[time-nuts] Low Cost GP-IB PCI card?

SAIDJACK at aol.com SAIDJACK at aol.com
Sun Jul 9 17:46:22 UTC 2006


 
In a message dated 7/9/2006 04:56:51 Pacific Daylight Time, jra at febo.com  
writes:

>>I found that USB-GPIB controller. Looks like BSD and Linux  are  supported.
> 
> 
>>  http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=549
>  
> 
> Hi, I  bought one on Ebay, they work quite well. They  used to be $99 at 
> Sparkfun, now  they raised the price, and it  is out of  stock...

> Have you tried using SRQ or other  features than simple read/wait/write
> sequences with it?  I found  with one of the old RS-232-to-GPIB
> converters that anything beyond  reads and writes was hard to handle.

> John


Hi John,
I typically only use the basic (polled) features of the GPIB, sending  
commands manually to the unit (*RST, *IDN, etc etc), or what is even better I  put 
the units into "TALK" mode, that way they spit out data without any need to  
poll. Then I simply use Win Hyperterm (yuk) to capture the data to a  file, and 
analyze that later. 
 
Works great with frequency counters, power meters etc. Have not tried  SRQ.
 
One interesting aspect about this "Abdul" card is that it has a built-in  
GPIB connector that plugs into the instrument directly. It's a curse and a  
blessing: it hangs out of your instrument without any mechanical support etc,  and 
extends your instrument length, but at the same time it saves you a >$50  GPIB 
cable. BTW: the card is now being sold on Ebay again.
 
One other factoid: the SMD chips seem to be soldered by hand, my card had a  
lot of solder flux on it. It's best to clean this off with Flux remover 
(Acetone  type etc) for long term reliability.
 
bye,
Said



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