[time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...

[Prologix]

Interesting. I used to sell a GPIB-RS232 version some years ago. Sales were
low since customers were clamoring for an USB version! But then I hadn't
discovered this crowd :-) Happy to take another look at it.

I am in the process of designing a GPIB-Ethernet controller. You think that
will be of any interest?

Abdul


-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of John Ackermann N8UR
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 3:20 PM
To: Tom Van Baak; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Prologix GPIB/USB converter help...

Tom Van Baak said the following on 04/16/2007 05:41 PM:
>> In that  case the new firmware will not be compatible at all. The new
>> hardware uses  FTDI FT245R USB FIFO chip which has a parallel interface
to
>> the micro. Host  side USB drivers make it appear like a virtual serial
port,
>> which is why  all the serial port parameters can be  ignored.
>>
>> Abdul
>>
>>
>> Hi Abdul,
>>
>> got it. Any chance you will make a GPIB-to-RS-232 version for us legacy
guys 
>> out there?
>>
>> thanks,
>> Said
> 
> Abdul,
> 
> I very much second Said's request. There are plenty of
> applications where the Prologix box would be used in an
> embedded environment. USB is a very bad choice in this
> case since it is a highly asymmetric interface (there are
> a million USB devices but pretty much only a full-blown
> PC can be a USB host).
> 
> Allowing serial (RS232 or SPI or I2C) in addition to USB
> is a big plus. I'm sorry to hear your new version can't be
> hacked to support this. Do you have any extra pins on
> your controller? Could it be extended to support a serial
> interface? You can talk to Said or me offline if you want;
> but you unnecessarily shrink your market if you drop a
> serial interface.

I'll throw in a vote, too.  While the USB version works OK for my
application, an RS-232 version that had an identical API would be very
useful.

John

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