Win CE Integrators Guide
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OverviewThese notes refer to the UPDD CE driver 4.1.10
first released April 2011. For customers using the earlier 4.0.6
release please refer to the instructions here. Windows CE or Windows Embedded Compact are embedded operating
systems. For OEMs requiring a touch screen, or other pointer interface on
Windows CE devices, the Touch-Base Universal Pointer Device Driver suite of
software includes a 5.x, 6.x and 7.x CE driver. With this release UPDD supports an interface with the standard Windows CE GWES (Graphics, Windowing, and Events Subsystem) touch interface. This allows for calibration via the built in CE control panel Stylus option and provides an interface to the gesture interface in Windows CE 6.0 and later. The old ‘mouse’ interface is retained for testing purposes and can also be used in situations whereby the GWES touch interface is not part of the CE image. This UPDD version is built on the same
software base as all other UPDD variants so that most UPDD functions available
on other platforms are now supported in Windows CE (except for minor differences to accommodate variance
in the Windows CE implementation). Known exceptions are listed in the limitation section below. The UPDD
Application Program Interface is supported on Windows CE allowing 3rd
party utilities to be developed. The main differences between the new and previous driver are: ·
based
on the new 4.1.10 driver architecture ·
has
been implemented as a native CE touch device driver interfacing with the
standard Windows CE GWES touch interface ·
utilises
CE calibration procedure ·
supports
the native gesture interface introduced in Win CE 6 ·
is
shipped with the new command line utility ·
uses
the standard UPDD settings file History
Hardware InterfacesSerial – Available Oct 11 build onwards. USB has been tested on X86 and ARM processors. If there are USB interface issues on other processors we may need to be supplied a target system to investigate further and modify the UPDD USB interface where applicable. I2C has been tested on CE6 X86 only. Needs a manual setting to be defined in the setting file. Other interfaces such as PS/2, ISA etc could be added if required. See important Port Interface issues below. Processor supportThe driver has been tested in house with X86 and ARM CE. We can build drivers for other processors, as supported by the Microsoft CE Platform Builder, on request. At the time of writing, the processors supported by UPDD in the various versions of CE are as follows:
More information
on the CE product range is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/develop/windows-embedded-products-for-developers.aspx Any system/processor can
be supported as long as a Board Support Package is available for the target
processor. Read http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/downloads/board-support-packages-for-windows-embedded.aspx for more information on
BSP’s Target hardware may have
to be supplied for testing if any problems are experienced with the driver. Important note: Although we have built the CE components for the processors listed above we can not test the driver on all supported processors due to lack of target hardware. In theory the drivers should work on the target processor as long as the component build process utilises the relevant BSP. Software deliveryIn
this environment, UPDD is supplied as a number of separate components.
Software sent via email will be held in the file ZIP file TBUPDDCE.ZIP..
Touch-Base utilises virus detection software on all of our systems but
recipients of the software should pass the files through their own virus
checking software before proceeding with installation. Normally a software package will be supplied
with just one touch controller supported in which case the settings file can be used as supplied,
unless using a serial controller and the com port needs to be changed via the
autoinstalldevice setting. If the software
package contains more than one controller definition this setting is also
used to indicate the serial controller definition to use. ComponentsThe UPDD CE package consists of the following
components:
RequirementsThe basic system requirements for utilising UPDD are as follows: ·
Supported CE
version: 5, 6 or 7. ·
Supported
processor version or one where a BSP program can be supplied. Alternatively
x86 based images can be run on a standard PC using the LOADCEPC utility. ·
Supported
touch controller ·
The
driver’s touch interface into CE is via GWES or standard mouse port.
