PoE Ethernet GPIB Adapter – Open Source Project, now public

[Huluvu]

Please also count me in for 2 Tier 1 units + 2 Cases for 55€ each.
Thank you very much 

[voltsandjolts]

Nice work!

IIUC this adapter is using the Prologix style command set, which rules out PyVISA (at least in it's more elegant usage).
Does it work with this python wrapper:
https://github.com/nelsond/prologix-gpib-ethernet

Thanks

[Kofen]

First, thank you for the support!

I am touched and glad to see that you have seen that I tried to offer a tier with as low as possible price to make it available for as many as possible. The fact that so many has offer to pay above my market price is much appreciated and lets me continue to keep a low priced tier available so even if you can’t afford any extra, I will always try to keep the tier 1 price low so even an starving EE student who just got his first HP boat anchor get a chance to get one. Thank you!

This is in no way meant to imply you should pay more, the price in the post still stands and it is 100% up to you, in no way are you judged by paying the asking price

For those who want to order an adapter, please send me a message thru the forum with your address, email and phone number so you don't get lost, you will get a paypal invoice in return (If you can’t use paypal, say so and we will work something out).
I will take a round in the thread to message those who have not a bit later but have to keep my day job happy. It’s seems my tagging with @ is not working for me for some reason.

@voltsandjolts
I see your point, I have to admitt, for me, who have “grown up” with prologix, it was a very nice and simple solution, just having a socket to attend to.
I have used pyvisa a lot, but I have to admit I have never looked under the hood so I don’t know how hard it would be to implement a fork with it or if it can even fit in the code space for dual support. I would at least assume it will be possible to make fork, but that is something I will have to look into later when I am done cleaning up the current code base.

That being said, it sure works with the python wrapper

<sup>Python 3.11.0 (v3.11.0:deaf509e8f, Oct 24 2022, 14:43:23) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)]
Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
IPython 8.25.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.

In [1]: from plx_gpib_ethernet import PrologixGPIBEthernet

In [2]: gpib = PrologixGPIBEthernet('gpib1.kofotronic.com')

In [3]: gpib.connect()

In [4]: gpib.select(22)

In [5]: gpib.write('*IDN?')

In [6]: gpib.read()
Out[6]: 'HEWLETT-PACKARD,34420A,0,10.0-5.0-3.0\n'

In [7]:</sup>

[voltsandjolts]

I'll take one of your Tier 3 units,  if available, shipping to UK.
Thank you.

(PM sent)

[Knoonan]

Thanks Kofen, this is great.
I would be happy to buy one at tier 3, add to your profit and support the effort.
I was just looking at how to design one of these, and found you.
Shipping to US.
I am interested to see if this will support multiple 488 nodes from the TestController program.

[Hydron]

Will send a DM shortly, but also happy to pay 55 EUR ea. for Tier 1 and a case (two pieces if possible, though if it's wildly oversubscribed I'd consider just going for the one I really need and let someone else get one).

If you have a UK postage estimate maybe worth posting it here for others to see too (hopefully it's similar to the Europe price).

[BennoG]

If you have a UK postage estimate maybe worth posting it here for others to see too (hopefully it's similar to the Europe price).

Be aware for the UK there will be import duty's, the downside of the brexit. As far as I know it is only the VAT you have to pay for import duty to the UK

Benno

[Hydron]

Yeah I'm sadly aware of the UK import BS (it's not just VAT you pay, it's also an often large fee the carrier adds to collect it ); I put a note to that effect in my DM. I'm not sure you can even sell goods valued <135 GBP to the UK now without VAT registration, and there are a lot of EU based companies who no longer supply individual customers in the UK, which is understandable but extremely annoying. So far I've seen nothing but the (completely predictable) downside of Brexit.

If the issue is insurmountable then I'll need to supply an EU shipping address in Spain or Germany, and pick it up next time I'm over there, but it's bad enough waiting till February!

[The Soulman]

Yeah I'm sadly aware of the UK import BS (it's not just VAT you pay, it's also an often large fee the carrier adds to collect it ); I put a note to that effect in my DM. I'm not sure you can even sell goods valued <135 GBP to the UK now without VAT registration, and there are a lot of EU based companies who no longer supply individual customers in the UK, which is understandable but extremely annoying. So far I've seen nothing but the (completely predictable) downside of Brexit.

