VXI11/LXI - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: davorin
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 08:59:57 pm
content: Good eveningReceived my Siglent SSA3021X Plus today and discovered that it isn‘t remote controllable like my Rigol DS1104Z.With the DS1104Z I can just telnet to it and issue SCPI commands. The Siglent seems to be more complicated.Both devices have the LXI label, but seems there are huge differences.From the VXI11 specs I see that newer implementation must support mDNS discovery, but both don‘t do it. So someone knows how lxi tools does the discovery?Reason for asking: Doing an own desktop software for macOS/Linux as lxi tools does only a screen dump whereas my DS1104Z tools creates the graphic from received data points for better visibilty.

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:11:35 pm
content: The Siglent has a built in web server. Just go to the IP.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:12:21 pm
content: Quote from: davorin on December 13, 2024, 08:59:57 pmAssign the analyzer an IP address that's compatible with your network.Knowing that IP address add it into a browser and hit enter.Webserver Welcome page awaits you.

author: davorin
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:14:16 pm
content: Well web page I know of…but I want to directly communicate with it via TCP socket from my own macOS software (o;

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:19:09 pm
content: You could always try one of the...programming guides. 😉https://siglentna.com/resources/documents/spectrum-analyzers/#ssa3000x-plus

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:29:24 pm
content: Quote from: davorin on December 13, 2024, 09:14:16 pmIP plus port50245025 IIRC.RTFM.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 09:33:43 pm
content: VXI11 is built on SunRPC and is used to tunnel GPIB over a network. The reason for an RPC (remote procedure call) protocol is that GPIB instruments can make asynchronous notifications to the host, like when there is data available in a buffer. Just basic telnet can't do this, unless you want the instrument to start randomly spitting out text at you or your program, that it then has to figure out has nothing to do with the command it's currently trying to issue. This is the same reason USBTMC is used over USB, just a VCP isn't sufficient.LXI is a badge to demonstrate VXI11 certification.I'd recommend updating your software to use VXI11... there are many implementations out there. I likehttps://github.com/python-ivi/python-vxi11myself, it's very easy to use although there might be better ones for your needs, as well as different ones for other languages. This doesn't use Visa or anything like that, it connects directly using SunRPC.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 01:43:28 am
content: no problems on controlling siglent stuffip / mac and do permit ports 5024 5025 or other related ..even a cheap python script can do the job

author: TheoB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:03:28 pm
content: Quote from: bson on December 13, 2024, 09:33:43 pmI also found this solution, but did not try it as I could not find any documentation other than instr.ask. Am I missing something?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:14:56 pm
content: Have you visited the first link in that github repo?QuoteThe telnet port number used by Siglent is different than the one used by Rigol. Have you tried to telnet with the port given by user tautech? (5024, or search the programming manual for the particular instrument to control, I don't have any Siglent so can't confirm if it is indeed 5024)

author: davorin
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:18:49 pm
content: Interesting...nmap doesn't show port 5024, but indeed I can telnet to it (o;Code:klingler@Mac-Studio-2 ~ % nmap 10.0.110.1Starting Nmap 7.95 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-12-14 13:18 CETNmap scan report for 10.0.110.1Host is up (0.00052s latency).Not shown: 997 closed tcp ports (conn-refused)PORT STATE SERVICE80/tcp open http111/tcp open rpcbind5900/tcp open vncCode:Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.52 secondsklingler@Mac-Studio-2 ~ % telnet 10.0.110.1 5024Trying 10.0.110.1...Connected to 10.0.110.1.Escape character is '^]'.Welcome to the SCPI instrument 'Siglent SSA3032X Plus'>>*IDN?Siglent Technologies,SSA3032X Plus,SSA3PD1R378378,3.2.2.6.0R10

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:34:28 pm
content: Quote from: tautech on December 13, 2024, 09:29:24 pmSorry, 5025 is the coms port.See P5https://www.siglenteu.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/09/ProgrammingGuide_PG0703P_E02B.pdf

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:37:13 pm
content: Quote from: davorin on December 14, 2024, 12:18:49 pmAs for Python, I remember now that the VXI library (initially a project by Alex Forencich) was in a limbo state some years ago, with about 100+ forks on github.I'm not using that anymore, but use pyvisa instead.https://github.com/pyvisa/pyvisahttps://pyvisa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/For Mac it might also work the liblxy library, but I don't have a Mac either (though it works for BSD based OSs, too). The author use to announce here, on EEVblog, when major features are added. liblxi is now in the official repos of RedHat/Ubuntu, etc. It's written in C, and has a Python wrapper, too.https://github.com/lxi-tools/liblxi

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:39:57 pm
content: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/open-source-lxi-tools-v2-0-released/

author: TheoB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 14, 2024, 12:51:58 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on December 14, 2024, 12:37:13 pmExact. I also use pyvisa. It works fine and has documentation.

author: davorin
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 19, 2024, 12:11:55 pm
content: Just using port 5025 now as it easier to do as using external library on macOS:(Software is a work in progress ;o)