Timeout Error when Reading Measurements from Impedance Analyzer Solartron 1260 via NI MAX using IEEE 488/GPIB

What query do you send before the read attempt?

• SI? ( stands for Single measurement) but gives me an error response.

SI?\n

Have you tried that string?

Yes,  also with SI?\r and SI?\r\n. 

Yes,  also with SI?\r and SI?\r\n. 

Launch NI IO Trace, set that running then send the command and see what the trace tells you.  I presume SI? Is from the manual?  If you don’t have that, here’s a link: https://mmrc.caltech.edu/Solartron/Solertron%20manual1260.pdf.  I suspect a handshake issue.

Yes, SI command  is from the manual .Thank you for your prompt response and proposed solutions. I will thoroughly analyze them and provide an update tomorrow.

 Dear Andrew, I have launced the N/IO interface (please see the attched screenshot} and run the commands. I have no error with Write operation, but with Read Yes.

trouble shoot: Changed the termination Character, timeout changed 

commands tried: OP2,1? (Query Yes), SI?, SI?\n\r, SI?\n, SI?\r  (Query/Read NO)

Unfortunately that doesn't mean anything to me but perhaps gives you some additional info to research.  Looking at the commands being sent with the \n\r I'd be wondering why they are being turned into periods (. or ..)  It also looks like not all Reads are failing but the response is strange, e.g. look at line 12.  If it were me I'd be looking at that and thinking that maybe the device isn't clearing the buffer when it's reading and investigating that. Also looking at the example that Shabaz posted below, it would seem that the instrument needs some configuration and set up via programmed commands.

I don't know how relevant this is but you say it works if you send "*IDN?" to the device.  That's a defined SCPI command and there is a normal convention for SCPI that root commands be prefixed with a : i.e. ":SI?\n\r"   Note that this often isn't mandatory and quite often those root commands can be ignored altogether (e.g. :SOURce:VOLT? can usually be abbreviated to VOLT?) but it's totally down to the device.  You could try that as an experiment, but also "SI?/n/r", "SI?/n", ":SI?/n/r" and ":SI?/n" (note the different slash used).  I've had the case where the "\n" wasn't being interpreted as a a newline but as a string of two characters, \ and n.  That was actually in LabVIEW and required the string to be defined in such a way that the \ character was interpreted as a control.

I'm literally guessing here and giving you things to try; sorry I'm not much help but I don't have this instrument and only the manual and examples to go by which I'm sure you could do yourself.

The instrument has switch settings for line terminator and field separator:

Some other stuff is set on the front panel:

The OP could try these commands which should need no setup:

MK

We know from the VISA Test Panel capture a bit higher, that \n works

Agree, the OP needs to try different things, systematically, and confirm which things definitely work and which do not, i.e. just experiment a bit and, most likely, understand that the previous attempt could have left the instrument in a state where it can't handle the next attempt, so some reboots occasionally too! (although that can kill old instruments : (

Also weirdly just noticed this:

versus:

i.e. there's no question-mark for SI. I don't understand the SCPI rules enough to know if that's non-standard, but probably the instrument is so old, some unorthodoxness may be the case : (

shabaz said:

there's no question-mark for SI. I don't understand the SCPI rules enough to know if that's non-standard, but probably the instrument is so old, some unorthodoxness may be the case : (

They only use SCPI for the IEEE 488 commands (the ones in  michaelkellett 's capture). The rest of the set is proprietary.

Now we are left wondering if the *IDN in the Solatron manual is a typo for *IDN?

I didn't understand the trace data that Abdul captured with the NI interface.

I don't know why Abdul sent OP 2,1?  - it isn't a query and that isn't what the Solatron example does.

@Abdul - do you have the operating manual ?

I've found that some instruments never talk sensibly again after an error until you reset them, sometimes with a press of the LOCAL button or equivalent or sometimes with a power cycle.

MK

Same as the 1260A python code, no question-mark used for their custom OP command (although they did use the question-mark on the normal IDN? command):