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Release of the "HP8753 Companion" program

 

Hello HP list viewers....

I have written and released a program for use with the HP8753 vector network analyzer.
It communicates with the analyzer (naturally) over the HPIB using the Linux GPIB driver.

The program facilitates the saving and restoration of configuration and setup profiles.
It also retrieves, displays and prints the traces, trace data and markers.
 
I hope other Linux users (who have an HP8753 ... both of you) may find it useful.
 
A brief description video shows it's operation: https://youtu.be/ORWQE22tbRo
 
The program is freely available (Apache 2.0 licence) from  https://github.com/VK2BEA/HP8753-Companion
$ sudo dnf copr enable vk2bea/HP8753
$ sudo dnf copr enable vk2bea/GPIB
$ sudo dnf install hp8753
 
On the Raspberry Pi, use the autotools instructions to build and install (in the ReadMe.md file)

If you have suggestions for enhancements or if you find bugs, please let me know on Github.

thanks,
   Michael

hp8753.key.png

 

I would be interested in seeing the source code.  I would perhaps like to attempt to port this to Windows.
Is that possible???? If so I can send contact info later.

Karin Anne Johnson  P.E.
Palm Harbor, Florida
 

The source is on Github ... https://github.com/VK2BEA/HP8757-Companion/tree/main/src

Theoretically, yes it can be ported to Windows.  The GUI framework is done with GTK3 which (I understand) is ported to Windows. ( you could also code up the graphics using the native Windows APIs)
The Linux GPIB API looks very close to (or even identical) to National Instruments' API but again, the comms. is pretty straight forward.

There are some utilities for the 8753 that already exist for Windows (written by KE5FX).
He has a very useful HP plotter emulator. Unfortunately my Keysight HPIB USB controller can't act as a 'device' (and hence can't emulate the plotter) so, even if I had a Windows machine in the lab, I cannot use it to get plots from the 8753.
I also think the procedure with the emulator is a little more cumbersome than my program (IMHO ) ... but you get exactly what's on the screen in all its low resolution glory. 

If you do want to port the program I'll give you as much help as I can.

Michael
 

On Mon, 27 Jun 2022 at 00:13, vk2bea via groups.io <vk2bea=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
Hello HP list viewers....

I have written and released a program for use with the HP8753 vector network analyzer.
It communicates with the analyzer (naturally) over the HPIB using the Linux GPIB driver.

Would it be expected to work with a National Instrument driver on Ubuntu? Last time I looked, building the linux GPIB driver seemed quite a lot of work, whereas National Instruments makes the linux driver installation simpler (I hope).

I assume there's a good chance this would work with an 8719/8720/8722, as the commands are pretty much identical. I have my own GPIB code that I wrote that runs under Solaris which I use to control both the 8753ES and 8720D. If I do get it worked on my 8753, I will try on the 8720 too and send you some feedback.

An interesting project.

 

OK David,
   You would have to link with the NI library (rather than the linux GPIB library) but it may well work (or need a minor tweak). (every API call I use (ibrd, ibrda, ibwt, ibfind etc) seems to be identical between the Linux and NI libraries)
I don't have an NI board to try it on unfortunately. The library and include files look like they are named the same, so assuming the development files (/usr/lib/gpib/....) and the libraries are installed it should compile.

I agree that the Linux GPIB library is a little daunting at first sight. I did created a script to download and build it for the Raspberry Pi and this is likely to work with other Debian systems (like Ubuntu).
https://github.com/VK2BEA/HP8757-Companion/blob/main/GPIB-Linux.driver/installGPIBdriver.on.RPI
I've more experience with Fedora Linux than Ubuntu but this script is what I wrote to get it to build and install on the RPi.
I've created an updated GPIB driver RPM for Fedora  (https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/vk2bea/GPIB/) which installs with a couple of commands but that's cold comfort to an Ubuntu user I guess 8-(

Michael
 

If you're considering this, can In suggest that you look into making it part of the Sigrok suite ?
It contains a lot of infrastructure necessary to write instrument interfaces for all sorts of APIs, and the result is that 
the driver or control/display program is then supported under a number of OSs rather than just your target.

Of course, porting a linux version to Windows will also result in two systems being supported but unfortunately
they're then likely to diverge, and both may not survive.

I have seen a number of GPIB utilities announced in eevblog, all single-OS. It seems such a waste.

I don't believe doing this will require you to test under both (I have certainly been able to write a 34401
driver under linux and was not expected to test it under windows).

