Prev: Backup battery for AT91SAM9261
Next: Linking Error::: L2321 (E) Section "S" overlaps section "B"
From: cs_posting on 10 Mar 2006 19:32
Joel Kolstad wrote:

> > Compared to the $500 GPIB-USB dongles from NI, Agilent and others isn't
> > $125 low cost?
>
> Sure, for the hardware... but is your converter compatible (software-wise)
> with the NI cards? Are there LabView drivers for it?

On the other hand, if his dongle crashes less frequently than the NI
one and isnt' too hard to code for, I might see if I can get work to
buy a few of them.

From: Keyser Soze on 11 Mar 2006 12:40
"Joel Kolstad" <JKolstad71HatesSpam(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1214355t812ki42(a)corp.supernews.com...
> <abduln(a)gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1142030660.424740.64160(a)z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>> Compared to the $500 GPIB-USB dongles from NI, Agilent and others isn't
>> $125 low cost?
>
> Sure, for the hardware... but is your converter compatible (software-wise)
> with the NI cards? Are there LabView drivers for it?
The original posters design seems to be a GPIB to SERIAL interface only.

This is not such a bad thing as you don't need LabView, MathLab, TestPoint
or other big bucks instrument control suites.

This design includes a VI to interface with LabView plus all the schematics
and source code to roll your own:

http://lsd.fe.uni-lj.si/gpib/complete.zip

University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Trzaska cesta 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Laboratory of semiconductor devices

There is a article in EDN too:

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6290453.html?spacedesc=designideas


From: Dave (from the UK) on 11 Mar 2006 12:56
abduln(a)gmail.com wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> A low cost GPIB-USB controller is now available from:
> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=549
>
> It can be used to control GPIB instruments and download data and screen
> plots.
>
> Thanks,
>

No thanks - I think I'd rather pick up a National Instruments PCI card
on eBay, which would be 100% software compatible with NI.

If I really needed USB, and it is hard to see why, then I'd probably
still buy a NI one.

--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year(a)domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.
From: cs_posting on 11 Mar 2006 15:33
Dave (from the UK) wrote:

> No thanks - I think I'd rather pick up a National Instruments PCI card
> on eBay, which would be 100% software compatible with NI.
>
> If I really needed USB, and it is hard to see why, then I'd probably
> still buy a NI one.

One word: laptops

Why you might ask, would one want to control a GPIB bus with a laptop?

1) Salesmen need to demo GPIB instruments without dragging along a
desktop computer

2) Support engineers need to be able to check out a GPIB instrument
without dragging along a desktop computer or depending on the
customer's equipment.

3) When GPIB equipment is installed in a rack and it is necessary to
try someting out of the ordinary - use a different computer to see if
the problem is with the rack mount one, or ttemporarily use GPIB to
debug a system where it is not ordinarily in use, it's a lot easier to
carry a laptop over to the system, crawl behind the rack with it,
whaterver, than to do so with a desktop.

From: Tauno Voipio on 11 Mar 2006 16:06
cs_posting(a)hotmail.com wrote:
> Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>
>
>>No thanks - I think I'd rather pick up a National Instruments PCI card
>>on eBay, which would be 100% software compatible with NI.
>>
>>If I really needed USB, and it is hard to see why, then I'd probably
>>still buy a NI one.
>
>
> One word: laptops
>
> Why you might ask, would one want to control a GPIB bus with a laptop?
>
> 1) Salesmen need to demo GPIB instruments without dragging along a
> desktop computer
>
> 2) Support engineers need to be able to check out a GPIB instrument
> without dragging along a desktop computer or depending on the
> customer's equipment.
>
> 3) When GPIB equipment is installed in a rack and it is necessary to
> try someting out of the ordinary - use a different computer to see if
> the problem is with the rack mount one, or ttemporarily use GPIB to
> debug a system where it is not ordinarily in use, it's a lot easier to
> carry a laptop over to the system, crawl behind the rack with it,
> whaterver, than to do so with a desktop.


There is an electrical problem: Power.

The GPIB bus is a TTL-level bus with quite low impedance.
There is simply not enough power available from USB to
drive the GPIB according to the specifications.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi
First  |  Prev  |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3
Prev: Backup battery for AT91SAM9261
Next: Linking Error::: L2321 (E) Section "S" overlaps section "B"