GPIB connection with Keysight B1500A analyzer - problems with Agilent 82357B controller

[TomTom117]

Hi NI community,

I am trying to control our Keysight B1500A analyzer remotely via GPIB using the LabView Development Environment.

I followed the suggested way of establishing a connection with the instrument using an Agilent 82357B USB-GPIB Controller. The Instrument is showing as a miscellaneous VISA resource in NI MAX and I am able to send and query simple commands like *IDN? from the VISA Testpanel within NI MAX. However If I try to use the sample VIs from plug and play drivers aquired over the NI Instrument Driver Network I am unable to find the B1500A as an instrument from the VISA resource dropdown menu. If I manually fill in the GPIB adress of the instrument shown in NI MAX (GPIB1::17::INSTR) I get a VISA resource error. Aditionally it has to be noted that the instrument does not show up under connected instruments in the tools>instrumentation overview in Labview.

If I retry the same procedure with an NI USB-GPIB-HS controller which I borrowed from another measurement setup, the analyzer is immediately recognized as connected instrument and also shows up in die VISA resource dropdown. The provided sample VIs also work (as far as I've come to test them).

Now I ask myself the question how I can get the same unproblematic connection using an Agilent 82357A or B Controller since I have to return the NI USB-GPIB-HS controller in the medium turn. I am also hesitant to spend money on a new NI controller while having three unused Agilent 82357A and B controllers on hand.

What I have done so far to tackle this problem:
- reinstall Keysight IO Suite and all NI Software from scratch (with the Keysight VISA installed as secondary in side by side mode)

- activating Keysight 488.2 support on both the B1500A device machine and the remote PC

- activating NiVisatulip passport in die VISA settings

- trying several alternative GPIB board numbers for the different USB-controllers

Software Configuration:

Windows 7 Enterprise 64Bit

LabView 2016 64bit
NI-VISA 16.0

NI-VISA runtime 16.0

NI-488.2 16.0

NI-488.2 runtime 16.0

NI DAQmx 16.0.1

NI-Serial Runtime 15.0

Keysight IO Suite 18.0

If I omitted any required information I am more than happy to provide it on request.

I somehow reached the end of my knowledge and am happy for any suggestion on how to make the connection work using one of the Agilent Controllers (if possible at all).

Thanks in advance,

TomTom

P.S. If this is a double post please delete it. However I was not able to find my original submission so I opened this one instead.

[TomTom117]

Hi NI community,

I am trying to control our Keysight B1500A analyzer remotely via GPIB using the LabView Development Environment.

I followed the suggested way of establishing a connection with the instrument using an Agilent 82357B USB-GPIB Controller. The Instrument is showing as a miscellaneous VISA resource in NI MAX and I am able to send and query simple commands like *IDN? from the VISA Testpanel within NI MAX. However If I try to use the sample VIs from plug and play drivers aquired over the NI Instrument Driver Network I am unable to find the B1500A as an instrument from the VISA resource dropdown menu. If I manually fill in the GPIB adress of the instrument shown in NI MAX (GPIB1::17::INSTR) I get a VISA resource error. Aditionally it has to be noted that the instrument does not show up under connected instruments in the tools>instrumentation overview in Labview.

If I retry the same procedure with an NI USB-GPIB-HS controller which I borrowed from another measurement setup, the analyzer is immediately recognized as connected instrument and also shows up in die VISA resource dropdown. The provided sample VIs also work (as far as I've come to test them).

Now I ask myself the question how I can get the same unproblematic connection using an Agilent 82357A or B Controller since I have to return the NI USB-GPIB-HS controller in the medium turn. I am also hesitant to spend money on a new NI controller while having three unused Agilent 82357A and B controllers on hand.

What I have done so far to tackle this problem:
- reinstall Keysight IO Suite and all NI Software from scratch (with the Keysight VISA installed as secondary in side by side mode)

- activating Keysight 488.2 support on both the B1500A device machine and the remote PC

- activating NiVisatulip passport in die VISA settings

- trying several alternative GPIB board numbers for the different USB-controllers

Software Configuration:

Windows 7 Enterprise 64Bit

LabView 2016 64bit
NI-VISA 16.0

NI-VISA runtime 16.0

NI-488.2 16.0

NI-488.2 runtime 16.0

NI DAQmx 16.0.1

NI-Serial Runtime 15.0

Keysight IO Suite 18.0

If I omitted any required information I am more than happy to provide it on request.

I somehow reached the end of my knowledge and am happy for any suggestion on how to make the connection work using one of the Agilent Controllers (if possible at all).

Thanks in advance,

TomTom

P.S. If this is a double post please delete it. However I was not able to find my original submission so I opened this one instead.

[DesasterMaster]

Hi TomTom,

have you tried to configure your Agilent GPIB Adapter like mentioned her:

Using Keysight (HP Agilent) 82357A/82357B GPIB in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) or LabVIEW

Best wishes

[sha095]

Hi Dennisl,

I have the same problem as TomTom, and I have tried to configure my Agilent adapter just like it is mentioned in your link, but it does not seem to change anything, because I keep on having no VISA resources found error and no device appearing in the NI Measurement & automation explorer.

[DesasterMaster]

Hi Sha095,

do you have the sae hardware? Wich driver versions do you have installed?

Can you give me a little more detail on this?

Normally the guide should work. Have you followed the instructions rom the link in that guide as well?

Best wishes

[sha095]

Hi Dennisl,

Thank you for your reply. I managed to solve my connection problem. Actually I have to uncheck “Enable Keysight GPIB cards for 488 programs” in the Keysight connection expert.

However even if the analyzer is connected to my PC, when I try to retrieve capacitance values from the analyzer I get the following error “this command is not available for SMU”.

Indeed, my capacitance values can not be retrieved from a SMU port but CMU ports of the analyzer.

I did try to configure CMU with a function from the driver of the B1500A, but I keep having this error. Enclosed, you will find the programme I am currently testing.    

Thank you for your consideration.

[DesasterMaster]

Hi sha095,

I would like to ask you to open a new discussion for this question to keep it easier for other users to find a solution.

Thanks a lot.