Array 3645A Power Supply With LabVIEW Demo

[Albert.Geven]

There are no compiled labview drivers. The source is distributed, so if you have LabVIEW or use it in evaluation mode you can read what is going on. Or just use LAbVIEW.

[Thomas.Dejanovic]

I do not use or have access to labview (it is not clear how to get a demo version of LabView that runs under Linux although I have not looked very hard) and I was hoping to get a plain text version of what is in the LabView demo that uses the Array 3645A Power Supply.  i.e. what does the program listing in whatever language it is in (I'll figure it out) that sends the low level serial commands to the power supply. i.e. I need the serail charachter stream that is sent to the device and the response from the device, even if it is just the intial startup sequence that establishes the connection.

I've tried the manufacturers ducumentation which is problematic and I'm looking for options before I open the supply and start probing signals 🙂 or more likely just go buy an Agilent PSU.

[Albert.Geven]

Labview (G) is a real visual language, it is source code and while editing compiled.below is the source of the enable function.

so search for a version and see what happens

[Thomas.Dejanovic]

Hi Albert,

thank you for the clarification.  Can you tell / show me what is inside the hex command block?

Thomas D.

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[Dennis_Knutson]

Below is the code for the write function. I've shown the labels for the functions used.

Since you have never used LabVIEW, the blue 'wires' are integers and the pink ones are strings.

[TBN]

I have a 3646A Power Supply I installed the driver from NI, but apparently there is something wrong, in actual power level I get the values ​​128 or 384 read out from it. Output power and Actual voltage level is ok.

When I read the protocol sees it right out, start byte is 4, in subvi is set to 3 (counting from zero) Does anyone have experience with it?

[JoshY]

Hi TBN,

I'm a bit unclear as to what you are asking. Looking through the manual, I only found how to return the output power and the actual voltage or current. Then you can manually find power by multiplying these two values.

[TBN]

Hi Josh.

 Sorry a typing error

I have a 3646A Power Supply I installed the driver from NI, but apparently there is something wrong, in actual power current level I get the values ​​128 or 384 read out from it. Output power and Actual voltage level is ok.

When I read the protocol sees it right out, start byte is 4, in subvi is set to 3 (counting from zero) Does anyone have experience with it?

Tommy

[TBN]

I have a 3646A Power Supply I installed the driver from NI, but apparently there is something wrong, in actual power current level I get the values ​​128 or 384 read out from it. Output power and Actual voltage level is ok.

When I read the protocol sees it right out, start byte is 4, in subvi is set to 3 (counting from zero) Does anyone have experience with it?

Tommy

[JoshY]

Hi Tommy,

If you're constantly reading these values, it sounds like you may be measuring a ground loop current. This can happen if your source and your measurement system have different ground potentials. A guide to fixing this can be found here. Like before, if you have output power and actual voltage, you can find current manually using P = I*V.

[TBN]

Hi Josh,

Well at the display on the instrument I can read the correct value.

I know ohms law (my education is electrician)

I want to make sure that my instrument gives me the correct values, by using I=P/V

I think I will contact Array electronic and ask if they have changed the protocol / software in their instrument.

Tommy