hi!

i'm trying to get simple information from a spectrum analyzer, i'm using a gpmcia gpib card for communicate with the analyzer. i've been able to send simple orders to the spectrum analyzer like to ask it to put a frequency span of 200 Mhz, or make the center frequency be at 300Mhz... but i can't ask it for the actual center frequency... i mean, i can't ask it for information i only can send orders to it.

please if someone have any idea of what i'm talking about and know how to solve my problem... thank you.

 

LISTEN MARCELA, MTA :^)

Most of GPIB is exactly what you are doing. How the data is requested and returned is very vendor specific and there is usually a manual that deals with this for each instrument. I suggest you contact the spectrum analyzer manufacturer for programming examples as most instruments don't provide helpful feedback as you experiment. Some behave very badly when sent anything but the exact syntax they require. This can make it very frustrating as even the correct syntax won't work after an error. I did much more IEEE488 programming than I would have liked. Perhaps these days they have stopped making up rules as they go along.

UNLISTEN, UNTALK

Regards

cww

P.S. Years from now that stuff will still be in your head. :^)