Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Automate or be automated

More automation requires more equipment!

That's why I love the SMUs, those plus a GPIB card, switch, and Matlab or Python and you can characterise almost any two terminal device out there.

I need an LXI / SCPI capable SMU now. 

And there it starts again

I've actually written a fairly hefty SCPI over TCP client which allows me to drive my equipment. I got most of the way in turning a DG1022Z and DS1054Z into a 0-25MHz SNA.

[HalFET]

Heheh, I might steal your transistor measurement trick to make some spare cash on the side.

[Mr. Scram]

Most of my stuff is USB, but comes with Labview drivers. I haven't really used any of that in anger though, so I hope that works out as well as I intend it to do.

[bd139]

Heheh, I might steal your transistor measurement trick to make some spare cash on the side.

OC81D's still sell for £15 or so. I actually had some crazy individual swearing at me and all sorts on ebay messages because I wouldn't ship them to the US.

[Specmaster]

Made by a company that you never hear of these days, are they still going, Mullard?

[bd139]

Mullard -> Philips -> NXP. Currently in discussion for a buy out from Qualcomm

Still around. And they still make wafers in the UK in Manchester.

[Cerebus]

The discretes part of NXP was spun off as Nexperia, and I suspect that more represents the Mullard history than does the chips business that Qualcomm are sniffing around. Mullard also made passives, including the classic 'liquorice allsort' dipped polyester capacitors.

[Berni]

Automate or be automated

More automation requires more equipment!

That's why I love the SMUs, those plus a GPIB card, switch, and Matlab or Python and you can characterise almost any two terminal device out there.

I need an LXI / SCPI capable SMU now. 

And there it starts again

I've actually written a fairly hefty SCPI over TCP client which allows me to drive my equipment. I got most of the way in turning a DG1022Z and DS1054Z into a 0-25MHz SNA.

I have my test gear in the LAN and for my rack of old boatanchors there is a GPIB to LAN gateway to get them 'online'. But i never bother automating much of it because i don't feel like programing it.

I would like there to be some universal software tool where you can easily connect any old piece of SCPI gear and do basic stuff with it like graph the data from it, run trough simple step by step test sequences etc. Most of the time you just want a trend chart of your measurement data or you want to step one instrument trough a sweep while reading off another at each point.

Labview sort of is this but there is still a lot of clicking about to set up something like simultaneous trend piloting of two instruments on one chart. Also i always found this labview block based programing rather confusing and messy compared to a normal programing language like C.

Then there is things like Keysights BenchVue that does let you get simple remote automation tasks done, but only works with modern Keysight gear. While that does cover some of my test gear but most other things are gear that still have HP badges on them, or is another brand like Tek or Keithley (...Oh right thats the same thing now)

[bd139]

One of our fellow forum members maintains the following which might be of use: https://github.com/lxi

[Mr. Scram]

There's nothing stopping you from actually using other languages. It's one of those situations where the makers of the gear seem to think "it's engineering folk, so the software doesn't have to be streamlined".

That's a problem you see with a lot of professional software.

[Berni]

One of our fellow forum members maintains the following which might be of use: https://github.com/lxi

Well this is mostly just a library to let you communicate with SCPI devices in C. I use windows for everything so for that i just install Keysight IO software and use the standard NI VISA dll, even works straight out of Excel using VBA.

What i would actually want is a complete solution that also does something useful with the data. For example you just run it, add a device like "Generic Keithley 2xxxx DMM" tell it its on GPIB 21, perhaps a few extra parameters and done. Now you suddenly have a box with the current reading of the DMM showing on it. Drag it on to a chart window and it starts trend piloting the value. Drag another one on there and it trend plots that too on the same graph. Click a button to add a math function to multiply them and give you a trend plot of power in Watts. Click of a button exports a CSV of that graph.

Go into another menu to add a test sequence. You click to add input parameters like "Parameter 'StartVoltage' is min 0V max 30V" This then appears in the test sequence box as a numeric entry box and the bottom of the box having a start stop button. That button executes a short script like this:

Code: [Select]

step(V, StartVoltage, EndVoltage, StepVoltage)
{
   PSU1.SetVolts(V)
   Delay(100)
   PlotXY(V, DMM1.Value)
}
Once you click the button the graph starts filling up with points that draw the I/V characteristic of whatever load your multimeter is meshuring the current into.

Add to the script the reading of the other two multimeters and you can now plot the % efficency of a power supply.

This is the sort of software i want to have. Doesn't need to be fancy and powerful. It just has to be able to get the simple data loging and automation tasks with as little time as possible. That way i would make use of test automation since it would take me less time to set up the automated test than actually doing it manually. This makes it worth to automate these one off tests, programing your own automation tool built for the specific task is otherwise only worth it for tests you know you will repeat a lot.

[bd139]

That’s roughly what I’m doing in python. You don’t get the drag and drop stuff but the rest is there.

I prefer to take the abstraction away from anything platform specific hence python. I’m using python, scipy and matplotlib. I keep collection, processing and rendering very loose so you can modify it easily. Also years of unix taught me to build tools that talk to each other, not blobs.

[artag]

Hmm, let me tell you that 4 also get lonely and require company

I reckon the more you get, the lonelier they are. I've got 10 or so and still they come ..

[Specmaster]

Hmm, let me tell you that 4 also get lonely and require company

I reckon the more you get, the lonelier they are. I've got 10 or so and still they come ..

[capt bullshot]

What i would actually want is a complete solution that also does something useful with the data. For example you just run it, add a device like "Generic Keithley 2xxxx DMM" tell it its on GPIB 21, perhaps a few extra parameters and done. Now you suddenly have a box with the current reading of the DMM showing on it. Drag it on to a chart window and it starts trend piloting the value. Drag another one on there and it trend plots that too on the same graph. Click a button to add a math function to multiply them and give you a trend plot of power in Watts. Click of a button exports a CSV of that graph.

