The 488 bus is an addressed bus, which means recognizing an address on a bus and having something respond (think I2C for an example).
So when you hot swap instruments, assuming that you don't glitch something, then an existing address doesn't respond, and a new address doesn't yet get recognized.
The controller (and I think it doesn't , unlike USB) start a new connect sequence.? You'd have to program it.
That means, to autoconnect, you'd need to be polling the interfaces (all of them), and when one doesn't respond, you need to forget it.? You then need to scan for a new device.? (and 488 has, IIRC, none of that), although the controller? by polling each device.
So somewhat different there, and not like USB.
Harvey
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On 3/22/2025 7:47 PM, Radu Bogdan Dicher via groups.io wrote:
Hi all,
As I'm exploring GPIB in my environment on multiple instruments, a newbee question - is GPIB essentially hot swappable?
Differently put, can I typically just hook it up to an instrument that's running and expect it to smoothly connect? Or is it typically better to connect GPIB while the instrument is off, then turn it on, so it'd scan its "peripherals" during the booting sequence and this would guarantee it's connecting with no issues?
I assume there's a rule of thumb, instead of a situation where maybe all instruments may be different and it's hard to tell what's the best approach.
I've connected it plenty before, but 95% of the time it's been hooked up to one instrument and so "hot swapping" wasn't a consideration.
This is for a TDS754D, reason I'm posting on this board, but I'm looking for some input applicable to any instrument/brand.
Thank you,
Radu.
