Setting measurement parameters for PNA

[Aria]

I am trying to control an Agilent E8364B PNA using a USB-GPIB-HS module to measure s21 parameters over a range of frequencies. As you can see in the attached code (PNA test) the PNA is initialized and then all the measurement parameters are sent to Use PNA.vi. I tested the code and all the adjustments (average count, frequency range, # of sweep points) are made except for the measurement type (s11, s12, s21, ...). No matter which measurement type I choose, the PNA defaults to s11. When I set up the front panel for s21 ,the output of the List Measurement Parameters.vi shows 2 elements in the ouput array: one is ch1_s11_1  s11 and the second is test s21 (test is what I called my measurement). Can anyone please tell me how to fix this problem? I downloaded the drivers off of NI's website a few days ago so they should be up to date. Thank you very much.

[Dennis_Knutson]

There is no attachment. Did you click Preview Post? That seems to have the affect of dropping attachments. Also, when you do post it, create a development distribution and save everything into an llb. That will save someone the effort of downloading the driver.

[Aria]

Sorry, here are the attachments, I saved the 2 files inside the drivers library. Thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I hope someone can look at it. I don't have 8.0.

[Angela M]

Hello Aria,
I do not have the instrument to troubleshoot with, but I do have some suggestions to help you figure out what is going on.  In troubleshooting, it is important to separate the hardware from the software.  To determine if your logic in sending commands is correct you can use the Highlight Execution button in LabVIEW, to see when your data values are being read.  If you can find nothing wrong in the software, then I suggest looking into NI Spy and seeing the commands that are being sent to and read from the device.

At the base of the driver it is simply VISA commands, so it may be worthwhile to send the command that is supposed to set the mode and then read the response using just VISA Read and Write to verify that the instrument is actually understanding the command.

I hope this helps, I am sorry I am not able to test the instrument to verify this command.
Regards,
Angela
Applications Engineer

[Aria]

Thanks everyone. I figured out what the problem is. The configure measurement parameters.vi driver generates a new measurement but doesn't send it to the PNA's display. To add the trace, just use the configure trace display.vi. If the display settings aren't changed, the program still captures the right measurement data but just doesn't show it.

[yll]

I am having the same problem using HP E8361A network analyzer. Running the config and read data, I can only get S11. The attachment is the example file I used. Can anyone tell me what happens?

[NathanT]

Hello Yll,

       You will need to attach more than just the lvproj for us to see what you are doing.  Please attach the smallest VI that reproduces the issue.  Have you tried the troubleshooting steps that the other posters suggested/used?  How do the examples work?

Cheers,

NathanT

[yll]

Hi Nathan,

I found out that the right data was collected but it just did not display on the network analyzer. Thanks a lot for your reply.

[NathanT]

Hello Yll,

        I am glad that you realized what the problem was.  In many cases data will not be displayed on the instrument if it is in remote mode or the instrument driver will explicitly turn off the instrument's display in order to make the instrument acquire data faster.

Cheers,

NathanT