NI GPIB-ENET/100 access without NI drivers in Python?

[r6502]

Hello all,

a time ago i got a NI GPIB-ENET/100, and used it together with labview (community edition) to collect data from my test gear.

meanwhile I'f a new mac PC, where the old drivers from NI do no longer work. Is there a chance, to get direct access tot the GPIB-ENET / 100 devise  with help of  Python?  I've looked at the NI forum, also here bud did not find any usefully information for this device. for the older one the GPIB-ENET there is something avelable but does not work with the newer GPIB-ENET/100.

Does somebody have information about the protocol of the GPIB-ENET/100?

Is it be an option, to use an older PC with a network sniffer, to reverse engineer the protocol? I have no experience with this. For me it would be very practical to connect the GPIB-ENET/100 to my local network, and than use any connectec PC to collect data just with one connection.

I thank everybody,  who would share  information here.

Guido

[dietert1]

Had the same question but did not post.
I never tried shared access, like using two different GPIB devices on the bus each one from a different ethernet host. Unless that works the NI interface is obsolete as it is equivalent to a USB interface for € 70. I think GPIB-ENET ebay prices of up to 1000 € are fantasy. For that price one can setup multiple GPIB busses, one for each host.

Regards, Dieter

[r6502]

Hi Dieter,
problem with USB powered interfaces is, that it is sometimes problematic, when more than 1 GPIB device is connected to the bus and the PC must be close to it. And I want connect more than one GPIB device to the bus. It is a BUS ...

One option I thought about, is using a GPIB-RS232 adapter from NI and connect that to an RS232 - Ethernet bridge. The GPIB-RS232 adapter from NI is well documented. But the other thing must  be possible as well ...

Guido

[voltsandjolts]

If you're looking for an off-the-shelf ready-to-go ethernet-gpib solution then ignore this post.

There is the open source GPIB USB adapter called AR488 on Github and here. It works great and has similar command interface to the Prologix devices. Somebody added an ethernet interface to the firmware, decribed in this post. I haven't tried it yet but its on my radar.

Note the downside of the Prologix command interface is that its different to your Keithley/NI/Keysight/R&S standard api's so it's not a drop-in backward compatible solution, needs some coding.

[ch_scr]

The AR488 based projects can be made with buffer IC's to drive a full bus. But having to configure them can be a PITA.
If you want one device over USB and less hassle (under Linux even without drivers) try the Xyphro UsbGPIB.
I built both and prefer the xyphro because it's plug&play and turns up a USBTMC device, ready to go in PyVISA.