Review on Prologix USB To Gpib Controller by Kevin Ballard

I bought a Prologix USB to GPIB controller to communicate with an old temperature controller in our lab via LabView. Basically, Prologix creates a serial port and you use standard serial communications to communicate with the target device and Prologix - you don't use GPIB protocols. In short, commands sent to Prologix are forwarded to the GPIB device (and responses from the GPIB device are sent back to the host computer). If you need to talk to the controller (e.g. to change the GPIB address of the device you want to communicate with), just use one of the well-documented ++<ASCII> commands. The guide is detailed enough to get you started. and the Prologix website provides support that includes links to sample software and programs that you can use to set up the device and troubleshoot your application. A note on their programming support: I wouldn't bother with their LabView example as I find it too complicated. Using the device is as simple as communicating over a serial port and does not require any special DLLs or drivers that are not included on the driver installation CD. Weird things to deal with, but I'm not sure if they are due to quirks of the temperature controller or Prologix - although I tend to blame the temperature controller. Overall, I was able to go from unpacking the device to creating a fully functional LabView interface in less than two hours. I haven't tried managing multiple devices with Prologix, but it seems possible. Since my device application hasn't been very demanding so far, I don't know the performance limits of Prologix. But if your needs are as modest as mine, I highly recommend this device.