AR-B9014/AR-B9016/ AR-B9018 Manual Version 1.0 1. General Description 1.1. AR-B9014 AR-B9014 provides 4 serial ports and a IRQ-vector register can be configured on the AR-B9014 board. The supplied driver supports Windows 95 TM, Windows NT TM and DOS. For each port you can configure the address, the interrupt and the baud rate via software. 1.2. AR-B9016 3. Mode: The parallel Ports of the AR-B9016 can be set to the following modes: SPP Mode: Standard Parallel Port, the Centronics compatible mode PS2 Mode: bidirectional, compatible with PS/2 ports EPP Mode: Enhanced Parallel Port, compatible with IEEE.1284 ECP Mode: Extended Capabilities Port, a Intel and Microsoft specification NOTE: When using the EPP or ECP Mode you must choose a port address ending with a 0 or 8 (e.g. 378 but not 3BC). The reason for this: The EPP and ECP modes reserves extra 4 Bytes in addition to the normal 4 Byte addresses at the location ADDRESS+4 and ADDRESS+400h respectively. AR-B9016 provides 4 serial ports plus extra 2 parallel ports. serial port settings are done the same way like the AR-B9014. For the LPT configuration you have these options: 1. Address: The Port-Address. The 4. DMA: The ECP and EPP mode must have a DMA channel. You can select disabled, 1 or 3. When using SPP or PS2 mode you have to select disabled. NOTE: The assignment of the LPT-numbers depends on the MB BIOS and may differ. The standard assignment is : 3BC LPT1; 378 LPT2 and 278 LPT3 2. IRQ: The Port Interrupt. You can share the LPT-Interrupts only with other LPT Ports. They cannot be shared with the COM-Port Interrupts. 1.3. AR-B9018 AR-B9018 provides 8 serial ports and a IRQ-vector register can be configured on the AR-B9018 board. The supplied driver supports Window 95 TM, Windows NT TM and DOS. For each port you can configure the address, the interrupt and the baud rate via software. Page 1
2. Software and Driver Installation 2.1. Windows 95 TM On the supplied device driver disk you ll find a High-Speed-Mode driver. The driver allows baud rate settings up to 921,000bps when configured to High. Apart from Windows 3.11 Windows 95 TM supports Interrupt-sharing, i.e. the assignment of one interrupt for more than one port. Example: You can assign one interrupt to all ports of the AR-B9018 board. 2.1.1. Installation of AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 Switch off the computer and place the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR- B9018 in a free ISA bus slot. Switch on the computer again. Start the DrvConf.exe utility. The corresponding driver is located in the Win95 sub-directory on the supplied driver disk. This utility detects the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board and all already configured COM-ports in your system. All ports of the AR- B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board will be integrated in a conflict-free configuration. Under normal circumstances these settings are optimal, you as well can set up your own configuration. When ready press the OK button. The DrvConf.exe utility then configures the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board, copy and install the driver software and will restart the system. 2.1.2. Port Settings To configure each port the DrvConf utility allows you to setup this parameters: Name: Here you can select a name for a COM-Port. Possible setting are COM 1 up to COM255. After installing the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board you can make changes in the port settings: NOTE: COM1 up to COM4 are assigned to concrete addresses. When selecting one of this names the address will change respectively. Page 2
Address: The port will be configured to this I/O address. A serial port requires 8 Bytes I/O Space. NOTE: The addresses 0x3f8, 0x2f8, 0x3e8 and 0x2e8 are directly assigned to COM1 COM4. When selecting one of these addresses the name will change respectively. IRQ: The selected port uses this interrupt. You can configure the same IRQ for more than one port. This so called Interrupt sharing is only allowed on one board but not between two boards. UART: The port has a UART of this type. Normally you can t change this parameter setting. The utility will detect the UART and will display this information only. Overspeed: While in Overspeed mode you can get Windows 95 TM /NT to transmit data with a higher baud rate than the in a program selected one (e.g. RAS 115kbps). The enhanced serial driver will multiply the in a program selected baud rate with the Overspeed factor, (e.g. Windows 95 TM /NT will transmit the serial data over the selected port with Overspeed=2 and a selected baud rate of 9,600bps with a speed of 2*9,600bps=19,200bps). You can use this factor settings for baud rates up to 921kbps. NOTE: For total