I'm having issues communicating with the Anritsu MG69377B microwave generators.
I have no problem going into a remote mode and identifying the instrument, but any other command which returns a value is timed out and the instrument does seem to respond to any write command. I'm using PyVISA to communicate to the instrument.
>>>import visa
>>> x = visa.connect('GPIB::5') #Address the instrument
>>> x.ask('*IDN?') # Works Fine
>>>'ANRITSU,69377B,010918,2.35'
>>>
>>> x.ask('*STB?')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#37>", line 1, in <module>
x.ask('*STB?')
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvisa\visa.py", line 502, in ask
return self.read()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvisa\visa.py", line 433, in read
return self._strip_term_chars(self.read_raw())
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvisa\visa.py", line 407, in read_raw
chunk = vpp43.read(self.vi, self.chunk_size)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvisa\vpp43.py", line 840, in read
visa_library().viRead(vi, buffer, count, byref(return_count))
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pyvisa\vpp43.py", line 398, in check_status
raise visa_exceptions.VisaIOError, status
VisaIOError: VI_ERROR_TMO: Timeout expired before operation completed.
*STB? is a standard IEEE command and should work across any instrument which follows the standard (which is basically all). I've looked in the manual and I can't seem to find anything wrong with syntax for other code as well. The instrument just does not seem to work when connected to remotely with PyVISA. (Unsure if this is a PyVISA problem or an issue with my instrument).
The 693xxB supports two languages, referred to as Native and SCPI. In that instrument the SCPI language was an option (option 19). In a 693xxB with option 19 the language is an instrument setting.
Native mode only supports the common command *IDN?. SCPI mode supports more common commands, like *STB? for example.
Your syntax and VISA connection seem fine. It's on the instrument setting/support side.