Has anyone used this adapter? I can't get the 70000 series sa to talk to me. I am going to try it on my 8566B which the manufacturer says does work. Am I missing something about the syntax of HP-IB having changed over the years so that I have to recompile old programs? Who is selling or freewaring HP-IB software now and what adapter would you recommend? My application is spectrum surveillance but I can't even emulate a plotter and have the sa talk.
This is an old post but for the record:
Thanks to the "passport" (National Instruments) or "tulip" (Agilent) interop layers, you can install a company's interface drivers and another's utilities. For example use NI LabView/CVI on top of the Agilent IOLIbs drivers with an Agilent interface. Or run VEE with a GPIB-USB-HS adapter from NI. Previously developed code usually targets the NI API.
Smaller companies advertise their products to be compatible with the NI APIs. I cannot recommend them as you'll get to deal with subtle or not so subtle flaws. And less than stellar tech support.
The prologix adapters (USB or serial) do not offer compatibility with the common NI APIs. Just use serial emulation for the USB variant or the proprietary API for the ethernet adapters. There is software available - see below. But legacy code will require a rewrite.
Now, let's move on to your 70000 questions. You can communicate with the 70900B controller/LO itself. It is usually at address 18. Set center/span. RBW. Set/Read markers. Get trace data.
If what you want is a plot of the screen, ask the 70004A/70205A/70206A display. It is usually at address 4.
I personally recommend John Miles' open source KE5FX GPIB Toolkit. There is a plotter emulator and a spectrum monitor. Both work with a 70k analyzer. The toolkit is compatible both with the NI/Agilent and Prologix cards.
If commercial software is your thing just try Matlab's instrument control toolbox and Aphena's Softplot. Plottergeist is not much better than 7470.exe from John Miles.