·
The target
system image must have been created with the appropriate platform builder
with any relevant system packs. We
have had a customer report that he was showing ‘crazy’ errors in
the CE log file and identified the problem as being a CE update applied to
his Visual Studio 2005. He rolled back
the updates and the error disappeared! Specific embedded or
post install requirements are specified in the relevant section below. Using the componentsThe
components can either be installed on an existing CE system or embedded into
a CE image as detailed below. Installing on existing imageInstalling into an already created image
can be performed for two reasons, either to test / demo the driver prior to
embedding or as a permanent installation solution whereby there is not an
option to embed the driver into the desired image. If installing the driver for test or demo
purposes then the driver can be installed, tested/demoed and then
discarded. However, if the
installation is being used to install the driver as a fully working solution
this can only be achieved on systems that have persistent storage for the file
system and the registry such that the changes to the system are retained over
a reboot and available during driver load. These notes are based on installing on a
CE5 image that did not contain the touch stylus components built into the
image and therefore the driver was configured to use the basic mouse
interface to handle cursor movements and click. Whether a post installation is possible
for a given system depends completely on the architecture of that specific
system and in some cases may simply not be possible. However these notes can
be used as a starting point to experiment. As a minimum the system will need: 1)
Persistent
disk storage, such as a flash drive or similar device. 2)
A mechanism
to save updates to the registry again typically on a flash device. 3)
A mechanism
to load files onto the target system. You will also need a tool to edit the
registry. One such editor is described here Without these aspects the software will
probably not work in a post installation scenario. There may well be other
dependencies which prevent this working so we cannot guarantee that post
installation will be successful and this will need to be assessed on a case
by case basis. The steps to follow are: 1)
Identify the system path
by examining registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Loader\SystemPath or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Launch\SystemPath for the system path entry. This lists
the folders searched by the system for .dll or .exe files. Identify if one of
these folders is on your persistent storage device which can be used for the
driver modules and settings file or create a new folder and add its location
to this registry entry. If you need to add additional folder names to the
system path you will need a registry editor, such as ceregeditor or SLRE.
2)
The
driver’s touch interface into CE is via GWES or standard mouse port.
The GWES interface will only be available if the image was built for touch
and includes the Touch
Screen (Stylus) components. If the
touch component is not built into the image (the stylus calibration option
in the control panel will be missing) then enable
the mouse port interface. 3)
Extract the
supplied updd files and copy to the target system by whatever means are
appropriate, copy to the folder described in Step 1 above. The files *.bib,
*.dat, *.h *.reg are not required on the target. 4)
Replicate all
the registry setting entries in tbupdd.reg in to the registry on the device,
using a suitable registry editor, such as ceregeditor or SLRE.
5)
Create a
further registry setting EmbeddingIt
is assumed that the developer is using the appropriate Visual Studio, Platform
Builder and service packs to create the relevant Win CE image for the target
hardware. The
software is supplied in a form to make it easy for users with little
experience with Windows CE to get up and running as quickly as possible. CE
experts with knowledge of the BIB structure are free to amend the
configuration files as required, so long as the embedded files are located in
accessible locations on the target and with the correct attributes. For
users unfamiliar with Windows CE we suggest the following guides to creating
a Windows CE image. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ee483161(v=WinEmbedded.60).aspx
(CE 6 / 7) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa446910.aspx (CE5)
1. Expand the
tbupddce.zip file. Some of the files are target specific, these target specific
files are shown by the black highlight in the example below (in this case for
the x86 target): 2. Copy the
files for your chosen target (processor) to the root folder of your build
system (typically c:\wince500, c:\wince600 or c:\wince700).
An
interesting article describing this functionality is available at Another
comprehensive gesture article: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/marcpe/archive/2009/06/29/let-s-talk-about-touch-part1.aspx
Touch
gestures in WEC7 are further described here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee499124.aspx
and caters for dual touch gestures. A
video relating to WEC7 multi-touch is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=508dba11-4955-437f-abc0-3fef8ccd0b5b.
Having followed the above instructions
you should now be able to build and test your CE image. Additional embedding notes:1.
