Introduction
The software installation instructions below have been designed to assist users with the installation of the Connect Tech WhiteHEAT USB multi-port serial adapter under Microsoft Windows CE 2.11 or higher. Please carefully read over the User’s Manual that came with your WhiteHEAT adpater for hardware installation/configuration instructions.
Requirements and Notes
- Microsoft Windows CE 2.11 or higher.
- A correctly working Host Controller Driver and standard USBD interface driver.
- A copy of the newest Connect Tech WhiteHEAT USB Windows CE driver files.
- Knowledge of how to use Platform Builder (this document does not describe how to access various files that may be needed in Platform Builder, please consult the Platform Builder documentation for further instruction).
- Windows CE supports up to 10 COM ports. Depending on how many existing COM ports are on the WinCE device, you can use 1-3 WhiteHEAT USB devices on a single WinCE device. The WhiteHEAT device will use the following scheme to assign its port indices: if four, free, consecutive indices are available, it will use those four indices (starting from the lowest). If no four, consecutive indices can be allocated, it will start from the lowest available index and skip the indices in use. (Note, COM0 will be the last index to try, think of it as index 10).
Setting Up The Platform
Depending on the specific platform you have, you can choose one of following methods to install the WhiteHEAT driver:
Method 1: Build the driver directly into your WinCE OS
- Copy ctiwhce.dll and CTIceTTY.exe to your development machine (say D:\YourDriverDir).
- Add following lines to your project.bib file:
ctiwhce.dll D:\YourDriverDir\ctiwhce.dll NK SH
CTIceTTY.exe D:\YourDriverDir\CTIceTTY.exe NK S
NOTE: CTIceTTY is an optional program used for COM port testing. If you do not wish to install it, please omit adding the line or comment it out by adding a ; to the beginning of the line.
- Add the following registry entries to your project.reg file:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\1808\Default\Default\ConnectTech_WhiteHeat_Driver] “DLL”=”ctiwhce.dll” - After you rebuild your platform and boot it up, the WhiteHEAT driver will automatically be loaded once the WhiteHEAT device is plugged into the USB socket on your CE device.
Method 2: Install Manually
- Copy ctiwhce.dll to the Windows directory of your WinCE device. You can do this by using Microsoft ActiveSync or whatever communications method you prefer.
- Plug the USB connector from the WhiteHEAT device into the USB socket of the WinCE device. Windows CE will prompt you for the device driver name. Enter ctiwhce.dll. The WhiteHEAT driver will be installed automatically.
NOTE: If your device does not prompt you to enter a driver name (maybe due to lack of a display in your device), you can use the remote registry editor to add the entry below:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\1808\Default\Default\ConnectTech_WhiteHeat_Driver] “DLL”=”ctiwhce.dll”
- After this, when you plug in the WhiteHEAT device, the driver will be automatically loaded.
Testing The Newly Installed Ports
You can perform a simple loopback test with a terminal program (i.e. CTIceTTY) 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 CTIceTTY. 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.