Need a pointer as to how to log data over time with mostly Siglent equipment

[t1d]

I am working on an Electronic Load design. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/electronic-load-project-ltv171-irfp250-with-kicad-files/msg2853122/#msg2853122

I am in the testing phase. I have been instructed to look at "The test with a DMM at the shunt is to look for stability of the set voltage. So for drift in the OPs etc., e.g. with warming. If in addition the current is measured one could also check if the shunt changes with temperature."

I recall that there is software to interface my equipment and log data over time, but I do not know where to begin with such. Please point me in the right direction to learn what program(s) to use, how to use them and the testing procedure. (I am a noob with nice gear.)

Thank you for your help.

Siglent Oscilloscope, DMM and PSU. Brymen 869s DMM. Other = Frequency Generator and Counter. Analog oscilloscope. Multiple DMMs. Multiple PSUs.

[colorado.rob]

SCPI.  I use Python on Linux for this, along with PyVISA.  For devices with LXI interfaces it is a bit easier.  You can do straight socket calls.

A simple script to grab a screenshot is here: https://gist.github.com/mobilinkd/8a07cc124946c87715c6a1458118411e

You can use that as the basis to get started capturing voltage from the DMM.  You will need to download the programming manuals for your instruments to see the command sets available for each.

[t1d]

Thanks, Rob. Maybe that's above my pay grade? Anything easier? What about Sigrok?

[tautech]

Over how much time do you want to record as the files get quite large quickly unless you use the trigger capabilities to capture from the start of the event.
It's certainly possible to manage mem depth and timebase settings in order to keep the captured files sizes to something more manageable rather than in the 100's of MBs.

For converting the SDS1004X-E .bin files to .csv for use in Excel I recommend you watch this vid:
https://youtu.be/Az5aySpSgoI

For customers I've demonstrated this to we used trigger settings, timebase settings and the inbuilt webserver connected to a laptop so get the captured data out in .bin format then converted it to .csv so it can be graphed in Excel.
You can do this just with the scope however the .csv files get large quick !

Check out topics by HendriXML as he's doing some nice stuff like what you want to do.

[t1d]

Over how much time do you want to record as the files get quite large quickly unless you use the trigger capabilities to capture from the start of the event.
It's certainly possible to manage mem depth and timebase settings in order to keep the captured files sizes to something more manageable rather than in the 100's of MBs.

Well, for my purposes, I think just one sample per minute over 30 minutes from a few devices should be plenty. This is all outside my knowledge base, but I would not think that little bit of data would make for any type of storage issue. Correct?

For converting the SDS1004X-E .bin files to .csv for use in Excel I recommend you watch this vid:
https://youtu.be/Az5aySpSgoI

I will give that a look.

For customers I've demonstrated this to we used trigger settings, timebase settings and the inbuilt webserver connected to a laptop so get the captured data out in .bin format then converted it to .csv so it can be graphed in Excel.
You can do this just with the scope however the .csv files get large quick !

See above.

Check out topics by HendriXML as he's doing some nice stuff like what you want to do.

I will look that up.

What I had hoped to find was a GUI that interfaced the gear with USB. I thought that Sigrok might be that type of thing, but all I see is a command line function. I don't know about command line functions. Of course, PulseView does have a GUI.

So... The learning curve for the electronic load is steep enough not to be able to add any other significant learning curves for interfacing test gear, at this time. Maybe it would be best to set a timer and just record some data manually. Thoughts?

[tautech]

@t1d
You might be well advised to check out the numerous Operating tips and videos for your Siglent gear so to get a better idea of their data capture capabilities. Both these lists of guides are available from the Siglent US websites in the Resources tab for each of their products.
 
Eg. for your SDM:
https://siglentna.com/videos/sdm3055-series/
https://siglentna.com/operating-tips/sdm3055-series/.......https://siglentna.com/operating-tip/sample-and-store-sdm3000/

[abraxa]

So... The learning curve for the electronic load is steep enough not to be able to add any other significant learning curves for interfacing test gear, at this time. Maybe it would be best to set a timer and just record some data manually. Thoughts?

PulseView is for scopes and logic analyzers at the moment but for PSUs and loads there's SmuView: https://sigrok.org/wiki/SmuView