Has anyone ever developed drivers for the HP 3588A spectrum analyzer?

[KenGentry]

I am using LabVIEW 5.0 on a Windows NT box. I would like to know if any drivers have been developed for this analyzer or if any other instrument's drivers can be used.

[pavanb]

You could find a LV/CVI driver for this instrument at http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/default.htm . If it's not listed there, it leaves you with one of a couple options. First, I would like you to submit a request for this driver at: http://zone.ni.com/idnet97.nsf/instrumentdriverrequest/
We develop drivers based on demand and popularity so the more requests we have for it, the greater the possibility that we will develop one.
If you would like to try developing your own instrument driver (or modify the existing one), we have documentation, model instrument drivers, and driver templates to help at :
http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/development.htm
We also have a syndicate of third party vendors that specialize in National Instruments' products and services. Some of the vendors specialize in driver development. I would suggest contacting one of the Alliance members at:
http://www.ni.com/alliance

An instrument driver is a collection of functions that implement the commands necessary to perform the instrument�s operations. In short, someone read the instrument user manual and implemented some of the functionality in a program for the end user. Instrument drivers are not necessary to use your instrument. They are merely time savers to help you develop your project so you do not need to study the manual before writing a program. With all of this work already done for you in the driver, instrument drivers can significantly reduce development time.

There are example VI's in LV on Instrument Connectivity. If you go to the Help menu >> Examples.. >> I/O, you will see a couple and Examples.. >> Fundamentals for File and String manipulation. I would suggest tweaking them to suit your application. Also the specific command that your instrument responds to can be found from it's manual.

Some useful resources for your application are
ni.com > NI Developer Zone > Development Library > Instrument Connectivity
http://search.ni.com/?col=alldocs&layout=TechResources&ql=a , to search examples and knowledge bases

Hope this helps.

[bbp]

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@KenGentry wrote:
I am using LabVIEW 5.0 on a Windows NT box. I would like to know if any drivers have been developed for this analyzer or if any other instrument's drivers can be used.

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Was there a resolution to this old post ?
I am looking for Labview drivers for this same HP 3588a spectrum analyzer. Any version is OK (I'll modify if need be), but Labview 6.1 is what I am currently using on this particular setup.

thanks for any info !

[Robert M]

It looks like we don't have a driver for the HP 3588A.  You may want to check out the new LabVIEW 8 Instrument Driver Project Wizard.  It can help you create a new driver for the instrument without too much work or trouble.

[J3000]

Anyone still interested in this?

I have a HP 3588A. It seems that It can not remember the GPIB address I assigned to it. So every time when the device is turned on, first thing to do is assign the address.

I assume that you just need the spectrum. Here is the command to get the spectrum: Calc:data? Do a VISA write, then read, you will get the whole spectrum in a string.

Hope it helps.

[bbp]

Attached is a LabView 6.1/IEEE 488 solution to reading HP 3588. HP 3588 manuals and IEEE-488 instruction set is available from Agilent (www.agilent.com); search on 3588.
I've included two solutions, 1) using ASCII format to read the HP3588. 2) using the REAL 32 format to read the HP3588. Using REAL 32 is a bit quicker for the data transfer.

[Davidson_D]

Hello Everyone,

I am in need of LabVIEW driver for this instrument.

Anyone have tried this before?

I did an extensive search through the Agilent site and could get only the scanned PDF version of the manual.

But to understand and this would take too much time i hope.

Anyone who had tried to develop driver for this instrument, please let me know.

Thanks and Regards,

Davidson

[bbp]

Hi,

  In my last post I gave an early version of a VI that would simply read the 3588 via IEEE488.  Attached is a simple VI that reads, displays, and saves whatever you have collected on the 3588.  I also was in a hurry when I last used the 3588 (and wrote this VI) and so decided to operate the 3588 by hand, and simply have Labview read off the data.

I don't have time to strip out some of my standard parts of programming ... you could easily do it if you wish.

To make this vi "SAT - Spectrum Analyzer Trace Capture" work, you need a txt file call "Operator ID.txt" in the format as shown in the example in the attachment.  And it needs to be placed in C:\Documents and Settings\HP3588 Data\Defaults\

Other than that, connect the HP3588 with IEEE488, and inside the VI "SAT - Spectrum Analyzer Trace Capture" choose the proper address from the pulldown for your HP3588.

After running this VI, a text file of the data is sent to C:\Documents and Settings\HP3588 Data\

It is pretty easy to add other commands and queries.  The pnemonics for the commands, besides being the in the reference manuals on the Agilent web sites, are shown on the 3588 display whenever you operate in local mode.

Good luck,

brad

[bbp]

The last attachment was fouled up.  Please use this attachment instead.

cheers,

Brad

[Davidson_D]

Dear Brad,

Thank you very much for sharing the code. This is really helpful for me to start with the instrument.

I will get back to you if i need any clarifications.

Regards,

Davidson