GPIB Controller
Overview
A GpibController device serves as a bridge between a piece of hardware that communicates over GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus) and a computer. Unlike RS232 and TCP, computers do not offer native GPIB support; a custom card or external bridge is required. Because GPIB is a parallel bus, a single controller can simultaneously support many devices. Blackchirp can also drive multiple GpibController instances at once: each GPIB instrument selects which controller it lives behind through a per-device setting in the loadout, and address ownership is tracked at runtime so two devices on the same controller cannot accidentally claim the same GPIB address.
Settings
The GpibController base class itself has no user-facing settings; the controller is configured entirely through its underlying communication channel (TCP host/port or RS232 port and baud rate), which is set up in the standard Communication flow.
Drivers
The supported hardware is the Prologix bridge, which Blackchirp can talk to over either Ethernet or USB. A virtual controller is also registered for testing.
Virtual
A stub driver that responds successfully to writes and echoes queries. Used for testing and for builds without GPIB hardware attached.
Prologix GPIB-LAN Controller
The Prologix GPIB-Ethernet controller plugs into one or more GPIB instruments and connects to the computer over Ethernet. Blackchirp implements it as a TcpInstrument.
Prologix GPIB-USB Controller
The Prologix GPIB-USB controller is functionally identical to the Ethernet variant but connects through an internal USB-RS232 bridge. Blackchirp implements it as an Rs232Instrument.