Budget GPIB to USB converter is Easy to USe

The GPIB-USB4 controller from Audon Electronics converts any computer with a USB port into a GPIB Controller or Device. In Controller mode, the GPIB-USB controller can remotely control GPIB enabled instruments such as Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, and Waveform Generators. In Device mode, the GPIB-USB controller converts the computer into a GPIB peripheral for downloading data and screen plots from the instrument front panel. In both modes, the GPIB-USB controller interprets high level commands received from the host computer and performs the appropriate low-level GPIB protocol handshaking.

While the GPIB-USB4 controller provides many of the same features as GPIB-USB controllers from other vendors, it is much easier to use. The GPIB-USB4 controller provides a virtual serial interface to communicate with instruments, while handling all GPIB protocol details for you. As a result, you can communicate easily with instruments using any terminal program instead of having to write custom programs using the vendor supplied library

The GPIB-USB controller can operate in two modes – Controller mode and Device mode.

In Controller mode, the GPIB-USB Controller acts as the Controller-In-Charge (CIC) on the GPIB bus. When the controller receives a command over the USB port it addresses the GPIB instrument at the currently specified address to listen, and then returns the received data to the PC. Controller mode is used to remotely control instruments and to download screen plots by sending plot commands from a host computer.

In Device mode, the GPIB-USB Controller acts as another peripheral on the GPIB bus. In this mode, the GPIB-USB controller configures itself as a GPIB Listener. All data received by the controller over the GPIB port is passed to the USB port. Device mode is used to download screen plots from the instrument front panel for rendering using plotter emulation software.

A wide variety of host software may be used to communicate with the GPIB-USB controller. Any terminal emulation program, such as HyperTerminal, can be used to communicate with the controller and instruments connected to it. Any programming language or environment that provides access to serial ports or allows interfacing to DLL may be used to develop custom applications. Graphical programming environments like National Instruments LabView, DAQFactory and Agilent VEE may be used as well. Finally, it is possible to use plotter emulation applications such as 7470.exe, PrintCapture and Plottergeist to render screen plots from any common HPGL plotter instruments.

The GPIB-USB4 is available ex-stock from Audon Electronics for under £100

DSO-101 USB Digital Storage Scope

The DSO-101 from Audon Electronics is an USB-powered digital storage oscilloscope with dual 20MS/s inputs and a 2MHz bandwidth that is small enough to fit in your pocket. The DSO-101 packs some powerful features including a hardware preamp, adjustable digital triggering, and 32kB memory depth on each of the two 8 bit input channels. The DSO-101 is powered by an open-source graphical user interface for Windows and Linux.

The DSO-101 is a general-purpose two-channel oscilloscope for the teaching, development and debugging of electronic circuits. Channels A and B are sampled simultaneously and stored in oscilloscope memory before being sent for display to the host computer. Consequently, they are always time aligned and triggered from the same trigger signal. The oscilloscope timebase frequency is derived from a crystal oscillator, so it can be expected to be precise and stable.

The fully functional, easy to use software supports multiple triggering modes, waveform scrolling, saving waveforms to a file, and cursor measurements. Source code is included. The user can add and modify the graphic user interface as desired.

The PC connects to the oscilloscope hardware via a USB cable so that no other power source is required. The USB interface emulates a serial port so that the oscilloscope may be accessed as a serial port device