[time-nuts] device as sniffer/ promiscuous mode GPIB devices?

[Patrick]

Hi Ulrich

Thanks for your time and thanks for EZGPIB!

I rebuild and resell lab instruments. My customers are doing great work 
finding cures for diseases. The software to control their instruments 
cost between 5-40K and is hyped up garbage that eats up their meager 
budgets. I desperately, desperately want to write an open source 
replacement. I am planning on offering the "base package" for free but 
charging a small fee for some of the various add on instrument control 
modules. I also want the application to have the on-board tools required 
to sniff ports for the do-it-your-self reverse engineering of closed 
source communication.

I need to sniff the communication between the instruments and their 
native software. Abdul, helpful as always, has shown me that I must use 
a card that supports promiscuous mode. I have an INES PCI GPIB card on 
hand and I am going to give that a try.

Does anyone have experience with any promiscuous mode devices? Under 
Linux would be even better, if possible?

Is NI spy a full sniffer? NI have been really mistreating me of late and 
I would prefer not to buy from them as they no longer provide free 
technical support(now it's $300)

Thanks-patrick



Ulrich Bangert wrote:
> Patrick,
>
> as a sniffer would typically be used to locate gpib communication
> problems, is there any special problem to be solved?
>
>   
>>> Is there a way to set it up to read one address continuously?
>>>       
>
> This one does not sound like a problem!? Currently your program loop
> contains ONLY reading from the device. Did you consider to ASK the
> device in regular time intervals from within the loop?
>
> Best regards
> Ulrich Bangert
>
>   
>> -----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] Im Auftrag von Patrick
>> Gesendet: Sonntag, 27. Januar 2008 21:01
>> An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] prologix device as sniffer
>>
>>
>> Well it really sucks that I can't do this but considering that I 
>> purchased it months ago, the fact that you would even 
>> consider a return 
>> speaks volumes about your character.
>>
>> I will not return it, the customer service is great. I just 
>> need to get 
>> my INES GPIB card configured to work in Linux. Hopefully this will 
>> function as a sniffer and I can use the Prologix device as a 
>> controller 
>> later.
>>
>> All the best-Patrick
>>
>> Prologix wrote:
>>     
>>> Patrick,
>>>
>>> Sorry the product didn't work out for you. With the current 
>>>       
>> firmware, 
>>     
>>> there is really no good way to do what you want to do. GPIB bus 
>>> sniffing is an oft-requested feature that we will certainly 
>>>       
>> consider 
>>     
>>> adding in the future. Email me off-line if you wish to return the 
>>> unit.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Abdul
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
>>>       
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] 
>>     
>>> On Behalf Of Patrick
>>> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 11:41 AM
>>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] prologix device as sniffer
>>>
>>> Thanks Abdul
>>>
>>> This comes as a pretty big blow, as this is what I was hoping to do 
>>> with
>>> it from the start.
>>>
>>> Is there a way to set it up to read one address continuously?
>>>
>>> thanks in advance-Patrick
>>>
>>> Prologix wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Patrick,
>>>>
>>>> Prologix GPIB-USB controller does not work as a GPIB bus 
>>>>         
>> sniffer. In
>>     
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> DEVICE
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> mode the controller reads the bus only if it has previously been 
>>>> addressed as a listener.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Abdul
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com 
>>>>         
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] 
>>     
>>>> On Behalf Of Patrick
>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 10:25 AM
>>>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>>>> Subject: [time-nuts] prologix device as sniffer
>>>>
>>>> Hi Everyone
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to all for helping me with my last post. I am now 
>>>>         
>> reading with 
>>     
>>>> my
>>>> Prologix device.
>>>>
>>>> I am just not sure that I am reading everything. I am trying to 
>>>> monitor
>>>> the communication between a closed source App and some 
>>>>         
>> GPIB devices.
>>     
>>>> After I set up imported and set up serial with PySerial I 
>>>>         
>> tried this:
>>     
>>>> ser.write("++mode0\r\n")
>>>>
>>>> x=1
>>>>
>>>> def read3():
>>>>     while(x==1):
>>>>         print ser.read(1000)
>>>>
>>>> I also tried print ser.readline()
>>>>
>>>> I read the "ID" command sent out by the software but I 
>>>>         
>> could not read
>>     
>>>> the response. Am I reading all the addresses with this set 
>>>>         
>> up or just 
>>     
>>>> one? Does anyone have some thoughts on why I don't read 
>>>>         
>> the response?
>>     
>>>> Thanks yet again in advance-patrick
>>>>
>>>>
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