GPIB-USB control between MacBook Air (Macintosh) and TDS540C

[Tantratron]

Hello Ragnar,

I've another question which might know the answer since you operate a TDS6xx oscilloscope

Much before in this thread, I was mentioning 2 methods to enable some options (i.e. 2F) so this is some kind of hacking https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/gpib-usb-control-between-macbook-air-(macintosh)-and-tds540c/msg2839268/#msg2839268 which worked fine with my two TDS540C. Now I have FFT's, integral and derivate mathematics from my Oscope. I did try to some enabling-disabling options which are not dependent on HW and it works fine.

On some other threads, members state that we can flash or rewrite the NVRAM to obtain the same effect, namely to flip the bit value in charge of enabling the 2F option. The thing which I do not understand, the NVRAM address zoning starts at 0x04000000 which is totally different than address 0x50009 used by VISA-GPIB command https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/gpib-usb-control-between-macbook-air-(macintosh)-and-tds540c/msg2840286/#msg2840286

Another question, do you know what is the equivalent Visa-GPIB inline command of "libManagerWordAt()" ?

Albert

[ragge]

Hi Albert,

Another question, do you know what is the equivalent Visa-GPIB inline command of "libManagerWordAt()" ?

No, I sadly have no idea how you get that information. It may have something to do with console access, which I still have not fixed.
I you find out, please post it here!

Regards,
Ragnar

[Tantratron]

Hi Ragnar,

I guess we need to find out in EEVblog forum or tekforum the member (genius) who found that method, these specific Visa-GPIB console of first "PASSWORD PITBULL" then followed by "WORDCONSTANT:ATPUT 327689,1" to enable the FFT.

Another way to understand how this works, at what address the PITBULL password is captured by the TDS then the address mechanism for the options https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tds420-with-lost-options/msg889412/#msg889412 and https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tds420-with-lost-options/msg889461/#msg889461

Maybe worth deepen the C coding information provided by Andy Watson or maybe he could join this thread

Albert

[Tantratron]

For tekfwtool, you don't need anything but the command line.
You need to have Xcode installed to have the compiler and the other development tools (if you don't want to install some other tool chain for some reason).
You seem to have already installed the NI libraries for 488, which is what it will use in this case.

I think this should pretty much work:

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# get a copy of the kit from github
git clone [url]https://github.com/ragges/tektools.git[/url]
# go to the tekfwtool directory
cd tektools/tekfwtool

Then with your favourite editor, in tekfwtool.c, to include the NI headers instead, replace

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    #include <gpib/ib.h>with

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    #include <ni4882.h>
Then it SEEMS this is the NI recommended way to compile the program (not very MacOS-/NextSTEP-ish, but...):

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cc -g -fsigned-char tekfwtool.c /Library/Frameworks/NI4882.framework/Resources/ni4882.o -framework CoreFoundation -I/Library/Frameworks/NI4882.framework/Headers -o tekfwtool

You should now have a working program, check that it runs with e.g.:

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./tekfwtool --help

For those very few who have a Macintosh (Mac OS X) with GPIB-USB-HS National Instruments interface, I confirm the tekfwtool compiles and runs OK when communicating with my TDS540C (see attached screen shot of reading the 1486 NVSRAM).

For the moment, it is not clear if this C version works for erasing then flashing the firmware on all TDS 5xx/6xx/7xx/8xx so extra care and verification are needed due to different C versions on the internet https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tekfwtool-for-tds540c-firmware-upgrade/msg2855192/#msg2855192

If there is some interest, we could update the complete set.

Albert

[Andy Watson]

I don't think I can add anything to what's already been said. All the information I have has been gleened from the web. There used to be a Tektronix forum that had useful information available - I don't know if it's still active.  https://forum.tek.com/index.php?sid=0a9094a730452c52c480a67c30d1300f  Looks like it is still active, but I think you have to register to get at the manuals.