OS - Windows

Windows, Phidgets can be either plugged directly into a USB Port or run over a network using the Network Service.

Phidgets are designed to run on Windows Vista or newer, on both 32 and 64-bit systems.

Quick Downloads

If this is your first Phidget, we highly recommend working through the Getting Started guide for your specific Phidget device, which may be found in its User Guide. If you already have the icon in your task bar and know how to use it, then you've already followed the guide and are ready to learn more about the control panel, the Phidget Network Service, and more - all specific to Windows.

If you're just looking for a quick download, here are the drivers:

• 32 Bit Installer Download
• 64 Bit Installer Download

For special cases where you want to install the Phidget libraries without the installer, please see the Advanced Uses section.

• Phidget22 Libraries (32-Bit and 64-Bit development files without an installer)
• Software License

Getting Started with Windows

Installing

The Phidget installer requires that your system has .NET framework 3.5 or higher. The .NET framework can be downloaded from Microsoft.

If you're not sure which versions of the .NET framework are installed on your computer, you can check by clicking on the start menu and running "regedit". Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP, and you'll find one or more folders that list the version numbers you currently have installed.

If you are unable to install .NET framework 3.5 or higher, you can still use Phidgets. However, you won't be able to use the installer, and will have to manually install the Phidget libraries. Please see the Advanced Uses section.

To install the libraries, follow these steps:

1. Download one of the Phidget installer for your system, depending on whether your system is 32 or 64-bit.

• 32-bit
• 64-bit

2. Open up the installer, and proceed through the wizard.

Please note that by default, the installer places the Phidget libraries in C:\Program Files\Phidgets\Phidget22.

3. Once the installation is complete, you are ready to program with Phidgets. To find out what files got installed, please see Description of Installer files in the Appendix section.

Next, the Phidget Control Panel will be discussed.

Phidget Control Panel

The Phidget Control Panel is a tool to quickly determine whether your system is able to communicate with Phidgets, and also acts as a debugging tool.

Once the Phidget libraries are installed using the installer, you should see the icon in the taskbar. If you don't, open up the start menu and search for "Phidget Control Panel". Once you run that, you should see the icon. Double click on the icon to bring up the Phidget Control Panel.

The Phidget Control Panel can:

• Access and test Phidgets connected to your computer
• Update device firmware
• Access other Phidgets and make your local Phidgets accessible over the Phidget Network Service
• Access Phidget Dictionary obejcts over the Phidget Network Service
• View all SBCs on the network and view their webpages

For more information, visit the Phidget Control Panel page.

Checking

To confirm the libraries were installed and work correctly, you can check both the hardware and software components of the interface. It is worth checking the software side first, because if it works then you know the hardware side is also okay.

Software

If you have the Phidgets library installed on your system, you can verify that the software side component is working by seeing if a Phidget device is listed in the Phidgets tab of the Phidget Control Panel.

The above screenshot shows that a VINT Hub is attached to the computer. If you see your Phidget in the list, you can continue to the programming languages section to learn more. If you are not able to see that the Phidget is in the list, there may be a hardware issue. Please see the hardware section for more details.

Hardware

You can verify that your computer detects that the Phidget is plugged in through a USB connection by going to the Windows Device Manager. You can access the Device Manager by accessing the start menu, and searching for "Device Manager". The Device Manager window will open.

Under the Human Interface Devices heading, you can view whether your computer detects that the Phidget is connected through the USB if it is in the list. There should be a HID-compliant device and a USB Input Device entry for every Phidget that is attached to the computer. A simple way of verifying which entry belongs to which Phidget is to simply connect or disconnect the Phidget from the USB port of the computer. The list will automatically refresh to show the updated list of all connected USB devices.

Another place you can see attached Phidgets is "Devices and Printers" which you can also open by searching for it in the start menu.

Here, all Phidgets will show up under the "Unspecified" category.

If you don't see the Phidget in either list, try the following things:

• If the Phidget is connected to your PC through a USB hub, try connecting it directly to a USB port on your computer.
• If your Phidget requires an external power supply, make sure that a supply of the correct voltage is connected.
• If you're using an old USB cable, try switching it out for one you know is working.
• Try switching to a different USB port on your computer.
• Try connecting the Phidget to a different computer, especially if you have one that has worked with other Phidgets previously.

