Keysight U3606B Multimeter|DC Power Supply

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This is a very nice combination--I bought one a couple of weeks ago from TestEquity (US$1,200) and am working up the learning curve--it will both source and measure and has a 5 1/2 digit meter as well but it stops short of being a SMU in both features and price. It is a replacement for the U3606A and looks like there was considerable improvement in the quality and performance as well. It has data logging and will interact with an Excel spreadsheet using Keysight's Command Expert software SCPI over USB.

I plan on posting additional info not found in the documentation on this forum and perhaps a little video for YouTube. If anyone else is interested, let me know.

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Here's some more information:
After a lot of digging through documentation, I've got the U3606B working with a spreadsheet in both Command Expert mode and using VBA with the VISA-COM resource.

This will copy data from the main display to a variable named "Readings" on the spreadsheet
VBA Code:
Option Explicit   
    Dim ioMgr As VisaComLib.ResourceManager
    Dim instrAny As VisaComLib.FormattedIO488
    Dim instrQuery As String
    Dim instrAddress As String
Public Sub cmdSendFetch()
    instrAddress = Range("Instrument").Value    ' this is from named var on SS
    Set ioMgr = New VisaComLib.ResourceManager
    Set instrAny = New VisaComLib.FormattedIO488
    Set instrAny.IO = ioMgr.Open(Range("shortName")) ' this is from named var on SS
    Dim r, i As Integer
    instrAny.WriteString ("OUTPut:STATe 1")  ' SCPI command
    Application.Wait (Now + 0.00002) ' 1 second pause
    r = Range("Readings").Rows.Count
    For i = 1 To r
    'Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("0:00:01")) ' 1 second pause
    Application.Wait (Now + 0.00001) ' 1 second pause

    instrAny.WriteString ("Fetch?")
    instrQuery = instrAny.ReadNumber
   
    Range("Readings").Cells(i, 1).Value = instrQuery  ' this is from named var on SS

    Next
    instrAny.WriteString ("OUTPut:STATe 0")
    instrAny.IO.Close
   
End Sub

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Here's a screenshot of a graph from an experiment. Using just the U3606B, I was able to source and sense voltage and current to an LED (controlled by the built-in Scan function) and also measure the voltage output from a photo-diode aimed at the LED. Not rocket-science or high-precision, but that's a lot of capability from a little instrument.
The calculations and graph are from Excel based on voltage and current from the 'power-supply' to the LED and the voltage measured by the 'multi-meter' from the photo-diode.

More details? Just ask . . .

6/8/2015 I've posted a short video on YouTube showing the setup for the experiment:  https://youtu.be/13b5d9_sXBU

[dadler]

Interesting instrument.

I have a 66312a, and it seems (at least in spirit, yours is a true multimeter) to be a similar device.

It does seem that there are certain measurements that are much easier to conduct accurately when the meter is also the power supply.

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The multimeter side does all of the usual measurements very well and with excellent stability over extended (8-hour+) periods. The source (PS) side also measures both volts and amps, so three measurements may be made each second. I'm very happy with the results.

Here's a screenshot of my U3606B sourcing negative V and sinking current: