racal 6103 GPIB programming

[Mehar]

Has anybody ever tried programming the RACAL 6103 over the GPIB? I would like to have a look at some examples if possible . Any kind of help will be greatly appreciated. I am actually trying to change the PLMN's on the Test setup and see the effects it makes on the Mobile Handset.

With Regards

Mehar

[Jason_Carlesi]

I see no one has replied to your thread...Did you ever figure out how to use labVIEW with your RaCal box?

[Anna_M]

Unfortunately, there are not currently example programs specifically for the RaCal 6103 available on the National Instruments Instrument Driver Net.  To request that an instrument driver be made for a certain instrument (to facilitate programming with this instrument in the future), you can submit a request at: http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/ by following the "Request a Driver" link. 

In the meantime, if you have access to the Racal 6103 user manual with a listing of the GPIB commands for this instrument, you should be able to adapt and augment the general GPIB examples available online (www.ni.com/devzone) and in LabVIEW (Help>>Find Examples...). 

I hope this helps!

[Jason_Carlesi]

I have found out that RaCal has its own compiler called AIME which is a stripped down version of BASIC. The AIME software uses GPIB to communicate with the 6103G/6104. The scripts that I have seen run are from Aeroflex who bought out RaCal and look so complex that I can now see why there are no LabVIEW drivers for this instrument - the 6103G is for modem development and has lots of low level protocol stuff just to get a phone to register with the simulated GSM network.

[Mehar]

The complexity related to using the GPIB for Racal prompted me to stop using it and also prompted my old place of work to buy new equipment. The AIME is also upto an extent useless because you will need activeX controls which is a different story altogether.

Mehar

[Jason_Carlesi]

Mehar, Very discouraging indeed. I am tasked with buying more RaCal boxes. But maybe another brand is easier to program. Which did you end up buying and were you able to use a LabVIEW driver?

thanks,

-jason

[hangover]

We interfaced the RACAL test set sevreal yrs ago (last century ;-). Used it for both SMS (DD) and CB (DD) operations, and it worked like a dream.

We did our own transmission programs with interfaced to the GPIB adapter

We did not use NI (GPIB) board

I will see if i can retrieve the source code (i've switched jobs since then).

/t