Controlling a SI 1260 Phase Analyzer?

[Michael Henin]

I recently installed a GPIB-PCI card to control an Impedance/Gain-Phase Analyzer. Upon turning the device on it seems to detect the presence of the device. The device responds with a beep. But I can get it to fully communicate. Even for a function as simple as (*IDN?). I constantly get the following error message: "iberr = EABO". Note that the device isn't connected to anyother equipment other than the computer. Kindly advise.

[JohnM 64]

Hi Michael,

What method are you using to try to communicate with the device? The beep could simply indicate that the device is turned on rather than that the computer has "found" the device. My reasoning for this is that the GPIB card does not automatically find devices when they are turned on, but rather when a Scan for Instruments has been executed with the devices already turned on. What happens when you go into Measurement and Automation Explorer and Scan for Instruments on your PCI-GPIB card? If it still responds with a timeout (or statest that the device did not respond to a *IDN? query), then you may need to use a different termination character. You can look in your device manual to see if it requires any termination, and if so what character it needs.

Hope this helps!

john m
Applications Engineer

[Michael Henin]

Hey John,

I first scan for the instrument. It seems to detect it but it can't display the description. "The device did not respond to *IDN? query" is the message that I get.

I use the "Communicate with device" button with "*IDN?" function for command. I checked the manual for the device, this is the function for it to display a string of the model number.

When I press the query button, the device beeps.

I tried querying on both the major and minor addresses.

Still doesn't work..

Thanks for your advice.

[JohnM 64]

Hi Michael,

If the devices comes up in the list after Scan for Instruments, it means that it was able to find a device at that address when it performed a find listeners function.  The message "The device did not respond to the *IDN? query" indicates that it did not receive any data back when it sent a *IDN? to the device (a task that Scan for Instruments performs on each listener it finds).  This is the same behavior you are seeing in the Communicate With Device window.  So, it looks like it can communicate to the device, but for some reason it is not responding to this query.  Here is what I recommend for further troubleshooting:

1.  Check and ensure that the device does in fact respond to the *IDN? query with an identification string.  Most instruments incorporate this command (it is part of a standard called SCPI), but not all instruments are SCPI compliant.

2.  Check the manual for the device and see what type of termination is required for the device.  Most devices use one of two methods to determine when the data that is written to them is finished:  either asserting the hardware EOI line with the last byte of the transmission, or by reading a certain termination character.  If the device does not receive the termination it is expecting, then it will still think that the computer has more data to send.  The default termination for NI GPIB driver software is to assert the EOI line, but some devices require a termination character in addition to this.  Common termination characters are "/r" and "/n", but I have seen devices with other termination characters as well.  You can append these characters to the end of your write string in the Communicate with Device window for testing purposes, and change it using a configuration utility later once you determine what character is needed.

3.  If neither one of the above suggestions leads us to a solution, I recommend trying a different instrument if you have one available.  It would be nice to determine whether or not this problem is isolated to this specific device.

Hope this helps!

john m

[Zafs]

I want to connect a printer to SI 1260 impedance/gain-phase analyzer,i want to know whether it is possible or not to get the readings plotter on to a page directly connecting the SI 1260 to a printer ?