GPIB board drivers for Solaris

Are there any freely available GPIB board drivers for Solaris using a
National Instruments PCI based GPIB board?

They are on the National Instruments web site

http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/we...de =132060_US

but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
expensive than the card itself!!

It seems I would need part# 778027-01.

Just wondering if anyone is aware of any other solutions? I only want
this for home use, so are not going to spend that sort of money on drivers.

Running Solaris 9 here.

Dr. David Kirkby

David Kirkby wrote:
> Are there any freely available GPIB board drivers for Solaris using a
> National Instruments PCI based GPIB board?
>
> They are on the National Instruments web site
>
> http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/we...de =132060_US
>
>
> but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
> expensive than the card itself!!
>
> It seems I would need part# 778027-01.
>

I should have added I want this for Solaris 9 SPARC not on x86,

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:38:46 +0100, David Kirkby
<REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote:

>Are there any freely available GPIB board drivers for Solaris using a
>National Instruments PCI based GPIB board?
>
>They are on the National Instruments web site
>
>http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/we...de =132060_US
>
>but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>expensive than the card itself!!
>
>It seems I would need part# 778027-01.
>
>Just wondering if anyone is aware of any other solutions? I only want
>this for home use, so are not going to spend that sort of money on drivers.
>
>Running Solaris 9 here.
>
>Dr. David Kirkby
>
>

RS-232 to GPIB boxes show up on ebay, usually cheap.

John

John Larkin wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:38:46 +0100, David Kirkby
> <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote:
>
>
>>Are there any freely available GPIB board drivers for Solaris using a
>>National Instruments PCI based GPIB board?
>>
>>They are on the National Instruments web site
>>
>>http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/we...de =132060_US
>>
>>but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>>expensive than the card itself!!
>>
>>It seems I would need part# 778027-01.
>>
>>Just wondering if anyone is aware of any other solutions? I only want
>>this for home use, so are not going to spend that sort of money on drivers.
>>
>>Running Solaris 9 here.
>>
>>Dr. David Kirkby
>>
>>
>
>
> RS-232 to GPIB boxes show up on ebay, usually cheap.
>
> John
>

Thanks for that. I don't need fast speed, so serial should do, but I'd
rather a direct GPIB solution if I can find one, but I am not going to
pay £395 for drivers. That seems to be taking the Mic a bit.

"David Kirkby" <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote in message
news:426ec2f6@212.67.96.135...
> but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
> expensive than the card itself!!

There is a reason for avoiding Solaris whenever possible unless forced by
corporate rulez - in which case corporate can bloody well pay up!

David Kirkby <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> writes:

> David Kirkby wrote:
>> Are there any freely available GPIB board drivers for Solaris using
>> a National Instruments PCI based GPIB board?
>> They are on the National Instruments web site
>> http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/we...de =132060_US
>> but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>> expensive than the card itself!!
>> It seems I would need part# 778027-01.
>
> I should have added I want this for Solaris 9 SPARC not on x86,

Just use a crappy old PC, bung it on your network and run the
linux-gpib drivers on it. I wouldn't pay extra for drivers either.

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck
MARS Flight Crew http://www.mars.org.uk/
UKRA #1108 Level 2 UYB
Tripoli UK Member #9527 LSMR

"Frithiof Andreas Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com> writes:


>"David Kirkby" <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote in message
>news:426ec2f6@212.67.96.135...
>> but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>> expensive than the card itself!!

>There is a reason for avoiding Solaris whenever possible unless forced by
>corporate rulez - in which case corporate can bloody well pay up!

Well, it's the first time I've ever seen a hardware company charge
extra for the drivers.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:
> "David Kirkby" <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote in message
> news:426ec2f6@212.67.96.135...
>
>>but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>>expensive than the card itself!!
>
>
> There is a reason for avoiding Solaris whenever possible unless forced by
> corporate rulez - in which case corporate can bloody well pay up!
>
>
I quite like Solaris so that in itself is no reason to "avoiding Solaris
whenever possible". I might be a case to not use Solaris in this
instance, but that is a very different issue.

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
> "Frithiof Andreas Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com> writes:
>
>
>
>>"David Kirkby" <REMOVE-david.kirkby@onetel.net> wrote in message
>>news:426ec2f6@212.67.96.135...
>>
>>>but are not free - in fact, the drivers at £395 are slightly more
>>>expensive than the card itself!!
>
>
>>There is a reason for avoiding Solaris whenever possible unless forced by
>>corporate rulez - in which case corporate can bloody well pay up!
>
>
> Well, it's the first time I've ever seen a hardware company charge
> extra for the drivers.
>
> Casper

I don't think this is totally unknown in the Pee Cee world, as I think
some graphics cards manufactuers have been known to make a nominal
charge for Linux drivers, but a quick google could not find evidence of
this.

But NI are taking the **** a bit. This is not a "nominal charge" but
more than the cost of the hardware, as the NI card, with Windoze XP
drivers is £390. You can possibly buy the card with only Solaris drivers
for less than £390+£395=£785, but I have not checked that.

I read in sci.electronics.design that Dave <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote
(in <426f8412@212.67.96.135>) about 'GPIB board drivers for Solaris', on
Wed, 27 Apr 2005:

>But NI are taking the **** a bit. This is not a "nominal charge" but
>more than the cost of the hardware, as the NI card, with Windoze XP
>drivers is £390. You can possibly buy the card with only Solaris
>drivers for less than £390+£395=£785, but I have not checked that.


Do you think some marketroid goofed and the £395 price is for card +
driver? It might be worth asking, if you can find an intelligent human
to speak to, however improbable that is.

I recall one UK company had a VCR listed for £2365 for three days before
someone noticed.
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only.
There are two sides to every question, except
'What is a Moebius strip?'
http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk Also see http://www.isce.org.uk