If you've tried all of these things and the Phidgets still don't show up, don't hesitate to ask us for help.

Troubleshooting

If the examples do not work but USB does work (i.e. your computer can consistently see the device in the hardware), take a moment to check the basics:

• You are using Windows 7 or newer.
• You have .NET framework 3.5 or higher.
• No other programs, drivers, or processes are using that USB port in software. Some drivers or software will sometimes mistakenly claim Phidget devices when waiting on some hardware to be connected. Please see the section: third party software prevents communications with Phidgets for more information.
• The Phidget libraries are the latest version (visit the getting started section to download them)
• Check the common problems section below, some specific combinations can cause problems

If your problem doesn't seem to be fixed by these steps, make sure that the Phidget is seen consistently by USB (if it is erratic, try our general troubleshooting guide). If you are still having problems after using the troubleshooting guide, please ask us!

Programming Languages

Phidgets’ philosophy is that you do not have to be an electrical engineer in order to do projects that use devices like sensors, motors, motor controllers, and interface boards. All you need to know is how to program.

After you have installed the drivers and tested your Phidgets using the Control Panel, you should pick a programming language, install libraries, and run the examples for that specific language. You can learn more about what is needed to program in a particular language by choosing the language of your preference below. If you need help choosing a language, please look at the language comparison table.

If you have never programmed before, we recommend using one of these languages due to their widespread use (which means it'll be easier to find help online, and your programs will have more options available if you need to combine Phidgets with another system or technology):

• C#
• C/C++
• Java
• Python

Phidget22 also supports the following languages under Windows:

• Javascript
• Visual Basic .NET
• LabView
• Max/MSP

Phidget Network Service

The Phidget Network Service allows you to remotely control Phidgets over a network. For more information, please see the Phidget Network Service page.

Drivers for the Phidget Network Service on Windows are already included in the Drivers above. If you have a icon in your taskbar, you already have the Network Service installed.

There are two ways that you can connect to a Phidget hosted on another computer. The first method is by using the IP address/host name and port of the host computer. The second method makes the use of mDNS, which allows Phidgets to be found and opened on the network by a server id instead of an IP address/host name. When using a server id, both the client and server will need to be running an implementation of zero configuration networking. The Phidget Network Service takes advantage of the Bonjour software. It is a tool, developed by Apple to locate devices such as Phidgets, and printers. You will have to install Bonjour onto your system to use the second method.

This section helps you install, check, and use the Network Service on Windows, but we also have an overview of the Phidget Network Service in general.

Using the Network Service

To use a Phidget over the Network Service, you'll want to:

1. Have two different computers connected to the same network. We will call the computer that has the Phidget directly connected to the USB port the host. The client will be the computer that runs a Phidget application to connect to the Phidget attached to the host. Please note that if you only have a single computer, you can also connect to the Phidget over the Network Service. The computer will simply act as both a host and client. This will allow you to bypass the one application per Phidget limitation.
2. Start the Network Service on the computer that directly connects to the Phidget
3. Run your program on the remote computer that will control the Phidget over the network

The easiest way to test these steps on Windows is download and install Bonjour onto both the host and client. Next, we will set up the Network Service and run the Phidget program on the client. Please follow these steps:

1. On the host computer, double click on the icon in the system tray to bring up the Control Panel window. In the Network Service tab, you can start, restart or stop the Network Service. You can also choose to have the Network Service start up automatically upon Windows boot up by selecting Automatic as the Startup Type. By leaving the Startup Type as Manual, you will have to manually turn the Network Service on everytime you wish to use it. You'll need administrator privileges in order to make changes to these settings. You can see the status of the Network Service at the bottom of the window, where it will say "Network Service: Running" or "Network Service: Stopped".

2. Ensure that the Phidget is plugged in to the host.

3. On the client computer, open up the Phidget Control Panel. On the Phidgets tab you will see the Phidget that is plugged into the host as one of the entries listed under the heading of Remote Server: <Hostname>. Double click on one of the Phidget's objects to open the example application. If the Remote server is not listed, click on File->Options and make sure List Remote Phidgets is checked.