baud rates higher than 115kbps you have to select High (up to 921kbps) otherwise you can only use baud rates up to 115kbps. Speed Mode: All AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards can be configured to normal speed setting as well as to higher speed settings. Select Low (up to 115kbps) to run the board in Standard-Mode or High (up to 921kbps) to setup baud rates up to 921kbps (normally you can only select 115kbps). NOTE: Not all of the communication programs allow speed settings up to 230.4kbps, 460.8kbps and 921.6kbps. Hyperterm under Windows NT TM and Windows 95 TM already support higher speed settings but not the RAS- Service. For all programs not supporting the higher speed modes please refer to Overspeed settings. 2.2. Windows NT TM 4.0 On the supplied device driver disk you ll find a High-Speed-Mode driver. The driver allows baud rate settings up to 921,000bps. With the DrvConf utility (NT sub-directory) you will install the driver and configure the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board. Please also refer to the Windows 95 chapter for the configuration with DrvConf. NOTE: The installation of new drivers under Windows NT TM 4.0 is only possible with administrator privileges. Please always register as administrator or let your system administrator do the installation for you. Page 3
2.3. DOS The serial ports of the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 series can be used as standard COM ports under DOS. DOS only supports COM1 COM4 with fixed addresses at 03F8h, 02F8h, 03E8h and 02E8h. The usage of more than 4 COM ports or other than the standard addresses depends on your application program. Most of the terminal programs allows you to select extra addresses and interrupts. Many programs also support the FOSSIL driver. These are drivers for serial ports which allow you to use more than 4 COM ports. Additionally the FOSSIL driver support Interrupt-sharing. There are a lot of FOSSIL driver as SHAREWARE on the market. On our mailbox you can find some of them. Due to the ISA-Bus specifications each port must have his own Interrupt line to the CPU. The AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 series allows many ports to share one interrupt. Only few programs support this Interrupt-sharing under DOS. This means you can use interrupt-sharing only with special drivers (FOSSIL). 2.3.1. Hardware-Configuration 2.3.1.1. General For Windows NT TM and Windows 95 TM all settings are done with the DrvConf.exe utility. For other OS you have to configure the AR- B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards with the DOS CARDCONF.EXE utility. With the CARDCONF.EXE utility you can configure the address, interrupt and speed-setting for each port. The Auto- Configuration option will display you a conflict-free configuration. Please start the DOS CARDCONF.EXE utility from the supplied driver disk to configure the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board. After starting the CARDCONF utility the main menu will be displayed. You now can select one of the following options: Change Configuration Will switch over to the configuration menu. Please move the cursor to the desired position and press Enter (Return) to change the configuration. Predefined Configuration Some predefined settings will be displayed here. You can select a ARNET, AST and BOCA compatible mode for the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR- B9018 boards. Page 4
Auto Configuration Help / F1 About Exit without saving Save and Exit Will automatically setup a conflict-free configuration. The utility searches for other installed COM ports and will configure the ports of the AR-B9014/AR- B9016/AR-B9018 board starting with the first free address found in ascending order. NOTE: The utility can only detect other COM ports already in use. It therefore is possible to get in conflict with other boards in the system. A Online-Help will be displayed when pressing the F1 key. Will display the version number of the CARDCONF software. Will terminate the program without saving your changes. Will save all changes and terminates the program. NOTE: The new configuration will take effect immediately. 2.3.1.2. Configuration via Command-line The configuration of the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards can as well be done by entering a command-line. There is no need for further settings. We recommend the usage of the command-line option when you have to configure many AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR- B9018 boards always using the same settings. NOTE: Only one AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board can be configured at a time. Syntax of the command-line: CARDCONF /A:<adr1>,<adr2>, /I: <irq1>, /S: <speed1>,. <adrn>: enter here the addresses of the COM ports (e.g. 3F8) starting with the first port <irqn>: enter here the corresponding interrupts <speedn>: enter here the speed-factor for the corresponding COM port The Interrupt-Vector Register will be configured with port number (N+1) when having a N port board in your system. You can as well change only one COM port via the command-line option. All other settings of the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board will be kept. Here is an example of the configuration of a AR-B9014 board: CARDCONF /A:3F8, 2F8, 3E8, 2E8, 282 /I:4, 3, 4, 3 /S: 1, 8 Page 5
