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

Unfortunately I think it might not be downloadable without a subscription or registering : ( however instead of downloading, if you scroll down, you'll see all pages (but it won't be possible to copy-paste).

 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

I read the paper. Very useful to learn / understand a working conversation for this brand.

Warning to   Abdul , at the end of the paper, the writer explains how one of his scripts damaged the instrument permanently. He indicates what part may have caused this. Read it well before taking over the sources.

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

Wow. That would be awful if that happened. It looks like a really nice instrument.

I have a very old Keithley multimeter that I hardly power up, because although it works great so far, I'm worried that it has those RIFA capacitors inside, and possibly other dried out capacitors too. Need to spend time pulling it apart, but it's been at the back of the list for a good couple of years. 

Dear Jan, could you please share the link of paper or any reference? Thanks

Jan's referring to that uni paper slideshare.net link, where you can scroll down to read each page, but not downloadable without a lot of effort and possibly a subscription.

aa OK..Thank you