ADLINK USB-3488A User Manual

LPCI-/USB-3488A, PXI-3488

IEEE488 GPIB Interface Card Series

User’s Manual

Manual Rev. 2.02
Revision Date: May 23, 2009
Part No: 50-17023-3010

Advance Technologies; Automate the World.

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All Rights Reserved.

The information in this document is subject to change without prior
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Table of Contents

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

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

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

Compatibility ................................................................... 2

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

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

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

USB-3488A ....................................... .............................. 4

1.3 Specifications....................................................................... 5

GPIB Bus Properties ....................................................... 5

Certifications .............................. .....................................5

General Specifications ....................................................6

1.4 Software Support................................................................. 7

2 Installation .......................................................................... 9

2.1 Contents of Package ... ... ... .... ... ... ... .... ... ... ... ... .................... 9

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

PXI-3488 .................................... ................................. ....9

USB-3488A ....................................... .............................. 9

2.2 Unpacking.......................................................................... 10

2.3 Mechanical Drawing .......................................................... 11

LPCI-3488A .................................................................. 11

PXI-3488 .................................... ................................. ..12

USB-3488A ....................................... ............................ 13

2.4 PCI Configuration .............................................................. 14

Plug and Play ............................................................... 14

Configuration ................................................................ 14

Troubleshooting ................................ ............................ 14

2.5 Hardware Installation.................................................... .... . 15

LPCI-3488A Installation Procedures ............................. 15

PXI-3488 Installation Procedures ................................. 16

USB-3488A Installation Procedures ............................. 16

Cabling ......................................................................... 17

2.6 Software Installation .......................................................... 21

Driver Installation ..........................................................21

Using the ADLINK GPIB Utility ..................................... 23

3 Operation Theory ............................................................. 27

Table of Contents i

3.1 Connection Configuration .................................................. 27

Data Lines .....................................................................29

Handshake Lines ..........................................................29

System Management Lines ..........................................29

3.2 Block Diagram.......................... .... ... ... ... .... ... ...................... 30

ADLINK GPIB Interface Cards Block Diagram .............30

ADLINK USB-3488A GPIB Interface Block Diagram ....31

ii Table of Contents

List of Tables

Table 1-1: Power Requirements, LPCI-3488A .......................... 6

Table 1-2: Power Requirements, PXI-3488 ............................... 6

Table 1-3: Power Requirements, USB-3488A ........................... 6

Table 3-1: GPIB Bus ................................................................ 28

List of Tables iii

List of Figures

Figure 2-1: PCB Layout of the LPCI-3488A............................... 11

Figure 2-2: PCB Layout of the PXI-3488.................................... 12

Figure 2-3: Layout of the USB-3488 .......................................... 13

Figure 2-4: LPCI-3488A Linear Connection Configuration......... 17

Figure 2-5: LPCI-3488A Star Connection Configuration............ 18

Figure 2-6: PXI-3488 Linear Connection Configuration............. 18

Figure 2-7: PXI-3488 Star Connection Configuration................. 19

Figure 2-8: USB-3488A Linear Connection Configuration......... 19

Figure 2-9: USB-3488A Star Connection Configuration............. 20

Figure 3-1: Standard GPIB Connector....................................... 27

Figure 3-2: Block Diagram of ADLINK GPIB Interface Cards.... 30

Figure 3-3: Block Diagram of ADLINK USB-3488A

GPIB Interface......................................................... 31

iv List of Figures

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

ADLINK’s LPCI-/USB-3488A and PXI-3488 GPIB controller inter­face cards are fully compatible with the IEEE488.2 instrumentation
control and communication standard and are capable of control­ling up to 14 stand-alone instruments via IEEE488 cables. The
LPCI-3488A and USB-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 supports a transfer rate up to 1.5

MB/s. With APIs that are compatible with National Instruments
software and VISA support, the LPCI-/USB-3488A and PXI- 3488
offer the best 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-3488 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. ADLINK USB-3488A equipped with 32 KB
FIFO to the read/write operations, the maximum transfer rates of
more than 1.2 MB/s.

1

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

Introduction 1

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-

1

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

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

1. NI is a r egistered trademark of National Instruments Corporation

2 Introduction

1.2 Features

1.2.1 LPCI-3488A

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

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

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

1.2.2 PXI-3488

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

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

2.0 R3.0)

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

 Provides APIs compatible with NI-488.2
 Supports industrial-standard VISA Library
 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

1.2.3 USB-3488A

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

 Fully compatible with the IEEE-488 standard
 Easy GPIB connectivity and GPIB connections for laptop

computer

 Plug and Play interface; No GPIB cable required for instru-

ment connection

 APIs compatible with NI-488.2 driver software
 Fully IEEE 488.1 and 488.2 compatible
 Fully industry-standard VISA library compatible
 On-board FIFO for read/write operations
 Maximum GPIB transfer rates Up to 1.2 MB/s
 2 m USB cable attached
 RoHS compliant
 USB 2.0 compatible
 No external power required

4 Introduction