Registry entries ·
If using a USB device then one
of the entries in the .reg settings refers to the device and will contain the
USB Vendor and Product ID values. The VID and PID values MUST match the VID
and PID of the controller in use, e.g. Controller has hex VID = 1234 and PID = 11 values. Hex 1234 = decimal 4660 and Hex 11 = decimal 17. Based on this example the settings
would be as follows: ·
The registry
entries for a USB controller define a named USB device that is a placement
holder for the UPDD device and not a device that is actually used but must
exist, e.g. "dll"="tbupddceusb.dll" ·
Ensure
the InputConfig entry is updated to indicate a touch screen is in use. For
more information on this setting see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee482243.aspx
2.
If, for any reason, the GWES
component cannot be utilised in the image then it is important to enable the ‘mouse’ interface. 3.
Modify any settings in the
UPDD settings file as required. See Driver
Setting section below for more information. 4. If system does not have persistent registry or file system determine appropriate
calibration strategy as described in the calibrate section below. 5. Make any
required software changes to the system components. See “Port interface issues” below. TestingOne feature of the CE touch interface is
that there is no mouse cursor shown if the Touch Stylus has been enabled in
the image. This is by design as in a touch environment the visual feedback is
at the point of touch. If no cursor is present, the easiest and quickest test
is to touch on the CE desktop – when dragging on this screen a
“wire frame” marker is seen. This is particularly useful when
working with an uncalibrated or unattached touch screen. There is also a touch verification
utility for WEC7 when using the GWES interface called CETouchView,
a standalone tool in the Windows Embedded Compact Test Kit (CTK), You can use
CETouchView to verify the raw touch data and gesture messages generated by
your device as seen in this screen shot:
Note: In the CETouchView
documentation it states you need to set up a registry entry DriverExName in order to view both raw touch data and gesture
messages. In our testing we found this to be incorrect and the
registry entry should be named DriverName. CalibrationThe
touch screen needs to be calibrated with the desktop such that the point of touch
generates a touch at the correct position on the desktop. The calibration
procedure generates touch co-ordinate data that is associated with known
positions on the desktop. Using this data the driver can calculate the
correct desktop position from incoming touch co-ordinate data. This
calibration data can be both generated and utilised in a number of ways as
discussed below. The method you select will be dependant on your
system’s configuration. OptionsBased
on your requirements you may choose any combination of the following
calibration options to cater for calibration within your system.
The native stylus or
UPDD calibration functions are invoked to perform manual calibration. An implementation
using manual calibration needs to decide on a strategy for initiating the
calibration procedure. E.g. executing the calibration program at start-up or
placing an icon on the desktop. These and other
options are implemented via the platform configuration. One option we are
considering is that the driver will automatically invoke the calibration
procedure at startup based on a system setting. This would be used in
environments where calibration was performed every time the system started.
Please contact us if this is required. Native
CE stylus Once
the image is running you can calibrate the touch screen by using the Stylus
option in the control panel. This is illustrated below. Note that the exact
screens vary according to the system configuration.
This
will invoke the calibration procedure:
The native calibration
procedure will store calibration co-ordinates in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\DeviceMap\Touch\CalibrationData.
