Instrument Remote Control Scripting - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 08:46:25 am
content: Hi Guys,in an effort to be more sophisticated with all the equipmentI have been collecting over the years, I decided to get in tothe programming of it all. Specifically, remote controlling ofthe equipment.So, I was wondering, is there a global depository for such scripts ?I am sure we all could share them, if allowed by our employers.May be we can have a File Area @ EEVBlog, where such files canbe deposited. But I think it needs to be moderated, to make suresubmissions are owned by the people submitting them and it is arelevant script ... How do I get Dave's attention?So far I have written two very simple scripts. Most of them areSCPI, but some (ITECH) uses a serial Frame format. I use a Serialto Ethernet bridge for that equipment (HF5111B).1. Battery EmulatorThis script should work with most R&S PSUs. I have tested ona NGP804 and NGU401. It takes a starting voltage, a end voltageand battery capacity in ah. The output voltage is linearlydecreased from starting voltage to end voltage until all(virtual) energy has been depleted and the battery is shutdown.2. A Pulse generator for my DC Load, ITECH IT8513C+This basically takes 3 current/time settings and plays them backwhen a trigger is issued. The idea was to have a 'pre' and 'post'settings, as well as a main setting, that's the actual pulse Iam interested in, the pre and post are just to start and stop ina known state.Both of these scripts are written in python, but do not havea GUI, only CLI at this point. Maybe someone would like to writea gui ?Cheers,luudee

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 10:26:55 am
content: If your files aren't big, you post them here in your thread ... they will be keptand maybe if people see your scripts they can or could create some gui, maybeAnd you have some software here testcontroller who can possibly do the job, the author is here and answers your questions .. just need to create the needed file(s) and structure to control your instrumentshttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/program-that-can-log-from-many-multimeters/

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 04:52:27 am
content: Thank you for your feedback coromonadalix !I was hoping for a central depository for the scripts. If you search Git hubyou can see that there are dozens of scripts there as well, but it's all overthe place ... I thought it would be neat to have a central place, organized.Yes, I have seen testcontroller and have attempted to create stubs for whatI want to do. But even with the authors' help, I could not get it to do what Iwant (which is NOT logging).Cheers,luudee

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2023, 07:04:12 am
content: Hi Guys,here are my versions of the sweep tool for the NGu-401 SMU and Battery simulatorthat will work with NGP-804 and NGU-401.Cheers,luudeePS: Strange, I can upload "tar" file, but not compressed tar file, e.g. tgz ot tar.gz

author: dobsonr741
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2023, 03:14:49 pm
content: When I see SCPI and python I recommend useing Jupyter notebooks. Immediate gratification in visualizing and you can easily put up buttons, if ever needed.You do all of it the browser, can dicument the measurement results very well, along with the code in one file.

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2023, 03:31:39 pm
content: Quote from: dobsonr741 on May 29, 2023, 03:14:49 pmHi dobsonr741 !yes, you have suggested it in another thread I have started. I did actually did look at Jupyter,and the complexity of "getting started" appeared to be much higher than what I was willingto invest! ;-)I am a hardware engineer by trade (have been designing custom chips for 30 years). I amforced to use Eclipse as part of the Xilinx tools (which we use for prototyping), but did notwant to deal with that when I don't get paid, lolI have evaluated about a dozen development environments, about half of those I evaluatedin greater depth, by installing the IDE and giving it a try.For ME, python, and QT5 was the easiest way to get a good-looking GUI going in the shortestamount of time. For the actual interface with the instrument, any language would have worked,I am still using perl for my day-to-day scripting, lol. May be I will finally adopt Python. It seemsit is better in handling some aspects and worth with others ...Please do try the tools. The plots it can generate are actually quite nice and pretty, you canzoom in and get readings from enlarged selected areas, etc, etc ...BTW, it took me less than a day to design a first (decent) GUI !Best Regards,luudee