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Version 5.0 Posted

A project log for GPIB Instrument Control Console

Silly simple GPIB console for U/Linux & Mac OS

brian-cornellBrian Cornell 10/28/2019 at 21:250 Comments

I guess I'm not done with this and probably won't be for a while.  Every time I use it I find more things for it to do.  This is the curse of writing your own software.

This release provides more display control & handling, and improves the logging.  The source is well documented and I've expanded the detail in the sample config file.  From the source:

    + Change default display timing flag - added '-u' flag.
    + Run commands in display that don't display but still log by setting
      <row> to zero.
    + Clear receive buffer after initialization to prevent display data sync
      problems:  gpibInit repetatively reads stream after each 'basic' command.
    + Clear receive buffer after off commands to prevent subsequent read
      problems:  gpibInit repetatively reads stream after each OFF command.
    + Added flag to force the reset of displayed data by purging any pending
      data in the stream at start of display sequence:  '-f' flag.
    + Added flag to reset displayed data when an I/O error was encountered on
      the last display loop by purging any pending data in the stream at start
      of display sequence:  '-r' flag.
    + Added Mark Comment field when logging.  Typing text after the mark command
      will be placed in the Comment field of the record where the mark value
      changes.  It is enclosed in quotes to accommodate punctuation that might
      be interpreted as a field separator.
    + Added record numbers to log file to make it easier to identify 'missing'
      records during analysis.
    + Added option to log config (console) commands to a file.  Helpful to
      correlate configuration changes to logged data.

I had problems with data getting out of sequence because of problems with the DUT that GPIBCON was talking to and this would garble the data in the log file.  The clear buffer options help eliminate this but might not work in all situations.  The default display update frequency can now be changed from the default of one second.

Logging now includes record numbers.  I found this handy when filtering records to size the gap since the time stamps aren't that reliable (depends on instrument response).  The Mark command also allows brief text after it that is written to the log so you have an idea of why you turned it on / off.

Config commands can now be logged to a separate file so it's easy to correlate performance data to configuration changes.

Last, v4 config files should work.  Enjoy!

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