IEEE488/GPIB adapter IEQ11

Owned by Kirill Nikolaev (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 21, 2020 by Bruno Miretti (Deactivated)Version comment
2 min read

Table of Contents

Introduction

IEQ11 is IEEE488/GPIB adapter for PDP and VAX. To configure it 2 steps must be applied - compilation and loading of NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver and confuguring CHARON.

NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

CHARON supports NI PCI/PCIe/GPIB boards in pass-through mode using a specific driver that can be built from sources located in "/opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt" directory. Upon loading the driver (".ko" loadable module) into OS kernel at runtime it creates "/dev/gpib<i>" device for each NI PCI/PCIe/GPIB board it finds. 

There is no need to install device drivers from National Instruments

Building NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

To build NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver do the following:

StepDescription
1

Make sure that the required building tools and include files are installed. If they are absent install them:

# yum groupinstall “Development Tools”
# yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel
(info) Note:

The kernel version must match the version of the installed kernel-headers (i.e. this packages must have same versions. It can be verified via "rpm -q -a | grep kernel-" )

Check that the "kernel" and the "kernel-headers" have the same version, and ensure that system is booted from this kernel version (not from some older one and etc) with "uname -a" command.

2

Open xterm and change the default directory to "/opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt":

# cd /opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt
3

Issue "make clean; make" commands to build kernel object:

# make clean; make

(warning) It is prohibited to use a module built on a certain version of kernel on another one.

4Check that there are no compilation errors and the file "ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko" has been built

Installation of NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

To install NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver do the following:

StepDescription
1

Load "ppt_kgpsa.ko" driver; to do that issue the following command:

# insmod ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko
2

Issue "dmesg" command and check that no error appeared during the driver loading, also check that the driver has found all GPIB devices:

# dmesg

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Adding NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver to Linux startup

To add NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver to Linux startup do the following:

StepDescription
1Disable auto-loading of device drivers from National Instruments on boot (if available). Use the black list file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf" to do that.
2

Copy the GPIB kernel module to the location of Linux kernel modules, for example:

# cp /opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt/ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko /lib/modules/3.10.9-200.el74.x86_64/kernel/drivers/

(warning) The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.

3

Enable auto load of the module:

# echo ni_pci_gpib_ppt > /etc/modules-load.d/ni_pci_gpib_ppt.conf
4

Regenerate new "initramfs" image with "mkinitrd":

# mkinitrd -f /boot/initramfs-3.10.9-200.el74.x86_64.img 3.10.9-200.el74.x86_64

(warning) The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.

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Configuring CHARON

Once NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver is compiled and loaded configure CHARON in the following way:

VAX configuration

load IEQ11 IEA
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib<N>"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib<M>"

Example:

load IEQ11 IEA
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib0"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib1"

PDP11 configuration

load IEQ11 IEA vector = 0270 priority = 6
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib<N>"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib<M>"

Example:

load IEQ11 IEA vector = 0270 priority = 6
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib0"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib1"

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