The AR-B9014 board will then be configured as follows: COM1 (3F8h), IRQ4, Speed : x1 COM2 (2F8h), IRQ3, Speed : x8 COM3 (3E8h), IRQ4, Speed : unchanged COM4 (2E8h), IRQ3, Speed : unchanged IRQ-Vector: at location 282h 2.3.1.3. Configuration of More Than One Board Per System To configure more than one AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board per system you have to place a jumper to identify the corresponding board as Module 1, Module 2 or disable the ability to configure the board. Repeat this procedure for all boards in your system (i.e. go to step 2) 2.4. Windows 3.0, 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Using the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards with Windows 3.x please refer to the DOS chapter to configure the AR-B9014/AR- B9016/AR-B9018 boards. The COM ports will then be accessible with Windows 3.x. When using max. 4 ports you have to enter your configuration in Windows 3.x again. Please do this in control panel / ports / COMx / advanced. NOTE: All 16-Bit Windows versions only support max. 4 COM ports though the API-calls can manage COM1 up to COM9. The limitation is within COMM.DRV. Replacing the COMM.DRV with the VS COMM8.DRV you can use up to 8 COM ports. To configure two AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards in one system please go through the following instructions: Jumper one board as Module 1, the other one as Module 2. Start the CARDCONF.EXE utility. You then were asked to select the board to be configured. Select the board and enter your desired configuration then select the second board configure this one as well. To configure more than two AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards in one system please go through the following instructions: Step 1: Pull the Module Jumper of all boards you want to configure Step 2: Jumper one of the boards to Module 1. Step 3: Start the CARDCONF.EXE utility. Module 1 board will be detected. Only the jumpered Step 4: Configure this module in the usual manner. Step 5: Pull the jumper of the just configured board. Page 6
NOTE: OS/2 does not support Interrupt-sharing. If you want to use Interrupt-sharing you have to use the so called SIO driver for OS/2. The SIO driver will replace the COM.SYS and VCOM.SYS driver. More information concerning the SIO driver you ll find on our mailbox. 3. Standard PC IRQ Map Interrupt Description INT 3 COM2 and COM4 INT 4 COM1 and COM3 INT 5 LPT2 INT 7 LPT 1 INT 9/2 unassigned (perhaps VGA) INT 10 unassigned INT 11 unassigned INT 12 unassigned INT 14 IDE/AT-Bus Hard disk (!) INT 15 unassigned (perhaps EIDE/AT-Bus HDD 3+4) Additionally the COMM8.DRV supports Interrupt-sharing. You can use this driver with almost all of our AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards. Ask your local distributor for this driver. 2.5. OS/2 The COM ports of the AR-B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 boards can be used as standard COM ports with OS/2. Configure the AR- B9014/AR-B9016/AR-B9018 board with the DOS CardConf.exe utility. You then have to configure OS/2 to use the specified addresses and interrupts. NOTE: Some VGA boards may use IRQ 2 Some EIDE Controller may use IRQ 15 even if there is no HDD attached. 4. High Speed Mode Baud Rate Overview For normal compatible use (especially FAX or mouse) please set to 1.8432 MHz! The table shows the baud rates you ll get when selecting a baud rate in your terminal program as shown in column one (x1) of the table. NOTE: The upper limit is 921kbps. Don t use this table when configuring your board with the Windows 95 TM or NT TM driver. You can directly select the higher baud rates Page 7
(up to 921kbps) when using the Windows 95 TM or NT TM driver. 1.8MHz (x1) Baud Rate: 3.6MHz (x2) Baud Rate: 7.3MHz (x4) Baud Rate: 14.7MHz (x8) Baud Rate: 50 100 200 400 75 150 300 600 150 300 600 1200 300 600 1200 2400 600 1200 2400 4800 1200 2400 4800 9600 2400 4800 9600 19,200 4800 9600 19,200 38,400 7200 14,400 28,800 57,600 9600 19,200 38,400 76,800 19,200 38,400 76,800 153,600 38,400 76,800 153,600 230,400 57,600 115,200 230,400 460,800 115,200 230,400 460,800 921,600 Page 8