Cannot communicate with HP Spectrum Anaylizer

[Wirechief]

Hi Group,

I am new to th e group and am at my wits end.  I am trying to capture the display traces from my HP 8558B Spectrum Anaylizer using the KE5FX toolkit HP 7470A emulator. It can talk to the NI Measurment Explorer.

I have both the Agilent Connection expert (secondary mode) and NI MAX installed.  I have enabled Agilent GPIB cards for 488 programes from the tools Agilent 488 menu in the Agilent Connection Export. In NI Measurment and Automation Explorer I have enabled the NIVISATulip.dll -NI-ViSA Passport for Tulip in tools NI-Visa Visa options. Now the Agilent Connection manager can see my 8558B but the NI-MAX cannot see it even though it does see the Aguilent Interface. There are no Instruments shown under the interface in NIMAX. The GPIB interface shows up as a Miscellanous VISA resource.

I would appreciate it if anyone can come to my aid or suggest another way to capture the traecs which would have origionally gone to a plotter initiated by the 8558B but I want to capture on my computer.

Thanks in advance

Larry

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

If you are using all Agilent products, there is no need to install NI-MAX and NI-VISA and NI-488.2

Not sure why you feel you need to install both.

Instruments will work without NI products, you know.

[Wirechief]

Well here is what is going on.  I am trying to use the KE5FX toolkit and the 7470A plotter emulator to capture the traces from my Spectrum anayliizer.(HP 8558B)   the KE5FX programs are looking for a Proloxix adapter  BUT it can also use National Instruments

" All of the GPIB Toolkit
applications support both Prologix and National Instruments GPIB adapters. By
default, the Toolkit expects to find a National Instruments device at GPIB0.

  now The toolkit can see my Agilent adapter (GPIB0) which the NI MAX can also see. But the NI MAX cannot see my instrument .  Agilent Connection expert CAN  see my Instrument .  I reason that if NI MAX can see the instrument then  the tool kit will also be able to see and communicate thru NI NAX to the Agilent adapter onto the Spectrum anaylizer.  I am not married to this approach but I am trying to find a cost effective approach (Cheap)  AS an experimenter saving money is critical. I could if cost was not an issue just give in and buy the Prologix adapter. (I have tested a friends Prologix and it does work )   If anyone can point me to another program I can use to just capture the traces directly using the agilent adapter and/or with NI MAX  I would be satisfied.  The spectrum Anaylizer will initiate the sending of data and the program just needs to be able to recieve display and save the plots

So that is where I am at

Again hoping there is a solution out there

Thanks

LArry .
.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

This is not a NI problem.

Since NI-MAX can see the instrument, you need to contact the maker of that toolkit.

I don't know why you didn't buy the Prologix GPIB board in the first place. It is cheaper than a NI board.

If it was me, I would be getting the programmer's manual for this 30 year old instrument and try to write a program myself.

[Wirechief]

Simply stated the interface was 1/3rd the cost of the Prologix.  I thought I was saving a lot .

My Instrument ,the Spectrum anaylizer does NOT show up in NI MAX  although I do see it in the Agilant conection expert. See screen capture

[Dennis_Knutson]

You must have purchased a used Agilent GPIB controller since the serial based prologix is normally 1/3 the price of either the NI or Agilent. The prologix is about $200.

What sort of error do you get with this plotter software? If you use the VISA Interactive Control in MAX, can you communicate? Are you sure this software even uses VISA? If it doesn't, you are probably wasting your time.