Acquire Signal from Spectrum Analyzer 8593 using GBIP

[ZAKY]

I am new to labview and am trying to capture the spectrum from Spectrum analyzer 8593e via a GBIP-usb. What is the best way to proceed. Do I look at the existing examples in the driver or go through the maual of the S/A. How are these things done?

[Dennis_Knutson]

The answer is Yes, you go through the examples in the driver and go through the manual.

Unless you have a good understanding of the instrument itself, the driver probably won't help all that much. Study the manaul and be able to setup a measurement manually. You should then be able to determine what functions in the driver to use, what they do, and what parameters need to be set.

p.s. It's GPIB and not GBIP.

[ZAKY]

Ok many thanks for you reply. I am still confused though. I went through the manual and theres all these commands in the programming section. I could probably write a program that captures the screen of the S/A but where would I write this program. All the demos I've seen work around a block diagram in labview. So what is the connection between the commands in the manual and the block diagram and where do I enter the commands in the programming manual. I am very new to this and in a hurry also. Thank you once agagin for your reply.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The commands are being sent by the functions in the driver. Open the functions up and look at their block diagrams. They are just normal VIs. Read the information here about what a driver is and how to use it. You may or may not have to write any code yourself to send commands. Drivers are usually pretty thorough but occasionally, you will find that a few commands are missing and then you write a function and add it to the driver.

If you are curious about finding a specific command in one of the drivers, you can use the Find and Replace tool in the edit menu to search for text.

[ZAKY]

Ok theres this example program called 'acquire trace' in one of the folders in the driver. So I need to work out what to change in this driver if anything at all before I can acquire spectrum - Is this what you are suggesting? How will I work out what needs to be changed in the example program? Will I look into the manual and try and work this out? Thank you.

[ZAKY]

One more thing, before I run the 'acquire spectrum' example program what will I need to input in the program. I know the address to the spectrum analyzer is 18 and I know centre frequency, span etc. but what else do I need to do. Thank you once again and please ignnore my ignorance.

[Dennis_Knutson]

First, please read the information on what a driver is and how to use it.

Generally, you don't change the code of a driver. You select the correct functions and pass values to the inputsof the function. That is what the example shows.

Assuming that you've installed all of the drivers for the GPIB board (including NI-VISA), you would have done a scan for instruments in MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer). On the front panel of each of the functions is a VISA Resource Name Control. You can directly enter the VISA resource name (i.e. GPIB0::18::INSTR) but it is much easier to click the arrow on the right side of the control. When you do that, you will get a list of all resources on your pc. This will inlcude com ports, the printer port, and any instrument found in MAX. Just select your instrument.

[ZAKY]

Ok Ive attached screen shots of the errors I am getting. If you could please advise on how to proceed. Many thanks.

[tbob]

You first attachment shows that the instrument is not being initialized.  You cannot go any further without proper initialization.  Your program should look for an error after intialization, and end the program if there is an error.  You would benefit by using state machine architecture instead of the sequence structure.  Search NI site for state machine.

The error message states that the ID Query failed.  If you send the command *IDN using GPIB, what do you get back?  Whatever it is, your program must match the return string from your instrument.  You can also turn off ID Query by wiring a False constant on the ID Query input.  It really isn't necessary.  Try this to see if you still get an error message on initialization.