running S82357/F82357 with PyVISA

[Cheh]

Just got a question today asking if S82357 could work with PyVISA, So we made a very quick test just now on a windows XP PC.

We installed ActivePython 2.7 (for windows x86) and PyVISA 1.4 on the PC and run followin commands: 

Seems the IDN command works fine here :)

[ResearcherNL]

Dear Chen,
this looks really promising.

Is it possible to communicate/control (via Python) other instruments connected to the S82357/F82357 GPIB-USB adaptor?

Thank you very much!

[Cheh]

Hi 

We have tried with an Agilent power supply and a function generater here, and things are working good. But since we do not have much experience and test example here, what we have doen is mostly single command send and read. 

So, do you have any specific instrument or software want us to try for you?

thanks and best regards

[researcherNL]

Thank you so much for you fast reply, Chen!

I have in mind to read a Keithley voltmeter or read a Lakeshore temperature controller.

If you could test your device to read such devices, it would be of great help for us ;)

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Cheh]

Hi 

I'm sorry we do not have Keithley DMM here now, but since the PyVISA use Agilent VISA and NI VISA directly, I do believe the interface should work on well with Ketihley's instrument. 

We just got some other customer's feedback on using S82357 under Python as following, and hope this will help:

Yes so far it has worked perfectly with Python v2.7 and PyVisa, though I've not tested the DMA modes yet as I've been working on another programme for the last few weeks. 
If you get time, perhaps you could try downloading some scope traces or other larger amounts of data to test the DMA transfer speeds.
I wanted to write some routines that would do this, and display them in in a graphical window for the operator and perform some basic measurements like rise and fall times, Frequency etc to automate the testing of some of our products.
I'm hoping PyVisa will be updated to use the latest version of Python with all the improvements. Perhaps you guys can register your interest in this with the authors.

Most users would probably use Labview for this type of thing, but it would be overkill for some applications and Labview is not cheap either.
Python is easy to learn and free, and SCPI commands will do most of what I need so it fit the bill perfectly.

Please let me know if you come across any good code that use a Oscilloscope to perform signal analysis etc.

Hope this helps.