Tektronix AFG 3253 USB issue

[JoeWork]

I am having some issues with running a long term test (100+ hour) with a Tek AFG 3252.  I was using a USB to GPIB convertor to communicate with it.  For some reason the USB port drops out and it refused to communicate after that and the settings are stuck on the AFG.  The issue seems to occur at random times and after running a while.

I checked the USB sleep settings on the port and it isn't allowed to set it asleep.  I also tried using a powered USB hub and that didn't fix the issue.

I will attempt to convert the communications to straight USB today or tomorow and see if that makes a difference.  If I can't get it to work reliabilty with USB I will try Ethernet.  We had an issue like this with a Tektronix Scope and eventually had to convert the comms to Ethernet.

Has anyone else had an issue like this?  If so what did you do to solve it?

Does anyone know if there is a Software and/or Hardware sniffer that can be used for USB ports?  I would like to see if there is any detectable reason this port is dropping out.

The issues gets corrected if USB cable is unplugged and plugged back.  I saw a paper about conducting a software re-start of a USB port.  Has anyone tried this?  If this works I will have to make sure I can detect an error to indicate a restart is needed.  Is there possible a hardware switch that I can put in line with the USB port that will create the physical disconnect with digital or software control and not interfere with the physical layer characteristics?

Thanks for your help.

[aleclspin · Accepted solution]

Are you running Windows by any chance? I was having a similar issue a while ago running a Tektronix scope through USB. After a few hours the connection would get dropped and I had to reconnect the USB and restart LabVIEW to resume the connection. In my case, the solution was to turn off the USB Selective Suspend in Windows power settings. My understanding is that Windows, in an effort to save power, turns off USB ports seemingly at random. On Windows 7 go to Power Saving Settings > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > USB Settings > USB selective suspend setting. Of course this might be different in other versions of Windows. If you are not using Windows then your issue is probably something different altogether so feel free to ignore this post.