Cannot Command RFTGm-II-Rb / RFTGm-II-XO
I have recently acquired a used Lucent RFTGm-II-Rb and XO. The set came
assembled with cables and frame, so I am pretty sure everything is hooked
together correctly. I have powered both units, and after a few hours I have
the green "Online" light lit on the REF-0 (Rb) and the yellow "Standby"
light lit on the REF-1 (XO). I am watching serial traffic via two
RS422<->USB adapters. After switching a couple of wires around, I am seeing
TCODE data from both units on the RX side at the PC. I have a clean 15MHz
waveform and 2 ugly 10MHz waveforms from the Rb, and PPS from both units.
All seems well so far.
I'd like to hook them up to two instances of Lady Heather and see what is
going on. The problem is that I cannot interrupt the TCODE stream to put
the device into SCPI mode. I have tried commands like ":ptim:tcod:cont 0"
(also "ptim:tcod:cont 0", without the leading ":") and variants of
":SYST:STAT?". Both modules just ignore them.
I have a bootable Linux partition. I guess I can load up WINE and try the
somewhat dated "RFTG.EXE". That seems a little extreme, especially if I
need to repeat that every time I need to restart the RFTGs.
Any suggestions what I should try next before I go the Linux route? Surely
there is some command or secret handshake I am just missing.
Thanks!
-Patrick Murphy
Hi
If you go back a ways in the archives, there is a lot of information about how
to run these beasts. There also are links to the software and command sets
for the devices.
Bob
On Dec 17, 2017, at 5:01 PM, Patrick Murphy fgdhrtey@gmail.com wrote:
I have recently acquired a used Lucent RFTGm-II-Rb and XO. The set came
assembled with cables and frame, so I am pretty sure everything is hooked
together correctly. I have powered both units, and after a few hours I have
the green "Online" light lit on the REF-0 (Rb) and the yellow "Standby"
light lit on the REF-1 (XO). I am watching serial traffic via two
RS422<->USB adapters. After switching a couple of wires around, I am seeing
TCODE data from both units on the RX side at the PC. I have a clean 15MHz
waveform and 2 ugly 10MHz waveforms from the Rb, and PPS from both units.
All seems well so far.
I'd like to hook them up to two instances of Lady Heather and see what is
going on. The problem is that I cannot interrupt the TCODE stream to put
the device into SCPI mode. I have tried commands like ":ptim:tcod:cont 0"
(also "ptim:tcod:cont 0", without the leading ":") and variants of
":SYST:STAT?". Both modules just ignore them.
I have a bootable Linux partition. I guess I can load up WINE and try the
somewhat dated "RFTG.EXE". That seems a little extreme, especially if I
need to repeat that every time I need to restart the RFTGs.
Any suggestions what I should try next before I go the Linux route? Surely
there is some command or secret handshake I am just missing.
Thanks!
-Patrick Murphy
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and follow the instructions there.
@Mark - I would certainly take the latest version of Lady Heather to
compile. I have already compiled and am using the Dec 2016 / v5 version of
LH now, and while it receives data it does not recognize either Rb or XO
devices. I did pull down RFTG.EXE, et. al., off the ko4bb.com web site.
Unfortunately, wine crashes with this executable and I have not run the
cause to ground yet.
And trust me - you are not the only member of the wonky / crusty / mildly
unstable club . . . :-)
-Pat
Message: 6
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 02:56:12 +0000
From: Mark Sims holrum@hotmail.com
To: "time-nuts@febo.com" time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Cannot Command RFTGm-II-Rb / RFTGm-II-XO
Message-ID:
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namprd11.prod.outlook.com>
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The RFTG-m units don't speak SCPI. They have an undocumented binary
control language. I reversed engineered the protocol and the latest
version of Lady Heather can talk to them. The v5.0 release of Heather does
not support these. If you run something linuxy or can compile the v5.0
release, I can send you the newest version to try. Hope to get a public
Windoze release out shortly...
On ko4bb.com there is a copy of Lucent's control software for Win 95/98
(works under XP). It is six (?) files that need to be saved in a
directory. It is rather wonky and crusty and a bit unstable (hmmm...
sounds a bit like me).
Forwarded conversation
Subject: Cannot Command RFTGm-II-Rb / RFTGm-II-XO
From: Patrick Murphy fgdhrtey@gmail.com
Date: Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 3:18 PM
To: time-nuts@febo.com
I have recently acquired a used Lucent RFTGm-II-Rb and XO. The set came
with cables and frame, so I am pretty sure everything is hooked together
correctly. I have powered both units, and after a few hours I have the
green "Online" light lit on the REF-0 (Rb) and the yellow "Standby" light
lit on the REF-1 (XO). I am watching serial traffic via two RS422<->USB
adapters. After switching a couple of wires around, I am seeing TCODE data
from both units on the RX side at the PC. I have a clean 15MHz waveform and
2 ugly 10MHz waveforms from the RB, and PPS from both units. All seems well
so far.
I'd like to hook them up to two instances of Lady Heather and see what is
going on. The problem is that I cannot interrupt the TCODE stream to put
the device into SCPI mode. I have tried commands like ":ptim:tcod:cont 0"
(also "ptim:tcod:cont 0", without the leading ":") and variants of
":SYST:STAT?". Both modules just ignore them.
I have a bootable Linux partition. I guess I can load up WINE and try the
somewhat dated "RFTG.EXE". That seems a little extreme, especially if I
need to repeat that every time I need to restart the RFTGs.
Any suggestions what I should try next before I go the Linux route? Surely
there is some command or secret handshake I am just missing.
Thanks!
-Patrick Murphy