When trying to connect through the RS423 port of the scope, Transition 2 cannot connect and brings up one or more error messages. What causes this?
Check that the serial cable is firmly connected at both oscilloscope and PC ends and that the serial port of the PC is not being used by another application, for example a serial mouse driver. (The mouse may not be attached but the driver could still have control of the port.)
Ensure that the port configurations of the PC and the oscilloscope match the port configurations required for Transition 2 to communicate and also that the baud rate of both PC and oscilloscope are the same. If the configurations are different, change the configurations of the PC port and oscilloscope to those required by Transition 2 (8-Bit Data, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit, CTS/RTS Handshaking, Echo and Prompt OFF) and restart Windows. If this still does not work, check the pin configurations of the cable and make sure that they are correct for use with the particular oscilloscope being connected to. (See the operating manual for Transition 2.)
Having installed the IEEE card and software and then installed Transition 2, when trying to communicate with the oscilloscope using Transition 2 through the GPIB interface, Transition 2 says that there is no GPIB controller board and does not connect. Is there a simple explanation?
One reason why this may have occurred is that Transition 2 may have installed a "dummy" gpib.dll file due to it not being able to find a gpib.dll file (already existing) where Transition 2 thought it should find the file. This can happen if the GPIB software, for example, puts its gpib.dll file into the Windows folder instead of the Windows/System folder. Older GPIB cards tend to do this. Transition 2 looks in the Windows/System folder and if it does not find the gpib.dll file it puts in its "dummy" version (required by Transition 2 to operate).
To see if this is the problem, firstly find whether you have two versions of gpib.dll installed on the computer and if there are two files, delete the smaller one (the "dummy"). Transition 2 should now run properly. If the larger gpib.dll file accidentally delete then first remove the smaller file and then re-install the GPIB software.
Clicking the buttons of the mouse does not produce the action shown in the manual, e.g. clicking the right mouse button on a Trace does not cause the second cursor to appear/disappear. Is there a particular reason for this?
Ensure that the mouse is firmly plugged into the correct port (if using a Serial Mouse, make sure that it is a different COM port to that used to connect to the oscilloscope), and that the mouse has been set up correctly - the left mouse button set to click/select, and the right mouse button set to context menu/alternate select or equivalent (Standard Left and Right button assignments for Windows). If the mouse driver does not allow ybuttons to be re-assigned then it is most likely that the buttons are set correctly.
If, after checking all the above, the problem still occurs then the mouse driver is incompatible for use with Transition 2 (It will also mean that Windows95 standard assignments are unavailable.) Use a different mouse driver or try a different mouse.
The size of the file when saved from Transition 2 is smaller than expected taking into account the memory length used in the oscilloscope. Why should this be?
Make sure that the Data Length is set to 'Full Acquisition' and not 'Display Data Only' as this only transfers the data points that are actually on the screen at that moment and not all the data which has been acquired. This setting can be found in the 'Acquisition' drop down menu in Transition 2. If this does not solve the problem then it is most likely that the Memory length of the oscilloscope was not set as expected. (See Q1 in the DataSYS or Classic Series Oscilloscopes section.)
When a Trace and Setup is saved onto floppy disk in an oscilloscope and then imported into Transition 2 from that disk, the measurements do not appear, however when the information is transferred via RS423 or GPIB the measurements values are displayed. Is this correct?
This is normal operation in the Gould range of oscilloscopes for the following reason. When the setup and trace information is stored onto disk, the Measurements and their parameters are also stored but the values of the calculated measurements (within the oscilloscope) are not stored, so cannot be recalled by Transition 2. When the information is transferred by RS423 or GPIB, the setup information, waveform data and the measurements - along with the present measurement values - are all transferred to the PC so the measurement values can be displayed. It is therefore best to transfer the information to the PC using RS423 or GPIB and then save the .bin file in Transition 2 for future reference.