Given that the UPDD driver is a GWES conformant driver the native calibration
calls the SetCalibrationPoints function within our driver. The calibration
data is converted to the format used by UPDD and stored in the UPDD settings
file. If eeprom storage is enabled and
configured for UPDD data storage then the calibration data is also written to
eeprom. We understand that registry setting HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\TOUCH\MaxCalError deals with how picky the touch calibration application will be when you touch the calibration crosses. UPDD Calibration function Once
the image is running you can calibrate the touch screen by using the TBcalib
program. The calibration data is
stored in the UPDD settings file. The number of calibration points used
and their position is dictated by the values in the tbupdd.ini file, branch
[updd\parameters\1\calibration styles\0]. The active calibration data, taken
during a calibration, is then stored in branch [updd\parameters\1]. In this
example the default values of 4 calibration points set at 10% margin has been
change to 5 points, no margin (0% - corner). Note any changes to the number of calibration points must be
reflected in the number of cal and ref entries defined. [updd\parameters\1\calibration styles\0] calibration background=0x00000001 calibration points=0x00000005 calibration rotation=0x00000000 calibration start pct=0x00000000 calibration style= calibration timeout=0x0000000A calx0=0x0000000F calx1=0x00000010 calx2=0x000003BD calx3=0x00000772 calx4=0x00000770 caly0=0x0000000D caly1=0x00000425 caly2=0x0000021C caly3=0x00000012 caly4=0x00000429 refx0=0x00000000 refx1=0x00000000 refx2=0x00007FFF refx3=0x0000FFFF refx4=0x0000FFFF refy0=0x00000000 refy1=0x0000FFFF refy2=0x00007FFF refy3=0x00000000 refy4=0x0000FFFF If eeprom
storage is enabled and configured for UPDD data storage then the calibration
data is also written to eeprom. If eeprom
storage is enabled and configured for hardware eeprom the associated hardware
calibration procedure is performed such that the controller scales the
co-ordinate output accordingly. In cases where neither persistent storagen
(registry or file) nor EEPROM based calibration are available the calibrated
data can be embedded in the target image to pre-calibrate the system. This approach
is only suitable for systems where the calibration data does not change
significantly over time or with use. To pre-calibrate the system: TBUPDD.INI
file 1)
Calibrate normally 2)
From a command prompt (cmd.exe) type “tbutils dump4tba”.
– for more information see Command Line Interface
document 3)
Open the file tbcalib.tba created by this process and copy the string
contained in it (if no file is created ensure you are running the program in
a writable folder and try again, e.g. /application/data/updd). 4)
Paste the string into the calibration styles section for the controller
replacing the default info shown in red below. This is in the copy of
tbupdd.ini in your build environment: 5)
Adjust the following settings to cater for any calibration inversion
required: 6)
Rebuild the target image. Registy Define HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\DeviceMap\Touch\CalibrationData
with pre-defined calibration data taken from a system calibrated with the
stylus calibration option. However, we suggest
that precalibration in the registry be avoided if possible as these values
interact with other items (e.g. will override file based persistence) and the
format of this data could possibly change with future UPDD releases. If correct calibration
data is stored in the settings file or registry then the default settings will
offer a calibrated system. Some controllers
support the saving of calibration data in persistent memory (eeprom) on the
controller itself. Subject to the controller supporting this feature and UPDD
implementing EEPROM support for the specific device
then calibration data can be saved on the device. If the UPDD setting
file has an entry ‘eeprom protocol = ‘protocol
id’ then this indicates that updd supports eeprom storage for the
touch controller but it does not necessarily indicate if this is supported in
CE due to differences in the CE platform.
See EEprom documentation for more information
about supported controllers under CE. For supported
controllers simply set the eeprom calibration option in tbupdd.ini to 1 [updd\parameters\controller\ts001] eeprom calibration=0x1 eeprom
protocol=’protocol id’ – This is the protocol
id used by the driver to support eeprom in the controller. For the eeprom data to
be read from the device automatically at startup the following registry
setting must also be set; eepromreadatstart=1; e.g.:- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd] "
eepromreadatstart "= dword:1 Important Note, reading
the eeprom data at startup loads an additional module (tbcalib.exe) into
kernel memory so in some cases the memory mapping layout of the image may
need to change. We most often see this in debug images. If enabling this
option leads to a crash in tbcalib at startup this is very likely the cause. For hardware based
eeprom calibration (where supported) the controller’s coordinate touch
data will be scaled accordingly. Calibration persistence. A common issue with CE devices is saving
calibration data when the device is reset or restarted. There are three
possibly choices available depending on the touch controller hardware and the
setup of the CE device. 1)
Registry
storage. If using the native calibration program (not tbcalib.exe)
calibration data is saved in the registry at
HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\TOUCH\CalibrationData. At the point of calibration or
at a system restart UPDD is passed this data which is converted to UPDD
format and stored in the tbupdd.ini file.
