Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
Here are my $0.02 on the subject:
The first step will be to get the data out of the counter, and that will require a GPIB controller of some sort.
There are 3 basic types that I am familiar with.
1) The plug-in card type, with the older AT style plug-in card being fairly cheap on eBay ($5 to $10 for most), but not many computers have suitable slots, or the more recent PCI type, but these cards are still relatively expensive on eBay ($50 to $150). One problem with the plug-in cards is that you will need the computer fairly close to the equipment because GPIB signals don't travel too far, and the cables are bulky and expensive (see below)
2) The USB type, with the Prologix adapter () being the least expensive "new" USB controller you can buy ($125), and considerably more expensive models from National Instrument or Measurement Computing. The Prologix type has the advantage of working with John Miles' software, and hopefully soon with my own software. USB has the advantage of being able to operate farther from the computer, and most USB controllers don't require a separate power supply. The Prologix controller also has the advantage of plugging directly to the back of the instrument, so you save the GPIB cable, but you need the clearance in the back of the unit. The USB controllers also work well with laptops.
3) the RS-232 type, with models from Black Box, IOTech and National Instruments and probably others, which can be bought fairly cheap on eBay, but you may have to wait a little, as they are not very common. I paid anywhere from $20 to $50 for those, and I have several. In general, serial-GPIB controllers have non-standard protocol, so you must write software for the model you have. I have models from BlackBox and IOTech. The BlackBox is a medium size enclosure that requires a 9-10V DC supply to operate, the IOTech Micro/488 is much smaller and runs from power stolen from the serial port, pretty neat (however, it will not work if there are several unpowered instruments on the bus). Be careful that BlackBox sells two similar models, one is a true controller, that's the one you want, the other is an adapter and has limited functionality, and would be useless for your purpose (it is intended to drive plotters and such). The difference between the two is in the EPROM and the silk-screen on the front panel, the hardware is the same. I like the serial adapters because they are inexpensive and don't require to go inside the computer. They can easily be swapped from one computer to another and work well with laptops, which cannot use an AT or PCI internal controller.
Then you will need a GPIB cable, cheap on eBay. Industry standard GPIB cables are very stiff and expensive when new, but cheap (yet, still stiff...) when bought on eBay. Personally, I have bought several cables on eBay, but I also make cables using ribbon cable and IDC connectors from Digikey (male connector is PN: MDC24K-ND, female connector is MDF24K-ND, they cost about $5.50). It's not much cheaper than true GPIB cables from eBay, but much easier to daisy-chain from instrument to instrument.
Finally, you need some software. Let's quickly pass over National Instrument's LabView, which is definitely not priced for the hobby market.
You can try a free program called EZGPIB by Ulrich Bangert which includes a scripting engine which may allow you to do what you want without having to buy a visual studio development system or some other compiler. While you won't need a compiler, you will still be required to write code using the scripting engine that's built into the program. There may be other such free software, but I have not come across any. I am not sure which GPIB controllers are supported, but I am pretty sure it includes the Prologix.
I have started working on software to take advantage of the GPIB ports on my instruments, and while not quite ready for prime time, it is buggy but usable (at least for me). For now, this software only supports the BlackBox and IOTech RS-232-GPIB controllers, but I am working on the Prologix controller. This software supports a number of instruments (right now, HP 8656A, HP 8657B, HP 3478A, HP 5316B, HP 5334B, HP 5370A, HP 8672A, HP 8673M, HP83640, HP 3586A, Fluke 8860, HP 59306A, HP 59307A, HP 436A, HP 437B) with more coming. Functions that are supported are of two types: Plotting (such as sweeping the frequency of a signal generator and measuring power with the HP 436A or the HP 3586A for instance) and Logging, where data from a voltmeter, HP 3586 or counter is collected at a given periodicity (from a fraction of second, when practical, to many minutes). Logging supports the counters and voltmeters listed above. Logging can also automatically scan the HP 59306A or HP 59307A switches to log multiple channels with a single instrument. I believe it would be simple to add the 5328A once I look at the commands.
If you get one of these serial controllers, or if you get a Prologix and are patient, I'll be glad to let you try my program.
Didier KO4BB
James Hickox wrote:
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Hello all,
I have a 5328A counter with the HP-1B option 011 digital I/O init installed.
I wish to record the frequency output of a oscillator over a long period of time (several hours to several days) and I need some way to interface the output from the counter to a PC, and some way to copy the input to the pc to an excel spreadsheet for data logging, etc.
BTW, I am NOT an engineer, just a ham radio operator trying to get a stable ransmitter on the air.
Hny Ideas, suggestions would be a great help.
