Vision systems Vscom 100e pciex User manual

www.vscom.de

User Manual VScom PCI Cards

VScom PCIex Card

Edition: February 2010

Tel: +49 40 528 401 0

Fax: +49 40 528 401 99

Web: www.visionsystems.de

Support: [email protected]

The software described in this manual is furnished under a license agreement and may be used

only in accordance with the terms of that agreement.

ited.

Trademarks

VScom is a trademark of Vision Systems GmbH. All other trademarks and brands are property of

their rightful owners.

Disclaimer

Vision Systems reserves the right to make changes and improvements to its product without pro-

viding notice.

Vision Systems provides this document “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either expressed or

implied, including, but not limited to, its particular purpose. Vision Systems reserves the right

to make improvements and/or changes to this manual, or to the products and/or the programs

described in this manual, at any time.

Information provided in this manual is intended to be accurate and reliable. However, Vision

Systems assumes no responsibility for its use, or for any infringements on the rights of third parties

that may result from its use.

This product might include unintentional technical or typographical errors. Changes are period-

ically made to the information herein to correct such errors, and these changes are incorporated

into new editions of the publication.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 2

Contents

1 Overview 5

2 Introduction 5

2.1 Features ........................................... 5

2.2 Product Speciﬁcations ................................... 6

2.2.1 VScom 100E PCIex ................................ 6

2.2.2 VScom 200E PCIex ................................ 7

2.2.3 VScom 400E PCIex ................................ 8

2.2.4 VScom 800E PCIex ................................ 9

2.3 Packing List ......................................... 9

2.4 About this Manual ..................................... 10

3 Windows Driver 11

3.1 Installing the Drivers .................................... 11

3.1.1 Install in Windows 9x, 2000, XP and Vista ................... 11

3.1.2 Install in Windows 7 ................................ 12

3.1.3 Verify the Installation ............................... 14

About assigned port numbers ........................... 14

3.1.4 Removing the Software in Windows 9x, 2000, XP and Vista .......... 15

3.1.5 Removing the Software in Windows 7 ...................... 15

3.2 Card and Port Conﬁguration ............................... 17

3.2.1 Card and Ports in Device Manager ........................ 17

3.2.2 Card Advanced Settings .............................. 19

3.2.3 Ports Conﬁguration ................................ 20

VScom Standard Port Settings .......................... 21

VScom Advanced Port Settings .......................... 22

Enhanced Software Settings ............................ 26

Automatic Software Flow Control ........................ 27

Automatic Hardware Flow Control by RTS/CTS ................ 29

Automatic Hardware Flow Control by DTR/DSR ................ 30

3.3 Windows NT 4.0 ...................................... 31

3.3.1 Installing in Windows NT 4.0 ........................... 32

Automatic Detection of PCI Cards ........................ 32

Conﬁguration via Control Panel ......................... 33

System Conﬁguration ............................... 33

Card and Port Conﬁguration ........................... 33

Uninstall Drivers from Windows NT ....................... 34

Checking Installation in Windows NT ...................... 34

4 Connector Deﬁnitions 35

4.1 DB9 male .......................................... 35

4.2 DB25 male ......................................... 36

4.3 DB44 female ........................................ 37

4.4 DB62 female ........................................ 38

4.5 DB25 male RS 232 ..................................... 39

4.6 DB25 female RS 232 .................................... 39

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 3

List of Tables

5 History 40

List of Figures

1 VScom 100E PCIex .................................... 6

2 VScom 200E PCIex .................................... 7

3 VScom 400E PCIex .................................... 8

4 VScom 800E PCIex .................................... 9

5 Windows 7 Installation ................................... 13

6 Driver Installation Target ................................. 13

7 Windows 7 Installing Drivers ............................... 14

8 Windows 7 Driver Removal ................................ 16

9 Windows 7 Drivers removed ................................ 17

10 Cards and Ports in Device Manager ........................... 18

11 Card Advanced Properties ................................. 19

12 Port Renaming ....................................... 20

13 Standard Settings ...................................... 21

