ReAl

As it was published before 64-bit libftd2xx.so libraries version 1.0.0 and above are not compatible with earlier ones. There are no problems with 32-bit libraries.
It is necessary to install old libftd2xx package for 64-bit avreal/Linux. The package can be downloaded from here.
AVReAl beginning from 1.28r6 loads the library by name libftd2xx.so.0 but not libftd2xx.so. That allows to install both library versions.
Let review installation process.

Continue reading ‘How to install two versions of libftd2xx’ »

From AVReAl‘s point of view there are two Windows families.

Windows 9X family OS like Windows 98 does not require LPT access driver. avreal uses direct IO access when working in it.

NT-line OS like Windows XP or Windows 7 requires a DLPortIO driver. Driver installation process for 32-bit and 64-bit OS has been described before.

For all Windows versions parallel port number or base address must be set in command line, for example -p1, -p378. Port number is just alias for standard address as it is noted in -p switch description. Fixed 378/278/3BC addresses are used for LPT1/2/3.

Non-standard base address for PCI-LPT (PCI-Express LPT, PCMCIA-LPT) extension board can be found on port properties tab in device manager.

»»» How to see the address of LPT in Windows XP, Windows 7

avreal v1.28r7 (Sun 2011-02-27) has been released.

• -v+ processing error — fixed.

-v+ switch (-v switch with + modifier) is incorrectly processed by avreal versions from 1.28r2 to 1.28r6.
avreal checks for 0xFF all memory locations instead of ones unused in HEX-file.
That way avreal stops work after verification and rejects subsequent operations, for example, fuse write command.

-v switch without modifier is processed properly so it is recommended to use it.
The bug is not critical. Bugfix will be later.

The bug has been fixed in version 1.28r7.

avreal v1.28r6 (Sun 2011-01-09) has been released.

• ATmega325A and ATmega329A are added.
• Aliases for “A”-versions are added:

      ATmega165A, ATmega645A, ATmega6450A
      ATmega169A, ATmega329PA, ATmega649A, ATmega6490A

• avreal/Linux64, FT2232* and FT4232H-based adapters:
  Library named libftd2xx.so.0 instead of previously used libftd2xx.so is loaded for FTDI chips support.
  This allows installation both old (required for avreal) and new library versions, for example libftd2xx.so.0.4.16 and libftd2xx.so.1.0.0.
  Read more about libftd2xx.so.1.0.0 problems in 64-bit Linux.
• -k/-K switch now has two forms with different avreal stages execution order.

Unlike in NT-line Windows a DLPortIO.sys driver is not required for LPT port access in Linux/x86 (both 32- and 64-bit). Unlike in Windows 98 any program in Linux can’t access ports without permissions.

There are two ways — direct IO-port access and parport device usage. Direct access provides faster programming but requires root privileges when avreal is started.

Continue reading ‘avreal and LPT in Linux’ »

The FTDI’s gift is very interesting.

Keeping the “See Figure 1.” motto in their minds, they have changed data types when switching over from library libftd2xx.so versions 0.4.x to libftd2xx.so.1.0.0. The gift affects on 64-bit libraries only. There is no problem for 32-bit ones.

ftd2xx library was born in Windows and contains WinAPI-like UART support functions FT_W32_ххх(). That’s why WinAPI standard types DWORD, BYTE and so on are used in the library. For Linux version of the library they have added WinTypes.h header file with typedefs for these types. In general, it seems to be a logical step, but…

Continue reading ‘The FTDI’s gift’ »

At the beginning of december FTDI gave us a small gift — a new version 1.0.0 of libftd2xx.so library. But avreal/Linux 64 bit doesn’t work with the library. I will check avreal code later. I have placed previous version 0.4.16 of libftd2xx.so with which avreal works properly, on the download page.

Read more in another post: “The FTDI’s gift”

Unfortunately, there is no DriverLINX package (DLPortIO.sys + DLPortIO.dll) for x86-64 (AMD64, Intel64) Windows versions. I didn’t find it at least. Scientific Software Tools, Inc. (http://www.sstnet.com) discontinued the package support.
Fortunately, there is InpOut32 package (hwinterface.sys+inpout32.dll) and 64-bit version InpOutx64 with hwinterfacex64.sys driver.

»»» How to install DLPortIO in 64-bit Windows

For Windows NT, Windows 2000 and 32-bit WindowsXP, Windows 7 driver DLPortIO.sys and library DLPortIO.dll can be installed by either of the two installers — GUI and CLI (command-line interface). AVReAl is an CLI program itself so I hope that avreal users are not annoyed with CLI. I recommend to use command-line installer which has a ten times less archive (about 17KB instead of 170KB) but can do the same.

»»» How to install DLPortIO in 32-bit Windows