[PSU Dashboard] A remote control software Siglent's spd3303x lab bench supply - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: finos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 26, 2022, 12:04:10 am
content: Hello everyone ,Today I will present you a software I made for remote controlling a Siglent SPD spd3303x Lab bench supply.This software is inspired from the Siglent “Easy Power” Software, I do not utilize the visa lxi drivers only the SCPI commands and a TCP socket connection with the instrument at port 5025 Without any dependence on the very "clunky" NI Visa drivers the software is lighter and easier to get up and running,with the drawback being It can only use the Ethernet interface ;USB was beyond my interest, so I did not put any effort developing for it .The reason behind this App is that I saw some problems with the device’s firmware “Easy Power” Software and that made day to day operation kinda suck .1) (At the time , now they fixed it) there was no clear reading for the Set Voltage And current limit. (the old UI is visible at Dave’s review athttps://youtu.be/mdOauVzY9OU?t=1440)Thus I went to make separate , clear, readings for the Vset , Aset , Vout ,Aout etc. on my UI .2) When the instrument had its 2 outputs paralleled or put in series , you would still get separate readings at the display, I don’t know if this is a bug or a feature,but this bugged me and even made me fry some circuits .. Thus, when my software is connected to the instrument and reads that it’s at these 2 modes it willsum the appropriate readings so you can get the “true” Vout.3) I could never get these NI drivers Working reliably …You can remote set voltage and current for each channel (CH1 and 2 , 3 is not setable on this model) , you can toggle the outputs on and off remotely(Especialy usefull when you have a ...questionable ... circuit at your bench and you want to stay back when it recives powerThe Dataloger I implemented , Lets the user select wich of the 4 important parameters of each channel are needed to be logged , then it saves them to a .csv file at a pre defined Directory.The same dataloger form , has a big readable chart that you can have the Voltage and current for on-the-fly analysis , it also has the ability to select what to display.Timers are not implemented , I never really used them , or had a use for this feature. So I didn’t implement them on the software nor the library.The library that makes the communication with the instrument possible , will be released shortly as a NuGet package and on its separate Git repo ,but we are trying to iron some details on the NuGet release side,Attached you will find screenshots from the app.Feel free to try it , leave your comments and/or suggestions down bellow , if you notice any bugs I kindly ask to raise them as issues on the repo .Github repo link :https://github.com/finos2/Power-Supply-softwareThis was a ongoing effort , started at 2015 that i firstly got into programing , back at junior high school abandoned it for some years Till now at 3rd year of electrical engineering school, that i metsome realy talented developers who helped me overcome the major bugs i faced , especialy with the tcp communication and other asynchronous programing "crap" that i didnt , and still know aboutand dont understand

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 26, 2022, 12:31:34 am
content: Quote from: finos on September 26, 2022, 12:04:10 amThanks for your work.However I need ask if you have made provision for installing new SPD3303X or X-E firmware as EasyPower provides ?QuoteThe EasyPower/NIVISA install can be problematic if not done before connecting the instrument if a USB connection has already been attempted as Windows especially, thinks it knows best and associates a generic USB driver that never works and care must be taken to disassociate that Win driver and replace it with the correct NIVISA one.

author: jjoonathan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 26, 2022, 12:37:19 am
content: > I do not utilize the visa lxi drivers only the SCPI commands and a TCP socketThis is the way.> EasyPower/NIVISA installThis is not the way.

author: finos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 26, 2022, 12:20:47 pm
content: Quote from: tautech on September 26, 2022, 12:31:34 amHello , no my software does not offer firmware upgrade .We based our library on theChapter 3 Remote controlof the instrument's user manual (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/917Uf+oazxL.pdf) , that didnt have any SCPI commands for firmware upgrade.