Controlling HP E3632A Power Supply

[Symbiote]

Problem Description : I need help with controlling the HP E3632A Power Supply. I used the instrument driver from your website, but it does not seem to work well. Here is the link to the driver I used:

http://zone.ni.com/idnet97.nsf/9b2b33e1993d877786256436006ec498/0817568e8af393c5862568ab005fbd3d?OpenDocument

I upgraded all the necissary software to use the driver, but it does not work properly. When I tried using the sample Getting Started program on the driver and told it to ramp the power supply to 5 volts, it only went to 3 volts. Also I would like to know how you would program labview to make the power supply go to a certain voltage and maintain it. I want the power supply to send out a constant voltage for a certain period
of time.


The only thing the Power Supply is connected to is the GPIB card. The getting started VI does not maintain the voltage. When i set it to go to 1 volt it goes there, but then drops back down. I want it to maintain the
voltage

[Brian_Powell]

I don't have this instrument available to test with directly, so I can only offer some suggestions.

First of all, it looks like the menus aren't quite right, so you have to load the Getting Started VI with File -> Open, not through the palette menus. I think you figured this out, though.

I think the main subVI you want to use is "Configure Output". If you just use a simple program with Initialize, Configure Output and Close, does it maintain the voltage?

If not, then I would try leaving out the Close. Does this make a difference?

If you are using Windows, you might also try using NI-Spy to look at the messages being sent to the instrument. Maybe you can figure out that the driver is explicitly resetting the instrument. If so, we can look at th
e driver more closely and figure out how to avoid this.

I hope this helps you get started.

Brian

[Brian_Powell]

I wrote...

"First of all, it looks like the menus aren't quite right, so you have to load the Getting Started VI with File -> Open, not through the palette menus. I think you figured this out, though."

Either I or my LabVIEW were momentarily confused. I don't see this problem any more. Sorry for the confusion.

Brian

[JoshuaP]

Hey Symbiote,

Brian has a good point. You might need to add a while loop between the write and the close to keep the voltage outputting. I would suggest selecting high execution so that you can step through the application while monitoring the device. You might have to open up the sub VI to continue figuring out what is causing the output to go back to 0V.

I hope this helps out.

JoshuaP

[Symbiote]

Thanks for the advice. I tried the simple program you suggested, but it still is not working quite right. The power supply shows that it goes to 5 volts, but when I read it with a multimeter it does not read 5 volts. I think the power supply is still jumping to 5 volts then jumps back down instantly. Any suggestions?

[Symbiote]

not working out.... i could use more suggestions...
maybe the drivers are bad.. do i need to upgrade to labview 7.1?

[Symbiote]

Thanks.. i'll try..

[Dennis_Knutson]

I doubt it. What happens when you manually set a voltage? If you seeing the same behavior, it's likely an instrrument problem. Are you measuring between one of the output terminals and the COM terminal or between output and GND? I have a E3630 but unfortunately it doesn't have a GPIB interface so I can't help to see if there's a bug in the driver.

[Symbiote]

I've tested the power supply manually and it works fine. I am measuring between output terminals (+ and -).

[Symbiote]

"Thanks for the advice. I tried the simple program you suggested, but it still is not working quite right. The power supply shows that it goes to 5 volts, but when I read it with a multimeter it does not read 5 volts. I think the power supply is still jumping to 5 volts then jumps back down instantly. Any suggestions?"