Thanks,
James Hickox, AA5AO
|
Anyone know of a reflector for Fluke test equipment? How do I get to it?
Thanks.
Steve
K8JQ
|
This is a general announcement to the TekScopes, HP gear, and TestGear mailing lists.
I will be updating Blue Feather's DNS this weekend, including some IP address changes. This may affect those of you who access the FTP archive.
The initial changes should be in place shortly, though it could take up to 36 hours for them to propagate fully through DNS. This could mean an inability to reach the site for a time.
Thanks in advance for your patience.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies --
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"
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E4411B Spectrum analyzer - front panel keys stopped working :-(
Hello Folks,
I picked up an ESA portable spectum analyzer (well, it has a handle)
used this summer and the front panel keys have just stopped
functioning. Nice.
Reading the service notes for this guy I see E4411B-04 which ID's a
problem with green flex circuits making the front panel not work.
Darn, I opened mine up and I've got green flex circuits alright.
I was hoping someone in the Santa Rosa service center might be reading
this group and help me repair this thing. An Agilent repair part
number and a phone contact for the service engineer incharge of ESA
products would be wonderful.
The Agilent repair fee is much more than I paid for this whole thing
and I was laid off from Agilent over a year ago, I'm working on a low
cost antenna analyzer and really need this darn thing to work.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Lee Carlton
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Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
You can probably use the QUERY.EXE console application from my GPIB Toolkit
suite to do this. I also include specific example programs for the 5370B
and 5345A counters, so even if QUERY.EXE doesn't work with the 5328A
directly it would probably be easy to adapt. See
for more info on that.
Ultimately you may want to build a program to output CSV (comma-separated
variable) files, but that's just two or three more lines of C code.
-- john, KE5FX
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-----Original Message-----
From: hp_agilent_equipment@...
[mailto:hp_agilent_equipment@...]On Behalf Of James Hickox
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 10:37 AM
To: hp_agilent_equipment@...
Subject: [hp_agilent_equipment] Need logging help with hp 5328a
Hello all,
I have a 5328A counter with the HP-1B option 011 digital I/O init
installed.
I wish to record the frequency output of a oscillator over a long
period of time (several hours to several days) and I need some way to
interface the output from the counter to a PC, and some way to copy
the input to the pc to an excel spreadsheet for data logging, etc.
BTW, I am NOT an engineer, just a ham radio operator trying to get a
stable ransmitter on the air.
Hny Ideas, suggestions would be a great help.
Thanks,
James Hickox, AA5AO
|
Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
I think there is these days. Run SpectrumLab, Argo, Spectran or one of the
other "waterfall" programs under Windows on a PC and input the receiver
audio to the soundcard. If your receiver drifts you may need to put a stable
crystal controlled singal on screen as well and this system will plot your
vfo drift all day if you like and give you a reading on how good your
central heating is. I can run 24/7 with rx errors of less than 1Hz on 160m
These programs written for very narrowband receive modes are great bits of
test equipment, and all for free.
73 de Alan G3NYK
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----- Original Message ----- From: Pete <peterawson@...> To: <hp_agilent_equipment@...> Sent: 01 December 2006 23:00 Subject: Re: [hp_agilent_equipment] Need logging help with hp 5328a James,
I know what you need to take readings from your 5328A with your PC; but it
may not
be as simple as you'd like. Software is the hard part since I don'y know of any public
domain instrument interface; I have a copy of HP/Agilent's VEE which runs
fine, but
is probably not freely availavble. NI Labview should work fine also & older copies are
easier to find.
Next you need a GPIB(HPIB) board for your PC; a PCI/GPIB interface is
simplest & they
are readily available. Finally you need a GPIB cable from the counter to the PC. After that,
it's all downhill.
There must be a simpler way than this; let's hope a later answer is better.
Regards,
Pete Rawson
Yahoo! Groups Links
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Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
James
A couple of options for the hard part- the hardware to do the GPIB
interfacing. See attached URLs for USB/GPIB devices. There are others.
Shifting the raw data into excel should not be an issue.
DaveB
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----- Original Message ----- From: "James Hickox" <jameshickox@...> To: <hp_agilent_equipment@...> Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 7:37 AM Subject: [hp_agilent_equipment] Need logging help with hp 5328a Hello all,
I have a 5328A counter with the HP-1B option 011 digital I/O init
installed.
I wish to record the frequency output of a oscillator over a long
period of time (several hours to several days) and I need some way
to
interface the output from the counter to a PC, and some way to copy
the input to the pc to an excel spreadsheet for data logging, etc.
BTW, I am NOT an engineer, just a ham radio operator trying to get a
stable ransmitter on the air.
