Release of FW version 2.0

Changes:
- fix autoid slower and autoid slowest options
- Implement USBTMC compliant method to set read termination method
- Made pulse indicator request function work asynchronous
See README.MD for more details.

Author: xyphro

HW/REV2/README.md

@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ As a next step insert the PCB into the big part of the housing again. It has a r
 
 Then put the smaller part of the housing on top of it, insert the screws (they can be pushed hard to destroy the "membrane" first time) and nuts and screw it together.
 
-Voilà... your adapter is finished and ready to use :-)
+Voilà.. your adapter is finished and ready to use :-)
 
 <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xyphro/UsbGpib/master/pictures/Upcoming_Rev2.png" width="80%"/>
 

README.md

@@ -3,7 +3,11 @@ Versatile, cheap, portable and robust USB to GPIB converter (USBTMC class based)
 
 You'll find many projects like this, but this one is special (ok, everybody will claim this) :-)
 
-<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xyphro/UsbGpib/master/pictures/UsbGPIB.jpg" width="80%"/>
+V1 Hardware: 
+<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xyphro/UsbGpib/master/pictures/UsbGPIB.jpg" width="50%"/>
+
+V2 Hardware: 
+<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xyphro/UsbGpib/master/pictures/Upcoming_Rev2.png" width="50%"/>
 
 If you have a lot of test equipment at home, you might know the issues: Lots of devices only have GPIB as interface and the  GPIB adapters and GPIB cables on the market are very expensive and some of them even have many issues, when run under Windows 10 (device driver does not work). Or they e.g. are not able to be operated with VISA, because they are UART based, need special command sequences, ...
 
@@ -29,9 +33,26 @@ Some goals of the project were:
 
 All those goals are met.
 
+# 21st April '25 update
+
+Today it's time for another release - version V2.0. 
+
+While writing this and looking at this readme.md file, I certainly think that I should clean it up in future - it is not well structured for new users. Sorry for this, but I have this on my radar and will improve. Whenever I have more time I will also extend it with usage examples / small "trainings", especially for those who are completely new to GPIB and controlling instruments.
+
+I had btw. some occasions where users had issues flashing the device. Many of them were caused by the fact that the .hex and .bin files were saved over the GitHub web interface by rightclicking and selecting "Save as". This will result in a HTML page being saved which will not flash well :-)
+The safest option is to do a git clone or to download this whole github repository as .zip file.
+
+Here the release V2.0 details:
+- **Bugfix:** the options autoid slower and autoid slowest did not work. This is addressed and I test those settings now also properly in release testing, promised :-) The issue was caused in my super slim parser implementation for custom internal commands and "autoid slow" and "autoid slower" start with the same letters causing hickups.
+The Windows GUI is also updated to expose those 2 autoid settings - they were not included before.
+As general good recommendation, I still recommend to turn autoid feature off, as it limits the measurement instruments which are used - Instruments HAVE to support *IDN? query for it to work well, which is for many old equipment not the case and for such old equipment errors will be flagged after the instrument is turned on.
+- **New feature:** I enabled a new method to set the READ termination. One that is fully compliant with usbtmc standard and does not need a workaround with pulse indicator requests. I don't know why I did not spot this earlier, but a discussion with the usbtmc linux kernel mode driver maintainer exposed this to me. When using direct access to usbtmc kernel mode driver you can use the <a href="https://github.com/dpenkler/linux-usbtmc?tab=readme-ov-file#ioctl-to-control-setting-eom-bit" target="_blank">USBTMC_IOCTL_EOM_ENABLE</a> IOCTL to set the read termination. When using a VISA layer, you can set the read termination by setting the VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN and VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR attributes (see below for more details). 
+The previous method of setting read termination is not modified in any way, this just gives an additional method to set the readtermination.
+- **Bugfix / Improvement:** The pulse indicator request function did use a blocking delay to pulse the LED. This delayed USB side handling. In some cases this could trigger timeouts. The LED blinking is now handled fully asynchronous and those timeouts will not occur anymore.
+
 # 6th April '25 update
 
-time to release a bugfix (reported by rapgenic #80): V1.9 of the firmware fixes an issue where the "autoid slow" setting was not applied properly.
+Time to release a bugfix (reported by rapgenic #80): V1.9 of the firmware fixes an issue where the "autoid slow" setting was not applied properly.
 
