Just about a year ago I first posted about a project I was working on to produce a USB to GPIB adapter along the lines of many others you could buy, but with a goal of being somewhat lower cost.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/yet-another-usb-gpib-interface-(yaugi)/msg2744372/#msg2744372Anyway ... I have continued developing this, but have switched away from USB in favour of ethernet, and specifically PoE (802.11af) ... it's not ready yet, but I've seen a few things over the last few days that's made me think I should talk about what I'm doing.
It's designed to be a single device controller, so not intended to run a long chain of GPIB cables, the idea being that they should be low cost enough that you just throw one in each device. I understand that might not be ideal from a triggering perspective, but given most new devices are ethernet based and not GPIB I'm sure it's not the end of the world.
I've redesigned the GPIB handshake and moved it from software bit twiddling into the programmable logic on the PSoC device, so it's much faster, it also has a hardware timeout mechanism and so far I've not managed to lock it up at all.
It uses a W5500 ethernet controller and I've implemented (from scratch) a DHCP client, a mDNS responder, a VXI11 rpc based client, and a web server to handle config and even firmware updates. (Now you know why it's been a year!) It also accepts TCP and UDP based queries, so can be used with things as simple as nc. It also seems to work ok with LabView and other NI tools although I've only done very rudimentary testing.
I'm using a Silvertel Ag9900 PoE module, which really feels like the lowest cost way of achieving PoE (and now are available from Mouser, the first few I had to get direct!) Still mulling whether to add a USB port for power in for non-PoE scenarios.
I've got a version with the GPIB connector directly on the PCB (see photo in 3d printed case) and I've just built another version with an IDC connector and ribbon cable, which I think is more practical for use behind kit in tight spaces etc.
So far it's largely working, I still need to implement the VXI11 abort and interrupt channels, and there is still a fair amount of work to do on the web browser and web based UI.
My best guess at this point (as I've just found some lower cost ethernet magjack options) is that at small scale this is likely to be $30 to $40 of board and components. My last order of 5 assembled IDC ones from JLCPCB was $40 + shipping/tax and you just need to add the PoE module, PSoC, MagJack, and ribbon cables/connectors.
Interested in thoughts/feedback. No commercial intent - doing it for my own use, and will be very happy to share once it's working reasonably well.
(And yes, there is a bodge wire in the photo ... my new MiniProg4 seems to be missing a pull-up on the UART so receives garbage during reset and programming, so this will be added on the next revision, but only needed for debug)
Lee.