 
 

On Mon, 27 Jun 2022 at 05:40, Adrian Godwin <artgodwin@...> wrote:
If you're considering this, can In suggest that you look into making it part of the Sigrok suite ?
It contains a lot of infrastructure necessary to write instrument interfaces for all sorts of APIs, and the result is that 
the driver or control/display program is then supported under a number of OSs rather than just your target.

 
Maybe having it only under linux will be an incentive for others to upgrade to linux. 😢😢  If someone is tech-savvy enough to use an 8753, they should be able to handle linux.

Dave

 

Oops .. looks like I had a typo when I set up the repo.
The Github link should now work. https://github.com/VK2BEA/HP8753-Companion

Michael
 

... as a follow up ...  I see the Linux GPIB site says that "The API of the C library is intended to be compatible with National Instrument's GPIB library. "
This explains my observations; therefor, it **should** be compatible with the NI library/driver without change.
 

I'd rarher rewrite the utility than use linux...

Enviado do meu Tele-Movel

Em seg, 27 de jun de 2022 07:38, Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd <drkirkby@...> escreveu:

On Mon, 27 Jun 2022 at 05:40, Adrian Godwin <artgodwin@...> wrote:
If you're considering this, can In suggest that you look into making it part of the Sigrok suite ?
It contains a lot of infrastructure necessary to write instrument interfaces for all sorts of APIs, and the result is that 
the driver or control/display program is then supported under a number of OSs rather than just your target.

 
Maybe having it only under linux will be an incentive for others to upgrade to linux. 😢😢  If someone is tech-savvy enough to use an 8753, they should be able to handle linux.

Dave

 

Hi Michael,
thanks for all the efforts you put into the "companion". The youtube
video really looks promising and so I obtained a NI GPIB-USB adapter
and did a compile on a current Debian (gernel 5.10). Following feedback
on the compile process:

(1) The configure script did not correctly discover, that the
noto emoji font was installed already (it complained consis-
tently). So I removed the test for me.
(2) The make complained that -lsystemd was not found. I removed
it from the Makefile (src directory) and compile passed without
any issues.

Now my question: The companoin was written for a 8753C - is it to be
expected being compatible with the 8753D as well? I am observing that
the windows silently disappears throwing a "Segmenatation fault" in
trying to "Get Trace". There is activity on the GPIB bus for a very
short period of time before the crash...
Many thanks and have a good time,

Erik.
On Sun, 26 Jun 2022, vk2bea via groups.io wrote:
> Hello HP list viewers....
>
  - SNIP -
>  
> On the Raspberry Pi, use the autotools instructions to build and install (in the ReadMe.md file)
>
> If you have suggestions for enhancements or if you find bugs, please let me know on Github.
>
> thanks,
>    Michael
>
> [IMAGE]
''~``
(
 

 

...according tm my report...

expected being compatible with the 8753D as well? I am observing that
the window silently disappears throwing a "Segmenatation fault" in
trying to "Get Trace". There is activity on the GPIB bus for a very
short period of time before the crash...
I tried looking into that and while the analyzer is relaibly
found using windows and the Keysight connection expert...

-> *IDN?
<- HEWLETT PACKARD,8753D,0,5.48

...somehow my linux GPIB seems to be unstable. Sometimes the
device can be seen, sometimes not. Sometimes the NI-USB-GPIB
disconnects finally and needs a power cycle.

Sorry, I am giving up on that. I do not know why the GPIB
implementations are SUCH A MESS. On windows, one needs 100s of
megabytes for sending/receiving simple ASCII messages (ezgpib
uses less than 1/20 of that and contains a pascal language -
really well done). I failed to get pyvisa-py running on Windows 10
with strange messages, so needed the Keysight IO libraries on top
of the NI bloatware. And now the linux-stuff is unstable and
some gooling shows quite some people who did not end up with a
solution...

Sorry for the clutter...

...enjoy your instruments...

Erik.


''~``
( o o )
+------------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.---------------------------+
| Dr. Erik Baigar Inertial Navigation & |
| Salzstrasse 1 .oooO Vintage Computer |
| D87616 Marktoberdorf ( ) Oooo. Hobbyist / Physicist |
| erik@... +----\ (----( )-----------------------------+
| www.baigar.de | \_) ) /
+----------------------+ (_/
 

This would be great it could be ported to LAN interfaces .  This program looks fantastic .  Good job . 

My interest is to use it with  8714ET via LAN SCPI  commands. 
 

yes, the program doesn't need systemd and so that requirement in the makefile should be removed (i'll fix that). (although I would think that Debian would include the systemd library)

It **should** work with the 8753D. Did you run the 'Analyze Learn String' command (from the Option page)?
Drop me an email at v... gmail and we can try a few things to isolate the problem (if you're OK with helping out).

thanks,
   Michael
 

One thing to check is if you have specified assertion of EOI after write in the gpib.conf file (if you use the name descriptors rather than the GPIB address).
I explicitly set the "send_eoi" option when using the ibdev call (https://linux-gpib.sourceforge.io/doc_html/reference-function-ibdev.html). Without it I saw problems akin to what you describe.
If you use the board and device names (which refer to configurations in gpib.conf), you will need to set the variable in gpib.conf (set-eot = yes).

