HP1630 Analyzer questions..

Guest
Hi people.
I bought me a HP1630 logic analyser a few months ago, and its been
really useful for debugging CPLD based designs. Now, though, I'm
wanting to debug slow-speed microprocessors with it.
It has a built-in 'inverse assembler' for the 68K, but I'm going to be
using the z80.. is there a way to upload the z80 instruction set
informations (gpib?) to the analyzer so it can inverse-assemble
(disassemble?) on the fly? How about software to upload it, am I on my
own here?
In a related question - I'm tempted to pick up a PCI GPIB interface
from ebay. What will this let me do - I know it will let me 'talk to
the analyzer' but to what extent? Will be able to dump the captured
data to PC? That'd be handy. How about remote control, so I don't have
to fiddle with its keypad? Is the software to do this fairly
availiable? Or do I have to write my own? And is it fairly nontrivial?

Thanks for reading...
 
In article <1129108748.624839.7730@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
randomdude@gmail.com says...
Hi people.
I bought me a HP1630 logic analyser a few months ago, and its been
really useful for debugging CPLD based designs. Now, though, I'm
wanting to debug slow-speed microprocessors with it.
It has a built-in 'inverse assembler' for the 68K, but I'm going to be
using the z80.. is there a way to upload the z80 instruction set
informations (gpib?) to the analyzer so it can inverse-assemble
(disassemble?) on the fly? How about software to upload it, am I on my
own here?
In a related question - I'm tempted to pick up a PCI GPIB interface
from ebay. What will this let me do - I know it will let me 'talk to
the analyzer' but to what extent? Will be able to dump the captured
data to PC? That'd be handy. How about remote control, so I don't have
to fiddle with its keypad? Is the software to do this fairly
availiable? Or do I have to write my own? And is it fairly nontrivial?

Thanks for reading...
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with the 1630, but most HP instruments will let you
control pretty much everything via GPIB. If the card you buy is from
National Instruments, you will be able to download tons of drivers and
support/programming literature from www.ni.com. The NI PCI-GPIB is a
great way to go.

Given the popularity of the 1630, I'd imagine that some time spent in
Google will reveal plenty of control software options. At a minimum,
you should certainly be able to obtain a screen dump from it. Quite a
few free/shareware/inexpensive commercial utilities for plotter
emulation are available, including mine (see http://www.speakeasy.org/
~jmiles1/ke5fx/7470.htm ). The source code at that link should be a
good starting point for writing your own, if it comes to that.

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
"John Miles" <jmiles@pop.removethistomailme.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.1db70c61b213a1e99896f4@news-central.giganews.com...
In article <1129108748.624839.7730@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
randomdude@gmail.com says...
Hi people.
I bought me a HP1630 logic analyser a few months ago, and its been
really useful for debugging CPLD based designs. Now, though, I'm
wanting to debug slow-speed microprocessors with it.
It has a built-in 'inverse assembler' for the 68K, but I'm going to be
using the z80.. is there a way to upload the z80 instruction set
informations (gpib?) to the analyzer so it can inverse-assemble
(disassemble?) on the fly? How about software to upload it, am I on my
own here?
In a related question - I'm tempted to pick up a PCI GPIB interface
from ebay. What will this let me do - I know it will let me 'talk to
the analyzer' but to what extent? Will be able to dump the captured
data to PC? That'd be handy. How about remote control, so I don't have
to fiddle with its keypad? Is the software to do this fairly
availiable? Or do I have to write my own? And is it fairly nontrivial?

Thanks for reading...



I'm not familiar with the 1630, but most HP instruments will let you
control pretty much everything via GPIB. If the card you buy is from
National Instruments, you will be able to download tons of drivers and
support/programming literature from www.ni.com. The NI PCI-GPIB is a
great way to go.

Given the popularity of the 1630, I'd imagine that some time spent in
Google will reveal plenty of control software options. At a minimum,
you should certainly be able to obtain a screen dump from it. Quite a
few free/shareware/inexpensive commercial utilities for plotter
emulation are available, including mine (see http://www.speakeasy.org/
~jmiles1/ke5fx/7470.htm ). The source code at that link should be a
good starting point for writing your own, if it comes to that.

-- jm
Click to expand...
I have looked around a lot for any support for the 1630 logic analyzers GPIB
interface.

Not much seems to be online anywhere.

I have heard of the Z80 inverse assembler for the 1630 but could never find
a copy.

The closest I have got it the 10391B Inverse Assembler Development Package.
This package comes with the source code for 8085 and 68010 inverse
assemblers.

Using this package to create an inverse assembler is a non trivial task. I
used it to do a very simple protocol parser on an HP16500B logic analyzer
main frame. It was an "interesting" experience.

