AR488 compatible ESP32S2 Adapter

This adapter is used in my lab to use old GPIB equipment in test-automation. The initial support in AR488 is preserved (here). However, I suggest using the more recent code from (here).

The hardware design is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Feel free to order a bunch for you and your best friends. However, don't sell these on ebay and such... I will notice! Commercial option available on request.

Mail me for pricing and availability.

Remarks

The 3d model was optimized for printing with 0.28mm layer heigt using a 0.4mm nozzle.

In the photo above, the hardware of the older Rev2 is shown. The major difference is the switch to the ESP32-S2-mini module due to EOL of the previous module.

Firmware

The AR488 Firmware is available und https://github.com/Twilight-Logic/AR488.

There is an ESP32 port from the original repo available (https://github.com/douardda/AR488-ESP32). I forked this and added the pinouts for Rev 4 and Rev 5. This code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/WilheJo/AR488-ESP32

The ESP32 related things were already backported to the Arduino based original firmware. Hence I forked this repo as well and added the pinouts to the config: https://github.com/WilheJo-Org1/AR488

Both versions work for me, but the original Arduino based firmare seem to get more frequent updates. There's a rather intense discussion going on on the EEVblog forum (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/ar488-arduino-based-gpib-adapter/). Following this, and looking at commits in the repositories, I tend to prefer the Arduino based firmware in the Twilight-Logic repository. However, I made available both and added the pinout for your convenience.

Douradda ESP32 port

The firmware uses PlattformIo. If you pull my repo, the Rev4 pinout is already selected by default. The only things you need to call are:

pio run -t build

pio run -t upload

The repo is configured to use the correct environment for the Rev4 hardware. However, it was reported, that this may fail to build...

It may be necessary to explicitly specify the environment like in the statements below:

pio run -e AR488-ESP32-Rev4

pio run -e AR488-ESP32-Rev4 -t upload

Original AR488

My target config in the Arduino IDE looks like this:

Downloads

Rev 4

Rev 4 uses proper SN75160/SN75161 drivers. However, I made some relatively serious mistake... rework is possible and about 30 units were built from this. A Rev is already in existence, but I will not publish it befor having at least on sample tested :)

File	Description
Rev4-Esp32Ar488-KiCad+Step.zip	KiCad data and 3d files for the enclosure
Rev4-ReworkInstructions.pdf	The rework instructions as PDF
Rev4-Schematic.pdf	The schematic as PDF

Rev 3

This was never built... I opted to go directly to Rev 4 after someone on the mikrocontroller.net forum mentioned to me that the SN7516x drivers are available again...

File	Description
Esp32S2Ar488_Rev3.zip	Production Data including 3d files for the enclosure
Esp32Ar488.pdf	The schematic as PDF

Last updated 2025-02-16