GPIB communication old HP 8657b

Hi everyone,

I am trying to perform GPIB communication with an old HP 8657b (Agilent) function generator. The gpib connection is achieved through a NI board.

Using tmtool, I am able to connect to the device. Unfortunately, I cannot send order to it or read its buffer.

Typically the command I gonna pass are:

gene = gpib('ni',1,7); 
fopen(gene); 
fprintf(gene,'"FREQ:CW 500 MHz;\n"');

But as you might imagine the device remains silent.

First, I wonder if I am talking to the device properly? Second, since this is an old device, is the driver already installed on matlab, or should I install it? In the latter case, how can I check this? What is the procedure to install a driver and where do I find it?

Best

Best

[dpb]

Never used instrumentation toolbox under Matlab so no real specific info there, sorry.

I have, however, done a lot of HPIB comm with old HP stuff of this vintage and older with NI GPIB interface.

The first thing to do is to go into the setup for the device and check it's communication parameters including, of course, it's ID and what the line termination character is; somebody may have changed from factory defaults and if you're not consistent you'll get nowhere fast and never get anywhere.

Second, I'd initially take Matlab out of the loop and use the NI drivers directly to wake up the device and get a first successful communication going.

Then, for the Matlab side, all I know to do is to search the Toolbox documentation for what is supported. I don't exactly understand the Matlab interface vis a vis the vendor drivers so can't help much there..

Might try link <troubleshooting-gpib-interface.html> and see leads anywhere.

Answer 1

[Ashwini Venkatappa]

In the MATLAB command window,execute

>> instrhwinfo gpib ni

Verify,if the driver installed is supported by your MATLAB version. Ensure to use a 64-bit driver, if you are using 64-bit MATLAB.

If NI-GPIB driver (version 2.5.2) is installed on the machine on the machine it does not support 64-bit Application. The information can be found in the section "64-Bit Language Interface" in the link below:

http://download.ni.com/support/softlib//gpib/Windows/readme.html

Download the more recent version of the driver from the link below to support 64 bit Application.

http://www.ni.com/download/ni-488.2-3.1.2/4360/en/