This is a fork of the original version to make the same setup run on a newer version of Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS.
I initially had some problems installing on my laptop, so decided to boot Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS, 3.13.0-32-generic from USB and work from there.
Download the linux-gpib package, unpack and build. Get python-setuptools first for later Python bindings support.
wget --content-disposition --no-check-certificate https://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-gpib/files/linux-gpib%20for%203.x.x%20and%202.6.x%20kernels/4.0.4/linux-gpib-4.0.4rc2.tar.gz/download sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install python-dev libboost-python-dev python-setuptools --yes tar xvfz linux-gpib-4.0.4rc2.tar.gz cd linux-gpib-4.0.4rc2 ./configure make -j8 sudo make install cd ..
Also download the firmware binary for the 82357B:
wget http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/firmware/gpib_firmware-2008-08-10.tar.gz tar xvfz gpib_firmware-2008-08-10.tar.gz
Use fxload to upload firmware to the GPIB interface:
wget --content-disposition --no-check-certificate https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/linux-hotplug/fxload/2008_10_13/fxload-2008_10_13.tar.gz tar xvfz fxload-2008_10_13.tar.gz cd fxload-2008_10_13 make sudo make install cd ..
Edit /etc/gpib.conf (as superuser) to say
board_type = "agilent_82357a" name = "agi"
Load kernel module(s):
sudo modprobe gpib_common sudo modprobe agilent_82357a
Insert the dongle into the USB port. Only the red "FAIL" LED should be on. Find the bus and device ID:
lsusb
e.g.
... Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0957:0518 Agilent Technologies, Inc. ...
Plug the found bus and device ID into the command for fxload:
sudo fxload -D /dev/bus/usb/002/005 -t fx2 -I gpib_firmware-2008-08-10/agilent_82357a/measat_releaseX1.8.hex
Still only the "FAIL" LED is on.
The USB bus and device ID have now changed. Wait a moment and get the new ID:
lsusb
e.g.
... Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0957:0518 Agilent Technologies, Inc. ...
Run fxload again with the new bus and device ID:
sudo fxload -D /dev/bus/usb/002/006 -t fx2 -I gpib_firmware-2008-08-10/agilent_82357a/measat_releaseX1.8.hex
All lights should be on.
Change permissions on /dev/gpib0 (ideally, you would manage this with a "gpib" usergroup instead):
sudo chmod 666 /dev/gpib0
Now, initialize the dongle. gpib_config has some trouble finding the library, so create a symbolic link first:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libgpib.so.0 /lib/libgpib.so.0 sudo gpib_config
Only the green "READY" LED should now be on.
Now, make an entry for your device in /etc/gpib.conf. Default HP3456B factory address is ASCII "V" (22 dec) for talk and "6" for listen
... name = "hp3456a" pad = 22 ...
You can use ibtest to do some testing.
ibtest
A simple Python interface can now be made using the linux-gpib Python bindings. For more advanced applications, consider using the visa (PyVISA) libraries.
import gpib
dev = gpib.find("hp3456a") # N.B. define device ID in ``/etc/gpib.conf``
print gpib.read(dev, 99)
| [pyvisa] | PyVISA https://pyvisa.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ |
| [linux-gpib] | linux-gpib : http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/ |