 # 12th January '25 update
 
@@ -244,7 +265,10 @@ Don't add extra spaces or make other modifications or concatenate commands.
 
 While most GPIB interfaces use the hardware signal EOI to signal the end of a message, not all old equipment supports it. Some older instruments even don't have the EOI pin hardware wise wired and use \r or \n termination.
 
-The following commands are available:
+The USB-TMC standard allows to set the read termination. While in firmware versions before < 2.0 I did not enable that method, it is now finally supported with standard compliance.
+
+I document here the older method (using pulse indicator request), but I add also the newer methods. You can choose which ones to use, but in some cases pulse indicator requests can be difficult to issue, for which reason it is likely better to use the standard compliant method.
+
 
 ### Set read termination to CR (\r):
 ```
@@ -253,20 +277,38 @@ dev.write('!term cr')
 ```
 Above setting is volatile. To make this a permanent setting call the below mentioned "!term store" command.
 
+Alternatively you can set the termination directly with visa means, e.g. using PyVisa:
+```
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN, True)
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR, ord('\r') )
+```
+
 ### Set read termination to LF (\n):
 ```
 dev.control_in(0xa1, 0x40, 0, 0, 1); # USBTMC pulse indicator request (enables internal command processing)
 dev.write('!term lf')
 ```
 Above setting is volatile. To make this a permanent setting call the below mentioned "!term store" command.
 
+Alternatively you can set the termination directly with visa means, e.g. using PyVisa:
+```
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN, True)
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR, ord('\n') )
+```
+
 ### Set read termination to EOI only (default setting):
 ```
 dev.control_in(0xa1, 0x40, 0, 0, 1); # USBTMC pulse indicator request (enables internal command processing)
 dev.write('!term eoi')
 ```
 Above setting is volatile. To make this a permanent setting call the below mentioned "!term store" command.
 
