[time-nuts] TTi TF930/960 linux programming

jpbridge at aol.com jpbridge at aol.com
Wed May 13 13:44:01 EDT 2015


I have the TI 930 and did run it from a computer - I did it under Windows but had quite a lot of trouble. It worked fine if I used the Windows own command line shell (I forget what it is called and I'm on a Linux machine at the moment) but when I tried communicating directly via the USB port (as COM3) using a c program I found it difficult to get responses. But this may well be my lack of knowledge of USB/RS232 under Windows.

It might well be easier under Linux.

Basically the instrument responds to command strings and you can set it to just return values continually which is what I did.

I've since got the Tek FS3100 (Pendulum CNT91 I think) which is much more sophisticated and I started working on programming that.

Unfortunately I've since got a job away from home so I have no time for electronics and won't have until I eventually manage to move house.

If I were you I'd use a terminal emulator, at least at first, and get it going interactively and then just save the output to a file. Once you've got used to how it all works (and there isn't much to it) you can set up a more robust software system.

James

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Florian Teply <usenet at teply.info>
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Tue, 12 May 2015 22:59
Subject: [time-nuts] TTi TF930/960 linux programming


Hi guys,

I seem to recall that someone on this list mentioned that he's using
a
Thurlby-Tandar TF930 or 960 Frequency counter. As I'm considering to
buy
such a unit for some experiments at my workplace, I figured I'd
better ask
around here for some suggestions.

Has someone already used one of these
gadgets in a computer-controlled
fashion, with some luck using some Linux
environment? Judging from the
manual, I probably ccould hack some shell script
to repeatedly perform
frequency readings and write that to a file, but if
someone already has
done that I'd be much too lazy to reinvent the
wheel...

The actual setting I'd plan to use it in is to monitor some
ring
oscillators (frequency drift) and/or delay lines (output pulse
length)
sort-of-continuously over extended periods of time. I'd be
interested
in frequency drifts due to device aging and/or radiation effects,
and
as especially device aging tests can take quite some time (a few
months
each...), some sort of stability would be needed. This is not
strictly
a time-nuts application where one might chase the 10th digit, and
I
figure I probably could tolerate (and wouldn't even notice
without
cross-checking) an constant offset in frequency readings even of a
few
percent, but it would bite me quite a bit if the readings wander
around
too much when the input frequency doesn't...

Any suggestions?

best
regards,
Florian
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