Re: GPIB replies lost?

[Benjamin Franksen via Tech-talk <tech-talk@aps.anl.gov>]

Am 23.04.19 um 21:25 schrieb Michael Davidsaver via Tech-talk:
> On 4/19/19 1:06 PM, Michael Davidsaver wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> I've come across a new (to me) oddity involving GPIB communication between
>> a Keysight/Agilent E5810A GPIB to ethernet bridge, and a Keysight/Agilent/HP
>> 3458A DMM.  I'm contacting Keysight support, but thought I'd see if someone
>> had already run across this issue.
> 
> In the end the answer turns out to be "END".  To quote the 3458A manual.
> 
>> The END command enables or disables the GPIB End Or Identify (EOI) function.
> ...
>> OFF  0  EOI line never set true
> ...
>> Power-on control = OFF.
> 
> Not an intuitive default to me.
> 
> So "END;ID?", or giving a '\n' terminator to the vxi11 device_read() call, works.
> (I must admit it was news to me that termChar is a vxi11 protocol feature)
> 
> It also seems that the E5810A does not return partial output on timeout.
> It's EOI, termChar, or an error.

They now ship the E5810B (note the last letter). When I first had this
thing on my desk it immediately froze up and failed to further respond
to anything if the first message you sent was a "*IDN?". Which, I think,
is not an unusual first command to send to a new device. It needed a
hard reset (uncoupling the mains) to recover from that. Perhaps they
fixed that particular bug in the meantime. I was also quite disappointed
about the external power supply connected to the box via a wobbly
consumer grade connector. Not something I like to put in a production
system. All in all clearly inferior compared to the previous "A"
version. It is a shame what became of the once renowned brand
"Hewlett-Packard" (first renamed to "Agilent", then "Keysight", and it
looks as if product quality deteriorated along with the brand name). I
recommend you hold on to your E5810As for those older devices which
require GPIB; and where possible switch to devices that are controlled
directly via ethernet.

Cheers
Ben

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