14 Advanced Settings 16C950 ................................. 22

15 Advanced Settings 16C550A ................................ 24

16 UART Types ........................................ 24

17 Software Settings ...................................... 26

18 Auto XON/XOFF ..................................... 27

19 Auto RTS/CTS ....................................... 29

20 Auto DTR/DSR ...................................... 30

21 Auto-DTR Modes ..................................... 31

22 NT Plug & Play ....................................... 32

23 NT Device list ....................................... 33

24 DB9 male Connector .................................... 35

25 DB25 male Connector ................................... 36

26 DB44 female Connector .................................. 37

27 DB62 female Connector .................................. 38

28 DB25 male RS 232 ..................................... 39

29 DB25 female RS 232 .................................... 39

List of Tables

1 Features of VScom PCIex models ............................. 6

2 Features of VScom 100E PCIex .............................. 6

3 Features of VScom 200E PCIex .............................. 7

4 Features of VScom 400E PCIex .............................. 8

5 Features of VScom 800E PCIex .............................. 9

6 DB9 male Connector .................................... 35

7 DB25 male Connector ................................... 36

8 DB44 female Connector .................................. 37

9 DB62 female Connector .................................. 38

10 DB25 male RS 232 ..................................... 39

11 DB25 female RS 232 .................................... 39

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 4

2 Introduction

1 Overview

VScom provides several models of serial port cards for PCI Express bus, also named PCIe. This

modern serial bus is the successor of several parallel PCI variants. It is a fast bus, and the size

of bus connectors can be very small. Since mainboard design with PCI Express is more easy than

with fast parallel PCI, the classic PCI slots will vanish from modern systems in the future.

Serial ports are required much longer than that. So there is a demand to to implement serial port

boards for PCI Express. VScom has done so with the modern E-series cards, ranging from one to

eight ports. The cards are designed to control industrial hardware via asynchronous serial ports,

as many software requires today.

The supplied drivers for Windows operating system install the serial ports into the Windows API,

so they appear as the usual Com ports software requires. A rich set of driver options is conﬁgured

via the Device Manager in Windows. The driver allows to conﬁgure the serial ports for a bitrate

of up to 15.6 Mbps. Of course RS 232 can not reliably transport very high bitrates, even under

best conditions 1 Mbit/s is the limit. As the result of the extreme high maximum bitrate, there is

no bitrate below 1 Mbit/s which the cards can not generate. No matter which conﬁguration the

hardware requires, the VScom PCIex cards deliver it.

2 Introduction

This manual describes the hardware of VScom PCIex cards. PCIex is the name used in VScom

products for PCI Express products. Also the Windows driver for these cards is described in detail.

2.1 Features

•PCI Express 1 Lane

•Serial port interface RS 232

•Max 15.625 Mbps

•Huge FIFO buﬀers 128 Byte

•Drivers for Windows™operating system

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 5

2 Introduction

2.2 Product Speciﬁcations

The VScom PCIex cards share some common properties, the most important diﬀerence is the

number of serial ports. The maximum speed is 15.625 Mbit/s, but this is theoretical because the

electrical interface RS 232 is not capable of such transmission rates.

Bus interface PCIe x1 PCI Express, max. 500 MByte/s

Serial Ports 1 to 8 RS 232

Signals RS 232 RxD, TxD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, RI, GND

Max. Bitrates Theoretical 15.625 Mbit/s

Eﬀective 1 Mbit/s

Serial conﬁgurations Data bits 5, 6, 7, 8

Parity None, Odd, Even, Mark, Space

Stop bits 1, 1.5, 2

FIFO size 128 Bytes For transmit and receive each

Table 1: Features of VScom PCIex models

2.2.1 VScom 100E PCIex

The VScom 100E PCIex card features one serial port, available via a PCI Express slot.

Figure 1: VScom 100E PCIex

Serial Ports 1 RS 232

Connectors 1×DB9 male Standard for RS 232

Signals RS 232 RxD, TxD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, RI, GND

Table 2: Features of VScom 100E PCIex

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 6

2 Introduction

2.2.2 VScom 200E PCIex

The VScom 200E PCIex card features two serial ports, available via a PCI Express slot. Both serial

ports share one common connector DB25-male, an adapter cable is included. For signal assignment

see 4.2.

Figure 2: VScom 200E PCIex

A model for Low Proﬁle cases is available.