HP Vee? Does it still exist?

[Mr. Scram]

HP Vee? Does it still exist?

Apparently, though the last update was in 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keysight_VEE

[Berni]

HP Vee? Does it still exist?

Apparently, though the last update was in 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keysight_VEE

This Vee thing looks quite a bit better than LabView to me. I need to give it a try sometime, but im sure as hell am not buying the thing for the 2 grand they ask for it.

If i like it then i might look in to ways of slightly extending the trial period on it.

[neo]

I have a HP 608C which i got for free a couple years back with the electrical meters on the front all not properly working, now it doesn't even output a signal anymore.
I'm thinking that replacing all of the caps, of which there are many, might just cure it of all that ails it, what do you all think?

[mnementh]

Automate or be automated

More automation requires more equipment!

That's why I love the SMUs, those plus a GPIB card, switch, and Matlab or Python and you can characterise almost any two terminal device out there.

I need an LXI / SCPI capable SMU now. 

And there it starts again

I've actually written a fairly hefty SCPI over TCP client which allows me to drive my equipment. I got most of the way in turning a DG1022Z and DS1054Z into a 0-25MHz SNA.

I have my test gear in the LAN and for my rack of old boatanchors there is a GPIB to LAN gateway to get them 'online'. But i never bother automating much of it because i don't feel like programing it.

I would like there to be some universal software tool where you can easily connect any old piece of SCPI gear and do basic stuff with it like graph the data from it, run trough simple step by step test sequences etc. Most of the time you just want a trend chart of your measurement data or you want to step one instrument trough a sweep while reading off another at each point.

Labview sort of is this but there is still a lot of clicking about to set up something like simultaneous trend piloting of two instruments on one chart. Also i always found this labview block based programing rather confusing and messy compared to a normal programing language like C.

Then there is things like Keysights BenchVue that does let you get simple remote automation tasks done, but only works with modern Keysight gear. While that does cover some of my test gear but most other things are gear that still have HP badges on them, or is another brand like Tek or Keithley (...Oh right thats the same thing now)

Hmmm... something I ran across a few years back with my RC hobbyist stuff is LogView; it's a DonationWare Log data analyzer/graphing utility created by Dominik Schmidt & Holger Hemmecke. Most of our Smart Chargers output data in serial mode which it readily decodes with minimal setup. I've also used it with serial output from a number of my older meters and arduino-based test jigs; so it seems pretty flexible.


LogView Studio is their latest version; it does 3D charts and does have some statistical analysis functionality built-in as well. Here's a list of the data types it can handle:

What is a Source?

Whenever a device is added to a project in LogView Studio it is always necessary to configure this device by selecting a related source for this device. In other words each device needs a specific source from where the data will be sent to the computer. LogView Studio supports a wide selection of various possible sources which can be used for devices:

•   Serial Port
Data will be received through a serial port.

•   USB HID (Human Interface Device)
Data will be received through an USB Port. The USB Port is working in HID mode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interface_device

•   TCP Client
Data will be read over network from a TCP Server.

•   UDP Receiver
Data will be read over network from a UDP sender.

•   Text Files
Data is from a text file (normally CSV).

•   Binary Files (DeviceSourceFileBinary)
Data is from a binary file.

Might this be a serviceable generic foundation for what you want to do?


mnem
*Currently rebuilding a washing machine transmission*

[Cubdriver]

I have a HP 608C which i got for free a couple years back with the electrical meters on the front all not properly working, now it doesn't even output a signal anymore.
I'm thinking that replacing all of the caps, of which there are many, might just cure it of all that ails it, what do you all think?

Rather than simply shotgunning caps, I'd suggest downloading the manual from KO4BB's site and following the troubleshooting section.

http://www.ko4bb.com/manuals/69.121.228.201/HP_608C_Operating_and_Service_Manual_Service_Manual.pdf

http://www.ko4bb.com/manuals/69.121.228.201/HP_608C_Service_Note.pdf

The above are the links I just copied after downloading; if they don't get you there, then go to KO4BB's manual site and search for the 608 in the HP section.

-Pat

[bd139]

Bought another scope. Modest but working Tektronix 2225. This is going to be my backup scope as it’s fully working. Dead simple device with very few things to go wonky.

Also found my old Telequipment S61 yesterday at my parents’ house on Sunday. Unfortunately it appears to be infested with dust mites because they haven’t cleaned the place for 10 years so I left it there until another day!

[Specmaster]

Nice, if its the one I think it is, I was going to mention it to you but then I thought that 50Mhz was a bit slow compared to your 465 and 475 models. It looks like its in good condition too.

[bd139]

It probably is that one. Very good condition. Hope it will arrive like that.

50MHz is fine because it has 10x vertical mag which means 500uV/div vertical. Noise on the DS1054Z is crap. So great for low noise/power supply stuff. Also much smaller and lighter, simpler and more reliable than the 4xx series. Also I can most likely actually rely on that one unlike the 465/475. The 465B blew a bridge rectifier last week which suggests main filter caps will be required. 475 is going strong so far although I only lugged it out once in the last two weeks. Fun fun fun!

[HalFET]

Bought another scope. Modest but working Tektronix 2225. This is going to be my backup scope as it’s fully working. Dead simple device with very few things to go wonky.

Also found my old Telequipment S61 yesterday at my parents’ house on Sunday. Unfortunately it appears to be infested with dust mites because they haven’t cleaned the place for 10 years so I left it there until another day!

Sweet, those are nice scopes , very simple in use! I recently managed to pull a Gould 4035 from the trash

[bd139]

Good save from the skip that. Gould scopes are rather nice.