OS - Windows

From Phidgets Support
Revision as of 19:13, 9 December 2011 by Mphi (talk | contribs) (→‎Limitations)

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

Phidgets are designed to run on Windows 2000 or newer.

Getting Started (Libraries and Drivers)

If this is your first Phidget, we highly recommend working through the Getting Started guide for your specific Phidget device. If you already have the Ph.jpg icon in your task bar and know how to use it, then you've already followed the guide and are ready to choose a programming language below.

If you are already a pro, and just want the drivers:

Programming Languages

After you have installed the drivers above, you should pick a programming language, install libraries, and run the examples for that specific language.

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.

On Windows, we recommend the following languages:

You can also use these languages, but they do not support event driven code, and must use logic code only:

Webservice

Drivers for the Phidget Webservice on Windows are already included in the Drivers above.

If you have a Ph.jpg icon in your taskbar, you already have the Webservice drivers installed.

To learn how to use a Phidget over a network using the Webservice, you can move on to the general Webservice Instructions.

Common Problems and Solutions

Issue: Installing .NET 2.0 on Windows 2000.

Affected Operating Systems: Windows 2000

To install the Phidget Framework on Windows 2000 systems, the .NET 2.0 framework is required. Also, although not explicitly required to use Phidgets on a Windows system, Phidgets under the .NET languages can use .NET 2.0.

Solution: The Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package for (x86) and (x64) systems is freely available from www.microsoft.com. You will need to upgrade to at least Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 for the (x86) version.

Issue: A corrupt installation fails on removal or repair

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Solution: In Windows, if the normal uninstall fails then the Phidget Framework can be manually uninstalled by following these steps:

  1. Delete C:\Program Files\Phidgets\
  2. Remove the Phidgets key from the Registry [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services PhidgetWebservice21].

In most cases this is enough to get the installer working again. If you need to remove all traces of the Phidgets libraries manually without using the uninstaller:

  1. Shut down any programs using the Phidget libraries, including the webservice and the Phidget Control Panel.
  2. Unregister the COM library: regsvr32 /u “C:\Program Files\Phidgets\Phidget21COM.dll”
  3. Remove Phidget21.NET and Policy.2.1.Phidget21.NET from C:\Windows\Assembly\
  4. Delete ‘C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Phidgets’ (WindowsXP) or ‘C:\Users\All Users\Phidgets’ (Vista).
  5. Delete C:\Windows\system32\phidget21.dll
  6. Delete Phidgets from the start menu
  7. Delete C:\Program Files\Phidgets
  8. 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_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Phidget21Manager]
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global\]
9. 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: Some Logitech software prevents communication with Phidgets

Affected Operating Systems: Windows

Old Logitech drivers or software will sometimes mistakenly claim Phidget devices when waiting on some hardware to be connected. 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 is known to occur with Logitech QuickCam and Force Feedback Mouse software.

Solution: Try shutting the offending Logitech application down or kill its process in the task manager when using Phidgets.

Issue: Event data is sporadic/slow/clumped over the webservice

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 application 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.

Limitations

Virtual PC Problem: Virtual PC cannot detect USB Phidgets

UB Phidgets requires a virtual platform that supports HID USB Devices. Since Virtual PC does not support HID USB devices, Phidgets may not be used.

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