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

[John Miller]

Hi Adrian,
Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for - I had poked around for a Racal Dana group but wasn't able to find one, go figure. I've submitted a membership request and hopefully I can gain access soon. I'm open to doing bus analysis but I want to exhaust more options before I go that route. I'm not against running it in talk-only mode, either, I just want it to run long term data collection tasks - I don't need it to be fully remotely controllable.

John
KC1QLN

> On Apr 4, 2023, at 6:42 PM, Adrian Godwin <artgodwin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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 <mailto: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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