[time-nuts] OT: Anyone programmed HP 59306A relay actuator (orother old device)?

Daun Yeagley daun at yeagley.net
Sat May 24 09:45:01 EDT 2008


Hi David

Don't worry about all the level stuff.  That's internal to the box (59306).
The only thing you need to worry about is how to generate the proper
commands on the bus for your particular H/W-S/W combination.

In hopefully simple terms, you need to address the 59306 as a listener, and
then send the ASCII string that represents the relay state you need. In
Didier's example:
> 1) to turn all channels off, send "B123456"
> 2) to turn channel 1 on: send "A1"

You don't need (or want an end of line sequence or anything). When done
sending the command, just unaddress it.

Hope that removes a bit of fog.

Daun 

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of Dr. David Kirkby
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 9:34 AM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT: Anyone programmed HP 59306A relay actuator
(orother old device)?

Didier Juges wrote:
> David,
>
> Yes, I have programmed both types of relay boxes (59306A and 59307A). I
have
> a couple of each here. As far as I recall (using a serial BlackBox GPIB
> controller) there was nothing to it. These boxes don't even have a uC,
they
> just use TTL logic. How hard can it be :-) ?
>   

Perhaps the fact they don't have a micro makes them quite different to 
program from more modern test equipment which I am used to  (and by 
modern I include things 20+ years old.) 

I'm not sure how to generate some of the TTL levels needed from a 
National Instruments GPIB board. I guess that things like:

EOP=high, REN=high, MRE=low,

can be set. No idea how though


> I really do not recall any problem. The BlackBox controller does not use
> ibxxx() commands, it has a few high level commands and I have found it to
be
> remarkably reliable. It works very well with all kind of older equipment
(I
> don't have much new stuff to check it with).
>   


> The code is in VB and very structured (i.e. hard to make sense of a
> snippet), so I just summarize the commands I used:
>
> 1) to turn all channels off, send "B123456"
> 2) to turn channel 1 on: send "A1"
>   
I worked that out from the manual, but I think it needs some setting up, 
like put in remote mode. But I can't work it out. Certainly something like

dd=ibdev(0, gpib_address, 0, T3s, 1, 0);

ibwrt(dd,"A3",2);

does not join contacts A and C to relay 3.

> Any question?
>   
Well if anyone knows how to program it from a National Instruments 
controller it would be useful.
> Didier
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of Dr. David Kirkby
>> Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 7:39 AM
>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>> Subject: [time-nuts] OT: Anyone programmed HP 59306A relay 
>> actuator (orother old device)?
>>
>> I know this is a bit off-topic here, but has anyone here ever 
>> programmed an HP 59306A relay actuator
>>
>> http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&
>> nid=-536900193.536882169
>>
>> which consists of 6 SPDT relays programmable via GPIB?
>>
>> Over the years I have programmed a number of sophisticated 
>> instruments including spectrum analysers, lock-in amplifiers, 
>> the 5370B time-interval counter, 8970A noise figure meters,  
>> bench multimeter etc. 
>> On the face of it, I would think a box with only 6 relays to 
>> be much simpler than any of these, but I am having a hard 
>> time with it. It may be it's age - the commands needed might 
>> be a bit different from anything I know.
>>
>> I'm trying to control it with a National Instruments GPIB 
>> board in a Sun workstation. (It's on a PCI bus and is the 
>> same card one would use in a PC. ).
>>
>> Page 3-4 of the  HP 59306A's manual (page 25 in the PDF) )
>>  
>> http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/redirector.jspx?action=ref
>> &cname=AGILENT_EDITORIAL&cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=824199&nid=-5369001
>> 93.536882169.07&pid=1000001496%3Aepsg%3Apro
>>
>> has an example program, but it's unlike any example I have ever seen. 
>> There's no ibdev, ibwrt or similar - its basically a list of 
>> the state (high or low) of the control lines and digital IO lines.
>>
>> Sequence #1 says
>> EOP=high, REN=high, MRE=low, digital IO lines ascii '?'
>>
>> I assume this is basically
>>        dd=ibdev(0, gpib_address, 0, T3s, 1, 0);
>>        ibclr(dd);
>>
>> but I've no idea if this is so, since I'm not sure what lines 
>> ibclr() sets high/low. I guess I will have to set up some 
>> LEDs on the bus to see what is happening.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure the  sequences 4 to 9 can be set with
>>
>> ibwrt(dd,"A",1);
>> ibwrt(dd,"3",1);
>> ibwrt(dd,"5",1);
>> ibwrt(dd,"B",1);
>> ibwrt(dd,"3",1);
>> ibwrt(dd,"A",1);
>>
>> although it might be possible to use
>>
>> ibwrt(dd,"A35B35",6);
>>
>> (It's not clear to me if this can accept multiple commands at once).
>>
>> Anyone got any ideas of what NI commands can be used to 
>> executes sequences 1,2,3 and 10 in table 3-3?
>>
>> David Kirkby
>>
>>
>>
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