambient EMI. The E2078 will probably be happy
in an old PII machine.

luck,
Brian



-----Original Message----- 
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Grace Lin
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:15 AM
To:  <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
Subject: Driver for HP E2078A PCI GPIB Interface

Dear Members,

Does anyone know what is the driver, and how can I obtain it, for the above
referenced GPIB interface?  I found this card and its cable from our 
warehouse (which means no one uses it for a long time).  The software came
with this interface is the "HP I/O Libraries".  Since my computer is a
Pentium 4 with Window XP Pro (with SP 2), I downloaded the latest version of 
the "Agilent IO Libraries Suite 14.2" from the Agilent web site.  My HP8591E
spectrum analyzer showed "CMD ERR:IDN" and "SRQ 140" while I tried to
communicate with it through the Interactive IO of the Connection Expert.  If 
I "Send Commands To This Instrument" by clicking the "GBIB0::18::INSTR"
under the "Instrument I/O on This PC", my spectrum analyzer showed no error
message.  The "Instrument Session History" under Interactive IO showed 
"*Connected to:GPIB0::18::INSTR".  I guess the communication is OK but I
cannot use "*IDN?" command (from 488.2).

I think I have to obtain a correct version of driver.  I try to use visual 
basic 6 (VB 6) to control the IEEE 488 devices.  I haven't had any luck.  If
this is not a good version to VB 6, my employer has VB.NET and VB 2005,
which can be installed in a day.  It would be of great help that someone can 
provide me with a simple program (such as reset the device) to start with.

Any comment is highly appreciated!

Best regards,
Grace Lin

-
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society
emc-pstc discussion list.    Website:  http://www.ieee-pses.org/

To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected]

Instructions:  http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html

List rules:  <http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html>
http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html

For help, send mail to the list administrators:

    Scott Douglas           [email protected]
    Mike Cantwell           [email protected]

For policy questions, send mail to:

    Jim Bacher:             [email protected]
    David Heald:             [email protected]

All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:

   http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc 



- ---------------------------------------------------------------- This
message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc
discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ 

To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] 


Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html 


List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html 


For help, send mail to the list administrators: 


Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] 


For policy questions, send mail to: 


Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] 


All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: 


http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc 
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email 
______________________________________________________________________



Reply via email to