HP53132A with Lady Heather - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2019, 04:04:35 pm
content: Does anyone use HP53132A frequency counter with THE Lady Heather? I know there is an option to do this. What it will do, I don't know....I found a flag to let LH know it's HP53132A. I'd expect it is going to talk serial, not HPIB. There seem to be no setup information any place. I'd assume I'll need a null-modem cable, not straight through. I will have to make one. Found serial configuration and set it accordingly.The counter also gives me an option to treat the device as a printer or send statistic info. No clue on this one.If someone got spare time, a bit of direction would be very appreciated.

author: ArthurDent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2019, 05:07:11 pm
content: Mark Sims had added recognition of serial counters to Lady Heather and he used his HP 53132A counter's time interval mode to compare a HP 5071A to his counters internal timebase. You'd use the computer to connect to the counter the same way you'd use it with any GPSDO in serial mode. Using the correct baud rate, etc., one way it will recognize the counter, reversed it won't.I use a modified Trimble Thunderbolt without an oscillator and feed an external oscillator into it to get the same graphs as I do with any Thunderbolt.https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2017-May/105470.html

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2019, 05:36:25 pm
content: Thank you. I was hoping it will do something like TAPR TICC would do.

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 02:20:39 am
content: Quote from: tkamiya on June 03, 2019, 05:36:25 pmYes, that is what it does... you should config the counter to send readings out the serial "printer" port.Heather has the ability to do a lot of what TimeLab does... just not as pretty.

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 03:50:30 am
content: Wooohoooo!I got it now set up to send data and display it on putty. Problem is, when I start up LH, it says "no data on serial port". No, I'm not running them at the same time. Looks like I have a handshake problem. I'll tackle this tomorrow.

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 04:40:12 am
content: You need to specify that a counter is the main input device (/rxi or /rx1) or an auxiliary input device (/ei=). The default counter baud rate is 115200, otherwise use the /br= command to set the baud rate. The HP counter needs a null modem cable / adapter.You also need to specify what kind of data the counter is sending (/im?) and the nominal input frequency of the counter data (/if=)

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 05:07:15 am
content: Thanks for your kind reply.As I said earlier, I can fire up putty and read for the data HP53132A is sending. Right now, it just echos frequency reading on port 1 every second. I have 3 wire null modem configuration. (just 2, 3, and 5 pin connected and 2 and 3 crossed)Does it assure me hardware connection is right?I'm using /rx1. Heather.cfg says 9600 boud. Counter is set for 9600, non parity, DTR high. (manual says this is to ignore DTR)/im and /if might be my problem if hardware config is right.

author: Electro Fan
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 01:54:18 pm
content: Just a SWAG, but try this:Once you have your com port clearly established and the receiver connected (/rxn, /rx, or whatever)....GPSDO-DB9 PIN2,PIN3,PIN5,PIN8 connect to PC-DB9 PIN2,PIN3,PIN5,PIN8straight through - no crossingMaybe try: 9600bps, 8 data bits, parity none, 1 stop bit, Flow control nonemight not work but worth a quick try - key to try is straight through without crossing

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 05:45:53 pm
content: Try /br=9600 on the command line. /rx1 will default to 115200 baud unless you use /br=9600

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 06:29:11 pm
content: THAT was the answer! /br=9600 got it started. THANK YOU.Will you please elaborate on /im? and /if=According to help, /im takes what counter is sending. It seems to take a numeric value but what are they?/if= takes nominal value for the periodic counter. Does that mean 1 if it counts value every second? Or does it mean 10000000 if the expected value is 10MHz? What's the unit suffix?

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2019, 08:55:56 pm
content: The /im? command sets what kind of data the counter is sending. /imf for freq, /imt for timestamps, etc./imf sets the nominal freq. Units are Hz. For a 5 MHz signal (default is 10 MHz) it would be /imf=5000000 or /imf=5e6. You should set the counter gate time to 1 Hz. Note that if you are using an input divider (like the PICDIV or TADD-2) to divide the signal to 1 Hz, you would still use /imf=10E6.

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2019, 01:33:14 am
content: With introduction of -imf=10e6, it is now displaying believable set of values.What's "if" then?Did you mean to say I can say:-imf-if=10e6?and mean the same thing as -imf=10e6?

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2019, 03:12:10 am
content: Quote from: tkamiya on June 05, 2019, 01:33:14 amYes, /imf does allow a shortcut for setting the nominal freq value, so the /imf=10E6 would be the same as:/imf/if=10e6The nominal freq value defaults to 10E6 if is not set anywhere.

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2019, 03:56:39 pm
content: I ran it over-night. I think my limitation is the reference. Everything I measured settled around 10^-10 to 10^-12. I'm measuring Cesium now but again, using GPSDO-Rb would be the limiting factor. What do you use as a standard?How do I display adev on graph part?

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2019, 05:20:21 pm
content: /ga worked to display all Xdev on graph. I had too many /ga in heather config so it was enabling it and disabling it... oooops.What I cannot still figure out is how I can do *just* adev and not everything else.

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2019, 07:43:41 pm
content: Quote from: tkamiya on June 05, 2019, 05:20:21 pmTry stuff in the "A" menu...I usually use a HP-5071A cesium as the reference...