plot on harddisk

[Jan Fromme]

Hi,
i have an old HP network analyzer with no disk drives but want to make hardcopys of the screen.
The only possibility to get the screen out is with a plotter which is connected over GPIB.
Does anyone know, how i can emulate a plotter with labview to read the stream over gpib and convert it into a picture or something which i can record on my harddisk?

Thanks for your help.
Bye Jan

[Dennis_Knutson]

It's probable that the data for the plotter is formatted in HPGL with commands like PU (pen up), PD (pen down), and xy coordinates. You should be able to interpret that and display it on an xy graph. There is a utility program from Hamilton Design that you might want to try. The other possiblity is to transfer the raw waveform data to a graph. If you have a front panel with settings for the instrument, you have most of the information already and it's faster to transfer whatever other pieces of data you might need than an entire screen dump of the instrument.

In either case, once you have the information displayed on a graph, you can save the image to a jpg file using Append Control Image t
o Report.

[Jan Fromme]

Thank you for your fast answer.
But my problem is not realy to interpret the data. I don't get any data. 🙂
The analyzer sends the screen to a printer or plotter at GPIB-adress i.e. 5. I want to read this data from the bus. Well I think the problem is, that there isn't a plotter at adress 5. So I thought of creating a real virtual instrument. A little program with its own virtual GPIB adress 5, which sends a ready command to the analyzer and reads the data. Is this possible?

[alipio]

Hi Jan
Download this program ( a plotter emulator)
It can help you in developping your own labview one.
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx/misc/7470.zip

Hope it helps.
Alipio

[alipio]

Hi Jan
take a look at this link
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/29aa51aae9ed716786256daa0035eef8?OpenDocument
Perhaps you can use the read vi as add 5 to capture gpib data.
Hope it helps.
Regards Alipio

[Dennis_Knutson]

There are a couple of other plotter emulaters mentioned in this post. Have you tried telling the instrument to write to the address of the gpib board in your pc and used a VISA read set to the address of the instrument?

[Jan Fromme]

Yes this prog is exactly what i was looking for thank you.

[ronke]

could you share your vi here?

[GerdW]

Hi ronke,

who are you asking in this 14 years old thread?