Is there a reason no one is using the Prologix GPIB-ETHERNET controller?

[Karl_Rony1]

After working with the ENET-1000 for several weeks on Dell laptops with Windows 7, I would prefer to stay with the Prologix. With the Prologix, my application just works for days without any issues.  With the ENET-1000, I have all kinds of testing going on trying to figure out why my laptops will magically just stop working with a hard disk not found error.  With a power cycle of the computer, all is well.

[NI-hilator]

Karl - are you using the Prologix USB-GPIB or the Ethernet-GPIB?

Thanks

[kbish]

I see this discussion is 2 years old, but I recently struggled with my prologix setup, and my email to prologix outlined some things I discovered... and I'm eager to share:

"I'm very excited by the gpib-to-ethernet adapter.  But there's some weirdness in getting them to work:

Initially, the adapter shows up at ip address 0.0.0.0.  This is NOT a legal address, and most "standard" ip-protocol software refuses such an address.  Instead, please choose a canonical default address... say 192.168.1.x ...or anything typical AND legal.

Even worse, the initial port seems to be a random number, not 1234 or a typical open port.  All of the computers I use nowadays have firewalls running, and only after multiple days of struggling to "see" the adapter did I try turning off the firewall....  There it was, spewing out udp packets!  Please change the "random port" to 1234, or better yet, a typical open port #.

I am OSX as much as possible, and while I managed to run your netfinder and configurator undier an emulator, your software could be implemented EASILY with a web-server (which would also be port 80)... and therefore platform independent.  Look at ANY hub, switch, serial server, etc on the market today; they ALL follow this standard.

I'm still eager to put my gpib-enet adapters to use, but your software engineers made a couple very poor decisions instead of following established standards.

I welcome a response, but please don't put me on any mailing lists."

[Dennis_Knutson]

What do you mean by ' your software engineers'? This is the NI site and NI has absolutely nothing to do with prologix.

[kbish]

Sorry for the confusion...  The quotes at the beginning of paragraph 2 and the end of my note was an attempt to suggest that the entire thing was my email to prologix.  But I realize that someone quickly scanning the message might not pick up that nuance, so in hindsight, I should've rewritten the entire thing into the third person.  I like NI software engineers.  I don't like Prologix sofware enginers.  Sorry again.

[NI-hilator]

To add to the confusion, Prologix has responded to the original question which implies they are monitoring this thread.

[prologix]

Apologies for taking up space on the NI board for what is clearly a Prologix support issue. However, since the original poster posted his email here, we might as well post our reply here too for closure. Thank you for the space and keep up the good work.

“Thank you for purchasing our controller and for your feedback.

NetFinder discovery protocol uses UDP broadcast to detect and configure controllers on the network. Since it is broadcast based, the protocol can locate controllers with any IP, or even those with no IP. Hence the reason for the default address of 0.0.0.0. Using a private IP as the default will not be of much help since the customer will have to configure the PC/laptop network interface to be in the same subnet (as you have to do with most hubs and switches). NetFinder saves the customer from having to re-configure their network.

We have a command line version of the NetFinder tool (Python script) that is OS X compatible: http://prologix.biz/downloads/nfcli.tar.gz

Prologix GPIB-ETHERNET uses two ports. UDP/3040 is used by the NetFinder for discovery, and TCP/1234 for GPIB communication. “

Regards,

Prologix

[Karl_Rony1]

We continue to be very pleased with the Prologix GPIB-ETHERNET controller. After 1 project with the ENET-1000, we went back to the Prologix as the GPIB-ETHERNET now has the certification that we need. 

The Netfinder tool works great for us since the adapters, over time in development and testing, have a high probability of not being on the same subnet as the computer Ethernet adapter. With the GPIB-ETHERNET, we can find the device and update the device IP address as necessary. With the ENET-1000, the NI Browser can find it, but we may then have to modify the computer IP address to match the subnet of the ENET-1000. Once the ENET-1000 is changed, we will not see it again until the computer IP address is changed back. 

[richjoh]

Karl_Rony1 excellent point regarding the IPs being on different subnets!

I played with the Prologix, now playing with both NI ENET-1000 and Prologix. The Prologix just need a VISA Send linefeed char terminator and disabling a VISA property to make it work. I'm working my code to use either one, Prologix is 1/5th of the cost and about that much is size difference.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Instrument-Control-GPIB-Serial/Prologix-USB-GPIB-Talk-and-Listen/td-p/219907...

Rich J

[Manamino]

HI Karl_Rony 

 I also try to communicate with keithley device via this PROLOGIX , but I didn't find enough resources for it