GPIB Comms with Mastech Source Meter

[Daltech]

Hi,

I'm trying to communicate with a Mastech Source-Meter through GPIB. We are using GPIB soubroutines in Visual Basic to communicate succesfully with Keithley source-meters, however the same code is not working with the Mastech. The instrument is old, very old, I'd say its about 20-25 years old.

We have an old DOS PC with a software program that can communicate with the Mastech however we don't have the sourcecode.

Why would this old PC and software program be able to commuincate with the meter while a new PC can't ?

We tried using an NI-Spy card to establish what was happening but it could only detect the handshaking that was going on, co commands were seen.

Hope you can help.

thanks

Ruairi

[Stuart_R]

Do you have a list of the commands that are supported by the instrument along with any other information. The best place to look is the user manual (if it still exists).

I would recommend trying to send a command such as *IDN? (if its supported) to the device from the 'Communicate with instrument' utility inside MAX, and see if any data is returned back. From what you have said with regards to using NI-Spy, it looks like no commands are being sent. Start simple and then start to buid upon your results.