I see now that I can also do that programatically (https://linux-gpib.sourceforge.io/doc_html/reference-function-ibeot.html) ..  so I'll fix that after which you won't have to do that. 
 

Hi Michael,

thanks for your answer - highly appreciated that you are reaching out
and I am happy to run any tests required. I can usually do tests on
weekends only (7/29 next time) - just let me know...

yes, the program doesn't need systemd and so that requirement in the makefile should be removed (i'll fix that). (although I would think that Debian would include the systemd library)
Yes, if is included with a rather standard install - but obviously not
necessary in the MakeFile.

It **should** work with the 8753D. Did you run the 'Analyze Learn String'
command (from the Option page)?
Yes of course I tried that - but here same picture: After a few GPIB
commands the window simply vanishes "Segmentation fault".

Drop me an email at v... gmail and we can try a few things
Thanks for your hint - added my private email as well so we can do
that off-list on a low priority task; would be happy to help you
making the comnpanion more robust (erik -at- baigar -dot- de).

One thing to check is if you have specified assertion of EOI after write in the gpib.conf file (if you use the name descriptors rather than the GPIB address).
I used the GPIB address (16) in the text field to access the
device. But in the next session I can try the set-eot=yes in
the gpib-conf file (which was not there in the past).

I see now that I can also do that programatically (https://linux-gpib.sourceforge.io/doc_html/reference-function-ibeot.html
Yeah, that is a good idea - also a log-file might probably be
helpful ;-) I will try the eot thing on the 29th...

Thanks again and best wishes...

Erik.


''~``
( o o )
+------------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.---------------------------+
| Dr. Erik Baigar Inertial Navigation & |
| Salzstrasse 1 .oooO Vintage Computer |
| D87616 Marktoberdorf ( ) Oooo. Hobbyist / Physicist |
| erik@... +----\ (----( )-----------------------------+
| www.baigar.de | \_) ) /
+----------------------+ (_/
 

On Sun, Jun 26, 2022 at 05:20 PM, Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd wrote:
Would it be expected to work with a National Instrument driver on Ubuntu? Last time I looked, building the linux GPIB driver seemed quite a lot of work, whereas National Instruments makes the linux driver installation simpler (I hope).

Not intending to hijack the thread as this is great work but does anyone have the NI 488.2 driver for Linux that is earlier than the 18.x version that NI have on their site? The reason I ask is that NI deprecated support for the GPIB-ENET/100 in the 18.x+ drivers and I don't particularly want to spend $1K to buy a GPIB-ENET/1000 from China.

Thanks,

TonyG
 

Fedora Linux is fine with me. Keep up the good work.

Thanks
--
T. Gerbic
Central California
 

TWIMC .....
I've just pushed an update that adds the ability to import and save calibration kit definition files (.xkt) and then send these to the HP8753.



On Sun, Jun 26, 2022 at 04:13 PM, vk2bea wrote:
Hello HP list viewers....

I have written and released a program for use with the HP8753 vector network analyzer.
It communicates with the analyzer (naturally) over the HPIB using the Linux GPIB driver.

The program facilitates the saving and restoration of configuration and setup profiles.
It also retrieves, displays and prints the traces, trace data and markers.
 
I hope other Linux users (who have an HP8753 ... both of you) may find it useful.
 
A brief description video shows it's operation: https://youtu.be/ORWQE22tbRo
 
The program is freely available (Apache 2.0 licence) from  https://github.com/VK2BEA/HP8753-Companion
$ sudo dnf copr enable vk2bea/HP8753
$ sudo dnf copr enable vk2bea/GPIB
$ sudo dnf install hp8753
 
On the Raspberry Pi, use the autotools instructions to build and install (in the ReadMe.md file)

If you have suggestions for enhancements or if you find bugs, please let me know on Github.

thanks,
   Michael

 
 

Hi Michael,

This software is great! I have managed to get it working on windows 11. I have had to hack/modify the code a little.

I am using NI488 version 17 so I can use the GPIB-USB-B converter.

So far I have comms with the HP8753C using a NI GPIB-USB-B.

I am not getting any traces although the companion reports it as loaded. Please see screen shot.

Hope to have more details soon!

MPC.

Screenshot 2023-10-03 155409.png

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