Old Agilent PNA SCPI

Hi all,
I realise I would be better posting this at the Agilent website, however aside from containing broken links all over the place, a broken search bar in the forum and the most complicated board to post on I have ever used (still can't find the new topic button).... I thought I would come somewhere a bit nicer...
I am trying to program an instrument driver in LabVIEW for an old PNA E8364A running firmware A.04.87. Does anyone have a manual for this piece of equipment with that version firmware? I tried using a newer version of the documentation but half of the SCPI commands won't work and unfortunately Agilent have removed the documents from their site and haven't responded to my request for the manual (probably because it is no longer supported)...
I'm guessing some time around 2005(ish) they standardised the firmware of the PNA to use CALC, but not sure what it was before that.... can anyone shed any light?
For example, in a newer PNA, CALC:FORM? will return the current display format, but what did it used to be in firmware 4.87?
Many thanks,
Olly
The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.

Thanks for the reply nyc.
The link you provided is broken. However if you do navigate around that site a bit you will find the manual I am after listed. However that link is also broken (http://na.tm.agilent.com/pna/help/pnahelp_487.chm).
I'm kind of hoping someone might have an old copy kicking around on their PC they could provide.
Olly
The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.

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Sir
We were able to solve that problem...but now could you advice as to which DC power supply we should use (preferably avalable in India) so that it can be controlled by Labview (through a gpib/rs232/any other port) to give a square wave of desired frequency/other parameters.
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Agilent 548xx multiple channels

I downloaded the driver off Ni's site and am able to configure scaling and trigger and read from one channel. Problem is my client's testing requires sometimes reading 2 and sometimes reading 3 channels also. The configuration sub-palette has a VI for configuring 2 channel mode or 4 channel mode, but I can't get this working. Tried changing the order that I configure things in, no help there. Anyone using an old Agilent scope and reading multiple channels, or know of an example along these lines?
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Lawrence M. David Jr.
Certified LabVIEW Architect
cell: 516.819.9711
http://www.aleconsultants.com
[email protected]
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Thanks Rob, yes I am using a 54825A which is supported by that driver, but the Configure Multiple Channels function is only valid for the 54845A. Found the work around though, in the Action-Status subPalette is a function called hp548xx Actn On Off.vi
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lmd2
Lawrence M. David Jr.
Certified LabVIEW Architect
cell: 516.819.9711
http://www.aleconsultants.com
[email protected]

Agilent E8362B

how to use labview with gpib to connect with Agilent PNA E8362B ?i am newbie ..just started to work on labview about a fortnite bck and +i am a novice in interfacing(networking... jst know tidbits) skill ..so plzzzzz explain me in a litle detail

The first thing to do is to download the driver for the instrument here. You should also check out What is an Instrument Driver. Chapter 16 of the LabVIEW Measurement Manual (Help>Search the LabVIEW Bookshelf) has some useful information as well. Before you attempt to use the instrument, you need to install the GPIB board and drivers (NI-488 and VISA).

Multiple instruments; same test. Best plan of attack?

I'm looking for some information on design structure dealing with multiple instruments that do the same thing but require different command sets. Specifically I have an application running tests via VISA GPIB using an Agilent PNA. My current application uses a queued state machine with two loops; one taking care of the GUI and another taking care of the states; works like a champ and is easy to add new tests. But I have been asked to migrate the current tests to different flavors of network analyzer specifically old school HP8510 and some non-hp gear. Some tests are very complicated and have a couple dozen steps with numerous sub vi's to take care of all the commands and data formatting. We do not want separate applications; I have to identify what is connected and sequence the test accordingly to attain the correct results.
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F1_Fan wrote:
Good suggestions.
SCPI is great but some of the instruments are 20 years old and things like getting bandwith numbers are more complicated in the older equipment. I'm still fighting with people to stop using low level GPIB commands and just use VISA.
My understanding of the replies lies in writing a subset of vi's for each piece of equipment while reusing the common commands (Like writing an overloaded function in .NET land?).
A simple flow diagram of what would occur would be as below if I'm understanding the suggestions -
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- Everything would be invisable to the end user; they are just selecting a test; all front panels will be standard regardless of instrument. They would only differ by the selected test.
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-Chris
Hi Chris,
This is similar to a Q posted on LAVA earlier this week that can befound here. In that thread Aristos Queue (father of VLOOP LV OOP) outlined some classes to utilize Dynamic Dispatching (choose the sub-VI to run based on the class selected). Conciering your background, that thread may work for you.
Have fun,
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Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
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How long does it take to write data from network analyzer