You may want to find a disc drive unit for your 1630 like the HP 9121 D/S
Flexible Disc Drive. The HP 9121S is a single 3-l/2 inch flexible disc drive
and the HP 9121D is a dual 3-l/2 inch flexible disc drive. The disc unit
will allow you to load inverse assemblers and store analyzer captures. When
attached to a disc unit the 1630 can act as the GPIB controller. Later
version of HP logic analyzers cannot do this.

A utility (LIFUTIL.EXE) is available that lets a PC read and write these
discs. The MSDOS disc format was not supported by HP until the 16500B and
1660 series were released.

All in all you just might do better by making a simple GPIB interface
program that can download the capture buffer and let you disassemble it on
your PC.
 
Hi

I would highly recommend the GPIB card if you want to set
up some repetitive tests. I dont have the 1630 I got a
HP16500B instead. I have the HP16531A oscope card for it
and I can suck the traces off of it. You can also save
a screen shot to the disk and pull the GIF file off of the
machine with GPIB ( no floppy transfers needed ). I am
using the HP E2050 GPIB to LAN gateway box (also off ebay).
Then you can have the GPIB box far away from your computer
and you dont need an $$ >10ft GPIB cable.

I am not a big fan of NI Lab view. If you want to own a
legitimate copy it is expensive! You can write C-code using
the NI GPIB API drivers or you can get open source code that
provide examples and a support group ( and free )

http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/

the documentation of the GPIB drivers API is on

http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/doc_html/index.html

Instrument GPIB programming syntax is often available on the
Agilent web site. If not buy the programming manual on Ebay.
GPIB programming is easy if you know C code.

I dont use C-code cause a friend wrote a Perl module that lets
me use Perl to program GPIB instead. No compiling needed.


Good Luck with the dissassembly stuff

Jeff


randomdude@gmail.com wrote:
Hi people.
I bought me a HP1630 logic analyser a few months ago, and its been
really useful for debugging CPLD based designs. Now, though, I'm
wanting to debug slow-speed microprocessors with it.
It has a built-in 'inverse assembler' for the 68K, but I'm going to be
using the z80.. is there a way to upload the z80 instruction set
informations (gpib?) to the analyzer so it can inverse-assemble
(disassemble?) on the fly? How about software to upload it, am I on my
own here?
In a related question - I'm tempted to pick up a PCI GPIB interface
from ebay. What will this let me do - I know it will let me 'talk to
the analyzer' but to what extent? Will be able to dump the captured
data to PC? That'd be handy. How about remote control, so I don't have
to fiddle with its keypad? Is the software to do this fairly
availiable? Or do I have to write my own? And is it fairly nontrivial?

Thanks for reading...
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

I just put some software I wrote for my HP1631A up on sourceforge:

http://gpib-utils.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gpib-utils/

You need linux-gpib and a GPIB card. The hp1630 utility will
let you obtain screen dumps from the analyzer and convert them
to usable image formats, save/restore configuration, and even
convert state/timing traces to DECSIM ascii format for off-analyzer
analysis with dinotrace.

Have a look and let me know what you think.

Regards,

Jim


Jeff Meyer wrote:
Hi

I would highly recommend the GPIB card if you want to set
up some repetitive tests. I dont have the 1630 I got a
HP16500B instead. I have the HP16531A oscope card for it
and I can suck the traces off of it. You can also save
a screen shot to the disk and pull the GIF file off of the
machine with GPIB ( no floppy transfers needed ). I am
using the HP E2050 GPIB to LAN gateway box (also off ebay).
Then you can have the GPIB box far away from your computer
and you dont need an $$ >10ft GPIB cable.

I am not a big fan of NI Lab view. If you want to own a
legitimate copy it is expensive! You can write C-code using
the NI GPIB API drivers or you can get open source code that
provide examples and a support group ( and free )

http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/

the documentation of the GPIB drivers API is on

http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/doc_html/index.html

Instrument GPIB programming syntax is often available on the
Agilent web site. If not buy the programming manual on Ebay.
GPIB programming is easy if you know C code.

I dont use C-code cause a friend wrote a Perl module that lets
me use Perl to program GPIB instead. No compiling needed.


Good Luck with the dissassembly stuff

Jeff


randomdude@gmail.com wrote:
Hi people.
I bought me a HP1630 logic analyser a few months ago, and its been
really useful for debugging CPLD based designs. Now, though, I'm
wanting to debug slow-speed microprocessors with it.
It has a built-in 'inverse assembler' for the 68K, but I'm going to be
using the z80.. is there a way to upload the z80 instruction set
informations (gpib?) to the analyzer so it can inverse-assemble
(disassemble?) on the fly? How about software to upload it, am I on my
own here?
In a related question - I'm tempted to pick up a PCI GPIB interface
from ebay. What will this let me do - I know it will let me 'talk to
the analyzer' but to what extent? Will be able to dump the captured
data to PC? That'd be handy. How about remote control, so I don't have
to fiddle with its keypad? Is the software to do this fairly
availiable? Or do I have to write my own? And is it fairly nontrivial?

Thanks for reading...
Click to expand...
 
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