Introduction
Microsoft? Excel and the Agilent 34980A multifunction
switch/measure unit are an ideal combination to use for
collecting data and analyzing it. This paper discusses how
to structure and create a program in Excel for scanning
multiple Agilent 34980A channels. Each channel can be
configured independently to measure: temperature, volt-
age, frequency, resistance, or other physical property.
Channels can be scanned sequentially or in an order
defined by the user. In addition, this paper covers how to
pace the scans, retrieve data and automatically update an
Excel worksheet.
You can download a working template to control the
34980A switch/measure unit and 34970A data acquisition
unit from www.agilent.com/find/create_datalogger. Included
is a tool that creates the channel configuration commands
for the instrument. This paper and the code template
make an excellent starting point for creating a custom
Excel application with the 34980A and 34970A. The dis-
cussion and code snippets are centered around the
Agilent 34980A, but they also apply to the Agilent 34970A.