HP-33120: Remote control and copying of arbitrary waveform.

The goods

• hp33120a_gpib_arbwave_short.m is a compact script that calls fg_cmd.m (below) to do most of the work, leaving the user with a clear view of the functionality rather than the fine details.


• fg_cmd.m is a handy function for connecting to and disconnecting from the instrument, sending commands, retrieving responses, checking for and displaying instrument errors, and sending arbitrary waveforms in the binary form (quickest transfer).


• hp33120a_gpib_send_arbitrarywaveform.m does the same things as the above script and function together, but it is written as a long, all-in-one, heavily-documented script to introduce new users to the basic functions of the instrument. Any of the three different methods of writing waveform data (ascii floats, ascii integers, binary integers) can be used, by setting the "method" variable.

Description

The Hewlett-Packard 33120a (or Agilent 33120A) function generator can be controlled by GPIB (IEEE-488). Arbitrary waveforms described by anything from 8 to 16000 12-bit values can be sent to the instrument, to be used instead of the simple sine, square etc. functions or the few other built-in waveforms such as exponentials and sinc.

The above scripts provide an introduction to the use of the HP33120 through the GPIB interface, using the Matlab Instrument Control Toolbox. The main thing that wasn't just a matter of following the manual was getting the binary writes of waveform data. The data must immediately follow the header, but use of two write calls, first for the header text then for the 16bit integers (containing just 12bit levels), seems to mess this up: presumably an assertion of `that's all finished' after the header write causes the trouble; it was therefore necessary to convert all the data to bytes then write these in one go.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Page started: 2010-02-17
Last change: 2015-07-14