Serial Ports 2 RS 232

Connectors 1×DB25 male Adapter to 2×DB9 male included

Signals RS 232 RxD, TxD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, RI, GND

Table 3: Features of VScom 200E PCIex

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 7

2 Introduction

2.2.3 VScom 400E PCIex

The VScom 400E PCIex card features four serial ports, available via a PCI Express slot. All four

serial ports share one common connector DB44-female, an adapter cable is included. For signal

assignment see 4.3.

Figure 3: VScom 400E PCIex

A model for Low Proﬁle cases is available.

Serial Ports 4 RS 232

Connectors 1×DB44 female Adapter to 4×DB9 male included

Signals RS 232 RxD, TxD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, RI, GND

Table 4: Features of VScom 400E PCIex

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 8

2 Introduction

2.2.4 VScom 800E PCIex

The VScom 800E PCIex card features eight serial ports, available via a PCI Express slot. All eight

serial ports share one common connector DB62-female. For signal assignment see 4.4.

An adapter cable to eight times DB9-male is not provided, customers can choose from several

connection options. There are Octopus-type cables to DB9 and DB25, male and female. There are

also connection boxes for DB9 male, or DB25 male and female. Also converter boxes to RS 422

and RS 485 are possible.

Figure 4: VScom 800E PCIex

Serial Ports 8 RS 232

Connectors 1×DB62 female Adapter not included

Signals RS 232 RxD, TxD, RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, GND

Table 5: Features of VScom 800E PCIex

Note: There is no RI signal, because no pins are available for this on the DB62 connector.

2.3 Packing List

All models are shipped with a driver CD-ROM, which includes the documentation and the driver

software.

VScom 200E PCIex An adapter cable DB25 male to 2×DB9 male is included

VScom 400E PCIex An adapter cable DB44 female to 4×DB9 male is included

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 9

2 Introduction

2.4 About this Manual

This manual describes the hardware of VScom PCIex Cards, as well as signal assignments. There

is no conﬁguration option for customers.

The part describing the driver is generic for all VScom PCI cards, the same in all manuals. It will

describe options not available on the VScom PCIex Cards, mainly parallel ports. Just ignore such

sections. Also Windows NT and even older versions of Windows operating system are mentioned.

There are drivers for these old systems, however they are without warranty. Since modern main-

boards with PCI Express slots are not supported in these OS versions, customers use these drivers

at their own risc.

The screen shots in this manual are made on an English language version of Windows XP. It is not

diﬃcult to ﬁnd the appropriate part in any other language version of Windows.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 10

3 Windows Driver

This chapter of the manual documents the drivers for Windows Operating Systems. The driver

is basically the same for all the VScom PCI cards available, independent of the model. As one

consequence there is only one driver for download, linked to from all the products. It does not

matter which link you use.

When Windows loads the driver, the type of card is identiﬁed. The driver adapts to the options

available on the certain card, and disables or hides other options. Because of the great similarity

of the products, users ﬁnd the options always at the same positions, they do not have to learn each

product individually.

The following text is common to all cards, important diﬀerences are mentioned when necessary.

When a described option is not available on your product, this is not an error. This option is just

not oﬀered by your hardware.

The manual ﬁrst describes the process of installing the driver software, followed by instructions

for removing the drivers in the unlikely case you whish to do this. The drivers still support very

old phased out products, as well as old Windows versions 95 to ME (9x strand) and NT. The

old Windows systems are no longer supported by Microsoft, so there may be hidden problems on

your computer. These may cause the VScom cards to malfunction in your system. Said that, we

can not guarantee the old products operate reliably, and also modern products may have unex-

pected behaviour in old operating systems. The old operating systems are just mentioned in the

following.

Many VScom cards may be installed simultaneously. In fact the driver does not limit the number

of cards installed, Windows does. In Windows 9x the maximum number of serial or parallel ports

installed is 127, in Windows NT or later the limit is 256 ports of serial or parallel kind.

The current version of the driver is 3.1.2.

3.1 Installing the Drivers

Windows Systems perform the hardware detection by Plug & Play, you do not have to conﬁgure

the card in any way. Special DIP switches as described above of course are an exception.

Windows NT performs diﬀerent, this is described later (section 3.3).

3.1.1 Install in Windows 9x1, 2000, XP and Vista

1. Install the card in your system and boot Windows.

2. Log on to an account with administrative privileges.

In Windows 95/98/98SE/ME each account is appropriate,

Windows NT is handled extra below.

