Introduction
This software installation guide is designed to help users successfully install the NT960/PCI serial adapter under the QNX 4.2x platform.
Before beginning the software installation, please be sure to read the product manual for hardware installation/configuration instructions.
To make the instructions easy to follow, all commands that have to be issued on the command line are written in bold text.
NOTE: You must be logged in as root to perform this installation
Preamble: Getting Your System Ready
Before you begin the installation process, you will need to have two applications running so you will be able to read from the DOS diskette. To run these applications, enter the following two commands from the command line:
# Fsys.floppy &
# Dosfsys &
These particular applications may be running by default (these are QNX applications), and therefore you may not have to issue the previous commands. Please see the QNX documentation for more details about Dosfsys and Fsys.floppy
Installing the Driver
- Go to the root directory by issuing the command:
# cd / - If you downloaded the *.tar file from the website, you will need to untar it first.
The *.tar file contains qnx4.F and readme.txt files.
tar xvf 960PCI-QNX4_XXX.tar
Where XXX is the version number - To install the driver:
# install -u /..PATH../qnx4
Where PATH is the location of the qnx4.F file - If you are using the driver diskette, issue the following command:
# install -u /dos/a/qnx4/qnx4 - Once the installation script starts, follow instructions to finish the installation. You can also see where the files are being copied to
Command Line Arguments
# Dev32.nt960pci &
The command above will start the NT960/PCI driver with the default arguments.
Devices will be created in the /dev directory
Slay Dev.32.nt960pci
The command above stops the NT960/PCI driver
# Dev32.nt960pci -N nt &
If you were now to look in the /dev directory, you would see a number of nt entries (nt1 -> ntx), representing your NT960PCI serial ports
For more command line options, issue the following command:
# use Dev32.nt960pci
**** NOTE THE DRIVER WILL NOT LOAD IF YOUR ACM DEVICES ARE NOT CONNECTED PROPERLY *****
Other command line options are:
-b number
Defines the initial baud rate (default: 9600)
-C number
Size of canonical input buffer (default: 256)
-d
Set DTR on initially (default)
-D
Set DTR off initially
-e
Set options to “edit” mode
-E
Set options to “raw” mode (default)
-f
Enable hardware flow control (default)
-F
Disable hardware flow control
-h number
Define high-water mark for input flow control (default: 3/4 point of input buffer)
-I number
Size of raw input buffer (default: 2048)
-l number Define low-water mark for input flow control (default: 1/4 point of input buffer)
-m
Disable modem carrier processing (HUP)
-M
Enable modem carrier processing (HUP) (default)
-N name
Prefix to register (default: “Ser”)
-O number
Size of output buffer (default: 2048)
-p
Enable packet mode
-P
Disable packet mode (default)
-r
Set RTS on initially (default)
-R
Set RTS off initially
-s
Enable ohflow split – CTS only required (default)
-S
Disable ohflow split – CTS and DTR required
-t number
16550 RxD FIFO threshold (1, 4, 8 or 14). 0 disables (default: 0)
-x
Enable software flow control (XON/XOFF)
-X
Disable software flow control (default)
-w
Enable hardware shutdown on SIGPWR
-W
Disable hardware shutdown on SIGPWR (default)
RS485 Mode Support
The NT960/PCI includes support for Full Duplex, Half Duplex and Multi-Drop Slave modes. Connect Tech provides the “ctty” utility to enable and disable these modes.
The settings that are enabled/disabled by the ctty utility are volatile, meaning that if the system needs to be rebooted, the settings will be lost. Because of this, it is recommended that you place the ctty command in the sysinit startup file. This way if you do need to reboot your computer, your settings will be re-enabled at boot time. If you choose to do this, you will also have to start the driver in the sysinit file as well.
NOTE: the ctty command won’t work unless the driver is running.
The default mode is Full Duplex, so you will only need to invoke the ctty command if you need to run in Half Duplex or Multi-Drop Slave modes.
Here are some command line examples. We assume here that the driver is already running:
# ctty +rts -rxd < /dev/ser3
This will enable Multi-Drop Slave mode on port ser3
# ctty +rts +rxd < /dev/ser3
This will enable Half Duplex mode on port ser3
# ctty -rts -rxd < /dev/ser3
This will enable Full Duplex mode on port ser3
Editing the sysinit File
Before you begin editing the sysinit file, you will have to determine exactly which sysinit file to edit. To do so, you will have to find the current node number of your system. This can be easily done issuing the following command:
# sin info
This will give you the current node number of your system, as well as other information. Once you know the node number of your system, you can determine which sysinit file you need to edit. The node number will actually be the extension of the sysinit file to be edited.
For example, if you found that the current node number of your system is 6, you will have to edit the file sysinit.6. All sysinit files will be located in the /etc/config directory. If you are going to edit the sysinit file to load the driver at boot time, make sure that you add this entry at the end of the sysinit file. It is also recommended that you add a sleep command of 1 as well.
For example, to start the default NT960/PCI driver, add these lines to the sysinit file:
Dev32.nt960pci &
Sleep 1
You can also add the ctty commands in the sysinit file, but make sure to place them after the line where you start the serial driver
Testing the Newly Installed Ports
You can perform a simple loopback test with a terminal program (i.e. qtalk) and a loopback connector to ensure that the newly installed ports are functioning.
Connect the loopback connector to the port you want to test and run qtalk. When you type a character, you should see it on the screen, which means that the port is working. If you remove the loopback connector, the characters that you type should not appear on the screen.
Assuming that you want to test ser1 with qtalk, run:
qtalk -m /dev/ser1