my lab

Well, there is WWV :-)

A mix, and that's unavoidable. Older gear that is irreplaceable (because they simply don't make some of the good stuff anymore) inevitably comes with those dreaded HPIB garden hose connections. The logic analyzer and some other gear I rarely use is from the RS232 era. Modern gear like the DSO is USB. And I will absolutely not have HPIB garden hoses here anymore.

So, there is a Prologix HPIB/USB adaptor, an RS232/USB adaptor plus the traditional USB spreader octopus. I raised the equipment rack by 1-1/2" to make all that fit underneath, plus scope probes, chargers, international outlets, a flat vise and whatever else is needed during lab work. Nice thing is, a laptop can now talk to all the important boxes.

I'm so used to GPIB that I'm probably not a good example. It's a great deal nicer than RS232, and given that it's been around so long, I don't have to worry much about OSes not supporting it in detail--unlike USB.

A nice Prologix GPIB-Ethernet is next on my list.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

GPIB is terrible. The topper happened a long time ago, after I had just laid new carpet. Connector slipped off, the garden hose cable ricocheted, hit my coffee mug which was half full ... *THWACK* ... flew off and crashed onto new carpet. That was the end of GPIB for me. There sure are better busses out there. I used to prefer RS232 but now everything is USB.

If you have to use equipment at clients a lot and its legacy HP stuff the USB version is very practical. Plug it in, hit print on the analyzer, done. But Abdul (the Prologix designer) and I had to iron out a bias problem before it liked HP legacy gear.

Spilling coffee is a criticism of a bus? GPIB can do about 1 MB/s when externally clocked, which is better than good enough for most things I need to do in the lab, and if I tighten the screws I can even keep my coffee and my carpet. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Joerg is accident prone... always *PHUT*ing ;-) ...Jim Thompson

He always has one *PHUT* in the grave...

Very good!

We need to have an SED get-together. If I hosted it, say in April, when AZ is absolutely delightful weather-wise, who would come? ...Jim Thompson

Noted and added to the list. ...Jim Thompson

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