HP 3468A and HP-IL - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 01:57:30 am
content: HPIL=Hewlett-Packard Interface Loop. Learn something new every day I guess.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-ILIt sounds like the 3468A used the interface to talk to peripherals like printers and tape drives or something. Does that mean it's possible to log data through that interface if you could figure out how to talk to it?Is there some sort of adapter HPIL->USB available like the HPIB->USB ones that are out there?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 02:19:26 am
content: Google must be broken.. wikipedia too.as both pages immediately give you this :http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/hpil/

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 04:20:17 am
content: True, I should have linked that. I promise I'm only being a little lazy. It's been a long day.The thing is, it doesn't look very easy to buy that board and it's not open source so I can't just make one. It's also kind of expensive considering you could just save the extra 135USD and get something with GPIB or RS232. It does look like it's possible to reverse engineer the schematic from the pictures in the documentation but that's a lot of work if something else was available, or it's not worth it.They only give one example of getting 3 data points off an 3468A. I haven't looked at the client code, but they don't really describe all the functionality which doesn't seem very obvious since you are actually emulating peripherals right?I could be way off base. It wouldn't be the first time. If so, please set me straight.Do you have one of those FE? It sounded like you are not a big fan of the open source GPIB->USB converters available. Does that board do a better job?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 07:22:14 am
content: Whadddayamean its not open sauce. .the source is on that page for download ! It a stupid pic processor. Breaboard it. Download the source ode and off you go.Anyway hp-il is long dead. It was used in the model 80 computers and some handheld calculators.As for not being a fan of the open source gpib stuff . I dont like em because they are not full or correct implementations. Electrically the real pin drivers are often missing gving problems trying to drive a bunch of machines ( on real gpib you can have tens of meters of cable and 15 machines without problems. ) , and software wise none of the homebrews are compatible with the established mechanisms such as SICL or VISA or GPIB32 which precludes them from being used with any existing tools put there. Agilent gives you nice data collection software that works with their machines. It doesn't care if you have an agilent , ni or ecs gpib card , or if its pci , usb or networked.The real gpib hardware makers are all interchangeable because there is a defined API, either through GPIB32.dll or through a VISA layer. You can use any manufacturers hardware,it will work. Not so with the homebrews.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 08:33:11 pm
content: AFAIK most of the open source HPIB converters use the Prologix command set so they could be used as a Prologix device. But ofcourse one could opt to implement a different command set which is compatible with another device for which a VISA driver is available.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2013, 05:38:19 am
content: The point is the prologix 'standard' is not a standard at all as it does not follow ieee488.2All devices that follow the real standard work perfectly fine with VISA, SICL or the gpib32.dll.

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2013, 05:23:49 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on February 06, 2013, 05:38:19 amHe..HePoor guys making PCB's for the clones/Bingo