Accesing the memory of remote instruments

[luis104]

Hi all!

I have a problem with Labview communicating with a function generator Agilent 33600. I couldn't manage to read or write in the internal memory of the instrument. It seems that LabView has no access to this memory because when I use a file access function and the file dialog box opens, I can't see the drive of the instrument. Nevertheless, I can see  this drive through the windows file explorer.

I would appreciate so much an advice to write or read from this memory through LabView...

[Bob_Schor]

There appear to be two routes into the innards of this function generator.  One is through a Web interface, interacting with software that I presume resides within the Instrument.  The second is through a GPIB (IEEE-488.2) interface, which is an optional add-in.  As you might know, NI started as a company making GPIB Interfaces, and after a few years, a bright young man named Jeff said "We really should have some software to make it easier for people to program our, and our competitors, GPIB devices.  And while we're at it, let's make it graphical.  And let's make it into a Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench".

I suspect these two routes are the ways into this instrument.  Check your interfaces ...

Bob Schor

[rolfk]

While the GPIB (IEEE-488.2) interface is an option these devices come standard with an Ethernet interface AFAIK. And they all support the T&M Instrument Control interface either through the GPIB or Ethernet Interface. And NI-VISA allows to control both these interfaces in such a way, that except during initialization when deciding which interface to use and possibly a few specific attributes to set, the rest of the driver can remain completely the same. Incidentially NI provides many instrument drivers and the one for the AG-335xx series is one of them. It is specifically programmed for the Ethernet Interface and doesn't list the GPIB interface as an option, but that would be pretty trivial to add if needed.

While this driver may not support the necessary commands to read waveform memory and such, it could be added to it pretty easily, if the Signal Generator does support the according T&M Interface SCPI commands to do so. You will have to consult the SCPI Programming Reference Section in the manual for your device to see what commands it supports. You probably want to look at the MMEMory: subsystem commands to work with the internal memory of the device.

[luis104 · Accepted solution]

Many thanks Rolf! You were right! At least I found a specific function for this access in the AG driver... I had been looking for it previously, but it was a little bit hindered

[luis104]

Many thanks, Bob