This page is intended to document an EDF effort to provide relatively general C++ support for various instruments, including LeCroy? (and possibly other brand) oscilloscopes, Agilent AWGs and perhaps GPIB instruments such as signal generators and VOMs via a GPIB-Ethernet interface.
LeCroy? Oscilloscopes
Allegedly one can communicate with LeCroy? oscilloscopes over Ethernet. This is "easy" if you use Windows and the DLL supplied by LeCroy?, however here we use mostly linux and prefer not to rely on black-box software.
I am working with a WaveRunner? 64xi-A scope.
The scopes as it turns out support two different protocols, and you must select one in the remote control configuration menu in the instrument. One protocol is VICP which is proprietary to LeCroy? but rather simple. The other is VXI, which is widely-used but more complex. I have had some success with the sample program supplied with the Linux VXI-11 driver linked below. This seems like a good approach.
(see Sourceforge link
Agilent AWG
The Agilent AWG we have is simpler, as it responds directly to SCIP (aka GPIB) commands on a TCP server with no additional protocol. Perhaps VXI is supported also, but I havent looked in to this.
Here is a very simple program (awg_comm.c opens a connection to the Agilent AWG and allows the user to enter commands.
