Has anyone had a successful experience going from a PCI-GPIB card to the new NI ExpressCard-GPIB card?

[Barneyho]

I've built a laptop with an extension chassis that runs the PCI-GPIB card.  This new one specifically designed for laptops sounds great.  Has anyone used it yet that is familiar with the old one?  Is it a seamless replacement?

Thanks,

Ben 

[ScottieB]

Well, I'm a bit biased, so I'd encourage others to share their experiences with Ben.  I'll provide my comments...

The ExpressCard-GPIB is most likely going to be a drop in replacement for you.  Upgrade your driver to v2.4 (www.ni.com/support/gpib/versions.htm) and keep using your PCI-GPIB from your laptop.  Should be no big change as we are extra careful to keep the API and driver code as similar as possible going forward in releases.  Now, you're all set to plug in an ExpressCard-GPIB since you have the new driver.  You can even run the PCI-GPIB and ExpressCard-GPIB in parallel to make sure everything is going to work properly before you switch completely to the ExpressCard.  There are no differences in the software API, so your programs will work without modification.  There are hardware differences (obviously, since it's two different bus architectures) but the ExpressCard design has been tested extensively internally to make sure that its speed is similar to the PCI-GPIB card.

I'd like to know what you decide in the end, and if I can be of more help, let me know.

Scott B.
GPIB Software

National Instruments

[Barneyho]

Thanks Scott.  We had to add a whole new chassis extension to our laptop in order to provide extra power to run the GPIB and another PCI card.  Being able to use the COTS power configuration on a laptop would be great.  I guess now I'll have to figure out cost effectiveness of the change if we were to make one. 

The next thing I'd ask is how do you keep the GPIB cable from yanking out of the card?  I imagine it isn't a screw in part, right?

[NI-488.2 master]

The ExpressCard-GPIB cable has a latching connector.  You shouldn't have any issues with the cable yanking out.

Craig A
National Instruments Engineer

[ScottieB]

I want to clarify my statement regarding speed above.  For some transfer sizes, the ExpressCard-GPIB is slower than the PCI-GPIB, and for some it is faster.  That's a little different than saying the performance is "similar".  So, yes, there will be a speed difference, but it might be an improvement (depending on your transfer size).

Scott B.
GPIB Software
National Instruments