Scientific Solutions ® Inc.

IEEE 488 GPIB Family of Products

Product Description

Our Solution Includes

Key Features

Applications

Functional Description

Technical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

Scientific Solutions' IEEE 488 GPIB cards plug directly into one slot of your personal computer and gives your computer complete access to the IEEE 488 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB). Scientific Solutions offers four models.

  • IEEE488-CL/PCI
    • PCI card compatible with software written to our original IEEE interface standard
  • IEEE488-CL/ISA
    • ISA card compatible with software written to our original IEEE interface standard
  • IEEE488-LM
    • ISA card compatible with software written to the PCII/PCIIA standard
  • MC-IEEE488
    • MicroChannel card compatible with software written to our original IEEE interface standard
IEEE488-CL/PCI
IEEE488-CL / PCI
IEEE488-CL/ISA
IEEE488-CL / ISA
IEEE488-LM
IEEE488-LM
MC-IEEE488
MC-IEEE488

arrowProduct Description

The Scientific Solutions IEEE 488 GPIB Interfaces are I/O expansion cards that plug directly into one slot of your PC. Each card gives your computer complete access to the IEEE 488 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB). With access to the GPIB, your PC can act as system CONTROLLER, or as an addressed TALKER/LISTENER.

As CONTROLLER, the IEEE 488 cards can issue commands with both primary and secondary addressing. The IEEE488-CL (PCI and ISA) supports our original IEEE register set. The IEEE488-LM and MC-IEEE488 each support the NI PCII/PCIIA register set. Specific software may require a particular register set. Software such as Scientific Solutions' ROUTE488 will work with any of the IEEE 488 cards and will greatly help in creating custom GPIB applications.

The IEEE 488 cards come with support software which offers test routines and example programming to help with the development of customized setups. Scientific Solutions also has available ROUTE488 software, which is a memory resident driver written in assembly language designed to optimize communication with the GPIB interface.

ROUTE488 makes custom GPIB programming fast, easy and offers support for many programming languages.


arrowOur Solution Includes:


arrowKey Features


arrowApplications

The IEEE488 Interface has a multitude of communications applications in scientific and industrial environments. Some of the most common of these include:


arrowFunctional Description


arrowTechnical Specifications

SSI IEEE-488 Card Specifications
IEEE488-CL/PCI IEEE488-CL/ISA IEEE488-LM MC-IEEE488
Operating Temperature 0º to 70º Celsius 0º to 70º Celsius 0º to 70º Celsius 0º to 70º Celsius
Storage Temperature -50ºC to +150ºC -50ºC to +150ºC -50ºC to +150ºC -50ºC to +150ºC
Relative Humidity 95% non-condensing 95% non-condensing 95% non-condensing 95% non-condensing
Hardware Interrupts PCI Plug-and-Play IRQ 2- 7 IRQ 2- 7 MCA POS IRQ 2-9
Power: +5 Volts 450mA typical 500mA typical 585mA typical 585mA typical
Load 1 TTL 1 TTL 1 TTL 1 TTL
DMA PCI Target Only ISA DMA 1, 2 or 3 ISA DMA 1, 2 or 3 MCA POS DMA 0 to 15
Slots PCI short ISA 3/4 ISA 1/2 MicroChannel
Address PCI Plug-and-Play Any using A0-A9 16 jumper select MCA POS 8 selections
Agency Approvals FCC- Class A, CE-Mark FCC- Class A, CE-Mark FCC- Class B, CE-Mark FCC- Class A, CE-Mark

arrowFrequently Asked Questions

Q1. Can I use the IEEE-488-CL/PCI as a direct replacement for the IEEE-488-CL/ISA?

A1. YES. The IEEE-488-CL/PCI was designed to be a direct replacement for the ISA version. Software originally written for the ISA card will run on the PCI card without any modification. As an example, customers using our IEEE-488-CL/ISA card with Varian Chromatography systems have used the IEEE-488-CL/PCI with their existing software - allowing them to upgrade their computer system without costly new software.


Q2. The IEEE cards are shipped with an application called IEMENU.EXE. How can you use IEMENU to test the IEEE card?

A2. IEMENU.EXE is a program that can be used to verify that the card is communicating to your other equipment. It is not really "test" code, but is to serve as a quick program to try things. For IEMENU to work, you need to connect the IEEE-488 card to another IEEE device. In this example we used a multimeter. IEMENU will work under DOS or a DOS session of Win3x, Win95, Win98 or WinMe. It will not work under WinNT, 2000 or XP.

You need to know the IEEE-488 "id" of the other equipment. IEMENU assigns the ID=29 for the IEEE-488/CL card. As previously mentioned, IEMENU requires that the IEEE card have another device connected to it.

Here is an example of using IEMENU.EXE with Scientific Solutions IEEE-488 card. For this example, we have a FLUKE-45 multimeter attached as the IEEE-488 device. We have the meter set for ID=5.

The following example is using a FLUKE-45 multimeter that has been configured for a GPIB ID=5. For this example, we first set the IEEE-488 as the talker (ID=29) and the FLUKE-45 (ID=5) as the listener. We then WRITE the command *IDN? to the FLUKE-45 which is a specific command for this particular meter that is asking for information. We then set the FLUKE-45 as the talker and the IEEE-488 card as the listener. Lastly, we then READ the information from the FLUKE-45.

If you try a similar test with your equipment you need to know what the GPIB address is of the equipment. Also you will need to know what command you can send to your instrument (Write) that will make the instrument respond with data that you can Read.

For the following steps "CR" is a carriage return (Enter key)

(1). Connect 488 cable from the IEEE-488/CL card to the other equipment

(2). Power up the computer and equipment

(3). From a DOS prompt, type IEMENU

(4). Logo screen appears "Press Any Key to Continue"

(5). Main Menu

(6). F1 - Read/Write Function

(7). Read/Write Menu

(8). F1 - Set Talker

(9). GPIB Talker Address? 29 "CR"

(10). Secondary Address? "CR"

(11). Read/Write Menu

(12). F2 - Set Listener

(13). GPIB Listener Address? 5 "CR"

(14). Secondary Address "CR"

(15). GPIB Listener Address? "CR"

(16). Read/Write Menu

(17). F6 - Write String

(18). String = *IDN?

(19). Read/Write Menu

(20). F1 - Set Talker

(21). GPIB Talker Address? 5 "CR"

(22). Secondary Address? "CR"

(23). Read/Write Menu

(24). F2 - Set Listener

(25). GPIB Listener Address? 29 "CR"

(26). Secondary Address "CR"

(27). GPIB Listener Address? "CR"

(28). Read/Write Menu

(29). F4 - Read String

(30). FLUKE-45 SN:021254 (this is specific information returned by our meter)..