Data Acqusition from Agilent 86140B

[JaemaN]

Hi, I'm using LabVIEW 6.1 and trying to read data from Agilent 86140B OPtical Spectrum Analyzer with GPIB.
I downloaded the driver set in the website, but couldn't find how to actually read the data from the device.
Any suggestion?

[Emilie S.]

Hi Jaeman:

I don't have any experience with this driver and it is not supported by National Instruments, so there isn't much I can say about that. However, you should be able to write some basic VISA code to communicate with your instrument. You can use a VISA write and a VISA read. If you know the proper command to send to your instrument you will get the data you want through the VISA read.

If anyone out there has experience with this driver please post to this thread.

Thanks,

Emilie S.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[LV_Pro]

The drivers on the National Instruments driver site appear to all be IVI drivers, which muddies the water a bit. I'm pretty sure that to use this instrument using the IVI paradigm you also need to download some additional IVI stuff for this instrument from the Agilent site, it isn't clear. If you have the programming handbook of SCPI commands for this instrument you can write your own "non-IVI" driver in LabVIEW. First, find the "plug and play" drivers for an instrument of the same flavor (ideally an OSA, but for the most part a spectrum analyzer should do as a starting point, preferably an Agilent one). Then, go through the available vi's in this driver, selecting the ones you need initially to perform the minimum of your task, i.e. instrument initialization, measurement setup, measurement trigger, readback of measurement data and close instrument. You can then go in and edit the command strings to match the ones needed for your instrument, saving to new names that reflect your instrument model. Even without the manual you may be able to get much of the command string info from the instrument itself. Agilent, on many of their instruments, displays the command string (the SCPI standard on newer ones) that coorespond to the settings you are entering on the front panel. Tedious for sure, but if you can't find the type of drivers you need ... When looking at the "donor" instrument's drivers you may find that there are a lot of similar command strings. An OSA has a great deal of similarity to an RF SA, once you are past the front end, so setting them up is very similar.

P.M.

[LV_Pro]

Message Edited by LV_Pro on 06-23-2005 01:22 PM

[pals29]

From where you have downloaded the Agilent 86140B driver bcz it is not available  NI website,

Can you share me link for the driver even i want it