IEEE488/GPIB adapter IEQ11

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

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

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

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/
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

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


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"



© Stromasys, 1999-2024  - All the information is provided on the best effort basis, and might be changed anytime without notice. Information provided does not mean Stromasys commitment to any features described.

Kirill Nikolaev (Unlicensed)
May 15, 2019

Corrected