4. The example application will open up, and you will be able to communicate with the Phidget over the Network Service.

5. You can confirm that this Phidget is truly being used of the Network Service by stopping the Network Service while the example application is still open. On the host's Phidget Control Panel, go to the Network Service tab and hit Stop to terminate the Network Service. Now, take a look at the example application on the client. Since the application can no longer find this Phidget over the Network Service, all of the information disappears and the window says that "Nothing" is attached to this channel.

Debugging the Network Service

In addition to enabling logging in your Phidget code, you can get additional debugging information from the Network Service itself. This additional debugging can be found in the log file, if logging has been enabled. To enable logging, go to File -> Options and check the box next to Enable Logging. From the Level drop-down, you can select how detailed you want the output to be. Critical is the most basic setting, which will only log messages that are deemed to be very important. Verbose, on the other hand, will log everything, although it may be harder to find the messages that are important to you among all of the rest of the messages.

You can find the log files at C:\ProgramData\Phidgets\Logs, or you can click on Logs in the bottom right corner of the Control Panel window:

There is a separate log file for each of the examples, to make it easier to find messages that are relevant to the Phidget you're debugging. There are are also separate log files for different aspects of the Network Service.

Each message in the log file will list the type of the message, the time and date, the place in the libraries the message came from, and a description. This can be very useful for figuring out why certain parts of one of the examples or the Network Service are not working properly.

Advanced Uses

Manual File Installation

The Phidget installer installs the most commonly used files onto your system. However, there may be special cases where you want to install the Phidget libraries without the automatic installer. This section will describe the purpose of the most important files file and cover how to manually install the libraries. You can get the files here. Once you've moved every file and folder in that .zip into the locations in the table in the next section, your manual installation will be complete.

Description of Library files

Here is the list of files and their description for each file the installer puts onto your system. You don't need to know this if you're just using our installer, but if you are looking to distribute our libraries with your code (without your clients having to use our installer) this list will help you pick and choose what you need. Please note that not all of these files are available in the package linked above.

Location: C:\Program Files\Phidgets\Phidget22
File	Description
phidget22.dll	contains the actual Phidget library, which is used at run-time.
phidget22.lib	is used by your compiler to link to the dll. Your compiler has to know where this file is, by default our installer puts phidget22.lib into C:\Program Files\Phidgets\Phidget22, so you can either point your compiler to that location, or copy and link to it in a directory for your project workspace. phidget22.lib is written to be compatible with most compilers - but your specific compiler may need a different format. Check our documentation for your specific compiler for details.
x86 Folder	contains the versions of phidget22.lib and phidget22.dll that are optimized for 32-bit systems. This folder will only appear on 64 bit installations and is useful if you want to code against the 32-bit libraries.
NetworkServer.exe	is used to control Phidgets remotely across a network using the Phidget Network Service
phidget22.h	lists all the Phidget API function calls available to your code. Your compiler also has to know where this file is. By default, our installer puts phidget22.h into C:\Program Files\Phidgets\Phidget22 so you can either point your compiler to that location, or copy and link to it in a directory for your project workspace.
phidget22.jar	is an archive containing the Phidgets library, used by the Java programming language.
Phidget22.NET.dll	is the Phidgets library for the .NET framework used by .NET languages such as C# and Visual Basic .NET.
Phidget22.NET.XML	provides the IntelliSense in-line documentation for the .NET library in Visual Studio.
Phidget22java.dll	is the library for Phidgets in Java.
Phidget22Manager.exe	is the Phidget Control Panel, a tool to quickly determine whether your system is able to control Phidgets, and also acts as a debugging tool.
Location: C:\Windows\System32
phidget22.dll	contains the actual Phidget library, which is used at run-time.
Phidget22java.dll	is the library for Phidgets in Java.
Location: C:\Windows\SysWOW64
phidget22.dll	contains the actual Phidget library, which is used at run-time.

Windows in a Virtual Machine

Phidgets can also be used inside a virtual machine. Instructions for VMWare and VirtualBox are provided below. Virtual PC is not supported as USB Phidgets requires a virtual platform that supports HID USB Devices and since Virtual PC does not support HID USB devices, Phidgets may not be used.