3. Windows will automatically detect the VScom PCIex Card.

4. The “Add New Hardware Wizard” dialog box appears and searches for new drivers for the

VScom PCIex Card.

1Windows 95 up to Windows ME

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 11

3 Windows Driver

5. Click on “Next”.

6. From the listed box, choose “Search for the best driver for your device”.

7. Click on “Next”.

8. If not done already, insert the driver CD into the CD-ROM drive.

9. From the generated choices, choose “CD-ROM drive”.

10. Windows searches for the driver, and detects the .inf-ﬁle on the CD. It is ready to install the

driver for VScom PCIex Card.

Click on “Next”.

11. On some systems Windows may claim about a “Missing digital signature”. This is not an

error, just “Continue”.

12. Click on Finish.

13. Windows now detects the COM ports on the VScom PCIex Card.

14. If Windows requests the driver disk again, point to the directory named after your operating

system, e.g. “Windows XP (32 bit)”.

15. Windows will copy and install the driver for the new PCI serial ports.

16. You might be asked to restart your computer in the process. We suggest to wait with until

all components (cards and serial ports) are completely installed, and restart then.

3.1.2 Install in Windows 7

Windows 7 looks diﬀerent when installing drivers. It seems it is very diﬀerent from the other

Plug & Play enabled versions. But this is a deception.

When detecting new hardware Windows ﬁrst visits the website of Windows Update to ﬁnd a suitable

driver, which shall be installed. If none is found, Windows searches the local system for the required

driver, and loads it. If also there is none, this would be the time to pop-up the “Add New Hardware

Wizard”, so the user can supply a driver. And this step does not happen in Windows 7, the Wizard

does not appear2.

Instead Microsoft decided to have the user run an installation program for the hardware. This

software will install all the driver ﬁles to the system, and then initiates a hardware detection

process. This installation program in version 3.3.0.15 is available for all cards.

The following assumes the card is already installed in a slot.

1. Start the installation program. On the CD-ROM this is named vscompci.exe, and vscomp-

cix64.exe for the x64 Edition of Windows 7. For download from download it is available as

a self-extracting ﬁle, which detects the system automatically. This is the program, click on

“Install”.

2It is still available using some tricks

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 12

3 Windows Driver

Figure 5: Windows 7 Installation

2. The software requests a location to install the required ﬁles.

Figure 6: Driver Installation Target

Conﬁrm the location.

3. The installation proceeds.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 13

3 Windows Driver

Figure 7: Windows 7 Installing Drivers

When this is completed, the hardware is recognized by Windows 7, and the drivers are loaded.

This may take some time, especially for many serial ports.

It is also possible to ﬁrst run the Installation program. This will install the drivers in the same way,

but they are not loaded. The system is prepared to detect a card. After shut down and installation

of the hardware the serial ports are installed without further user intervention. The same happens

when more cards are added to an existing system.

3.1.3 Verify the Installation

You can now verify the installation by looking at the “Multi-port serial adapters” section of the

Device Manager (Go there by Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device

Manager). There you will ﬁnd the new device “VScom PCIex Card” listed.

Select this, and open the properties. In the “Advanced” tab, click the “Check” button to verify the

speed setting from the hardware installation. You may also rename the ports here.

About assigned port numbers In some systems the ports will receive numbers customers do not

expect. For example a card with two serial ports may receive the names ’Com5’ and ’Com8’, but

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 14

3 Windows Driver

the expected ports ’Com3’ and ’Com4’ do not appear in the Device Manager. This is neither an

error of the card or the driver, it is just how Windows manages port numbers.

Windows maintains an internal data base3of port numbers which have been assigned to some

hardware in the past. These numbers are skipped when assigning port names to new hardware.

The numbers may be changed after installation of VScom hardware.

3.1.4 Removing the Software in Windows 9x4, 2000, XP and Vista

To remove installed ﬁles and Windows registry information

1. Go to the directory where you installed the driver from as described above.

2. Double click the “VSCLEAN.EXE”, and reboot your computer when asked to.

3.1.5 Removing the Software in Windows 7

To remove installed ﬁles and Windows registry information you may use the same way as in the

past (above 3.1.4). Or you may use the installation software.

