HPIB Card

[w3frg]

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom

 

[Aidan Grey]

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:47:02 -0400, w3frg wrote:

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom

Surf your way to the following URL:

http://ftp.agilent.com/pub/mpusup/pc/iop/hc1_hpcd.html

It has some information on the HP 27209 card.

The HP 27209 card is very similar to the HP 82335 card which came a little
later. Any HP 82335 driver should work with the HP 27209 card.

The HP 27209 card has an 8K BIOS chip on it. This must be set to an
address that does not conflict with your system.

I don't think any driver exists past Windows 3.1 for the HP 27209/82335
cards.
I might be wrong about that. In fact, I don't know what DOS drivers exist
for those cards.

What do you want to do with your HP8563E spectrum analyzer? It might
be easier to go with a more recent card that has better software available.
What
is your budget? If you could afford it, you would be better off going with a

National Instruments GPIB card, and a software package such as LabView.

For information on LabView, go to www.ni.com.


Aidan Grey

 

[Joerg Hau]

On Friday 24 September 2004 20:47, w3frg wrote:

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone
CPU.

s/CPU/PC/

The 27209 is an old HPIB card that works with any PC that (still ;-)
has an ISA slot. In contrast to more recent (PCI) cards it requires a
bit of fiddling with the IRQ and i/o ports, but it works fine.

Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it

Among others, it is supported by the linux-gpib drivers, see
<https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-gpib-general>

to access an HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.

To "talk" to any device over GPIB, you need to know the GPIB (HBIB)
command set of that instrument. This is usually described in the
manual; with this, you can program your own software to interact with
it.

Cheers + HTH,

- Joerg


--
joerg dot hau at swissonline dot ch * Lausanne, Switzerland
http://homepage.sunrise.ch/mysunrise/joerg.hau/
"All standard disclaimers apply".
remove the obvious from my address to reply

 

[Ed Price]

"Aidan Grey" <apgrey@nospam.con> wrote in message
news:ncterlplorehfpn.i4kg761.pminews@news.execulink.com...

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:47:02 -0400, w3frg wrote:

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom



Surf your way to the following URL:

http://ftp.agilent.com/pub/mpusup/pc/iop/hc1_hpcd.html

It has some information on the HP 27209 card.

The HP 27209 card is very similar to the HP 82335 card which came a
little
later. Any HP 82335 driver should work with the HP 27209 card.

The HP 27209 card has an 8K BIOS chip on it. This must be set to an
address that does not conflict with your system.

I don't think any driver exists past Windows 3.1 for the HP 27209/82335
cards.
I might be wrong about that. In fact, I don't know what DOS drivers exist
for those cards.

What do you want to do with your HP8563E spectrum analyzer? It might
be easier to go with a more recent card that has better software
available.
What
is your budget? If you could afford it, you would be better off going
with a

National Instruments GPIB card, and a software package such as LabView.

For information on LabView, go to www.ni.com.


Aidan Grey

Or go look in your closet and pull out that old Commodore PET computer. With
a massive 8K RAM, and an OS in <32K ROM, it had a built-in Basic with a
command set for controlling an IEEE-488 (GPBI / HPIB) bus. Only slight
problem was it had a PCB edge connector instead of the standard (really
expensive) connector. But your 8563 will never know it's being controlled by
a doorstop.

--
Ed
WB6WSN

 

[John Miles]

In article <2KednfwzWs0g9sncRVn-rw@comcast.com>, w3frg@comcast.net
says...

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom

Try searching www.agilent.com for "Benchlink." It costs a few hundred
bucks, but if anything would work with the older HPIB hardware, it
should be Agilent's own package.

However: it's VERY unlikely that you'll be able to use that card under
any post-Win95 version of Windows, and almost certainly not under any
NT-based version like Win2K or XP. I would suggest taking the other
posters' advice and upgrading to a newer PCI-GPIB or similar card from
National Instruments. They're easy to find on eBay, and the drivers are
free from www.ni.com . Pay attention to the OS compatibility chart for
the card you're looking at; the older PCII/IIA cards don't have newer OS
drivers.

If I'm not mistaken, the 8563E is backwards-compatible with the HP 8566B
command set. Assuming that's true, you can probably use my free
7470.exe app (at www.speakeasy.net/~jmiles1/7470.zip) to grab screen
captures from it. It will require an NI card, though. Frankly, I
wouldn't waste a whole lot of time trying to get the HP card to work
with anything, unless the 8563E uses custom calibration/maintenance
software that demands it.

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------

 

[Ed Price]

"John Miles" <jmiles@pop.removethistomailme.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.1bc1ed8e98aa074b98971f@news-central.giganews.com...

In article <2KednfwzWs0g9sncRVn-rw@comcast.com>, w3frg@comcast.net
says...
I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom

Try searching www.agilent.com for "Benchlink." It costs a few hundred
bucks, but if anything would work with the older HPIB hardware, it
should be Agilent's own package.

I think the Benchlink series of interfaces (IIRC, HP had about 5, customized
towards generators or analyzers or DMM's, etc) are now "unsupported"
products, and as such, may not even be being sold by Agilent.

HP seemed to "allow" the Benchlink packages to be loosely distributed,
because the Benchlink application, upon being installed, had a 30-day timer.
After that period (in which you were supposed to buy an authorization code
form HP), the program stops operating.

So, unless you can get an authorization code from someplace, the fun's all
over next month.

Ed
wb6wsn

 

[w3frg]

Thanks for all of the valuable information you gentlemen have supplied.
It's now time for me to investigate the purchase of a current version NI
card and stop wasting time on an antique, Hi.

Thanks to all, Tom

"w3frg" <w3frg@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:2KednfwzWs0g9sncRVn-rw@comcast.com...

I have looked in the usual places (to no avail) for info on an HPIB
card, 27209, to see if it's compatible with the everyday IBM clone
CPU.
Also, what software is out there that's compatible with it to access
an
HP8563E Spectrum Analyzer.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA.
Tom