As always, please ensure that you have the latest Phidget drivers installed on the virtual machine and that you are using the latest version of your virtual software.

VMWare:

To enable USB Phidgets, select Virtual Machine -> Removable Devices -> and select the Phidget Input Device -> Connect.

VirtualBox

To enable USB Phidgets, VirtualBox Guest Additions(Devices -> Install Guest Additions) may need to be installed. Afterwards, click on Devices -> USB Devices and select the Phidget device to enable. The state should go from Busy to Captured. VirtualBox may bring up a new hardware wizard in the host operating system, which has to be installed. Please note that Phidgets with USB hubs (for example, the 1019 Interface Kit with 6-port hub), are undetectable; Fortunately, Phidgets that are attached to such Phidgets are detectable.

Note that Windows XP "mode" in Windows 7 does not support Phidgets.

Installing Without an Internet Connection

When running the Phidgets installer it will check for other applications such as .NET. Part of this requires an active internet connection. The downside to this is that even if you have the applications installed already, if you do not have an internet connection you cannot complete the installation process. There is a way around this however which involves extracting the Phidget22 .msi file out of the .exe installer. To do this follow these steps:

• Run the installer.

• Once the installer has started up and you are at the first informational window, navigate to your

Local Disk\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Temp folder.

• Look for the most recently modified folders. The Phidgets one will not have an obvious title, most likely a seemingly random string of numbers and characters.

• In this example the folder was named "IXP000.tmp" but it may be different for you. In the folder you will find the Phidget22_x64.msi or Phidget22_x86.msi file. This file can be run to install the Phidgets libraries without needing an internet connection.

Common Problems and Solutions

Issue: Software projects are not working after a Phidget22 reinstall

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Solution: You need to reset your references and library paths. When you reinstall the Phidgets drivers all of the old paths can get broken. Make sure that you are including the correect header files and that you have referenced the correct libraries and that should fix the problem.

Issue: Some third party software prevents communications with Phidgets

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Some drivers or software will sometimes mistakenly claim Phidget devices when waiting on some hardware to be connected. This is caused by the drivers taking every HID (human interface device) on the USB bus, effectively stealing them from the Phidgets drivers. When this happens, the device shows up in the Phidget Control Panel at start up but examples and programs are unable to make a connection to the Phidget. This has been known to occur with Logitech QuickCam, Force Feedback Mouse, Nike, Velleman K8055, and some SteelSeries drivers.

Solution: If you suspect this is a problem then try putting your machine in safe mode. If this fixes the problem you can be sure that this is the problem. Try shutting/uninstalling the offending driver/software down or kill its process in the task manager when using Phidgets.

Issue: A corrupt installation fails on uninstall or repair

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Solution: If the normal uninstall fails, for whatever reason, you can choose to remove the Phidget drivers manually. Please perform the following:

1. Shut down any programs and processes using the Phidget libraries, including the Network Service and the Phidget Control Panel.
2. Delete C:\Program Files\Phidgets\
3. Remove the Phidgets key from the Registry [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Phidget22NetworkService].

In most cases this is enough to get the installer working again. If you need to remove all traces of the Phidgets libraries manually, perform the following additional steps:

1. Remove Phidget22.NET from C:\Windows\Assembly\.
2. Delete C:\Windows\system32\phidget22.dll.
3. Delete Phidgets from the start menu.
4. Search for and remove keys mentioning Phidgets from the registry in the following locations:
   • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\]
   • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\]
   • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders\Phidgets Inc]
   • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global\]
5. Reboot

NOTE: You can go through the registry and purge any other keys mentioning Phidgets if you still have problems, but at this point you should be able to reinstall under most cases. There will also be keys relating to the installer, the .NET library and the COM library, but they should not interfere with anything.

Issue: Event data is sporadic/slow/clumped over the Network Service

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Windows implements 200ms delayed ACKs for network traffic. When traffic is one-way only - as it is with event data, the data will all arrive in clumps every 200ms because of delayed ACKs.

This can be a great drawback for applications which rely on low latency event data over the network. (source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214397)

This delayed ACK behavior can be disabled in windows to decrease event latency as documented here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328890

In the future, the Phidgets library may implement this differently, but so far we have been unable to match the performance achieved by disabling delayed ACK.