[Premium-Rx] Remote control WJ-8718A

[George Georgevits]

Hi Raymond,

Well, I use my own custom written GPIB software to control a host of test
equipment of various makes and vintage and I have not struck a snag so far.
I use both the HP 82335 and the HP 27209 GPIB cards (both ISA cards) and HP
driver software available free from the Agilent site. My software is written
in Free Pascal, the modern version of Turbo Pascal.

I have been considering writing something to control my WJ 8716 but I have
not got around to it so far. I will be most interested to see how you go.

I have not had direct experience with USB/GPIB converters, but a friend has,
and the one he was using (not sure of the make)  was not quite as "seamless"
as they would have you believe.

Cheers,
George Georgevits
VK2KGG

> -----Original Message-----
> From: premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Raymond Boute
> Sent: Saturday, 23 March 2013 7:29 AM
> To: premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Premium-Rx] Remote control WJ-8718A
>
>
> Dear premium-Rx enthusiasts,
>
> I am in the process of designing software control for various vintage
> receivers.  The distinctive feature is analog feedback to the user
> via a dial-like image on the screen, which turns out very convenient
> for tuning.  In a few weeks, I expect to have enough results
> worthwhile to share with other people of this group.
>
> With the WJ-8718A I ran into a snag: the manuals are very cryptic
> about the control format.  For the GPIB interface, they give an
> example based on an old HP calculator to control the Rx rather than a
> real specification.  Can anyone provide more insight into
> this?  Typical issues are:
>     (a) Does the Prologix USB/GPIB converter really provide all the
> handshaking, to the extent that to the program it looks like a basic
> serial interface?  For the Racal RA1792 this turns out to be the
> case, and "contact" with the Rx was established at the first attempt
> (BTW, I am using LabVIEW).  Not so with the WJ-8718A.
>     (b) How should the data be "packaged" into words to correctly
> address the receiver and ensure that the parameters really get into
> the registers?
>     Also, the listener/talker explanations in the manuals are
> ambiguous, and there are so many possibilities that experimenting
> feels like throwing darts in the dark.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Raymond
>
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