Which USB-GPIB interface (and drivers) to use with old instruments (old GPIB interface IEEE 1 no SCPI commands)

[GeertVN]

Hello,

we want to buy an USB-GPIB-interface to drive old instruments using "old GPIB interface  IEEE 1 and no SCPI commands" (manufacturer info).

What USB-GPIB-interface do we have to buy and what driver 488.2, 488.1, older,..... should we use to get all these old instruments working through GPIB ?

We've already contacted NI Belgium with this question without a solution yet.

With thanks,

     best regards,

         Geert

[LV_Pro]

I think that the GPIB interfaces are backward compatible, if not you will have a very hard time finding an old GPIB card that will work in a modern computer, wrong bus connector, timings etc. As to SCPI, that is just the industry agreed upon command set syntax. Many not too old instruments use non-SCPI commands. The only real difficulty with them is getting the programmer's manual to determine the commands (assuming that there isn't a driver on the NI driver site)

So if you are using a relatively modern (PCI bus) computer, your choices will be limited to modern cards. I would go with the less expensive NI one. If you aren't using a modern computer, then you will run into the problem of whether you can use modern software (i.e. LabVIEW 6.x and later) to control it.

Good Luck

P.M.

[GeertVN]

Hello Sir,

thank you for your reply.

I'm using a modern PC so installing a PCI-GPIB card may not be a problem.

So it all will depends on how 100 % backwards compatible the 488.2 is in relation with our old (slower) GPIB-driven instruments.

Does somebody has pratical experience in this area ?

I've read on the forum to add a delay (some msec) to every ready-reply of an instrument. Are there other problems to foresee ?

With thanks,

        best regards,

              Geert

[LesHammer]

> So it all will depends on how 100 % backwards compatible the 488.2 is in relation with our old (slower) GPIB-driven instruments

The newer GPIB cards (if made properly) are completely 100% compatible with the older GPIB instruments.

Any GPIB card / USB-GPIB / LAN-GPIB from NI or Agilent (HP) will work.

I've even used a Tektronix (spelling?) LAN-GPIB some years ago.

There are some smaller manufacturers whose GPIB cards only work for specific types of instruments.

(In other words, they are not truely 488.2, but a subset - so beware of manufacturers other than the ones I listed.)

That's the beauty of GPIB - going on 30 years now, and the "day one" instruments still work on today's GPIB.

The only thing that your "slow" instrument will do is prevent the fast instruments from fast handshaking.

That's all part of the standard - wait for the slow guy.

(So if you have High-Speed GPIB instruments you may want them on a separate bus.)

But they'd still work either way.

Les.Hammer@CompleteTest.com

[GeertVN]

Hello,

thank you for your answer.

So when buying / using the newest USB-GPIB interface with 488.2, I should not suspect to have problems communicating with our slower (older) instruments.

Knowing this, I'll ask NI for a USB-GPIB interface price offer.

Best regards,

       Geert