1. Start the installation program, and use the “Remove” option.

3A Binary value in the registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\COM Name Arbiter

4Windows 95 up to Windows ME

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 15

3 Windows Driver

Figure 8: Windows 7 Driver Removal

2. Short time later the removal is done.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 16

3 Windows Driver

Figure 9: Windows 7 Drivers removed

3.2 Card and Port Conﬁguration

Each card is organized in two types of components in the system. One type is for the card itself,

i.e. the basic PCI interface. The other type is for the ports. This is reﬂected in Windows and the

driver software.

3.2.1 Card and Ports in Device Manager

The category where the VScom cards are installed is ‘Multi-port serial adapters’. And as expected

there is the category of ‘Ports (COM & LPT)’ for the serial ports. Both categories are standard on

Windows.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 17

3 Windows Driver

Figure 10: Cards and Ports in Device Manager

Shown here are the data of some serial and parallel VScom cards in the Device Manager. There

are many cards installed simultaneously, just to show this is possible.

The 800EH is displayed as two items in ‘Multi-port serial adapters’. Because the H-series cards

support two functions each card is listed as two devices. The 800EH card appears as two groups

of serial ports. The same happens for the 210H card, with two serial ports in one group, and the

parallel port in the other.

L-series cards like 200L or 210L put all ports in one component, so serial and parallel ports may

be mixed.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 18

3 Windows Driver

3.2.2 Card Advanced Settings

Open the properties of a card via the Device Manager, and select the “Advanced” tab. These are

the advanced settings for a VScom card, a VScom 210L UPCI in this case.

Figure 11: Card Advanced Properties

This panel displays the ports of the card, and their assigned names in Windows.

For serial (COM) ports there is the “Clock Frequency”. Some models allow to change this clock,

which is the same for all ports on a card. When installing a card the driver attempts to detect the

clock of the serial ports. If the system is very busy while installing the driver, the detection may

yield a wrong result.

If you have communication problems after installation, click the “Check” button. The driver will

measure the actual speed again, and change the entry as needed. There is no option to manually

enter the clock value. Unless you have very special requests you should leave the hardware at top

speed. This oﬀers higher speed and a wider range of bitrates, especially unusual conﬁgurations.

The display of parallel (LPT) ports is similar.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 19

3 Windows Driver

The COM- or LPT-assignments of each port may be changed from the initial values after installing

the drivers. To change the assignment just double-click the entry in the “Advanced” panel.

Figure 12: Port Renaming

Then this panel is opened for renaming a port.

In some cases it may be useful to change the name from COM (or LPT) to something else. Do this

only if you exactly know what you are doing. Usually you will change the number of the ﬁrst port

only. With the ‘Autoenumerate’ feature enabled the subsequent ports receive the next numbers.

However it is possible to assign port numbers with gaps in between.

3.2.3 Ports Conﬁguration

The available functions of the serial ports depend on the type of UART implemented on the card.

Cards with 16C550A type serial ports provide less conﬁguration than the 16C950 UART. As a

consequence some panels are just missing. This is not a sign of an error.

February 2010 VScom PCIex Card User Manual 20

This manual suits for next models

Table of contents

Popular PCI Card manuals by other brands

StarTech.com

StarTech.com PCI1P2 instruction manual

Airlink101

Airlink101 10/100/1000Mbps PCI Adapter AGIGA32PCI Quick installation guide

Contec

Contec DIO-1616T-PE user guide

Contec

Contec DA12-8PCI manual

Planet

Planet WNL-9310 Specifications

Planet

Planet 802.11n Wireless PCI Adapter WNL-9330 user manual

Planet

Planet WL-3501 WireFree user manual

BlueChip

BlueChip PCI-PIO user manual

j5 create

j5 create JVA06 manual

Contec

Contec AO-1604CI3-PCI manual

Step Technica

Step Technica MKY44 Series datasheet

Conexant

Conexant Intersil ISL39001C user manual

CyberResearch

CyberResearch COMHP 7404 user manual

GeoVision

GeoVision GV-600B user manual

Exsys

Exsys EX-44041-2 installation manual

SIIG

SIIG SoundWave 128 PCI user manual

Nortel

Nortel e-mobility 802.11b Wireless LAN DSSS PCI... Installation

Cisco

Cisco WMP54G user guide

Vision Systems VScom 100E PCIex User manual

Popular PCI Card manuals by other brands