advantest 3765 - transfer of binary trace data

[Steve80]

I am trying to acquire the trace data for my spec an (subject line).  I can get the data OK, but it bears no resemblence to the trace data.  The data that I get MUST not be in standard IEEE format somehow.  Data read in ASCII is correct, but SLOW. Data read in binary "appears" to be successful, but doens't convert by any method I can devise.  I can't think of anything else to try and am losing hair quickly over this ... it shouldn't be this hard.  I need to be smarter, but am NOT!

Has anyone out there ever successfully read binary trace data from an Advantest instrument?
tia,
Steve

[NathanT]

Hello Steve,
       Are you using an instrument driver, if so which one and with what version of which development environment?  The instrument drivers should already convert the data for you.  Here is an example program that shows different methods for parsing binary data in different formats.

Cheers,

NathanT

[Steve80]

Nathan,
Thanks for the response.  No - no driver involved.  I'm using delphi and a USB GPIB adapter and writing all the code myself.  I did FINALLY get it figured out (kinda).  I'm not sure what I was getting to begin with, but when I decided to try downloading a single trace at a time, it started giving me the data that I expected.  Have it all working now.
Steve

[NathanT]

Hello Steve,
       I am glad to hear that you have most of it figured out.  If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend that you give one of our instrument drivers a try.

Cheers,

NathanT

[Steve80]

Nathan,
Thanks again for the note.  I took a glance at the info on the driver, but don't see any "real" info about it.  I've never used an "instrument driver", but it does look interesting.  Is there an overall document that explains how it works -  I don't mean how you incorporate it into a program, I mean what are it's CALLS - what can it DO - some examples of how it is used?  I can see another 'learning curve' depending on how straight forward it is :-).  At this time,  I have a fully functional program.  It will cost $$$ (time) to install and use a new method of controlling the instrument - is it really 'simple' enough to use to warrant that extra effort?  I can see needing functions in the future that I don't currently have implemented, but it seems like I will need a full 'manual' on the driver to teach me how it implements the various functions of the NA - and I don't see that anywhere.
Steve

[Albert.Geven]

Hi

If necesary, I have the full manual available, so ask when needed for a command.
I'm programming in LabVIEW (long time ago Pascal) and the driver Nathan talked about is also in LabVIEW.
You can use it if there is a dll created in LabVIEW or if a LabWindows CVI driver dll exists.
In your case I would try to get my hands on LabVIEW for instrument programming.
It takes a while to get used but interactive instrument programming is probably 10 times faster than what I did in Pascal.

good luck with your system.

[NathanT]

Hello Steve,
       What is an instrument Driver? is a good start on understanding instrument drivers.  A well written instrument driver will implement most, if not all, of the instrument's functionality that would be useful to use programmtically.  Instrument driver developers become very familiar with the command set and operation of the instrument in order to save you valuable time.  The instrument's functionality is accessed through the driver's API.  A very important part of developing an instrument driver is creating an appropriate API that is neither too low-level or high-level.  There is not nearly as much value in a driver that either has one VI or function with 30 parameters or a driver that has 200 VIs, with one parameter each.

       NI-VISA is generally used to communicate with the instruments, so you are not limited to a single bus or platform.  Most of the instrument drivers on IDNet are for message based instruments, and most of those seem to be SCPI compliant.\

If your program is already functioning fine, I would not change anything.  In the future though, you might want to consider using instrument drivers to reduce your overall application development time.

Cheers,

NathanT

[Albert.Geven]

Hi Nathan

I looked at the instrument driver article and missed the project style drivers. I'll make a remark also after that article.