[time-nuts] Frequency counter recommendation

Bob Camp lists at rtty.us
Sun Dec 19 20:45:52 UTC 2010


Hi

My bag full of useless adapters were indeed "class compliant" back in the day. Not so any more under the new approach to signed drivers. 

Bob


On Dec 19, 2010, at 3:09 PM, Chris Albertson wrote:

> Yes.  It can if done wrong.
> 
> The "correct" way to use USB is to make your USB device "class
> compliant" for some class.  Then most OSes (and with recent releases
> even MS Windows) will have built-in drivers for each class of USB
> device.  Never buy or design a USB device that requires the user to
> instal device drivers.
> 
> The worlds has enough poorly designed USB devices that only have
> drivers for old versions of Windows.  We don't need more of those
> 
> Still. If I were designing a counter I'd just have to talk to a local
> bus using SPI, "2 wire", I2C or whatever and then have a secon module
> that converts "whatever" to USB, rs232, or just a pannel with nixi
> tubes and toggle switches
> 
> 
> On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
>> Hi
>> 
>> USB ties you into the same silly PC driver two year life silly stuff. The bus has a lot of staying power, but keeping the stack up to date is a pain. Even for so called "standard" parts that interface to a "common" interface - neither one really turns out to be true. I have a big bucket full of serial adapters that were standard parts under XP. No drivers to install, just plug and play. Under the more modern stuff - no driver available. The gizmos are now Christmas ornaments.
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>> On Dec 19, 2010, at 10:35 AM, jimlux wrote:
>> 
>>> Gerhard Hoffmann wrote:
>>>> Am 19.12.2010 05:52, schrieb Bob Camp:
>>>>> The real thing you would learn about is writing code that runs an FPGA.
>>>> Yes. A good starting point would be a Xilinx SP605 kit.
>>>> It's about the $750 for a decent 5370 and includes
>>>> many points from Bobs option list.
>>>>> The other gotcha here is that the feature list can get pretty large:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 3) USB 2.0 interface
>>>>> 4) RS-232 interface
>>>>> 5) HPIB emulation of an HP box    (w/o drivers)
>>>>> 6) Ethernet interface
>>>>> 1) Web server software
>>>>> 1) Front pannel controls       (W/o mechanic)
>>>>> 2) Front pannel display        (VGA output)
>>>>> 3) Front interface connections (DUT's)
>>>>> 4) Rear pannel standard interfaces and controls  (w/o mechanics)
>>>>> 2) Flash card storage
>>>>> 3) USB stick storage
>>>>> 4) SD card storage
>>>>> 5) Battery backed RAM storage
>>>>> 1) Some number of counter inputs ( some programmable SMA I/O)
>>>>> 2) Some number of reference inputs
>>>>> 
>>>>> 1) Battery power
>>>>> 2) Auto 12 V power
>>>>> 3) AC line power
>>>> use as a PCIE card in a pc or mac
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I hate cards that plug into a PC.  The PC bus respin cycle is much too short, and you have device drivers, etc. to worry about.  At work, we use rack mounted PCs to control a bunch of test equipment.  Since we're doing spacecraft stuff, the "design use life" of the rack is 2-3 years, but it will be used beyond that, and often, will get reused for the next project.
>>> 
>>> I've spent way too many hours hunting for another ISA bus machine, or trying to resurrect NT4.0, because there's no device drivers for anything newer.
>>> 
>>> In my book, RS232 is fine for low end, Ethernet is even better, USB looks pretty good and has some staying power.  Folks implementing things on USB tend to use simple conceptual models (e.g. emulated serial port).
>>> 
>>> My only gripe about USB is that it's a very master/slave sort of thing.
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> =====
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> 
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