I have an HP 8903a and a National Instruments GPIB interface, I am writting my own code in MATLAB to control the instrument, im doing this because I cant find a free version of the VEE runtime enviroment that runs on Windows 10 so I cant use Pete Millet's software, and also I like to roll my own.
Everything works perfectly, I can send data to the analyzer but I cant read data back, it gives me a time out error.
I managed to read data when the HP 8903a is set to AC Level, it takes forever but im getting some data out of it, however, if I try to read any data with the instrument set on Distortion, I get the time-out error.
I already looked at this thread :HP 8903B HPIB/GPIB read problems but I couldnt find any solution to my problem.
Everything works perfectly, I can send data to the analyzer but I cant read data back, it gives me a time out error.
I managed to read data when the HP 8903a is set to AC Level, it takes forever but im getting some data out of it, however, if I try to read any data with the instrument set on Distortion, I get the time-out error.
I already looked at this thread :HP 8903B HPIB/GPIB read problems but I couldnt find any solution to my problem.
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The software I was working on here: PC Software control for Analog Audio Analyzers can be modded to work with the 8903 pretty easily. The 8903 and the Boonton are pretty similar in design and function. The software was started in an early version of Visual Basic but we "ported" it to run in the latest visual studio which works great in Win 10.
The NI GPIB stuff has so many variations and not all interfaces work with all versions of Windows. In fact there are many limitations to sort out. Your problem may be there.
One project for this I have not addressed yet is getting it to work with the HP/Agilent/Keysight 82357A USB-GPIB adapter. These are a real bargain on eBay at around $100.
The NI GPIB stuff has so many variations and not all interfaces work with all versions of Windows. In fact there are many limitations to sort out. Your problem may be there.
One project for this I have not addressed yet is getting it to work with the HP/Agilent/Keysight 82357A USB-GPIB adapter. These are a real bargain on eBay at around $100.
Hi Demian, thanks for your comment. I finally managed to make it work using MATLAB and an NI GPIB-USB-HS interface. It works quite well. So far I have custom programs for THD VS Freq, Freq. response and Power VS Freq., I still have to program THD VS Input level and THD VS Power.
However, for some god forsaken reason, everytime I turn off my computer and the HP8903a, and then turn it back on, my programs wont work, I have to re-scan for GPIB interfaces and instruments, after that it will start working again, a bug in MATLAB? go figure....
I measured the THD+N of a transformer I have, here is a screenshot, I dont know how different it is from Pete Millett's software, but what I like is that by using MATLAB I can tweak the code to do exactly what I want, plus I dont need an extra PC with Windows XP.
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