From: Michael Ashe@I. <eli...@im...> - 2003-11-10 20:27:50
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Hi John, Strictly speaking, no. We can (and will) release OSTE without drivers, etc. However, a long term goal of the project is to allow people to download free executables and then run their hardware (within the limits of the features the drivers expose). The idea was to allow people to buy a few instruments, download an OSTE version (executable) and the OSTE compatible drivers/plugins, download a few plugin analysers, and then be able to to a lot of testing without having to learn (or buy) another language. If you then had to do something more sophisticated than the features exposed by the stock drivers, you'd buy LabVIEW (or VB, etc, eventually) and code up either more sophisticated versions of the drivers or go straight to a test module. The driver licensing gets in the way of that. Yes, the project is running, there is a new list on source forge. I'm a little pressed for time right this minute, but will get you info tonight, and yes, we'd like the help. Cheers, Mike *********************************** Michael C. Ashe Imaginatics Control & Test Systems 11 Quinley Way Waterford, CT 06385 Phone: 860-444-2141 Cell: 860-961-0876 email: mic...@im... *********************************** > -----Original Message----- > From: John Howard [mailto:Joh...@sp...] > Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 01:09 PM > To: mic...@im...; > ope...@li... > Subject: Re: OpenGToolkit-Developers digest > > > Hi Michael and all, > > Regarding the OSTE, I am wondering if it is necessary to have any > form of hardware drivers incorporated into the OSTE at all. We > are using a home grown TE which uses VISA (VXI and GPIB) as an > "add-on", with calls through VI-server. As a result - the Test > Executive itself doesn't need VISA - even though the driver add-on does. > > By the way - is the OSTE project up and running yet? I am still > interested in helping out. > > Regards, > > John Howard > > >>> mic...@im... 11/08/03 12:20AM >>> > Hi Kevin, others, > > I haven't chimed in yet on this VISA issue, but it bears on not > only the OpenG Toolkit, but very heavily on OSTE as well. I would > like to distribute OSTE in executable form as well as the source > code, with drivers and code modules, but with NI's licensing it > might be pretty tough. Open(G)VISA would help a lot. OSTE's > grandfather was a military functional test system that was very > heavily based on VXI and GPIB. Without VISA or the older VXI and > GPIB drivers we'd be hobbled. Worse, NI could take OSTE, add VISA > and distribute for less than the $395.00 of an outside license. > > Any thoughts? Lastly, I think I am going to try to find and dust > off my old LabVIEW 3.1 and 4.1 versions to look back through the > old pre-VISA driver stuff. > > Cheers, > Mike Ashe > OSTE Project Manager > > ---- Kevin Valentine <k.v...@ve...> wrote: > > On 2003.11.07 17:10 > ope...@li... wrote: > > > Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 22:09:20 -0000 > > > To: "ope...@li..." > <ope...@li...> > > > Subject: VISA alternative > > > From: "Jim Kring" <ji...@ji...> > > > Cc: <rol...@ci...>, <chr...@ep...> > > > Reply-To: ope...@li... > > > > > > If anyone has been reading the info-lv thread on NI VISA > licensing, you can > > > see that there is a huge demand for an open source solution > for serial and > > > parallel port I/O. NI only allows you to distribute 10 > copies of your built > > > application that uses NI "Driver Software". After that, they > want $395 per > > > copy! Sounds like a good openg project to me. How about > OpenGSerp and > > > OpenGPortIO? I don't have the background to code up the OS > interface or > > > sharedlib, but I can help with all other aspects of the project. > > > > > > -Jim > > > > > > > Wow, that is such a cool idea! Why not call it OpenG-VISA? > Covers it all: GPIB, RS232, ethernet, etc. Haven't seen the > info-lv thread (I just subscibed). Did a search for open source > visa and found one place: > > > > http://www.pnpi.spb.ru/~bazhenov/atel/English/whatVISA.htm > > > > They refer to Open-Visa which they claim to be an open source > version of visa. There's nothing more on their site regarding > this. Googled more on open-visa, still nothing. > > > > Checked out sourceforge.net found these: > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-gpib/ > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/gpib-tcl/ > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/gpib82357a/ > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedaq/ > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/libgpib/ > > > > Am I correct in thinking that we would need these hardware > drivers? I'm guessing that anything that NI has produced, even > though open source, has the licensing restrictions you noted > above. If we cant' touch anything of NI's then that's fine. Looks > like there's enough out there for us to get started :-) > > > > How much work will comforming to the VISA spec involve? Went to > the vxipnp.org and dl'ed the spec (vpp-4.3). Suppose I can > answer this myself as I read through it (285 pages). Perhaps > you're right about breaking it up into two separate projects, for now. > > > > -kevin > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, > 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest > developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, > WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ > _______________________________________________ > OpenGToolkit-Developers mailing list > Ope...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/opengtoolkit-developers > |