Does anyone here have any experience with controlling a Pacific Power Supply?

[chuggins143]

Hello all,

I just inherited a Pacific Power supply (345-AMXT-UPC32 v2.38 with Mag Module, for those that might be familiar) and have just received my NI GPIB to USB adapter... Now, what I know about GPIB you could put in your eye and it wouldn't hurt. I did download some VI's (~150 of them!) from Pacific Power, but they are for LabVIEW 7.0 so I don't know how they'd transfer over to 2009... ? (Anyone have a clue?)   I've also got the PP operators manual for this unit which gives me commands I can send to the unit.  So, I've got some info to play with, but don't know where to start as far as what to use as far as VI's go to send commands to unit.  Anyone have a GPIB 101 for dummies primer?  Such as, what do I need to use to send commands?  Example VI's?  I can be taught, just need a glimmer of light to know where to start!

Thanks!

Chad

[GovBob]

Well lucky for you that you bought NI adapter. You need to establish communications with your power supply first. Hook up the GPIB>>USB to the supply and turn it on. Then open up Measurment and Automation Explorer (Max) and scan for instruments under GPIB0. Hopefully you instrument will show up (IDN?). Then you will know that you have comms. At the bottom of this page is some great resources of how to use and instrument driver in LabVIEW. The older version should compile fine in LV2009. If not post it to the upconvert thread and someone will convert it for you. I haven't used that particular power supply but maybe they included and example when you downloaded the driver?

Hope this helps.

[chuggins143]

GovBob, 

Thank you!   I'll run MAX and then poke around in the IDN and see what I can find.  Thank you very much for the tips!  

...as a side note, I had bought the Prologix USB to GPIB unit, but immediately returned it after reading about the differences and complications on here!

Thanks!

Chad

[chuggins143]

Ok, got everything hooked up this morning, fired up the power supply, and ran MAX... it found my GPIP adapter with no problems and then found the power supply after pinging it twice.  First *IDN? didn't work each time... but would always pick up the second round.  When it did, it would give me the model number and build version as part of the feed back, so I know it was talking to the power supply.

Went to the IDN and found a driver set and installed it... not sure what it did, where it is, or how to use it... but it's in there!

Thought that reading through the manual might be a good idea, so I read through the manual and figured out how to program the unit manually and such... I'd been avoiding it since it's about 200 pages or so.

...and then I came back this afternoon and ran MAX to have it not see the power supply at all.   The adapter is there, but when I scan for instruments it's telling me that none are found.  So I shut the power supply down and fired it back up and got the same results.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Chad

[chuggins143]

Ok, I just found the VI's the driver apparently installed... under Express\Input\Instrument Drivers. They seem to be pretty straight forward, just need to get comunications back up!  Almost there!  🙂

[mallorim]

Hi Chuggins,

I am glad to see you digging through the manual looknig for answers. That is always a good place to start. However, while that manual you tell you how to manually operate the device and at some point should tell you the commands necessary to automate your power supply, really this is a communication and software problem.

So, in order to get your device detected in MAX, some links with troubleshooting steps to follow are:

KnowledgeBase Document 1UO68A5P:"Scan for Instruments" Fails in Measurement and Automation Explorer

and for older OS's: GPIB Installation/Configuration Troubleshooter

Those should help you get the power supply visible in MAX once again.

Also, as you begin to program your power supply in LabVIEW 2009, a greqat resource for understanding how to use the instrument driver you downloaded is How to Use an Instrument Driver in LabVIEW Tutorial.

Instrument Drivers are built with specific models of instruments in mind. They include subVIs, or functions, that behind the scenes make the calls unique to that model of instrument (syntax, etc), which is why you will want to confirm that you downloaded the correct driver.

The instrument driver will have a few complete example programs with basic functionality that you should be able to open in LabVIEW and run as it, simply providing the Instrument Resource name from MAX. The driver also included lower level functions found on the block diagram's Function Palette in LabVIEW, which you can use to build your own program, whether modifying the provided example to suit your needs or starting from scratch.

Hope this helps!

Mallori

Message Edited by mallorim on 04-22-2010 10:14 AM

[chuggins143]

Day two...

Fired everything back up this morning and nothing.  The GPIB adapter is there, I've run the diagnostics, and it's working properly.  

So I'm thinking that either I turned something off yesterday that is inhibiting the unit from seeing the GPIB interface or there is something wonky with my unit. Rereading my manual to make sure I didn't do it...

C

[chuggins143]

Hi Mallori!

Thank you for the tips!

Ok, I've gone through the "KnowledgeBase Document 1UO68A5P:"Scan for Instruments" Fails in Measurement and Automation Explorer"  Let's step through this....

Problem 1 - This is where I'm at, it's just not sensing the unit.

Problem 2 - This was my initial problem, it would only acknowledge the unit after sending the second "*IDN?"

Solutions...

1)

a - System Controller box is checked!

b - Verify the software is installed... NI-488.2 2.73 and NI-VISA 4.6 both show up under the Software branch in Configuration menu in MAX

c - Hooked up and powered on!

d - Verified that the default address on the unit is "1" and that the interface ID and the primary addresses are both set to 1.

e - There is only one GPIB piece of equipment here, and I'm hooked up to it.

f - Unit was powered down and back up... adapter was disconnected and reconnected, laptop was rebooted... along with virtually every combination there of.

g - Fired up the Interactive Control... I'm assuming at the GPIB1 prompt you just type in commands.. I attempted the *IDN? command along with several others from the  manual with no results... keep getting " Bad function. Enter 'help' for help"

h - I have no idea what this is actually asking me to do...

i - The NI-GPIB adapter appears to be working fine... I've run the troubleshooting utility that are built into MAX and appears to be a go!  I don't have any other GPIB equipment to test the adapter on.  So I don't know what to do about that...

2) Once again, this was the case yesterday, but not today...

So, I'm continuing to dig... just found the "GPIB Installation/Configuration Troubleshooter" page and am getting ready to start reading that...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Chad

[chuggins143]

Well kids, I'm pretty sure my GPIB port on my power supply is bad... I dug around in the back and found a old piece of equipment that actually had a GPIB port on it and plugged it in.  Once it powered up, MAX found it right off the bat...   I did send a note to Pacific Power to see if there was any way I could have disabled the port from the front panel, but nothing I've read in the manuals indicates that it's even possible to do so.  Dunno, we'll see.

Thank you again to everyone that pointed me in the right directions!  You're help was immensely valuable and appreciated!

THX,

C