Anyone controlling HP 5345A with LabView ?

[reteb]

My HP 5345A ( being 100% OK ) cannot be controlled by the .vi from the Instrument Drivers network ( downloaded from ni.com ).

I tried to get the GPIB working thru the I/O Assistant in LabView 7.
I have the HP 5345A Programming Manual and all necessary command codes.

Partly my HP 5345A can be controlled indeed by the I/O Assistant.vi which I made but partly it fails.
Maybe this has something to do with the 012 option of my HP 5345A ( instead of the simpler option 011 ).

Anyone controlling a HP 5345A with Labview ?
Or could reference me ?
Please contact.

Thanks.
Peter.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I haven't used this instrument in a long time and I don't have one anymore so I don't know how much I can help you. The driver that you downloaded is pretty bad. Hopefully you've noticed that the instrument address is hard coded in the driver and checked that it matches your instrument. If you haven't, change the constant "8" to match the instrument or better yet, make it a control. The other thing is that in frame 2, there is a Wait for RQS. If the counter doesn't have a signal, it may not assert RQS so there could be an error generated and since there is no wires to the error out connection, you might not see this. Connect an indicator to the Wait for RQS error out to see if this might be a problem.

[reteb]

Thanks, Dennis.
I got the 5345A working properly now.

Still please three questions on this one ( see attached ) :

1.
The .vi does not display more than 8 digits : only zeros behind the comma instead of three digits behind the comma ( the .vi does display less digits if I slide the counters gate time down, so that's OK ).

The .vi should display 11 digits in a 10 sec gate and 10 digits in 1 sec gate time.
Maybe the reason is in a conversion somewhere from string to numeric, but if so I couldn't find out where.
As you see, I did set the numeric indicator to 11 digits floating extended precision.
Please help.

2.
The Service Request ( RQS.vi ) takes an unusual long time and delays the vi too much ( I guess ).
What could be the reason ?



3.
After closing this .vi and even after closing down LabView, the GPIB bus is not released and the 5345A bus hangs.
Only after ( e.g. ) polling thru MAX ( scan for instruments ) the bus is released from the 5345A.

The " switch to local " Command is not available in my option 012 : instead, in option 012 the remote/local is selected upon addressing provided REN is assertive.
What could be going on ?


Thanks for your time.

Peter.

[reteb]

Forgot to say ( since you can't run this .vi 😞 I attached indicators to the RQS.error cluster out.
No problem : code = 0 (no error ) and ( thus ) no comment string.

[Dennis_Knutson]

1. Probe the output of the GPIB read function and look at the string returned. The instrument itself may not be returning any more significant digits. It may be a limitation of the intrument or require a command to be sent. Looking at the string will tell you whether it's the VI or the instrument.

2. The instrument will not do a service request until the measurment is complete. With a 10 second gate time, expect at least 10 seconds for RQS. It may be longer.

3. I wonder if the status register in the instrument needs to be cleared. There's a tutorial here on SRQ servicing.