gpibgrok

This page documents some ideas and information for a GPIB-USBTMC hardware interface.

NOTE: This project is on hold currently, nobody is working on it.

Motivation

There are many ways to communicate with devices that have a GPIB port, and sigrok aims to support as many of them as possible (see IEEE-488). However in this day and age the only reasonable interface for this would have to use a USB device port, since USB host ports are so ubiquitous. The USB standards include a device class specifically made for test and measurement, called the USBTMC class.

Yet most of the GPIB-USB interfaces available don't use this device class; they typically use either a proprietary protocol or serial emulation. There is only one GPIB-USBTMC interface that we know of: the TEK-USB-444 from Tektronix, and it's ridiculously overpriced at around $740.

We think we can make a GPIB-USBTMC interface that is:

• 100% free and open source, hardware and firmware/software
• 100% standards-compliant
• Considerably cheaper than anything else out there (less than $50)

In addition, since we'd be making essentially a "server-side" i.e. USB device-side implementation of the USBTMC protocol, this code would be reusable in projects such as Das Oszi.

Hardware design

• Using an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller would get us:
  • Built-in USB
  • Plenty of horsepower to handle the throughput a GPIB device will reasonably need
  • Many different implementations to choose from, and many inexpensive development boards
  • Can start with an existing development board + GPIB connector
• Voltage levels on GPIB pins is "negative logic with standard TTL levels": true <= 0.8V, false >= 2.0V. (to be verified)

Software

Due to the long history of the IEEE-488 and SCPI standards, there are many devices out there supporting some earlier version of the protocol, and these will typically support commands that are vendor-specific, and syntax that is not compliant IEEE-488. Therefore supporting various device-specific or vendor-specific "quirks" will likely be a big part of real-world use-cases.

Components

GPIB connectors

• Right-angle, PCB mounted, male:
  • Norcomp 112-024-113R001: about $5.5; Mouser (2.80€, but not available ATM), Digikey (4.59€)
  • TE Connectivity 5552741-1: about $7.2; Mouser (5.87€, but not available, and minimum quantity required), Digikey (7.50€)
• Straight (no right-angle), PCB mounted, male:
  • TE Connectivity / AMP 552283-1: Mouser (4.08€), Digikey (4.51€, but EOL soon? Minimum quantity?)
• Straight (no right-angle), solder-cup, male:
  • Norcomp 111-024-103L001: Digikey (2.90€)
  • Amphenol 57-20240: Mouser (4.93€) TODO: Typo on page/datasheet, or is this really female?
• Straight (no right-angle), solder, male:
  • Norcomp 111-024-113L001: Digikey (4.54€)
• Straight (no right-angle), solder-cup/cable, male:
  • Amphenol 57-30240: Mouser (7.19€), Digikey: N/A
• Straight (no right-angle), ribbon cable, male:
  • MULTICOMP 5F30240P-10NN-XX: Farnell (2.31€)

GPIB protocol chips

• Philips/NXP HEF4738
• Fairchild 96LS488
• NEC uPD7210C/D
• National Instruments NAT7210: "Drop-In Replacement Chip for NEC µPD7210 Controller" (datasheet)
• National Instruments NAT9914: "Drop-In Replacement Chips for TI TMS9914A Controllers" (datasheet)
• National Instruments TNT4882: "High-Performance, Lower-Cost Single-Chip GPIB Talker/Listener ASIC" (datasheet)
• National Instruments TNT5002: "Single-Chip PCI-to-GPIB Talker/Listener ASIC" (datasheet)

(pretty much all of them are no longer available, or horribly expensive, or hard to get, or a combination thereof)

GPIB transceiver chips

• National DS75160A/61A/62A
• SN75160B: Octal General-Purpose Interface Bus Transceiver (datasheet). Mouser: 1.55€, Digikey (2.33€)
• SN75161B: Octal General-Purpose Interface Bus Transceiver (datasheet). Mouser: 1.45€, Digikey (2.74€)
• SN75162B: Octal General-Purpose Interface Bus Transceiver (datasheet). Mouser: 2.03€, Digikey (2.33€)

Bill of materials

(work in progress)

Qty	Device	Footprint	Value	Refdes	Digikey	Mouser	Comments
1	ST STM32F103C6T6A	LQFP-48	...	...	4.54€	...	...
1	TI SN75160B	...	...	...	2.33€	...	...
1	TI SN75162B	...	...	...	2.33€	...	...

Resources

• Massimiliano Gentile's thesis on writing a USBTMC driver for the AVR32 architecture.
• Hack a Day: GPIB connectivity twofer (covers Galvant GPIBUSB and Sven Pauli's RS232-GPIB interface)
• GPIB connector pinout

Volunteers

Please edit this section with your name and (public) contact details if you are interested in developing this.

• User:Ivan747 (same nick on IRC), experience in hardware, low level firmware (but not USB). Willing to participate with the support from someone experienced in USB protocols on any kind of ARM device. Contact: ivan747[at]users.sourceforge.net.