Re: HP8116A signal generator

[David Maden <David.Maden@psi.ch>]

Eric Norum wrote:
> All my memories of GPIB horrors are returning.
>
> I've put together ASYN/devGPIB support for an (obsolete) HP8116A  signal 
> generator.  I'm trying  to  communicate with the generator  through an 
> Agilent E5810A GPIB/LAN adapter.  As far as I can tell I'm  sending the 
> correct strings but the generator never acts upon the  commands.  Every 
> once in a very long while it will return a status  message in response 
> to a command, but most of the time it just sits  there.  Once in a while 
> it sets the SRQ line and then leaves it set  forever.
>
> Does anyone out there have experience with HP8116A GPIB communication?

Hi Eric,

I have no experience with the HP8116A, but I do have quite a bit of 
experience of GPIB devices in general and the Agilent E5810A in particular. 
My experience has been that HP devices have well behaved GPIB interfaces 
(not surprising really, since HP invented the GPIB).

I would suggest that you first try to understand how to communicate with 
your device using basic RPC calls to the E5810A before trying to tackle the 
complications of ASYN/devGPIB. You may find the program described at:

   <http://www.sls.psi.ch/controls/help/howto/gpib_test.html>

of some use when doing this, though I'm afraid that it won't help with SRQ 
issues. It is based on routines originally written by Benjamin Franksen of 
BESSY. You can find the code at:

   <ftp://ftp.psi.ch/PSI_outgoing/maden/gpib_test.tar.gz>

Regards,

David Maden, SLS