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GPIB/HPIB to RS232 or USB at low cost?

J

Joerg

Besides the usual $400 plus versions, are there any converter
pods to get HPIB ports connected to a laptop via RS232 or USB?

It can't be rocket science to make one with a micro controller or
something. I wonder if there are low cost versions for
application where speed is really not an issue. If it were all
encapsulated in the HPIB plug the added benefit would be that it
would get rid of those unwieldy cables. More than once has
unplugging such a cable whipped my coffee cup straight off the
table. What a mess...

Regards, Joerg.
 
M

mike

Joerg said:
Besides the usual $400 plus versions, are there any converter
pods to get HPIB ports connected to a laptop via RS232 or USB?

It can't be rocket science to make one with a micro controller or
something. I wonder if there are low cost versions for
application where speed is really not an issue. If it were all
encapsulated in the HPIB plug the added benefit would be that it
would get rid of those unwieldy cables. More than once has
unplugging such a cable whipped my coffee cup straight off the
table. What a mess...

Regards, Joerg.
Click to expand...

I'm interested in this too. I poked into it a while back so I wouldn't
need to buy more GPIB cards. GPIB is VERY complex. The hardware
complexity is handled by the GPIB chip...I use the 9914...guess I'm
showing my age...to do do that stuff. The protocols on top of that
are also exceedingly complex.

The good news is that you can usually do simple stuff with a very tiny
subset of GPIB. The bad news is that the subset may be different for
every class of application. That works against the avaialbility of
a general purpose solution that's short of a full-blown implementation.

People have published hobby-grade parallel port solutions for the case
where your
computer is always the controller and you have only one talker/listener
on the port.
I've written Visual Basic Class modules that bit-bang a 9914 and
implement just the GPIB subset I need to run a power supply.

An RS-232 dongle with a GPIB connnector on the end would be neat to
have. I expect you can Buy them, but the "B" word is not in my
vocabulary.
I'm thinking about hashing together a PIC16F877A do do just that.
I'd prefer not to reinvent the wheel if it's already disclosed
somewhere...for free...people who do this stuff seem to want money
for it...go figger...

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I'm building a PIC G-code interpreter
for some toy CNC stuff. Biggest problem I'm having is parsing the
command lines without benefit of enough memory to buffer the input line
and no string functions.
I need some meat sauce for my spaghetti code.
Gonna have the same problem with GPIB.

mike


--
Return address is VALID.
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
Toshiba & Compaq LiIon Batteries, Test Equipment
Honda CB-125S $800 in PDX
Yaesu FTV901R Transverter, 30pS pulser
Tektronix Concept Books, spot welding head...
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
 
J

Joerg

Hi Mike,

Back in my student days in the 70's I have done some HPIB kludging because our
institute just didn't have unlimited funds and that stuff was extremely pricey.
No PCs back then. The top of the line was a huge Commodore and some audio
cassette player as a "drive". Every now and then the innards of the cassette
would tangle up which was our version of spaghetti code.

I didn't find the HPIB protocol to be too complex. I just never understood who
in their right mind would spec' such a clumsy garden hose as a cable.

Best would be a pod in the HPIB connector, not at the PC. That would get rid of
the "garden hoses". I bet if you came up with a PIC solution you could make
serious money. All people usually need to do is read out the screen of a scope
or analyzer so it can be integrated into a document. That's it. No fancy
instrument control. If people can make the tiny MSP430 connect to the web it
ought to be possible to have it translate HPIB to something more popular.

CNC sounds interesting, too. Now you made me drool. I always wanted a neat
little lathe. But...

Regards, Joerg.
 
J

John Larkin

Besides the usual $400 plus versions, are there any converter
pods to get HPIB ports connected to a laptop via RS232 or USB?

It can't be rocket science to make one with a micro controller or
something. I wonder if there are low cost versions for
application where speed is really not an issue. If it were all
encapsulated in the HPIB plug the added benefit would be that it
would get rid of those unwieldy cables. More than once has
unplugging such a cable whipped my coffee cup straight off the
table. What a mess...

Regards, Joerg.
Click to expand...