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Attachments:
Agilent E3631 Output 2 DC Volts_for loop.vi ‏22 KB
Agilent PNA Series Config And Read Data_test(4).vi ‏32 KB
Main(2).vi ‏30 KB

Hello yll,
-So you mean I should delete some of the controls
in the front panel and make them a fixed value or default in the block
diagram to reduce the front panel controls
What Dennis is saying is that your front panel controls are only read once by your program. The are read at the beginning and the value is passed into the while loop. This is the value that will be used, even if you change the front panel. You can verify this by using highlight execution.
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Everytime you call the initialize VI, you send a command for the instrument to reset. This is not necessary, since you want your settings to remain for the entire program. You can reset it when you "first" start using it, but as your program keeps going, you do not need to reset it.
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close VI in every iteration or I should have them out of the loops so
all the instrument are initialized and closed only once throughout the
entire process?
That is exactly what you should do.
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VIs from initialize.vi to read data.vi (the second one from the end),
do you mean that I can delete the close.vi? and why does it make the
program faster?
You should probably add the close outside the loop, as good practise. I would still put the initialize outside the loop.
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National Instruments
www.ni.com/support

VNA labview

bonjour,
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Bonjour,
Agilent PNA-X 5247A n' apparait pas par défout sous MAX.
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I using an alias from my (VC++) application to access a LXI power supply. I've done the VXI-11 scan & alias definition from MAX. I want to avoid the user having to use MAX if the IP address changes.
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I need to ensure that the alias maps to the correct device / serial number. I'd like to only define the alias once in MAX and then handle any address re-assignment from the applicaiton (with as much handled in VISA, et. al., as possible).
Currently I'm at VISA 4.2, but can upgrade if that helps. (saw something about a new static flag in 4.4)
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On my work i use a Agilent PNA who work with lan. In Labview the viFindRsr Box will go find the device only if you record first the IP address on NIMAX. it mean that your IP address of your device must be !!!First!!! Defined staticly (not DHCP).
If your device must be DHCP there is a other way that i use.
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SFPs for DS-C9124

Hi,
We have DS-C9124-0-K9 MDS 9124 4Gbps FC switch without SFPs, we have old "Agilentâ SFP Transceivers which we tried to put on DS-C9124-0-K9 but it's not suported.
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BR

Hi,
1. You cannot use the Agilent SFP for your MDS 9124 4G FC switch. Here is a link on which SFP is supported on the MDS platform:
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Byte Swap through ENET/100?

Hello,
I got a quite strange problem. I download 16 bit data words into an arbitrary signal generator - it is an Agilent ESG-D signal generator with option UND. I use the (old) Agilent ESG_ARB.EXE program which seems to be written in VB.
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Hi Aaron,
thank you for your comment.
Sure can I swap the bytes in my data source (this is what I actually do), but it is just a work-around, not a solution to the problem. I would expect my data to arrive correctly and independently of the transmission path, using a $1500 box.
It is like I had to swap your phone number if I dial on a green phone instead of a blue one...
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ODE=ZZ)
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Your
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Wolf-Henning Rech
Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences

When trying to work with Agilent 34401A multimeter (serial RS-232 connection), HP34401A Getting Started.vi gives always the message: "Error 1073807369 occurred at Old VISA Open ".

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I downloaded NI-VISA 2.6 for Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP frorm digital.ni.com and installed it. But it did not help.
Thank you in advance
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Hi Steve
I have problems with the 34401A and serial communication. Do you remember
where the error was in the code ?
Thanks
Klaus
wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> Alexei,
> This may or may not help, I was tasked to do something similar
> recently and found an error in their driver. The GPIB VISA worked
> fine, but when I tried it on serial it played up. There was an errant
> carriage return (or CR/LF I can't remember). GPIB liked one and Serial
> liked the other. It always amuses me that we never have problems with
> Quickbasic!.
> If you want me to dig deeper give me a shout.
>
> Steve Watts
>
> On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 06:16:55 -0800 (PST), "Alexei V. Soloviev"
> wrote:
>
> >When trying
to work with Agilent 34401A multimeter (serial RS-232
> >connection), HP34401A Getting Started.vi gives always the message:
> >"Error 1073807369 occurred at Old VISA Open ".
> >
> >Baud rate and parity are set correctly, RS-232 cable is also connected
> >correctly. My QuickBasic program has no problems to read and write to
> >the Multimeter. It is obviously a software problem: the same error is
> >persistent if I disconnect RS-232 cable.
> > I downloaded NI-VISA 2.6 for Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP frorm
> > digital.ni.com and installed it. But it did not help.
> >Thank you in advance
> >Best regards
> >Alexei Soloviev
>

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Hello,
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Group,
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