Hny Ideas, suggestions would be a great help.
Thanks,
James Hickox, AA5AO
Yahoo! Groups Links
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 268.15.3/562 - Release Date:
1/12/2006 13:12
|
Memory card for 859X Spectrum Analyzers
I recently picked up an 8591E spectrum analyzer it came without the memory card. Who might possibly sell them? I never seem to see them available used.
Thanks,
Larry Benko
|
Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
James,
I know what you need to take readings from your 5328A with your PC; but it may not
be as simple as you'd like. Software is the hard part since I don'y know of any public
domain instrument interface; I have a copy of HP/Agilent's VEE which runs fine, but
is probably not freely availavble. NI Labview should work fine also & older copies are
easier to find.
Next you need a GPIB(HPIB) board for your PC; a PCI/GPIB interface is simplest & they
are readily available. Finally you need a GPIB cable from the counter to the PC. After that,
it's all downhill.
There must be a simpler way than this; let's hope a later answer is better.
Regards,
Pete Rawson
|
Re: Need logging help with hp 5328a
James Hickox wrote: I have a 5328A counter with the HP-1B
I need some way to interface the output from the counter to a PC James, it's not difficult to read the HPIB (Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus, which was adopted more or less intact as the industry standard GPIB, the IEEE-488 General Purpose Interface Bus), but you do need either a GPIB card in your computer or a stand-alone instrument controller with GPIB. You'll also need appropriate GPIB software and a cable. With those things it's easy. Without, impossible. Google IEEE-488 for far more info than you need. Fred -- <>< -- Outgoing checked by eTrust EZ AV
|
Need logging help with hp 5328a
Hello all,
I have a 5328A counter with the HP-1B option 011 digital I/O init
installed.
I wish to record the frequency output of a oscillator over a long
period of time (several hours to several days) and I need some way to
interface the output from the counter to a PC, and some way to copy
the input to the pc to an excel spreadsheet for data logging, etc.
BTW, I am NOT an engineer, just a ham radio operator trying to get a
stable ransmitter on the air.
Hny Ideas, suggestions would be a great help.
Thanks,
James Hickox, AA5AO
|
Offhand, would anyone know if there is a CLIP (i.e. service manual with schematics) for the 35670A Dynamic Signal Analyzer?
Thanks in advance,
Don Cramer
Beaverton, OR
|
Re: need app notes on HP 3582a
I'd be interested in reading this, but didn't find it searching the Agilent website. Do you have link where it might be?
Thanks,
Don Cramer
Beaverton, OR
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----- Original Message -----
From: nj902<mailto:wb0emu@...>
To: hp_agilent_equipment@...<mailto:hp_agilent_equipment@...>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 9:00 PM
Subject: [hp_agilent_equipment] Re: need app notes on HP 3582a
...There is also AN 192, Using a Narrow Band Analyzer for Characterizing
Audio Products [more geared to the 3580A / 3581A analyzers]
|
Re: HP1652B Logic Analyser ET AL - system disk, how to create?
--- MKawasaki <mike_kawasaki@...> wrote: Mike, now you're asking for something even older
than my Agilent/HP
career :-)
...
It doesn't hurt to ask.
Mike
Along the same lines, might there be a copy of the firmware update disk image for the 54540A scope ? That was also a 'springs box from the same era. AW ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
|
Re: need app notes on HP 3582a
--- In hp_agilent_equipment@..., "wd5jfr" <kolesnik@...>
wrote:
"I'm looking for any kind of a copy of App Note 245-3 ..."
-------------------------------------------------
The 1989 HP Application Notes Index has this abstract of AN 245-3:
"Third Octave Analysis with the HP 3582A Spectrum Analyzer
Provides a means for making 1/3 octave measurements with an HP 3582A
controlled by an HP 9835A desktop computer. Discusses traditional 1/3
octave analysis techniques and how to adapt an FFT analyzer to do the
job. ... A program listing and flow diagrams are included..."
--------------------------------------------------
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for?
I have an HP35665A FFT analyzer so I think I understand your situation
somewhat. Although an FFT analyzer has some display characteristics
and control names similar to a swept spectrum analyzer, there is much
that is different to learn: record length, bins, display resolution,
time record, window functions, etc.
A basic primer on dynamic signal analyzers will probably help a lot.
There are a number of documents on Agilent's site that are intended
for other instruments but should still be helpful in developing an
understanding of dynamic signal analyzer concepts.
Search there for "dynamic signal analyzer" or similar.
Also, according to the Application Notes Index, you might find these
helpful if you can find them:
AN 243, The Fundamentals of Signal Analysis, a 60 page primer on
dynamic signal analyzers.
