Sigrok support for SCPI bench multimeters - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: glarsson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 10:20:07 pm
content: Had a look at Sigrok intending to use it for my Fluke 8846a but found no support for SCPI multimeters. Isn't bench multimeters with well documented protocols a prime candidate for software like Sigrok? What did I miss? Is it worth looking into writing a SCPI driver or is the lack of SCPI driver indicating some problem?

author: hermit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 10:47:32 pm
content: It's open source so feel free to write the driver. There's no one sitting around just writing drivers that may not get used. It is an ambitious project in its scope so lots of things on the to do list.

author: glarsson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 10:52:39 pm
content: Quote from: hermit on October 23, 2017, 10:47:32 pmI know it is open source. I asked if it was worth looking into writing a driver or if the lack of driver indicated some problem, e.g. something in the driver API that currently prevents such a driver from being written.

author: hermit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 11:31:44 pm
content: Sadly their 'forum' is google hangout and it was atrocious so I never looked at it much further for information. That could be part of it too. I found it to unappealing to bother with. (Hangout that is). It seems to be one of those projects where people dedicated enough to wanting the software to work for them/their device will write the code. Their developer page but gives no hint of a mailing list or forum which would be the place to ask the question. I just looked and can't even find the damned thing again. Even Google didn't show it.

author: abraxa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 06:01:56 am
content: QuoteNo problem there at all and in fact, we do at least have one multimeter driver that uses SCPI:https://sigrok.org/wiki/HP_3457Ahttps://sigrok.org/gitweb/?p=libsigrok.git;a=tree;f=src/hardware/hp-3457aYou could certainly use that as a foundation if you do want to write a driver for your flukeQuoteHmm, google hangout? Do you mean google+ by chance?Our main means of communication is IRC and for anything forum-like we have the mailing list and google+ (all linked to at the bottom of sigrok.org). The thing about sigrok is that we have a lot more users asking for support than we have devs who can give it. We're fully aware that one of the reasons for this is that the docs need improvement, so I'll work on PV docs soon. However, it's still going to be an uphill battle, so in the meanwhile I can recommend hopping on IRC for the best way of getting help

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 10:49:35 am
content: Ooooops, has this topic accidentally ended up in the wrong sub forum by any chance ? It is appearing under thermal imaging.It may get more helpful attention in the test equipment forum ?Fraser

author: glarsson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 11:09:52 am
content: I thought I posted in the test equipment forum. Weird.Can the thread be moved?

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 11:21:30 am
content: I just asked for this thread to be moved for you. Hopefully you will get more comments in that sub forumFraser

author: glarsson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 11:56:35 am
content: Thank you.

author: BloodyCactus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 12:42:25 pm
content: Quote from: glarsson on October 23, 2017, 10:20:07 pmI know sigrok has an scpi base layer transport driver, you'd just have to write a8846 driver to send the correct commands over its scpi layer. should be quite simple.

author: hermit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 02:08:05 pm
content: Quote from: abraxa on October 24, 2017, 06:01:56 amYeah. I just went there again. No organization. No titles. Just a flat listing of posts. You'd have to read through every article to see if what you're looking for is already posted. But to be real honest here, I really wasn't trying to contribute anything of value as much as bump the thread a bit so it didn't die. It was already back on page three of my "Show unread posts since last visit." list with no replies.

author: abraxa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2017, 05:37:20 pm
content: Quote from: hermit on October 24, 2017, 02:08:05 pmIt's all goodAnd yeah, google+ really is more like a facebook news feed in that sense. For us, it feels more like a support hotline at times, lol. We just have it because of social networks and visibility.

author: glarsson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 09:13:37 pm
content: Quote from: abraxa on October 24, 2017, 06:01:56 amI will have a look at it. Unfortunately it will not have the highest priority.