+Alternatively you can set the termination directly with visa means, e.g. using PyVisa:
+```
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN, True)
+dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR, ord('\0') )
+```
+
 ### Save readtermination setting in eeprom (make them non-volatile)
 ```
 dev.control_in(0xa1, 0x40, 0, 0, 1); # USBTMC pulse indicator request (enables internal command processing)

SW/TestAndMeasurement/TestAndMeasurement.c

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ TMC_Capabilities_t Capabilities =
 
 		.Device     =
 			{
-				.SupportsAbortINOnMatch = false, // false
+				.SupportsAbortINOnMatch = true, // was false before version 2.0
 				.Reserved = 0,
 			},
 		.Reserved2 = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0},
@@ -122,6 +122,8 @@ static uint16_t LastTransferLength = 0;
 /** This will be set true after a indicator pulse command is received. If the next GPIB command starts with '!', a parameter has to be set */
 static bool s_nextwrite_mightbeparameterset = false;
 
+static volatile uint8_t s_pulse_indicator = 0;
+
 static uint32_t s_remaining_bytes_receive=0;
 
 static uint8_t gpib_addr = 1;
@@ -467,7 +469,6 @@ int main(void)
 
 	/* physically GPIB is connected, now check if any GPIB address is responsive */
 #ifndef SPEEDTEST_DUMMY_DEVICE
-//asdf
 	while (!findGpibdevice())
 	{
 		_delay_ms(100);
@@ -548,11 +549,28 @@ int main(void)
 	LED(1);
 	USB_Attach();
 
+	s_pulse_indicator = 0;
+	uint8_t pulseind_starttime = 0;
 	for (;;)
 	{
 		TMC_Task(); // this task is 9.42us active when nothing is triggered, the rest takes 3.3us
 		check_bootloaderEntry();
 
+		if (s_pulse_indicator > 0) // asynchronous handling of pulse indicator request LED flashing
+		{
+			if (s_pulse_indicator == 2)
+			{
+				pulseind_starttime = timer0_100mscounter;
+				LED(0);
+				s_pulse_indicator--;
+			}
+			else if (timer0_100mscounter > (uint8_t)(2 + pulseind_starttime))
+			{
+				LED(1);
+				s_pulse_indicator--;
+			}
+		}
+		
 		if (!gpib_is_connected()) /* check, if gpib is disconnected */
 		{ /* when we get here, reset the MCU and disconnect from USB ! It will reconnect once plugged in to GPIB again */
 			LED(0);
@@ -865,9 +883,7 @@ void EVENT_USB_Device_ControlRequest(void)
 				Endpoint_ClearIN();
 				Endpoint_ClearStatusStage();
 
-				LED(0);
-				_delay_ms(250);
-				LED(1);
+				s_pulse_indicator = 2;
 
 				s_nextwrite_mightbeparameterset = true;
 				break;
@@ -912,19 +928,6 @@ void EVENT_USB_Device_ControlRequest(void)
 	}
 }
 
-static uint8_t charToval(char c)
-{
-	uint8_t val;
-	val = 0;
-	if ( (c >= '0') && (c <= '9') )
-		val = c-'0';
-	if ( (c >= 'a') && (c <= 'f') )
-		val = c-'a'+10;
-	if ( (c >= 'A') && (c <= 'F') )
-		val = c-'A'+10;
-	return val;
-}
-
 void set_internal_response(uint8_t *pdat, uint8_t len)
 {
 	if (len < sizeof(internal_response_buffer))
@@ -961,13 +964,16 @@ void ProcessInternalCommand(uint8_t Length)
 
 	parser_reset();
 	cmd_executed = false;
-	while ( (Length--) && (!cmd_executed) )
+	while ( (Length) && (!cmd_executed) )
 	{
+		Length--;
 		uint8_t dat = Endpoint_Read_8();
-		cmd_executed = parser_add( dat );
+		if ((dat != '\r') && (dat != '\n') ) // remove potential termination characters
+			cmd_executed = parser_add( dat );
 	}
+	parser_add('_'); // workaround for autoid slower/est matching in first letters the option autoid slow (result of parser simplification)
 
-	// remove residual characters from the endpoint buffer
+	// remove residual characters from the endpoint buffer (most likely: termination)
 	while ( (Length--) )
 	{
 		uint8_t dat = Endpoint_Read_8();