AN 243-1 covers vibration analysis with a dynamic signal analyzer
There is also AN 192, Using a Narrow Band Analyzer for Characterizing
Audio Products [more geared to the 3580A / 3581A analyzers]
|
need app notes on HP 3582a
I'm looking for any kind of a copy of App Note 245-3 and Understanding
the HP 3582A Spectrum Analyer part no. 5952-8773. I'll take anything,
regardless of condition as long as it's readable. I'll take any help I
can get in operating this unit. Any tips on use or the app notes
appreciated. I just got the op and svc manual CD off eBay but I really
need the app notes or an experienced users guidance.
tnx
Hank wd5jfr
|
cross over distortion in the output amp??
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Show quoted text
----- Original Message -----
From: wd4ohd
To: hp_agilent_equipment@...
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 6:25 PM
Subject: [hp_agilent_equipment] Re: HP8601A
My scope does not have a 50 ohm input. If I connect the generator
output to a BNC T-connector with a 50 ohm termination on the other
end, it makes no difference in the waveform shape. I've probably
overstated the distortion a bit. I looked at it again this evening and
it is not quite as I had described it earlier. The waveform is fairly
rounded however when it approaches the peaks.
--- In hp_agilent_equipment@..., J Forster <jfor@...> wrote:
>
> Is your scope 50 ohm input or do you have a 50 ohm termination in
> circuit?
>
> -John
>
>
>
> I've recently acquired an HP8601A sweep generator with full manual. It
>
> appears to be in pretty good shape. A cursory inspection suggests
> everything is working about right, although I haven't run any
> calibration checks yet. Just one problem I can see so far. When I
> connect the RF output to the vertical input of my oscilloscope and set
>
> it to the CW function, I get a rather odd-shaped sine wave--not your
> usual well-shaped waveform but more like two connected U-shapes for
> each
> half-cycle. I'm guessing this is not normal and there's some sort of
> distortion being introduced in one of the oscillators or their amps or
>
> control circuits. Anyone have any experience with a problem like this
> or
> have a suggestion about what might be going on? Thanks in advance for
> any input.
>
|
My scope does not have a 50 ohm input. If I connect the generator
output to a BNC T-connector with a 50 ohm termination on the other
end, it makes no difference in the waveform shape. I've probably
overstated the distortion a bit. I looked at it again this evening and
it is not quite as I had described it earlier. The waveform is fairly
rounded however when it approaches the peaks.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
--- In hp_agilent_equipment@..., J Forster <jfor@...> wrote:
Is your scope 50 ohm input or do you have a 50 ohm termination in
circuit?
-John
I've recently acquired an HP8601A sweep generator with full manual. It
appears to be in pretty good shape. A cursory inspection suggests
everything is working about right, although I haven't run any
calibration checks yet. Just one problem I can see so far. When I
connect the RF output to the vertical input of my oscilloscope and set
it to the CW function, I get a rather odd-shaped sine wave--not your
usual well-shaped waveform but more like two connected U-shapes for
each
half-cycle. I'm guessing this is not normal and there's some sort of
distortion being introduced in one of the oscillators or their amps or
control circuits. Anyone have any experience with a problem like this
or
have a suggestion about what might be going on? Thanks in advance for
any input.
|
Is your scope 50 ohm input or do you have a 50 ohm termination in
circuit?
-John
I've recently acquired an HP8601A sweep generator with full manual. It
appears to be in pretty good shape. A cursory inspection suggests
everything is working about right, although I haven't run any
calibration checks yet. Just one problem I can see so far. When I
connect the RF output to the vertical input of my oscilloscope and set
it to the CW function, I get a rather odd-shaped sine wave--not your
usual well-shaped waveform but more like two connected U-shapes for
each
half-cycle. I'm guessing this is not normal and there's some sort of
distortion being introduced in one of the oscillators or their amps or
control circuits. Anyone have any experience with a problem like this
or
have a suggestion about what might be going on? Thanks in advance for
any input.
|
I've recently acquired an HP8601A sweep generator with full manual. It appears to be in pretty good shape. A cursory inspection suggests everything is working about right, although I haven't run any calibration checks yet. Just one problem I can see so far. When I connect the RF output to the vertical input of my oscilloscope and set it to the CW function, I get a rather odd-shaped sine wave--not your usual well-shaped waveform but more like two connected U-shapes for each half-cycle. I'm guessing this is not normal and there's some sort of distortion being introduced in one of the oscillators or their amps or control circuits. Anyone have any experience with a problem like this or have a suggestion about what might be going on? Thanks in advance for any input.
|
Bruce Lane