Control any GPIB Instrument over Ethernet

The GPIB-LAN controller from Audon Electronics converts any computer with a Ethernet port into a GPIB Controller or Device. In Controller mode, the GPIB-LAN controller can remotely control GPIB enabled instruments such as Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, and Spectrum Analyzers. In Device mode, the GPIB-LAN controller converts the computer into a GPIB peripheral for downloading data and screen plots from the instrument front panel. In both modes, the GPIB-LAN controller interprets high level commands received from the host computer and performs the appropriate low-level GPIB protocol handshaking.

No special drivers are required and a wide variety of host software may be used to communicate with the GPIB-LAN. The GPIB-LAN controller supports static IP address and dynamic (DHCP) IP address. The controller’s network parameters can be configured using the supplied NetFinder application

Available ex-stock from only £149.

www.audon.co.uk/gpiblan.html.

Ethernet based Environmental Monitor sends email Alarms

The Poseidon 3268 is a simple Ethernet based stand-alone device which can send an email alarm when up to 4 monitored temperature or humidity sensors exceeds their defined range. The Poseidon 3266 also has 4 contact-closure inputs which can be used to trigger alarms on state change and there are 2 relay outputs which can be used to reset servers, or switch on a fan, etc.

Temperature or combined temperature/humidity sensors can be connected via RJ11 cable using the 1-wire protocol. Sensors are simply connected in a serial chain using RJ11 cable. These can be up to 10m away from the Poseidon 3268. You can assign a name to each sensor and also define high and low alarm limits. When the parameter goes outside these limits, the Poseidon 3266 can send user defined email alarm messages and toggle the output relays.

Once the Poseidon 3268 is connected to the LAN, you can run the free UDP setup utility, which will search the LAN to find all attached devices. You can then specify your desired Network address parameters. Once this is done, you can simply access the I/O data from a web browser. There is also a flash-based version.

All sensor's values as well as alarm status information are available from XML files (temper.xml) and any application can log it from XML tags. The Poseidon 3268 also supports the Modbus/TCP protocol, so it is easy to integrate with common SCADA packages such as DAQFactory.

Typical applications include monitoring conditions in server rooms, switch-boards, cold-storage buildings, freezers and fridges and other environmental monitoring tasks.