If the issue is insurmountable then I'll need to supply an EU shipping address in Spain or Germany, and pick it up next time I'm over there, but it's bad enough waiting till February!

Shipping costs from nl to uk are roughly 11 euro, I could forward from here if required.
Or are they going to open each packet at the uk-border, inspect its contents, determine the value of the contents and accordingly send an invoice with tax/duties to the recipient? 

[H.O]

If you have a UK postage estimate maybe worth posting it here for others to see too (hopefully it's similar to the Europe price).

Be aware for the UK there will be import duty's, the downside of the brexit. As far as I know it is only the VAT you have to pay for import duty to the UK

Benno

Don't mean to  polute the thread but wouldn't there have been import duties even prior to brexit due to the fact that Norway isn't (and never has been) part of the EU?

Sweden IS part of the EU and I expect to pay VAT and import charges on my unit as it comes from outside EU. Are you saying that the UK is even worse off now, post brexit?

[Hydron]

The UK has brought in a rule that anything that is <135GBP, shipped to a non-business customer and is NOT a "gift" has to have VAT paid to the UK govt by the seller. This means that EVERYONE selling to individuals in the UK needs to register for VAT and file returns with the UK govt, which many businesses have decided is way too much dicking about for the size of the UK market.

It's not directly to do with EU/Brexit actually, but the fact that the UK is not in the customs union means that the rule applies to sales from the EU as well (pre-brexit it would not have), and had this been an EU wide system there would be a much larger market to justify the admin effort. Many EU companies I used to buy stuff from just gave up dealing with the UK, hence my earlier comment.

There have actually been some benefits to be fair - shipments between the old stupidly low no-VAT threshold (15 quid or something) and the new 135 one (beyond which you have to pay VAT/duty yourself, or via the carrier) will now just incur VAT on purchase and not need separate clearance (saving clearance fees and time), e.g. when you buy from Aliexpress/eBay/Amazon US. Before it was always a crapshoot as to what the seller would declare and whether you'd get away without paying any VAT or need to pay VAT + sometimes crazy fees. Without Brexit there would be less downsides though!

The sensible way to do it would have been to put a threshold on sales before requiring UK VAT registration, which would capture all the big players while not hurting smaller companies with excessive compliance costs - NZ has done this for example - but the UK and it's govt isn't known for having an abundance of common sense recently.

As for this purchase, the only way for Kofen to ship one to me direct is to declare as a gift (at correct value for two pieces it would incur VAT and fees but at least it is possible, one @ $47 USD might just squeak under the threshold if shipping doesn't count) or register for UK VAT, though if you're going to mis-declare as a gift to sidestep the stupid rules you may as well adjust some numbers to sidestep the VAT/fees as well . Norway not being the in the EU doesn't come into play here other than possibly making it more annoying/expensive to get it via an EU country (as I was thinking of as an option in my last post).

[Monkeh]

The UK has brought in a rule ... had this been an EU wide system there would be a much larger market to justify the admin effort.

It is an EU wide system. This was an EU move we simply continued to copy after brexit, as a wonderful demonstration of our newfound independence.

[Hydron]

Huh, didn't realise that. I did know that Germany had some similarly annoying though different compliance requirements. Still think the VAT registration/collection thing should have an annual total sales threshold to avoid unreasonable compliance costs but it would have far fewer downsides as part of the large EU market...

[Kofen]

Hi everyone

Yes, Europe / EU and shipping VAT is a mess. While norway is not part of EU we are part of the EØS agreement that binds us to some of the same rules I think. At least we have the same problem as you describe.

But, please send a message if there is any request to make life easier thru customs or if there are any special rules I need to know about.
I am also VAT registred thru my personal firm that I can use in case things get really complicated. Just let me know!

All of you that have already sent me a message should have gotten your invoice now. I have tried to organize everything up so I can keep track, but in case you notice anything wrong, just reach out and I will fix it.

I will also try to edit the first post with all the info that is a bit spread around to make it easier for new folks that stumble across to figure out what the deal is.

