RE: First release of Port IO library for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003

[Jim K. <ji...@ji...>]

Very nice work, Rolf.

I downloaded and tested on my WinXP laptop, but I couldn't get it to =
work.
My laptop doesn't have a parallel port, which might be the problem (no
hardware at 0x378).  When I run the test VI, regardless of what I set =
the
"write value" to, the "written value" (read value) is always 255.

I'll see if I can get some other folks to do some further testing.  It =
might
be nice to do some speed benchmarks in a real-world application.  I know
someone with a Parallel Port I2C/SPI driver board.  The device driver =
for
the board currently uses NI's PortIO driver.  A speed boost would be =
really
useful for this person's application since chip test folks always want =
to do
things *faster* :-) =20

Also, I'll volunteer to create an MNU file for this package so that we =
can
integrate it into the palettes.

-Jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ope...@li...=20
> [mailto:ope...@li...]=20
> On Behalf Of Rolf Kalbermatter
> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 6:00 AM
> To: ope...@li...
> Subject: First release of Port IO library for Windows=20
> 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003
>=20
>=20
> Hello all,
>=20
> I have just uploaded the first release V1.01 of a VI library=20
> with associated user space dll and NT device driver to allow=20
> access of the Port IO address space on x86 systems. The CVS=20
> module name is "portIO".
>=20
> Packaging is not yet done and I would prefer some people with=20
> CVS access using this library first on different systems. It=20
> has been tested on NT4, 2000, and XP to work as suspected ;-)=20
>=20
> The way this works is that the user space DLL decides if the=20
> system is NT based and opens, and if necessary, installs the=20
> device driver on the system. Each function should be able to=20
> perform this check but in general it is a good idea to first=20
> call once the PORT IO Get Version.vi. For this to work you=20
> need to have administrator rights the first time when it is=20
> attempting to install the device driver.
>=20
> Then the PORT IO Read and Write functions have basically two=20
> modes. A normal mode where they access the device driver to=20
> let it read or write the actual value (this is the same as=20
> what the current LabVIEW distributed IO library does), and a=20
> fast mode where they will directly perform the according IO=20
> port access in the user space DLL. (For Windows 9x/ME systems=20
> there is no difference between these two modes as no device=20
> driver is needed to access Port IO from user space.)
>=20
> In order for the user space library to be able to access the=20
> port directly on NT based systems you need however to enable=20
> that port or port range first with the PORT IO Enable=20
> Range.vi function. Just pass in the base address and the=20
> number of consecutive port addresses you want to have access=20
> to and you should be able to access these ports in fast mode.
>=20
> =3D=3D> Watch out writing randomly to IO ports in your system=20
> will most probably result in a crash and eventually damage=20
> your hardware and/or software.
>=20
> Save address ranges are usually 0x220-0x22F (unless you use a=20
> GPIB card), 0x300-0x33F (prototype range), and 0x378-0x37F=20
> (LPT1), but your mileage may vary.
>=20
> Tests on my Pentium 3 Mobile 866 MHz system show that to read=20
> 1000 times 8 registers uses around 750 ms in traditional=20
> (device driver access) mode whereas it performs the same=20
> operation in 20 ms in the fast mode.
>=20
> Depending on time and motivation I may also try to upload the=20
> necessary source code and shared library to perform these=20
> same operations transparently on Linux systems.
>=20
> Enjoy
>=20
> Rolf Kalbermatter
> CIT Engineering Nederland BV    tel: +31 (070) 415 9190
> Treubstraat 7H                  fax: +31 (070) 415 9191
> 2288 EG Rijswijk	http://www.citengineering.com
> Netherlands		mailto:rol...@ci...
> =20
>=20
>=20