Keithley 2260B and 2701

[DieLiz]

I'm setting up a system with a Keithley 2260B-30-36 and a 2701. I'm not able to communicate with my power supply and the multimeter. I would like to see an example for these two third party instruments but I can't find anything. Do you have any suggestion for how to start and where I could find some help? I did watch and learned the LabVIEW Core I but I could not make my first application yet. 

Any suggestion is welcome!

Thank you so much.

[cbutcher · Accepted solution]

Although the instrument driver finder doesn't return anything for the 2260B in 2017, searching for instrument drivers (via the Help menu) gives the "ke27xx Instrument Driver" when searching for "Keithley" in the dropdown list and "2701" in the search box.

It's not very highly rated, but it probably works, and double-clicking on VIs likely shows the operating method (likely string commands, if I was to guess without installing).

Beyond that, if you download the user guides from the Keithley website, I'm sure they'll describe the operating methods available in more detail. This link to a Farnell datasheet/application note lists SCPI commands for some subset of actions. There are many examples showing VISA usage for similar commands.

[AKhan · Accepted solution]

Here is the link to the LabVIEW driver on Tektronix's website.  Keithley in now part of Tektronix

https://www.tek.com/dc-power-supply/2260b-30-36-software-1

[DieLiz]

Thank you, the example are really helpful. Now I'm trying to merge two of them in order to make my application going. 

[cstorey · Accepted solution]

There is a LabVIEW driver for the 2701 here - http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=1460.

[DieLiz]

Hi all,

Installing the driver helped me out to communicate with the 2260B and the 2701. Also, to query the instrument (*IDN?) and do not get the timing error I selected the termination character into MAX \n and now everything works.

Now I would like to ask for some help on my application. Any help and suggestion is really appreciated!

My application:
With the 2260B power supply I want to apply a voltage and a current to a 'resistor' controlling the voltage, in the meantime the 2701+7700 should scan 3 channels, save the voltage readings into the buffer, then read the data and plot them. While I ramp up the voltage (with a 2260B test sequence) I need to read the voltage across a shunt resistor (to calculate the exact current flowing thru) and across the 'resistor' (to measure the exact voltage across) with the 2701+7700. The voltage should ramp up to about 10/11V as fast as possible, stay at 10/11V for 3 seconds and shut off. The 2701+7700 should start the voltages readings simultaneously with the 2260B test sequence.

So far I was able to communicate with both instruments via ethernet and run the VIs examples founded into the LV drivers. The instruments communicate without errors and execute the code correctly.

Next steps that I need help with:
-fig out how to load/run the test sequence into the 2260B.
-create one VI with both instruments and synchronize them together.

My idea so far:
-to load the test sequence into the 2260B I was thinking to use the USB drive with a .csv file. Do you know if and how I can do that directly with LV?
-to synchronize the beginning of the 2260B test sequence and the 2701 scan (of 3 channels) I can see to way. (1)Use an external I/O signal from the 2260B into the 2701 or (2) synchronize the instruments via software. Which one would be more precise and easier for me to fig out?

I would really appreciate any suggestion and would be happy to share my code once i'm done. Let me know if you need my code written so far or any other information from me.

[cbutcher]

Sounds like a State Machine might be helpful for you.

If you have a csv with a series of settings and timings, you can certainly load that into LabVIEW and step through them as needed. I'd suggest parsing the csv to an array of clustered values (one cluster per set of settings and timings, so probably a row in the csv). Then use a for loop or similar to go through them.

For synchronisation, a hardware circuit/pulse will be more accurate but probably also more complicated. How accurate do you need to be? Probably you can get within milliseconds using software. If they have external trigger settings it might not be too complicated to use those though and I'd guess more precise.