1.275 HP-Powermeter-SCPI

This page describes the device driver and the device window for the HP-Powermeter-SCPI device. This device reads the power reading from the device. It permits to set a user defined offset to the reading and to select the measurement range the device shall use (only applicable with some measurement sensors).

The driver has been tested with the Agilent E4418B powermeter, however it should be usable with all HP/Agilent/Keysight powermeters which can be controlled over the GPIB using the SCPI language. With double sensors powermeters the driver only controls the first (upper) measurement sensor. Switching the power measurement head to a fixed range (HIGH/LOW) is not supported my all types of sensors. If a sensor is used which does not permit to set the measurement range, the setting will fall back to AUTO if aou try to select LOW or HIGH.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

• --- Shows the power reading and contains the controllable parameters of the device.
• --- The faults page.
• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters described below are set at this page.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the device window there are a couple of configuration parameters which must be set to make the software talk to the device.

Uncalibrated fault

The device driver shows all measurement faults reported by the power meter in one common fault flag called "Uncalibrated". This includes beside the calibration fault reported by the device also measurement over-/underflow faults and a pending power up selftest fault condition.

GPIB Interface setup

This device is operated through a GPIB (HPIB) interface. The sat-nms software actually supports two types of GPIB interfaces: The ENET100 by National Instruments and the Prologix Ethernet to GPIB interface. As the first one is no longer available, new installations should use the Prologix interface.

When configuring the sat-nms software for GPIB devices, type and parameters of the GPIB interface are set as the interface name, "GPIB" is selected as communication protocol. With a Prologix interface, the interface name is something like "PRLX:10.0.0.1", where PRLX selects the Prologix and 10.0.0.1 is an example for the IP address of the interface. With a ENET100 interface (supported for compatibility reasons), the interface name is "ENET:0" for the first interface, "ENET:1" for the second one.

Multiple devices can be operated a the same GPIB, these devices have to be configured all at the same interface. Configuring two or more GPIB interfaces with the same index ot IP address will cause communication faults and misconfigured devices.

Variables defined by this device driver