Help me with Microcontroller to GPIB (Arduino or similar)

Hello folks,
I really need some help here. I am working on a big project but have limited knowledge about interfacing microcontrollers with GPIB. The final project goal is to use a smartphone to control GPIB analyzer, but my current task is just to connect a microcontroller (probably based on Arduiono board) to the instrument and fetch a couple of measurements so I could transfer them via bluetooth module to a smartphone. I am not looking into graphs or any other complicated data for now. Smth, like "Voltage" value should be sufficient. I researched the web till my eyes get burned and still is very confused how to proceed and what to start with. I read about GPIB connector, studied handshaking procedure, but how can I program my controller to actually send a command via GPIB and get the data back? I guess I can not just connect Microcontroller lines to GPIB lines. I assume I might need some kind of logic in between.
Like, for instance if I want to measure voltage, I guess I should send smth like:
: MEASure:VOLTage:AC? 12, 0.001

But how can I implement that line in microcontroller? I just want to understand how I can send a particular command to an instrument and get the data back.
Sorry for asking such a noob question. I am very new to all that stuff but can pick up rather quickly.
I ll be more specific next time once I get a bit of knowledge how all that stuff works. May be some kind of example would help dramatically.
Thanks a lot,
Paul

GPIB can be a bit complicated and imposing at first. One idea is to start with a "ready made", RS-232 serial to GPIB product to quickly connect your microcontroller to the GPIB instrument. Search "serial to GPIB" to find a number of products. Now, I have to ask. GPIB is getting old. Many instruments have switched over to network interfaces. Are you committed to GPIB?

Analog Ground said:

GPIB can be a bit complicated and imposing at first. One idea is to start with a "ready made", RS-232 serial to GPIB product to quickly connect your microcontroller to the GPIB instrument. Search "serial to GPIB" to find a number of products. Now, I have to ask. GPIB is getting old. Many instruments have switched over to network interfaces. Are you committed to GPIB?

Click to expand...

I am not a big fan of GPIB, but thats the only choice I have. Another option I was thinking about was to connect the instrument via GPIB-USB adaptor, but this looks even harder, since I dont even have an idea on how lets say Arduino board will work (if it works at all) in such a configuration. Basically we are using this adapter already with PC, but the main idea is to be able to get those readings on a smartphone.

At least one group has gone down this road. Search "Performance Characterization of a Wireless Instrumentation Bus" for one paper bridging GPIB to BT. Looks like they built some custom hardware instead of chaining together some off-the-shelf stuff. PIC based.

Analog Ground said:

At least one group has gone down this road. Search "Performance Characterization of a Wireless Instrumentation Bus" for one paper bridging GPIB to BT. Looks like they built some custom hardware instead of chaining together some off-the-shelf stuff. PIC based.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that's a nice article. But it basically just gives an idea. There are no codes, diagrams, etc.. Is it a copyrighted project? I d love to build smth. like that. It might serve our needs perfectly I think.

pashlit said:

Thanks, that's a nice article. But it basically just gives an idea. There are no codes, diagrams, etc.. Is it a copyrighted project? I d love to build smth. like that. It might serve our needs perfectly I think.

Click to expand...

A quick search of "smartphone data acquisition using bluetooth" seems to reveal a small explosion in BT connectivity to smartphones for data acquisition, etc. For example, ST Microelectronics (www.st.com) makes BT modules for general use in connecting to phones. I suggest an intensive web search. Now, getting from the BT interface to your GPIB is another matter but I know there are microcontroller designs out there that do this. Perhaps other forum members can give specific examples. Looks like an interesting project!

Although GPIB is dropping out of use with recent instruments, it's often the only option when interfacing older devices. There are many GPIB interface projects on the internet like this **broken link removed** (just one of the first hits I experienced at Google).

It's a simplified interface, not even using a dedicated GPIB bus driver or bidirectional buffer. So it doesn't exactly keep the GPIB specifications, but it surely works for one (or probably a few) instrument(s) on the bus.

I remember that likewise we used to control GPIB instruments by a CBM 3000 computer's parallel port during my study.

FvM said:

Although GPIB is dropping out of use with recent instruments, it's often the only option when interfacing older devices. There are many GPIB interface projects on the internet like this **broken link removed** (just one of the first hits I experienced at Google).

It's a simplified interface, not even using a dedicated GPIB bus driver or bidirectional buffer. So it doesn't exactly keep the GPIB specifications, but it surely works for one (or probably a few) instrument(s) on the bus.

I remember that likewise we used to control GPIB instruments by a CBM 3000 computer's parallel port during my study.

Click to expand...

Thanks! It has schematic. The simpler the better for me now. I am wondering If I could use that schematic with Arduino board. Arduino already has a bluetooth model implemented, so I could use it for now. I am not looking for anything complicated now, since i dont really have much time. I just want a very simple basic interface that will fetch a measurement from one or two instruments and transfers it to a smartphone. Once I grasp the idea and figure out how everything works I will try to build a more sophisticated device with decent interface and decent phone app. Yeah, the final goal is to control that GPIB device with the phone, but that's another story.

It's nice.

FvM said:

Although GPIB is dropping out of use with recent instruments, it's often the only option when interfacing older devices. There are many GPIB interface projects on the internet like this **broken link removed** (just one of the first hits I experienced at Google).

It's a simplified interface, not even using a dedicated GPIB bus driver or bidirectional buffer. So it doesn't exactly keep the GPIB specifications, but it surely works for one (or probably a few) instrument(s) on the bus.

I remember that likewise we used to control GPIB instruments by a CBM 3000 computer's parallel port during my study.

Click to expand...

The CBM 3000 had a IEEE-488 interface which is the same as GPIB (or HPIB). This was a useful curiosity for those in the university and research fields. I am feeling old now. I have to go lie down.

The CBM 3000 had a IEEE-488 interface which is the same as GPIB (or HPIB). This was a useful curiosity for those in the university and research fields. I am feeling old now. I have to go lie down.

Click to expand...

You are right, the CBM 3000 had real IEEE-488 bus drivers as I see from the schematic. I forgot this detail, but no reason for me to feel old, though.

Cheers,
Frank