[time-nuts] Re: Racal Dana 1992 - issues reading data from GPIB?

[Adrian Godwin]

There's a group for Racal equipment : https://groups.io/g/RacalDana  - you
may be able to find specific info on the 1992 there. A recent thread
discussed using a Racal 1991 with the open source AR488 interface, which
emulates the Prologix serial adapter. The thread title is 'GPIB on a
budget?' but you have to be a member of the list to read it.

The poster in that case did end up putting the counter in talk-only mode in
order to get regular updates out of it. His 1991 used an older pre-SCPI
version of GPIB but it should still be possible to communicate. However
automatic operations such as going into read mode after a '?' won't help. I
don't know if the 1992 is similar.

It might be helpful to connect a monitor to the bus to determine what state
it's in when it stalls. The sigrok project can be used to create a simple
logic analyser from a cheap Cypress Fx2 dev/breakout and then analyse it
with a postprocessor that disassembles the GPIB bus protocol.


On Tue, Apr 4, 2023 at 8:44 PM John Miller via time-nuts <
time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
>
> I recently got my hands on a "gpib4pi" board specifically so that I can
> log measurements from my recently acquired Racal Dana 1992. I understand
> that the 1992 has some oddities when it comes to GPIB, but based on what
> I've read in the manual, and from others' experiences, I should be able
> to do what I want with no problems. I have made sure to set the internal
> jumper to "GPIB mode", and it is not in "talk only" mode per the switch
> settings on the rear of the unit.
>
>
> The gpib4pi board is interfaced with via the linux gpib tools and
> libraries, and to start I'm using the ibterm software to test things out
> - I'll be using python for logging once I confirm everything is working
> correctly. The issue that I am running into is that while I can send
> commands with no problems (e.g. changing measurement mode, changing
> resolution, resetting the unit, changing trigger modes, etc.) I cannot
> seem to receive any data at all.
>
>
> If I issue a command to have it send data, like GET, no data is
> returned, and the unit's SRQ (system request) LED is lit until I issue
> another command. I feel like this should be relatively trivial but I am
> getting absolutely nowhere fiddling with settings.
>
>
> I have also connected the gpib4pi to a 33120A function generator, and if
> I issue the command *IDN? through ibterm I get the proper
> self-identification string back, so I feel fairly confident that my
> hardware setup is correct, there's just something unique about the 1992
> that I haven't figured out yet.
>
>
> Here's my gpib.conf file: https://paste.millerjs.org/oyugadohey.txt
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> John
>
> KC1QLN
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