What can I do with my Nubus GPIB cards?

[MinerAl]

I have three sets of three cards that used to control Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer machinery.  Turns out, I don't have an LC/MS to attach them to, nor the software for one, so is there anything I can do with these monsters (besides put them on eBay at a ridiculous price and hope someone has an LC/MS and no way to control it)?

One of each set is a GPIB (National Instruments NB-DMA-8 ), and the other two are I/O boards (NB-DIO-32F and NB-MIO-16).

 

[Paralel]

You could make a little fort out of them...

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Use them as wind chimes?

 

[MinerAl]

Grate cheese... cut them into ninja stars...

I was hoping for something a little more electronical

 

[Paralel]

From what I know of NI stuff, having used similar hardware in my old lab, they tend to be purpose-built, so, without a GC/MS, they likely aren't useful for much of anything.

However, for someone that has a GC/MS and has a card that died, or wants to get one up and running and has the Mac, but no cards, they are worth their weight in gold, since finding old, specific interface cards like that can be extremely difficult, bordering on impossible (I have found that out the hard way when old lab hardware went south and replacements were no where to be found...)

So, they likely have an unbelievably small market, but to the right buyer, they'll sacrifice their children to get one.

 

[Charlieman]

Canon used them to connect to some high end printers. I fondly remember one bubblejet printer which took one metre wide rolls of paper. It was used by a wallpaper manufacturer to print samples.

 

[Gorgonops]

If you ever run into a PCI one I'll pay you a nickel for it.

(Or a penny for an ISA one.)

 

[Maccess]

there's manual here:

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/320496.pdf

and a driver here:

http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/5458/en/#toc4

the hard part is getting a cable to use it with...

I have one of these cards, but have never used them. Seems simpler to get a raspberry and use its GPIO.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Cool beans, cables shouldn't be all that difficult, IEEE 488 cabling and PCB connectors are still bog standard. The Wikipedia IEEE-488 article has some interesting possibilities, especially if you can find an OLD HP-Calculator or some such cruft with that interface.

@Eudi: Looks like you could hook your PETs or a Commodore 64 up to a Mac using one of these cards  .  .  .

.  .  .  to what purpose, I have no idea, but it might be fun. [] ]'>

< tangent/other card mode >

Nice linkage, Macaccess, you got me looking for crap about my National Instruments card. Al, looks like we've got a multipurpose DIO interface, mine's the NB-DIO-32F, Assembly 180507  REV-D with the  Rev.D ©1987 ROM on board . I found the pinouts for the IDC-50 internal and external connectors. IIRC, from what I've just read, it's apparently the only NuBus card they made with 3 bits per channel. I always meant to look into doing robotics or something silly with mine, probably won't happen now  .  .  .

.  .  .  but you never know what might happen in the 68k development community these days! [] ]'>

 

[Unknown_K]

The set has a GPIB, analog I/O card and digital I/O card. With a copy of Labview you can pretty much make anything you like with it (control relays, read temperatures, connect to devices with 4-20ma outputs, many digital desktop meters on the 90's had GPIB you can control them with).

 

[CelGen]

GPIB/HP-IB/IEEE-488 is weird. HP used it on everything for a while from test equipment to pack-loading hard drives. One of my SGI's has the hard-coded option to boot over GPIB. It still sees a lot of use but because companies are sleazebags these days they are slowly phasing it out with ethernet and USB.

 

[Bunsen]

With a copy of Labview

That seems to be the tricky part.  I have a device that works with LabView but it seems really hard to find the old 68k Mac Nubus version.

I do have a vague notion of putting together a Nubus based lab bench for electronics work, and your cards would be ideal for that, MinerAl.  Turn an old Mac into a software oscilloscope and logic analyzer, for example, and/or hook up any old laboratory devices that run on GPIB/HPIB.  Build a robot.  3D printer.  68k home automation system.  Control your garden sprinklers.

 

[Unknown_K]

Do a search for labview 68k 5 and you will find the PDF manuals on www.ni.com

I have the last 68k version with serial 5.x if you need a copy.