@@ -1231,6 +1237,16 @@ static inline void TMC_Task(void)
 					curlen16 = sizeof(readbuffer);// -1;
 					if (curlen16 > MessageHeader.TransferSize)
 						curlen16 = MessageHeader.TransferSize;
+
+					/* New additional method to set termination. Pyvisa example:
+					   dev is here an opened device ressource)
+						  dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN, True)
+						  dev.set_visa_attribute(visa.constants.VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR, ord('\r') ) # pass \0 for eoi, \n for \n or eoi and \r for \r or eoi. All other options will use EOI only termination
+					*/						
+					if (MessageHeader.MessageIDSpecific.DeviceIN.LastMessageTransaction & 0x02) // the read termination character is set as part of this read transaction request
+					{
+						gpib_set_readtermination(MessageHeader.MessageIDSpecific.DeviceIN.TermChar);
+					}
 
 					/* Check if a response from an internal query is in the buffer */
 					if (internal_response_buffer_len) 
@@ -1256,7 +1272,6 @@ static inline void TMC_Task(void)
 						MessageHeader.TransferSize = GetNextMessage(readbuffer, curlen16, TMC_InLastMessageComplete, &lastmessage, tmc_gpib_read_timedout);
 					}
 					TMC_InLastMessageComplete = lastmessage;
-
 					MessageHeader.MessageIDSpecific.DeviceOUT.LastMessageTransaction = lastmessage;
 					if (!IsTMCBulkINReset)
 						WriteTMCHeader(&MessageHeader);					

SW/TestAndMeasurement/TestAndMeasurement.h

@@ -139,7 +139,8 @@
 		typedef struct
 		{
 			uint8_t LastMessageTransaction;
-			uint8_t Reserved[3];
+			uint8_t TermChar;
+			uint8_t Reserved[2];
 		} TMC_DevINMessageHeader_t;
 
 		typedef struct

SW/TestAndMeasurement/gpib.c

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 /**********************************************************************************************************
  * STATIC functions
  **********************************************************************************************************/
-static volatile uint8_t timer0_100mscounter;
+volatile uint8_t timer0_100mscounter;
 volatile bool timer0_ticked = false; /* flag going high every 100ms */
 static uint8_t  timer0_div;
 static uint8_t  s_device_state = GPIB_DEVICE_CONNECTSTATE_UNKNOWN;
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ static void timer_init(void)
 	timer0_100mscounter = 0;
 }
 
+uint8_t gpib_get_100ms_timer(void)
+{
+	return timer0_100mscounter;
+}
 
 ISR (TIMER0_OVF_vect)
 {

SW/TestAndMeasurement/gpib.h

@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ bool gpib_gotoLocal(uint8_t addr, gpibtimeout_t ptimeoutfunc);
 /* trigger instrument */
 bool gpib_trigger(uint8_t addr, gpibtimeout_t ptimeoutfunc);
 
+/* return an 8 bit upcounting timer value with 100ms tick */
+extern volatile uint8_t timer0_100mscounter;
 
 #include "gpib_priv.h" 
 

SW/TestAndMeasurement/miniparser.c

@@ -13,27 +13,30 @@ typedef void(*parser_func_t) (void);
  * hierachical parser tree for memory size efficient parsing of commands.
  * Yes, this is pretty unreadable, but: code and speed efficient :-)
  */
-static const char cmd_parser[] PROGMEM = {0x06, 'a' , 0x0d, 't' , 0x3f, 'v' , 0x6e, '0' , 
-    0x77, 'r' , 0x8e, 's' , 0x9a, 0x02, 'u' , 0x12, 'd' , 0x39, 0x01, 't' , 0x15, 0x01, 
-    'o' , 0x18, 0x01, 'i' , 0x1b, 0x01, 'd' , 0x1e, 0x02, ' ' , 0x23, '?'|0x80 , 0x03, 
+static const char cmd_parser[] PROGMEM = {0x06, 'a' , 0x0d, 't' , 0x4c, 'v' , 0x7b, '0' , 
+    0x84, 'r' , 0x9b, 's' , 0xa7, 0x02, 'u' , 0x12, 'd' , 0x46, 0x01, 't' , 0x15, 0x01, 
+    'o' , 0x18, 0x01, 'i' , 0x1b, 0x01, 'd' , 0x1e, 0x02, ' ' , 0x23, '?'|0x80 , 0x05, 
     0x02, 'o' , 0x28, 's' , 0x30, 0x02, 'n'|0x80 , 0x00, 'f' , 0x2d, 0x01, 'f'|0x80 , 