There's a guy on Ebay who seems to always be listing National
Instruments GPIB-232CV-A boxes, RS-232 to GPIB. There's one listed
now, $150, buy-it-now for $175. We have one, and it seems OK.

John
 
J

Joerg

Thanks, John, maybe I'll spring for one. But I was looking for
something simpler, just an HPIB with a little controller in there and
a thin cable. Then I could plug one each into all equipment and
home-run them into a small RS232 or USB panel under the table front.
Or use a rotary switch box to select. That avoids having to crawl
back there, unplug the box from one unit, back into another and pull a
sciatic nerve that way. Just did that and it's awfully painful...

Now I'd be able to plug a laptop into the data outlet of whatever
scope is in use so the screen data can be downloaded for the report.

Regards, Joerg.
 
J

John Larkin

Thanks, John, maybe I'll spring for one. But I was looking for
something simpler, just an HPIB with a little controller in there and
a thin cable. Then I could plug one each into all equipment and
home-run them into a small RS232 or USB panel under the table front.
Or use a rotary switch box to select. That avoids having to crawl
back there, unplug the box from one unit, back into another and pull a
sciatic nerve that way. Just did that and it's awfully painful...

Now I'd be able to plug a laptop into the data outlet of whatever
scope is in use so the screen data can be downloaded for the report.

Regards, Joerg.
Click to expand...


I think somebody makes a USB-488 dongle, somewhere.

In the future, what interface should benchtop instruments have? I'm
thinking that Ethernet might be the universal port; USB is too short
range. Instruments could do SCPI-protocol (text commands) via Telnet
or something, and also include a simple web page for browser access.
That sort of stuff is fairly easy to do these days.

488 is a dinosaur.

John
 
Q

qrk

Besides the usual $400 plus versions, are there any converter
pods to get HPIB ports connected to a laptop via RS232 or USB?

It can't be rocket science to make one with a micro controller or
something. I wonder if there are low cost versions for
application where speed is really not an issue. If it were all
encapsulated in the HPIB plug the added benefit would be that it
would get rid of those unwieldy cables. More than once has
unplugging such a cable whipped my coffee cup straight off the
table. What a mess...

Regards, Joerg.
Click to expand...

You may want to consider finding one of National Instruments
GPIB-Ethernet converter boxes (model GPIB-ENET). Coworker got two
units from Ebay for a reasonable price. National Inst. has a handy
command line interface program you can buy. Very handy when combined
with batch files.

Mark
 
J

Joerg

Agree, John, 488 is a dinosaur. My opinion is that Ethernet would be
suitable. It is cheap, you can buy sturdy 4-1 or 8-1 switches for $30 to
$40 and it is very compatible with an existing PC network. Most of all any
IT technician knows how to install it when you have to automate a whole
production floor. And if you absolutely have to have a wireless node that
can be done, in contrast to 488.

We have done that in the past with custom made equipment. None of it was
equipped with 488, all was done Ethernet and it worked well. You could even
talk to it via a regular web browser.

If you remember where you saw that USB-488 dongle I'd appreciate a hint.
Tried Google but that only pointed to NI and eBay.

Regards, Joerg.
 
M

maxfoo

There's a guy on Ebay who seems to always be listing National
Instruments GPIB-232CV-A boxes, RS-232 to GPIB. There's one listed
now, $150, buy-it-now for $175. We have one, and it seems OK.

John
Click to expand...

Those boxes don't work with anything higher than win98 iirc, had a few 5 years
ago before getting the newer NI PCI cards for the Win2000 & XP boxes. But they
worked good in Win98...just be aware of that before purchasing.











Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.
 
J

Joerg

Thanks, Max, that is good information. That pretty much disqualifies the boxes and
the new ones from NI are a bit on the expensive side.

Maybe some day I'll try to cajole a little micro controller into 488-RS232
translation duty. Can't be that difficult. With lower power versions like the MSP
it might even get by with the power on the bus.

Regards, Joerg.
 
J

John Larkin

Those boxes don't work with anything higher than win98 iirc, had a few 5 years
ago before getting the newer NI PCI cards for the Win2000 & XP boxes. But they
worked good in Win98...just be aware of that before purchasing.
Click to expand...

It's just RS-232. Any idea why it won't work on 2K/XP? How would it
know?

John
 
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