Tag: MXD

I pulled my veteran DMM, a Voltcraft MXD-4660A, from the drawer to set up my workbench (adding a serial-to-USB converter) and gave it a second tour of duty with QtDMM on Ubuntu. After a bit of searching online what to use under I found the QtDMM project at http://www.mtoussaint.de/qtdmm.htmlm , but appears abandoned. The active fork, I think, is at https://github.com/tuxmaster/QtDMM.

Here’s the final install and setup for my lab computer running Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy):

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Build & Install QtDMM on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy)

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1) Prerequisites

• Enable Universe and base tools:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install -y software-properties-common
  sudo add-apt-repository -y universe
  sudo apt update

• Compilers, build tools, VCS:

  sudo apt install -y git build-essential cmake ninja-build pkg-config

• Qt6 SDK

  sudo apt install -y qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-l10n-tools libqt6serialport6-dev

• HID API

  sudo apt install -y libhidapi-dev libhidapi-hidraw0

• OpenGL headers for Qt6Gui/Widgets

  sudo apt install -y libopengl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev

• Serial access without sudo:

  sudo usermod -aG dialout "$USER"

• Log out and back in to apply group membership

2) Get the source and make the script executable

git clone https://github.com/tuxmaster/QtDMM.git
cd QtDMM
chmod +x compile.sh

3) Build

• Clean build (optional). Also verifies prerequisites are present.

  ./compile.sh clean || true
  rm -rf build CMakeCache.txt CMakeFiles
  ./compile.sh

• Artifacts land in ./bin/:

  ./bin/qtdmm --version

• Verify it runs. If not, see Troubleshooting below

4) Install for all users (see §5 for a .deboption)

Preferred:

sudo ./compile.sh install
# now on PATH:
qtdmm --version

5) Alternative: make a .deb

Keeps your system clean and is easy to remove later.

./compile.sh pack
sudo apt install ./QtDMM_*amd64.deb

6) Uninstall

If installed via .deb:

sudo apt remove qtdmm

If installed via compile.sh install:

# run from the same build dir used for the install
sudo xargs rm < build/install_manifest.txt

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Troubleshooting:

If you hit errors, try a clean build reset instead of first searching forums. I learned the hard way to make a clean install as a belt-and-suspenders reset, that deletes built objects but keeps the CMake cache.

• “|| true” lets the sequence continue even if the clean step fails due to a broken config.
• “rm -rf build CMakeCache.txt CMakeFiles” force-removes any stale out-of-source build dir and any accidental in-source CMake cache:
• “Final ./compile.sh” does a fresh configure and build:

cd ~/QtDMM
./compile.sh clean || true
rm -rf build CMakeCache.txt CMakeFiles
./compile.sh

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Let’s check if it’s running

• As your regular user, start QtDMM from the command line or via the Ubuntu Dock (search for “QtDMM”):
• Hint: How to create a Desktop shortcut launcher for ubuntu 22.04
  

  

  
  
• Configure settings for MXD-4660A:

  

  
  Final test setup (send a known signal) and the result:
  

  

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Question to readers: Is there Linux software for the old Hameg HM1507-3? I’m currently using a Windows XP VM with very old software.