Lakeshore 321 device class

antonkirch · January 7, 2025, 10:35am

Hello!
I am trying to hook up a Lakeshore 321 temperature controller to Sweepme! but I get an error message that the respective COM port does not respond.

First, has anyone a custom Lakeshore 321 device class because the device manager provides only Lakeshore 33x?

Second, the Lakeshore 321 is quite old so I also may have a COM adapter driver problem (on top of the missing device class).

Axel · January 7, 2025, 11:40am

Hi Anton,

if the Model 321 temperature controller does not work with our SweepMe! driver for the Model 33x series, it can be indeed due to a different set of programming commands.

You can find the programming manual here:

And you can compare with the source code of our SweepMe! driver here:

github.com

SweepMe/instrument-drivers/blob/main/src/Temperature-LakeShore_Model33x/main.py

# This Device Class is published under the terms of the MIT License.
# Required Third Party Libraries, which are included in the Device Class
# package for convenience purposes, may have a different license. You can
# find those in the corresponding folders or contact the maintainer.
#
# MIT License
# 
# Copyright (c) 2022 SweepMe! GmbH (sweep-me.net)
# 
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
# 
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
# copies or substantial portions of the Software.
# 
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

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The Model 321 supports the “*IDN?” query (without quotation marks) which you could add to the driver to check whether a response is received.

If the first command of the 33x driver is not known by the 321 temperature controller, it would also not respond. Sometimes, you can at least see an error on the display of your instrument if a wrong command is used. This would be already a good indication that the command is at least physically transmitted.

If this does not work, it is more likely that the serial communication needs to be configured correctly. Does the instrument use the same baudrate, terminator character like the Model 33x series?

Do you maybe need a special nullmodem cable for the RS-232 connection?

Hope this helps. Let us know if you need further help. We also offer to support you with creating a SweepMe! driver.

Thanks and best,
Axel