GPIB USB NETWORK

[andress]

CAN I MAKE A NETWORK OF 2  DEVICES AND 2 PC USING A USB-HUB? .

BOTH PC CAN ACCESS TO THE DEVICES IN ANY TIME BUT NOT SIMULTANEOUSLY.

THANKS,

[Chris_R.]

Hi Andress,

Typically, two computer don't share one USB port, so unless your USB-HUB allows for that, you may have some trouble.  Another option you have is to connect the two computers via GPIB cable so they will both be connected to the same GPIB Bus.  You can then set one PC as the System Controller (SC) (but not both) and then you can control each of the instruments with the SC, then pass control to the other PC and control the instruments from that PC.  Does this seem like a good option or are you limited to using the USB?  If you have to use the USB-HUB, please send me some details about your system and I will see if you have any other options.  Let me know and I will be happy to help you futher.

Have a great day!

Chris R
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[ScottieB]

Chris is right on the USB-sharing idea...I've never heard of anyone attempting this, either. The "passing control idea" will work too.  I wanted to mention one other possibility: using a single GPIB-ENET/100 from 2 computers.  Assuming they're on the same ethernet network, you can have just 1 GPIB controller (an ENET/100) connected to your instruments and control it with either of the two controllers.  You could even control the ENET/100 with both PC's at the same time, but you have to be careful not to step on the other computer's communication (there exists a call in the Windows driver, iblck() that locks the interface so you can protect against this).

Let us know which option seems most interesting and Chris or I will answer any other questions you might have.

Scott B.
GPIB Software
National Instruments