I thought everyone here would find this of interest. I stumbled across it a few days ago on the 'net. It is a Prologix GPIB-USB compatible made with an Arduino Uno.
http://egirland.blogspot.com/2014/03/arduino-uno-as-usb-to-gpib-controller.html Like on his web site, I just took a cheap GPIB cable, cut off about 12 inches and shoved the wires into the socket holes on an Uno. I uploaded his program and did some minor testing so far. BTW, it didn't work the first time due to poor contact. I shoved some pin headers in, after the wires and now it works fine. John's Prologix config program works just fine with this cobbled together GPIB adapter. I attached it to my HP 3457A and then ran the demo program that comes with Ulrich's EZGPIB. It is logging data as I type this. I will do more testing with other instruments, as I have time. As mentioned on the web page linked above, a few commands are not yet implemented, although they appear to be little used commands (except perhaps the ++savecfg command). I think I have a way to implement the ++rst command using the watchdog timer. For ++savecfg, it shouldn't be too difficult to store things in the Arduino EEPROM. I have some cheap Arduino Nano's and PCB-mount GPIB connectors on order. I will be making a couple of these Proligix-compatible adapters with those parts, so that they aren't just wires shoved into a board. I'll have to find a small box to house things. I have also ordered some buffer chips to add to the design. Total cost should be under $20 for each adapter. The firmware uses a serial baud rate of 115200, which I assume is the same as a real Prologix. I'm going to try some higher baud rates to see how fast the Arduino can push bits without losing them. I understand that with the default 16 MHz clock, non-standard baud rates that are evenly divisible into the clock rate should work even better I'll report back. One question about the baud rate - are there any reasons not to change from 115200? Since we are simply moving bits through a USB/Serial adapter, does any software really care what the baud rate is, as long as we don't drop any bits? Joe Gray W5JG _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.