HOW TO GET OSCILLISCOPE "Screen Capture" ON THE FRONT-PANEL?????

[Vikram -Hardware Techy]

Hi All,
I have a lot of parameters displayed on the Tektronix Oscilliscope like the trigger level, the frequrncy,CH1 T/Div and probably many others along with the Waveform(obviuosly!).
I need to capture this exact oscilloscope screen on the Front Panel.

Kindly help me out in this!,

regards,
Vikram

[Pari]

Hey Vikram,

Go to ni.com and look for the driver for the kind of oscilloscope you have....all you ahve to do is go to the drivers and updates section and look for the appropriate driver for your tektronix scope.....and then once you download it.....and then interface it with the oscilloscope thru the parallel/GPIB port of the computer......you are set....I think i did the same thing when i wanted to get the scope readings....try this...should work.....


Check this link out...
http://search.ni.com/query.html?lk=1&col=alldocs&nh=500&rf=3&ql=&pw=595&qp=%2BContentType%3AInstrumentDriver+%2BIDNetInstrumentType%3A%22Oscilloscopes%22+%2BIDNetManufacturer%3A%22Tektronix%22+%2BProductType%3A%22LabVIEW%22+%2BIDNetInterface%3A%22GPIB%22+%2BSourceStatus%3A%22ID+Library%22&q
t=&layout=IDNet

If the above link does not work then go to this and then select the manufacturer as Tektronix and scope and labview etc etc....and then you can download the driver from there.....

http://zone.ni.com/idnet97.nsf/browse/

Good Luck.

-Parikshit.

[Vikram -Hardware Techy]

Hi Parikshit,
There is no update driver for Tektronix 2440 Oscilloscope.I searched alot. But couldnot find one.
The old doesnot have the screen capture on the Front Panel, it just has a waveform display.
More suggestions are appreciated,

thanx,
VIkram

[Dennis_Knutson]

I'm not sure I understand what the difference is between the waveform display and the screen capture you want. Is it simply a matter of continuously reading the waveform as opposed to a single shot? In any case, if you find that the driver does not have all of the capability you need, you'll have to dig out the programming manual and make the changes yourself or pay someone else to do it.

[Vikram -Hardware Techy]

HI Dennis,
My Tektronix Oscilloscope screen shows the following:
1) The waveform.
2) CH1 Votls/Div, CH2 Volts/Div.
3) Trigger Levels A, B Sec/Div.
4) Frequency and other parameters.

All what I mean to say here is that the oscilloscope screen shows/displays many other parameters apart from the waveform. I mean If I select the freq. option it then displays on the screen.Like this I can set options for many other parameters I desire. And I want that when I run the VI I should have the exact same Oscilloscope screen on the Front Panel(Basically a "SCREEN CAPTURE").
Hope that I am clear in what I need to do.Awaiting for the suggestions.

regards,
Vikram

[markwysong]

Vikram,

I would be VERY surprised if your oscilloscope would support a screen capture. I'm sure that you could can create a front panel in LabVIEW that looks like your Tektronix scope and then use GPIB or some protocol to get the information and display it in the appropriate indicators, but from what I am reading, this isn't exactly what you want, because your Tektronix screen isn't always the same.

It's been my experience that with scopes, you can query them for data, but they won't transmit, say, a bitmap of the screen.

To make sure, you should find your Tektronix manual and look up the GPIB commands to which your scope responds. This will let you know if it is even possible. If it is, you only have to have LabV
IEW send that command to the scope, receive the information, and then display it in a graphics format on your front panel.

Hope that helped some.

Mark

[Dennis_Knutson]

I think what you're seeing on the scope's screen are some of the measurement functions. If that's the case, then you should be able to add that to your VI. What it will take is reading the scope's programming manual and writing the code to implement it. What I would suggest is adding a front panel control for selecting a measurement function and an indicator that shows the result. You can sort of duplicate what the scope does by placing the indicator on top of LabVIEW's graph indicator and making it transparent.

Frankly, I wouldn't spend a lot of time making the VI look exactly like the scope display. You've got a lot more flexibility in placing controls and indicators than the scope manufacturer.

[Vikram -Hardware Techy]

HI Dennis,
My Tektronix Oscilloscope screen shows the following:
1) The waveform.
2) CH1 Votls/Div, CH2 Volts/Div.
3) Trigger Levels A, B Sec/Div.
4) Frequency and other parameters.

All what I mean to say here is that the oscilloscope screen shows/displays many other parameters apart from the waveform. I mean If I select the freq. option it then displays on the screen.Like this I can set options for many other parameters I desire. And I want that when I run the VI I should have the exact same Oscilloscope screen on the Front Panel(Basically a "SCREEN CAPTURE").
Hope that I am clear in what I need to do.Awaiting for the suggestions.

regards,
Vikram

[Vikram -Hardware Techy]

HI Dennis,
My Tektronix Oscilloscope screen shows the following:
1) The waveform.
2) CH1 Votls/Div, CH2 Volts/Div.
3) Trigger Levels A, B Sec/Div.
4) Frequency and other parameters.

All what I mean to say here is that the oscilloscope screen shows/displays many other parameters apart from the waveform. I mean If I select the freq. option it then displays on the screen.Like this I can set options for many other parameters I desire. And I want that when I run the VI I should have the exact same Oscilloscope screen on the Front Panel(Basically a "SCREEN CAPTURE").
Hope that I am clear in what I need to do.Awaiting for the suggestions.

regards,
Vikram

[Pari]

Hi Vikram,
Try this link....

http://zone.ni.com/idnet97.nsf/9b2b33e1993d877786256436006ec498/e4f00cab814727bf862568ab005fbc2c?OpenDocument

This one has the driver for your "Tektronix 2440 Oscilloscope" and the oscilloscope can be hooked up to the computer via the GPIB port. THe details are given in the link....

If the link does not work I have attatched the drivers.....

Good Luck.
-Parikshit.