-    0x01, 0x01, 'l' , 0x33, 0x01, 'o' , 0x36, 0x01, 'w'|0x80 , 0x02, 0x01, 'd' , 0x3c, 
-    0x01, 'r'|0x80 , 0x0f, 0x01, 'e' , 0x42, 0x01, 'r' , 0x45, 0x01, 'm' , 0x48, 0x02, 
-    ' ' , 0x4d, '?'|0x80 , 0x07, 0x04, 'c' , 0x56, 'l' , 0x59, 'e' , 0x5c, 's' , 0x62, 
-    0x01, 'r'|0x80 , 0x04, 0x01, 'f'|0x80 , 0x05, 0x01, 'o' , 0x5f, 0x01, 'i'|0x80 , 
-    0x06, 0x01, 't' , 0x65, 0x01, 'o' , 0x68, 0x01, 'r' , 0x6b, 0x01, 'e'|0x80 , 0x08, 
-    0x01, 'e' , 0x71, 0x01, 'r' , 0x74, 0x01, '?'|0x80 , 0x09, 0x02, '0' , 0x7c, '1' , 
-    0x84, 0x01, '0' , 0x7f, 0x02, '0'|0x80 , 0x0a, '1'|0x80 , 0x0b, 0x01, '0' , 0x87, 
-    0x03, '0'|0x80 , 0x0c, '1'|0x80 , 0x0d, '2'|0x80 , 0x0e, 0x01, 'e' , 0x91, 0x01, 
-    's' , 0x94, 0x01, 'e' , 0x97, 0x01, 't'|0x80 , 0x10, 0x01, 't' , 0x9d, 0x01, 'r' , 
-    0xa0, 0x01, 'i' , 0xa3, 0x01, 'n' , 0xa6, 0x01, 'g' , 0xa9, 0x02, ' ' , 0xae, '?'|0x80 , 
-    0x13, 0x02, 's' , 0xb3, 'n' , 0xbf, 0x01, 'h' , 0xb6, 0x01, 'o' , 0xb9, 0x01, 'r' , 
-    0xbc, 0x01, 't'|0x80 , 0x11, 0x01, 'o' , 0xc2, 0x01, 'r' , 0xc5, 0x01, 'm' , 0xc8, 
-    0x01, 'a' , 0xcb, 0x01, 'l'|0x80 , 0x12 };
+    0x01, 0x01, 'l' , 0x33, 0x01, 'o' , 0x36, 0x01, 'w' , 0x39, 0x02, '_'|0x80 , 0x02, 
+    'e' , 0x3e, 0x02, 'r'|0x80 , 0x03, 's' , 0x43, 0x01, 't'|0x80 , 0x04, 0x01, 'd' , 
+    0x49, 0x01, 'r'|0x80 , 0x11, 0x01, 'e' , 0x4f, 0x01, 'r' , 0x52, 0x01, 'm' , 0x55, 
+    0x02, ' ' , 0x5a, '?'|0x80 , 0x09, 0x04, 'c' , 0x63, 'l' , 0x66, 'e' , 0x69, 's' , 
+    0x6f, 0x01, 'r'|0x80 , 0x06, 0x01, 'f'|0x80 , 0x07, 0x01, 'o' , 0x6c, 0x01, 'i'|0x80 , 
+    0x08, 0x01, 't' , 0x72, 0x01, 'o' , 0x75, 0x01, 'r' , 0x78, 0x01, 'e'|0x80 , 0x0a, 
+    0x01, 'e' , 0x7e, 0x01, 'r' , 0x81, 0x01, '?'|0x80 , 0x0b, 0x02, '0' , 0x89, '1' , 
+    0x91, 0x01, '0' , 0x8c, 0x02, '0'|0x80 , 0x0c, '1'|0x80 , 0x0d, 0x01, '0' , 0x94, 
+    0x03, '0'|0x80 , 0x0e, '1'|0x80 , 0x0f, '2'|0x80 , 0x10, 0x01, 'e' , 0x9e, 0x01, 
+    's' , 0xa1, 0x01, 'e' , 0xa4, 0x01, 't'|0x80 , 0x12, 0x01, 't' , 0xaa, 0x01, 'r' , 
+    0xad, 0x01, 'i' , 0xb0, 0x01, 'n' , 0xb3, 0x01, 'g' , 0xb6, 0x02, ' ' , 0xbb, '?'|0x80 , 
+    0x15, 0x02, 's' , 0xc0, 'n' , 0xcc, 0x01, 'h' , 0xc3, 0x01, 'o' , 0xc6, 0x01, 'r' , 
+    0xc9, 0x01, 't'|0x80 , 0x13, 0x01, 'o' , 0xcf, 0x01, 'r' , 0xd2, 0x01, 'm' , 0xd5, 
+    0x01, 'a' , 0xd8, 0x01, 'l'|0x80 , 0x14 };
 
 void cmd_autoid_on(void);
 void cmd_autoid_off(void);
-void cmd_autoid_slow(void);
+void cmd_autoid_slow_(void);
+void cmd_autoid_slower(void);
+void cmd_autoid_slowest(void);
 void cmd_autoid_query(void);
 void cmd_term_cr(void);
 void cmd_term_lf(void);
@@ -55,7 +58,9 @@ void cmd_string_query(void);
 static const parser_func_t cmd_list[] PROGMEM = {
     cmd_autoid_on, 
     cmd_autoid_off, 
-    cmd_autoid_slow, 
+    cmd_autoid_slow_, 
+    cmd_autoid_slower, 
+    cmd_autoid_slowest, 
     cmd_autoid_query, 
     cmd_term_cr, 
     cmd_term_lf, 
@@ -85,7 +90,7 @@ void cmd_autoid_off(void)
 	eeprom_update_if_changed(104, 0x01); // autoId OFF
 }
 
-void cmd_autoid_slow(void)
+void cmd_autoid_slow_(void)
 {
 	eeprom_update_if_changed(104, 0x02); // autoId SLOW
 }
@@ -105,7 +110,11 @@ void cmd_autoid_query(void)
 	switch(eeprom_read_byte((uint8_t*)104))
 	{
 		case 0x04:
+			set_internal_response((void*)"slowest", 7);
+			break;
 		case 0x03:
+			set_internal_response((void*)"slower", 6);
+			break;
 		case 0x02:
 			set_internal_response((void*)"slow", 4);
 			break;
@@ -151,7 +160,7 @@ void cmd_term_store(void)
 
 void cmd_ver_query(void)
 {
-	set_internal_response((void*)"V1.9", 4);
+	set_internal_response((void*)"V2.0", 4);
 }
 
 void cmd_0000(void)