I have sent a message to all of you who have posted that you want an adapter in this thread after I posted the pricing, asking for shipping details.
I would do another round of invocing later today.

And still plenty of adapter to go around, no worries there.

I will do my very best to keep the production time as short as possible, just need to get some parts and pcbs in house.

Thanks again for all the support!

[Monkeh]

Huh, didn't realise that. I did know that Germany had some similarly annoying though different compliance requirements. Still think the VAT registration/collection thing should have an annual total sales threshold to avoid unreasonable compliance costs but it would have far fewer downsides as part of the large EU market...

Well, in the EU market it's optional for foreign companies to register and collect (it probably is for us, too, but I have yet to locate the actual legislation driving all this, the government will not cite it, and they're experienced in.. creative interpretations in guidance to suit agendas other than what parliament voted for). The purpose was to pay VAT to the EU nation a product was sold to, rather than the nation it was purchased from - so a unified VAT payment portal was created, which you'd use whether you're paying it to your own nation or another EU nation.

We just decided to continue implementing the same system.. on our own. With none of the benefit and all of the cost.

[Kean]

PM sent for 2 units

I didn't see anyone else from down under showing interest, but if there was a bunch of us then I could possibly do a small run on my PnP (with Kofen's blessing and a longer lead time)

[Kofen]

Hi guys,

Quick update here:

All the parts are in, including  the switch that was back ordered(it came early!).
Now I am just waiting for the pcbs that should come shortly.

All that has shown interest in this thread has gotten a message thru the forum, not all have responded, but there is no rush(but if you have signed up in the thread and not gotten a reply, check your inbox.).

Kean is the first from Australia to sign up, I have replied to your DM.
And you are more than welcome to do a run your self, the more devices gets built, the happier I am

IanJ has gotten his adapter(one of the prototypes) and I am happy to report that it worked fine with wingpib with default prologix config.
He pointed out that connection details is missing from the github repro, I will write a guide on there as it is not totally clear that one should just use standard Prologix details as I avoided name dropping as much as possible.

I have done some quick testing on the test controller software, but not been able to make it work(with any type of adapter, mine or others), I will look into this to figure out whats going on, I am sure the fault is on my side.

I also have on my list to fix fixed IP support and the first post of this thread to make it easier to read, just been a bit busy here.

So far 19 out of a run of 40 units is spoken for, plenty to go around still
And of course, the units will be available after they are built as well, until I run out, for any one needing one in the future.

Thanks again for all the support, I will do my very best to deliver these as quickly as possible.

[voltsandjolts]

FYI
In the last few weeks there's been some positive progress on a potential solution for using Prologix devices with PyVISA.
See the end of this discussion;
https://github.com/pyvisa/pyvisa/issues/112

[Kofen]

Thank you, that was a nice tip. I will try to involve my self in this to facilliate testing towards this adapter.
But right now PCB's are in so I will prioritze getting your units ready I will for sure revert back to this when the orders have shipped out.

I will keep you guys posted on the progress, I will make one panel of 4 units first to verify that all is well, then it is serial production.
All parts should be in and I have picked boxes and shipping stuff as well so there should be no delays unless something unforseen happen with the units.

[OH2LAK]

So far 19 out of a run of 40 units is spoken for, plenty to go around still

I sent you DM regarding my order.

Thanks,
Erik OH2LAK

[ftg]

Also sent a message 

[Kofen]

Thank you for the support! I will get the DM's answered and sorted today.

Always nice to see fellow hams here!

73 de LB2NJ

[faraday]

I need 1 too -   Tier 1 PM sent.

[Kofen]

Hi guys,

Quick update:
I have been having feeder troubles on my PnP, I have been in contact with the manufacturer and they are shipping out improved replacement parts for me.
It was very unfortunate that it was on this run problems started to appear.
This can mean there will be a slight delay compared to the original promised ship date, but I will do my best to avoid it.

If you like to cancel your order, feel free to message me and you will have a refund in on the hour(in my waking hours).

Sorry about this!

EDIT: And if anyone has urgent needs, let me know and I will hand assembly it for you.

[Kofen]

Quick update, new parts for feeders in house, will start working on repairing them and hopefully get us back on track