I recently posted a new firmware file for the N6700B,
N6701A, and N6702A mainframes to the Agilent website. You can access the new firmware at: http://www.agilent.com/find/N6700firmware. The latest firmware revision is D.01.09. There are two new measurement features that I
wanted to highlight.
These two new features are External Datalogging and Power Measurements.
External Datalogging (ELOG for short) is a feature that we
have had in the N6705 DC Power Analyzer for some time now that we have just added to
the modular power mainframes. This feature
allows you to take averaged measurements at a specified time interval for
however long you want (be careful though, you can fill your hard drive). The
time interval can be anywhere from 102.4 us to 60 s depending on the number of
parameters being logged. You can take
those measurements and store them in whatever format you want (I usually store
everything in a CSV file). You can only
access ELOG using a SCPI program (you cannot ELOG from the
front panel). I plan on writing more
about ELOG in the future but here is a quick peek of what the SCPI commands to
set up and execute an ELOG look like:
SENS:ELOG:FUNC:CURR ON,(@2) !Turn current logging on
SENS:ELOG:FUNC:CURR:MINM ON,(@2) !Turn current min/max logging on
SENS:ELOG:FUNC:VOLT ON,(@2) !Turn voltage logging on
SENS:ELOG:FUNC:VOLT:MINM ON,(@2) !Turn voltage min/max logging on
SENS:ELOG:PER 0.0007,(@2) !Sets an
integration time of 700 us
TRIG:ELOG:SOUR BUS,(@2) !The ELOG will
start when there is a bus trigger
INIT:ELOG (@2)
!Tell the unit to wait for a trigger
*TRG
!Trigger
This is an example of how you would read back the logged
data:
while current time<the time you want to log for
FETC:ELOG? 4096 ,(@2) !Read back
a maximum of 4096 ELOG records
store into a file
loop
This command kills the ELOG:
ABOR:ELOG (@2)
!Return the unit to its normal state
Stay tuned to this blog for more information.
The other feature that we added to a few of our modules was
the ability to measure power. We can now
measure power on the N676xA, N6781A, N6782A, and N6784A modules. Why is it only on these few modules you
ask? That is because these modules have
two measurement digitizers that allow it to measure both voltage and current at
the same time. Since power = voltage *
current, you need to have a simultaneous voltage and current measurement to get
an accurate power measurement.
That is all I have for today. If you have any questions, please just let us
know.
