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Waveform Display

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I am new to Labview, and I have been trying to display the waveform data from our Agilent 54642a oscilloscope on a waveform chart in Labview.  I am using a rs-232 serial port.   I think that I have serial port settings correct but I am not certain that I am using right commands to get data from the scope.  I am also not sure of how to get the data in the right format to display it in the waveform chart.  Do I need to put any of my operations in a loop to get them to work?  My VI is attached to this message.

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Message 1 of 25
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Is there a reason you are choosing to use RS-232 when GPIB will present less headaches?

 

 

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Message 2 of 25
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First thing, I don't think the SCPI syntax is right.  I don't recall seeing the ::= operators as you have them used.  I don't have a manual in front of me just at the moment, but do verify those are correct. 

 

Second, the VI is broken as I downloaded it.  Possibly missing a VI??  The error line and VISA out were connected to the waveform chart.  If this is how you wired it, you need to convert the data returned on the "read buffer" line of the VISA Read to a format compatible with the waveform chart.

 

Final suggestion would be to take a look at the instrument driver available for download from www.ni.com/idnet.  For basic stuff I have found it works quiet well.

Troy
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Message 3 of 25
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nyc,

 

From my fuzzy memory (we own 5 of the same family of scope) that scope doesn't come standard with GPIB.  It was an extra cost option.  The later models we have been buying don't have GPIB either, but do have LAN interfaces and I prefer it even over GPIB these days.

 

Troy
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Message 4 of 25
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Help>Find Instrument Drivers is what you should have tried. And no, the syntax is not correct. With the driver, you do not have to worry about using the correct syntax.

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Message 5 of 25
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I downloaded the driver for the my 54642A scope but the VI that comes with the driver is not able to run.  The installer coud not find "ag546xx GetRawWaveform.vi"  A VI with this name is listed in the ag546xx_u file but when I try to install the ag546xx file it cannot find this file.  Several warnings are listed: list of expected versus new dependancy paths.  What does this mean?  The page where I downloaded this driver said that I also need VISA version 2.5.2.  I searched the NI site and this version did not come up.  Can I just use the latest version--5.1.2--or do I need the 2.5.2 only?

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Message 6 of 25
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Ccouple of questions.

 

Which version of LabVIEW are you running, and which version of the 546XX driver did you download (the plug and play project version I hope).  Where did you place the driver when you unzipped it?  If you placed it in the instr.lib folder of the LabVIEW file, did you restart LabVIEW?

 

I have this driver installed on LabVIEW 2011 and it works fine for me. 

 

As for the VISA version, the version you list should be just fine.  The version listed is just a minimum requirement.  I have 5.1.1 installed here.

 

 

Troy
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Message 7 of 25
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I have no idea what you did. If you had used the recomended Find>Instrument Drivers, you should have gotten the project style driver and it would have been installed in the correct folder and there is no xx_u file at all. No warnings either. You can download the most current driver or explain where you actually installed everything and then fix it.

 

The VISA version is the MINIMUM that you need.

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I am running labview 2011 trial version and VISA 5.1.2 version is now installed.  I downloaded the plug and play version of the 546xx and unzipped it in the instr.lib folder.  Labview did not complain about missing VIs this time, but I still got a bunch of error messages.  I think that this might not be the correct VI for our scope.  Our scope is the 54642A version and it only has 2 analog channels...no digital probes.  Is this VI only for the digital probes?

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Message 9 of 25
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Xsis,

The driver is the same one for both the 2ch/4ch analog only version as well as the ones with the digital logic analyzer options.

 

Can you describe the errors that you see?  This will help us trouble shoot. 

 

Also, are you using a null modem cable or standard serial cable?  I believe this equipment acts as a DTE and needs a null modem cable or adapter to connect directly to the PC serial port.

Troy
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Message 10 of 25
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