Introduction

The Prologix GPIB-Ethernet Controller is a low cost (and low performance) alternative to devices such as the Agilent E5810A. This driver provides basic ASYN read/write operations. Serial polls, parallel polls and SRQs are not supported.

The most up-to-date versions of the controller manual and firmware at the time this module was released are included in the documentation directory.   Visit the Prologix web site at http://prologix.biz/ to check if more recent versions are available.

If the controller is configured to use DHCP to obtain a network address its host name will likely be its ethernet address, with no leading zeros and with dashes separating the individual bytes.  For example, a controller with ethernet address 00:21:69:01:02:E1 will be given host name 0-21-69-1-2-e1.<domain>.

Using the Prologix GPIB driver in an application

Several files need minor modifications to use the Prologix GPIB driver in an application.

1. Add the full path to the PrologixGPIB directory to the application configure/RELEASE file:
   PrologixGPIB=xxxx/modules/bus/PrologixGPIB/<release>
   Where <release> is the release number of of the Prologix GPIB driver.
2. Add instrument support to application database definition file
   The application database definition file must include the database definition files for the Prologix GPIB driver and for other support modules such as stream device. There are two ways that this can be done:
   • If you are building your application database definition file from an xxxInclude.dbd file you include the additional database definitions in that file:
     include "base.dbd"
     include "drvPrologixGPIB.dbd"
     include "stream.dbd"
     
   • If you are building your application database definition file from the application Makefile you specify the aditional database definitions there:
     xxx_DBD += base.dbd
     xxx_DBD += drvPrologixGPIB.dbd
     
3. Add the Prologix GPIB support library to the application
   You must link the Prologix GPIB support library and the ASYN support library with the application. Add the following lines:
   xxx_LIBS += drvPrologixGPIB
   xxx_LIBS += stream asyn
   before the
   xxx_LIBS += $(EPICS_BASE_IOC_LIBS)
     to the application Makefile.
4. Configure the Prologix GPIB driver in the application startup script:
   prologixGPIBConfigure("L0", "192.168.3.10:1234")
   The prologixGPIBConfigure command takes four arguments:
   prologixGPIBConfigure <asynPortName> <host:port> <priority> <flags>
   TCP port 1234 is used if the ":port" in the <host:port> argument is missing. The <priority> argument sets the priority of the ASYN worker thread.  A zero or missing value sets the priority to its default value of epicsThreadPriorityMedium.   A missing <flags> argument is taken to be 0.  The least significant bit of the <flags> argument disables auto-connection of the ASYN port.  The next-to-least significant bit enables diagnostic messages on the underlying ASYN port created to communicate with the controller.  This is useful when diagnosing issues with the initial configuration and setup commands sent to the controller.  The ASYN port name of the underlying ASYN port is the <asynPortName> argument with the four characters "_TCP" appended.
   
   

Installation and Building

1. Create an installation directory for the module. The path name of this directory should end with modules/bus/prologixgpib.
2. Place the distribution file into this directory.
3. Execute the following commands:
   cd modules/instrument/prologixgpib
   gunzip prologixgpib<release>.tar.gz
   tar xvf prologixgpib<release>.tar
   cd <release>
   Where <release> is the release number of of the Prologix GPIB driver.
4. Edit the configure/RELEASE file and set the paths to your installation of EPICS base and ASYN.
5. Execute make in the top level directory.