This is a program to emulate an HPGL plotter for older HP Spectrum and Network Analyzers:
Once captured, the plot may be printed or saved as PDF, SVG or PNG files.
$ sudo dnf -y copr enable vk2bea/GPIB
$ sudo dnf -y copr enable vk2bea/HPGLplotter
$ sudo dnf -y install HPGLplotter linux-gpib-firmware
automake,autoconfandlibtool- To build on Raspberri Pi / Debian:
libglib2.0-dev libgtk-4-dev - To run on Raspberry Pi / Debian :
libglib-2, libgtk-4, libgpib, fonts-noto-color-emoji
To compile and to run this program the Linux GPIB driver must be installed. RPMs are available from the Copr repositories for Fedora Linux.
The National Instruments GPIB driver may also be used, but this has not been tested. The Linux GPIB API is compatable with the NI library.... quote: "The API of the C library is intended to be compatible with National Instrument's GPIB library."
Once the prerequisites (as listed above) are installed, install the 'HPGL Plotter' with these commands:
$ ./autogen.sh
$ cd build/
$ ../configure
$ make all
$ sudo make install
To run:
$ /usr/local/bin/HPGLplotter
To uninstall:
$ sudo make uninstall
-h, --help Show help options
-b [0-7], --debug Print diagnostic messages in journal (0-7)
-s, --stderrLogging Send log data to the default device (usually stdout/stderr) rather than the journal
-n [0,1], --GPIBnoSystemController Do not enable GPIB interface as a system controller ('1', 'true' or no argument) or not ('0' or 'false')
-l [0,1], --GPIBinitialListener Force GPIB interface as a listener ('1', 'true' or no argument) or not ('0' or 'false')
-d, --GPIBdeviceID GPIB device ID for HPGL plotter
-c, --GPIBcontrollerIndex GPIB controller board index
-C, --GPIBcontrollerName GPIB controller name (in /etc/gpib.conf)
-e, --EOIonLF End GPIB read on LF character
-o, --offline Do not open the GPIB controller on start up
If problems are encountered, first confirm that correct GPIB communication is occuring.
Use the ibtest and ibterm tools distributed with the linux-gpib distribution.
Note that the GPIB interface on the Linux computer must be able to act as a simple listener / talker. Some devices (notably the Agilent 82357A/B) can only act as system controllers and will not work with this application. (the National Instruments GPIB-USB-HS does work as it does not have this restriction)
The program requires the gtk4 library, on the Linux system, to be version 4.10 or later. The build system will automatically check for this requirement during configuration. To manually check your GTK4 version, use:
$ pkg-config --modversion gtk4
On a real plotter the user would change the paper for each new plot. The Auto Clear function of the HPGLplotter anticipates a new plot by the lack of HPGL data for a period of time. On receipt of an HPGL block following the defined period of inactivity, the display is cleared.
The duration of non-activity that indicates the end of plot is adjustable as a setting. If you notice that the instrument takes a long time to complete a plot or the plot is incomplete (or even blank), try unsetting Auto Clear. If the plot is then shown correctly you will need to increase the end of plot period setting (if you wish to use Auto Clear).
The program is known to work with:
- HP8753C Network Analyzer
- HP8713B Network Analyzer
- HP8595E Spectrum Analyzer
- HP8568B Spectrum Analyzer
- HP54100 oscilloscope
- HP 4145A Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer
- Rohde & Schwarz UPL Audio Analyzer
(If you use it with other instruments, please report your experience)
The HPGL Plotter logs some information to the journal, the verbosity of which can be set with the --debug command line switch.
To enable debugging output to the journal, start the program with the --debug 7 switch, (Debug levels 0-7).
If started without the switch, the default logging verbosity is 3.
To view the output (in follow mode) use:
journalctl -t HPGLplotter -f