24 Apr
2006
24 Apr
'06
9:57 a.m.
At 11:23 AM 4/24/06 -0600, you wrote:
In article <3.0.6.16.20060424123323.405f32fc at pop-server.cfl.rr.com>,
"Joe R." <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> writes:
I strongly suspected that it was. They seem to be the most common by
far. I even have a GPIB interface manual and SW set from IBM for the IBM PC
and it's a copy of the NI stuff and uses a NI GPIB card. I know other
companies use the NI stuff as well.
It appears that
How big is the unit?
Stock IBM PC 386 clone size desktop with a stock monitor and keyboard.
I've seen a coule of older Tek GPIB
controllers
that were about 1 foot square and an 1 1/2" thick and I'm wondering if
that's the same as what you have.
It looks like a run-of-the-mill desktop 386 PC.
Who's GPIB card does it use?
I haven't cracked open the case to check, but the docs refer to it as
a PC2A card and some of the docs apparently contain National
Instrument information, so perhaps its an NI card. the Tektronix value-add is all in the software.
Frankly, though the
4041 appears easier to configure and program than the PC based one
does based on the docs. On the PC, things are spread out through a
variety of utilities instead of it being a complete end-to-end
environment provided by Tektronix.
However, that's just an impression from the documentation, not from
actually using the unit. For my purposes (setting up an IEEE-488 data
interchange path between Commodore 8050 dual floppy drives and a PC),
the PEP might be a better choice simply because its already housed in
a PC. With the 4041, I'd have to transfer files back to a PC
environment through the serial console port on the 4041.
IMO You're MUCH better off with the PC! You have a good display, a real
keyboard and a real data storage system. The 4041 was ok when PCs were big
and expensive but now they're cheaper than the 4041.
Joe
Joe