ANALOG DEVICES UG-004 Service Manual

Evaluation Board User Guide

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UG-004

Understanding EVAL-CONTROL BRD2Z/EVAL-CONTROL BRD3Z PC Interface Issues

INTRODUCTION

As PCs continue to evolve, differences become evident among the
manufactures of peripheral interfaces. This user guide details
some issues regarding the EVAL-CONTROL BRD2Z/EVAL­CONTROL BRD3Z (ECB) and the parallel port (LPTn) of the
PC and providesguidelines for configuring and testing the port(s)
for compatibility.

LPT INTERFACE

When PCs were introduced, line printer (LPT) capabilities were
developed for Centronics-style dot matrix printers. In this
topology, the LPT was a basic, byte-wide, transmit-only interface.
As the industry evolved, the LPT was used for more interfaces,
such as tablets, scanners, and external tape drives. Recently, more
control has been adopted, and bidirectional mode has been
introduced. Unfortunately, manufacturers veered away from the
standards because a definitive standard was never clearly
established.

USING ECBS WITH THE ADC EVALUATION BOARDS

Analog Devices, Inc., offers many analog-to-digital converter
(ADC) evaluation boards that use the ECB to capture data and
transfer it to the PC host. The basic methodology is as follows:

1. PC software invokes a command to capture a packet of

converted results.

2. The ADC evaluation board parses requests and sends a

burst of conversion results to the ECB where the DSP
microcontroller packetizes and stores it on the local SRAM.

3. The DSP generates a ready status to upload the SRAM

contents to the PC host.

4. Conversion results are then massaged in data arrays and

displayed via the evaluation board software, such as
LabVIEW by National Instruments.

ECB SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

For the PulSAR evaluation software, the ECB requires at least
one parallel port set in bidirectional mode. Note that this must
be a native port either on a laptop docking station, or for desktops,
one directly coming from the PC motherboard or PCI peripheral
expansion. The use of USB-to-LPT dongles is not allowed because
the GIVEIO driver needs a legacy LPT, preferably a 0x378, or,
more commonly, a LPT1.

Port type can be verified in the following two ways:

• The Windows® 2000/XP Operating Systems (Win OS)

Device Manager

• The basic input/output system (BIOS) of the PC

Check both to validate the installation and to minimize any
problems that can be encountered when attempting to use the
software.

Windows OS LPT Port Settings

To check the PC port settings, right-click on the My Computer
icon on your desktop, click Properties, and then click Hardware.
The dialog box shown in Figure 1 appears.

USING ECBS WITH PULSAR ADC EVALUATION BOARDS

Following the previous guidelines , the evaluation boards
specific to the PulSAR high resolution SAR ADCs, mostly
falling under the EVAL-AD76xxCBZ (some EVAL-AD79xxCBZ),
use this interface with the exception of a dedicated driver,
GIVEIO.exe. The evaluation software for these ADCs was
developed with the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical
programming environment.

Please see the last page for an important warning and disclaimers. Rev. 0 | Page 1 of 8

Figure 1. Hardware Tab

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UG-004 Evaluation Board User Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ...................................................................................... 1

LPT Interface ..................................................................................... 1

Using ECBs with the ADC Evaluation Boards ............................. 1

Using ECBs with PulSAR ADC Evaluation Boards ..................... 1

ECB System Requirements .............................................................. 1

REVISION HISTORY

6/09—Revision 0: Initial Version

Revision History ................................................................................2

When All Else Fails .......................................................................7

RAM Test Failure ...........................................................................7

Conclusion .....................................................................................7

ESD Caution...................................................................................7

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Evaluation Board User Guide UG-004

Next, click the Device Manager button. The dialog box shown in
Figure 2 appears.

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Figure 4. ECP General Settings Tab

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Figure 2. Device Manager Screen

Expand Ports (COM & LPT) and click ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
(see Figure 3), or if it is set from the BIOS, click EPP.

Figure 3. ECP Printer Port (LPT1) Screen

Set the port settings similar to the settings shown in Figure 4
and Figure 5, noting the Use this device (enable) and Never use
an interrupt settings. When a setting for using an interrupt is
selected, the PC can timeout indefinitely and it may need to be
rebooted; therefore, we do not recommended using an interrupt.

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Figure 5. ECP Port Settings Tab

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