The Rulbus LabVIEW Library Martin J. Moene U n i v e r s i t e i t L e i d e n Last update: 1 December 2004.

The Rulbus LabVIEW Library

Martin J. Moene

U n i v e r s i t e i t L e i d e n

Last update: 1 December 2004

The Rulbus LabVIEW Library

• Rulbus, a simple peripheral input-output bus• Structure of the library• Application example• Implementation of the library

Rulbus: a simple peripheral input-output bus

PC

ISA Rulbus interface

ADC DAC delay timer

PC, ...

EPP Rulbus interface

R u l b u s

computer

interface

peripheral

R u l b u s r a c k

R i j k s U n i v e r s i t e i t L e i d e n B u s

Rulbus components

• computer – Rulbus interface• Rulbus rack• Rulbus modules• Rulbus rack selector

Computer – Rulbus interface

E P P R u l b u s i n t e r f a c e

Rulbus rack

H a l f w i d t h r a c k

Rulbus module

R B 8 5 0 6 d u a l p a r a l l e l i n t e r f a c e

Rulbus Rack Selector (1)

The figure above shows a rack with secondary address 3: binary 0011, 0*2^3 + 0*2^2 + 1*2^1 + 1*2^0

Selector located at rear of rack

Rulbus rack selector (2)

Computer + Rulbus Interface

Rack

15

always selected

Rack

14

Rack

0

module address: [rack:address]

or

Several Rulbus properties

• 8-bit address bus, 254 addresses per rack 1):– rack selector, address $00,

– bus idle, address $FF

– modules use 2 .. 32 addresses (DAC, Parallel Interface)

• 8-bit data bus• 1 MHz bus frequency• simple interface for peripherals

1) With rack selector: total of 15 x 254, or 3810 addresses

Structure of the library

• Several VIs for each module• Contents VI for each module• Overall library Contents VI

Application example (1)

• Set the named DAC to specified voltage

Application example (2)

• Specify Rulbus Interface– EPP: prompt>set rulbus=epp,0x378 (this is the default)– ISA: prompt>set rulbus=isa,0x200

• Specify Rulbus Configuration file– contents of environment variable RULBUS_CONFIG_FILE, or– file .\rulbus.conf (current directory), or– file C:\etc\rulbus.conf

Application example (3)

• Specify Rulbus devices

# rulbus-small.conf - example rulbus configuration file.

rack "top" { # rack definition address = 0 # this rack’s address

rb8509_adc12 "adc" # ADC with default settings

rb8510_dac12 "dac-ch0" { # DAC first output address = 0xD0 }

rb8510_dac12 "dac-ch1" { # DAC second output address = 0xD2; bipolar = false; voltperbit = 1.25m } }

Implementation of the library

• Rulbus LabVIEW Library (RLL), uses the:

• Rulbus Device Library (RDL), a dynamic-link library

• Rulbus Device Class Library (RDCL), part of RDL

References & Links

ELD: http://www.eld.LeidenUniv.nl/

RLL: http://www.eld.LeidenUniv.nl/~moene/software/rll/

RDL: http://www.eld.LeidenUniv.nl/~moene/software/rdl/

RDCL: http://www.eld.LeidenUniv.nl/~moene/software/rdcl/