Application supports connectivity, visibility
“It should be simple to connect to your bench instruments and collect data, but often it’s not,” according to Dan Pleasant, manager, technology and architecture, BenchVue Program, Keysight Technologies. Enhancing simplicity is the goal of BenchVue software, and to that end, the company released its second version in December. BenchVue is an intuitive, easy-to-use PC software application that provides multiple-instrument measurement visibility and data capture that eliminate the need for instrument programming.
BenchVue, Pleasant said, is a single application that integrates your bench instrumentation through plug-and-play connectivity. It does not require programming of special instrument drivers; simple point-and-click data capture makes it easy to log data and capture screen images. Users can easily export data in desired formats, and they can access manuals, drivers, FAQs, and videos while monitoring and controlling their bench instruments via a computer or mobile device.
The software’s plug-and-play capability supports LAN and GPIB as well as USB. LXI 2.6+ instruments are discovered automatically, as are GPIB instruments, Pleasant said. He noted that while users can control their instruments via BenchVue, they retain the option of using the instrument front panel for complicated measurement operations.
The new version, BenchVue 2.5, connects to seven instrument types. New for version 2.5 are power sensors and data-acquisition units. The new version continues to handle the five supported by the original version of the program,1 including oscilloscopes, power supplies, spectrum analyzers, digital multimeters, and function generators. In all, the software is compatible with more than 200 Keysight instruments. BenchVue Mobile, which originally interfaced to oscilloscopes, power supplies, and multimeters, now adds support for spectrum analyzers and function generators.
And while the original version facilitated screen and trace capture for oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers, the new version adds screen image logging, trace logging, and deep data capture (for example, I/Q) for oscilloscopes and measurement logging for spectrum analyzers.
“Since BenchVue’s initial introduction, bench-instrument users have strongly embraced its ease-of-use in helping them accomplish their measurement tasks,” said Rod Unverrich, senior software manager at Keysight, in a press release. “The new software release builds on the capabilities our customers have come to love by further simplifying instrumentation usage on the bench.”
BenchVue’s key features include the following:
- data logging for digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, data acquisition units, signal analyzers, power supplies, and power sensors;
- plug-and-play functionality for instrument control of all supported instruments, including waveform select and output control for function generators;
- a mobile application to free engineers from their bench, enabling them to remotely monitor and respond to tests; and
- one-click screen capture with annotation for fast professional documentation.
Keysight’s BenchVue software for the PC can be downloaded for free. Six “Pro” version upgrade licenses are available to extend BenchVue’s functionality for multimeters, function generators, power supplies, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and data-acquisition systems. The upgrade licenses range in cost from $150 for power supplies to $750 for function generators. The Pro versions provide unrestricted data logging and add alert notifications. The function-generator Pro version also links BenchVue to Keysight’s Waveform Builder software to support waveform editing.
In related news, Keysight announced in October that it is supplying BenchVue to Stanford University’s Department of Electrical Engineering.
Reference
1. “Free Software Accelerates Testing with Bench Instruments,” EE-Evaluation Engineering Online, Feb. 21, 2014.
For more information