ADLINK LPCI-3488A User Manual

LPCI/PXI-3488A

IEEE488 GPIB Interface Card Series

User’s Manual

Manual Rev. 2.00
Revision Date: May 15, 2008
Part No: 50-17023-3000

Advance Technologies; Automate the World.

Copyright 2008 ADLINK TECHNOLOGY INC.
All Rights Reserved.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ........................................................................ 1

1.1 Overview.............................................................................. 1

Performance ................................................................... 1

Compatibility ................................................................... 1

1.2 Features............................................................................... 3

LPCI-3488A .................................................................... 3

PXI-3488A ...................................................................... 3

1.3 Specifications....................................................................... 4

GPIB Bus Properties ....................................................... 4

Certificates ........................... ............................. .............. 4

General Specifications ....................................................5

1.4 Software Support................................................................. 6

2 Installation .......................................................................... 7

2.1 Contents of Package ................................... ... .... ... ... ... ....... 7

LPCI-3488A .................................................................... 7

PXI-3488A ...................................................................... 7

2.2 Unpacking............................................................................ 8

2.3 Mechanical Drawing ............................................................ 9

LPCI-3488A .................................................................... 9

PXI-3488A .................................................................... 10

2.4 PCI Configuration .............................................................. 11

Plug and Play ...............................................................11

Configuration ................................................................ 11

Troubleshooting ................................ ............................ 11

2.5 Hardware Installation................................. ... ... .... ... ... ... .... . 12

LPCI-3488A Installation Procedures ............................. 12

PXI-3488A Installation Procedures ......................... ......13

Cabling ......................................................................... 13

2.6 Software Installation .......................................................... 16

Driver installation .......................................................... 16

Using the ADLINK GPIB Utility ............................ ... .... .. 18

3 Operation Theory ............................................................. 21

3.1 Connection Configuration .................................................. 21

Data Lines .................... .... ... ... ... .... ... ... ... ... .... ... ............23

Handshake Lines ..........................................................23

System management lines ........................................... 23

Table of Contents i

3.2 ADLINK GPIB Interface Cards Block Diagram .................. 24

ii Table of Contents

List of Tables

Table 1-1: Power Requirements, LPCI-3488A .......................... 5

Table 1-2: Power Requirements, PXI-3488A ............................. 5

Table 3-1: GPIB Bus ................................................................ 22

List of Tables iii

List of Figures

Figure 2-1: PCB Layout of the LPCI-3488A................................. 9

Figure 2-2: PCB Layout of the PXI-3488A ................................. 10

Figure 2-3: LPCI-3488A Linear Connection Configuration......... 14

Figure 2-4: LPCI-3488A Star Connection Configuration............ 14

Figure 2-5: PXI-3488A Linear Connection Configuration........... 15

Figure 2-6: PXI-3488A Star Connection Configuration .............. 15

Figure 3-1: Standard GPIB Connector....................................... 21

Figure 3-2: Block Diagram of ADLINK GPIB Interface Cards.... 24

iv List of Figures

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

ADLINK’s LPCI-3488A and PXI-3488A GPIB controller interface
cards are fully compatible with the IEEE488.2 instrumen tation co n­trol and communication standard and are capable of controlling up
to 14 stand-alone instruments via IEEE488 cables. The LPCI­3488A and PXI-3488A are designed to meet the requirements for
high performance and maximum programming portability. They
were developed using ADLINK’s intellectual property in FPGAs
which incorporates the GPIB controller , provides reliable GPIB bus
control capability , and support s a transfer rate up to 1.5 MB/s. With

APIs that are compatible with National Instruments
VISA support, the LPCI-3488A and PXI-3488A offer the be st com­patibility with your existing applications and instrument drivers.

1.1.1 Performance

ADLINK’s expertise in PCI and PXI interface cards was leveraged
when developing these newly designed GPIB interface card. The
LPCI-3488A, which is the low-profile PCI form factor, supports
both 3.3 V and 5 V PCI buses and can be adapted to most indus­trial and desktop computers. The PXI-3488A is compliant with PXI
specification Rev. 2.0 and can be used with most PXI and Com­pactPCI system. A 2 KB FIFO is placed between the GPIB bus
and PCI controller to buffer GPIB read/write operations. This FIFO
eliminates the gap between the slow GPIB bus (~1.5 MB/s) and
the fast PCI bus (132 MB/s), and dramatically increases overall
system performance.

1

software and

1.1.2 Compatibility

ADLINK’s GPIB interface solutions are delivered with complete
software support, including a driver API set that is fully binary com-

patible with NI

1. National Instruments is a registered trademark of National Instruments Cor­poration

2. NI is a registered trademark of National Instruments Corporation

Introduction 1

2

’s GPIB-32.DLL. All programs written based on the

GPIB-32.DLL library can be executed with LPCI-3488A or PXI­3488A without any modification. VISA library is also supported to
ensure compatibility with applications utilizing VISA. The ADLINK
LPCI-3488A and PXI-3488A thus provides the “Plug and Play”
compatibility with all your existing applications.

2Introduction

1.2 Features

1.2.1 LPCI-3488A

The LPCI-3488A IEEE 488 GPIB interface card provides the fol­lowing advanced features:

X Fully compatible with the IEEE 488 standard
X Up to 1.5 MB/s data transfer rates
X Built-in 2 KB FIFO for read/write operations

X Provides APIs compatible with NI-488.2
X Supports industrial-standard VISA Library
X Interactive utility for testing and diagnostics
X Fully low-profile MD1 PCB compliant

1.2.2 PXI-3488A

The PXI-3488A IEEE 488 GPIB interface card provides the follow­ing advanced features:

X PXI specifications Rev. 2.0 compliant
X 3U Eurocard form factor, CompactPCI compliant (PICMG

2.0 R3.0)

X Fully compatible with the IEEE 488 standard
X Up to 1.5 MB/s data transfer rates
X Built-in 2 KB FIFO for read/write operations

X Provides APIs compatible with NI-488.2
X Supports industrial-standard VISA Library
X Interactive utility for testing and diagnostics

1

driver software

1

driver software

1. NI-488.2 is a trademark of National Instruments Corporation.

Introduction 3