If the registry is in persistent storage then the calibration data
held there will be saved across a system restart. 2)
File system
storage. Irrespective of calibration utility used (Stylus or tbcalib based
calibration) the calibration data is stored in the driver’s setting
file tbupdd.ini. If the file is in persistent storage then the calibration
data held there will be saved across a system restart. If the file is placed
in a different location to that expected by the driver this
setting can be used to specify the alternate location. Note, if both
registry and file based calibration data is available the driver will utilise
the registry based data although the data will be written to both locations. 3)
EEPROM
storage. Subject to the controller supporting this feature and UPDD
implementing support for the specific device calibration data can be saved on
the device. Unless the target system has persistent
storage for the registry, or the file system holding tbupdd.ini, or eeprom
storage is used then calibration data will not be saved across a reboot. If
persistent storage is available for the tbupdd.ini or registry file then no
further action is required. In the case that a persistent registry is
available the software saves the calibration data to the registry and this
data is written to tbupdd.ini at startup. However, if calibration data is not held
in permanent or non volatile memory then additional calibration options, such
as pre-calibration, should be considered. Calibration
beeps
Calibration
beep option to be investigated and not currently available. Please
contact Touch-Base should this be required. Calling calibration from an application
This section to be confirmed as is untested and speculation only. It
has been copied from an article on the internet… Sometimes it may be necessary to cause a touch
calibration to occur from an application, perhaps because of drift or because
the initial values as set during the production process weren’t quite
right. This is fairly straightforward to achieve as the
relevant method is exposed by coredll.dll All that is needed is to declare a platform invoke
(P/Invoke) to the coredll.dll method,
which can then be called from within application code: A C# compact framework example would
be: using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; namespace DynamicDevices.Utilities { /// /// Expose /// public class NativeMethods {
[DllImport("coredll.dll")] public static
extern void TouchCalibrate(); } } Rotate
The
current version of the driver supports operation in a fixed rotated mode. All
that is required is to calibrate in the desired rotation (as long as your
system’s display driver supports rotation). The
following articles discuss Win CE rotation Win
CE 5 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms914404.aspx
describes how to set Portrait mode as default if required Win
CE 6 –
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee499095%28v=winembedded.60%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee485865%28v=winembedded.60%29.aspx Win
CE 7 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee505713.aspx Dynamic
rotation is not yet supported. Given that GWES is used and is responsible for
rotation it is possible that this will also just work, but this is subject to
confirmation. Driver settings and general notesThe
driver’s settings are located in the UPDD settings
file and will usually be set to the
default settings for the controller in use. These settings are defined as
part of generating the CE driver for a given touch screen device.
On the CE target system
there will be 2 copies of tbupdd.ini, the location of which is dictated by
the contents of the tbupdd.dat file. \windows\tbupdd.ini or
\Windows\tbupdd.ini.orig (Oct 11 onwards) \application
data\updd\tbupdd.ini This is because the BIB script
creates the first entry and the DAT script then creates the second real
working entry. The
working copy has to be writeable hence placed in \application data. Should
you require this to be in a different writable location modify the tbupdd.dat
file accordingly and then define the following registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd\settings=<path
to ini> which identifies the full path to tbupdd.ini e.g. \Hard
Disk\System\tbupdd.ini (please note that the path it must contain the name of
the file) Pre
Oct 11 - We did not find a method to eliminate the \windows copy. The
redundant copy can be ignored and in any case is very small. Post
Oct 11 - We determined it is not possible to delete the \windows copy so we
now copy the file to \Windows\tbupdd.ini.orig and this is in turn copied to
the active area. This is handled by the .dat file so no user action is
required. Missing Explorer issuesIf the Windows CE image
does not have the Windows explorer component (explorer.exe) the Windows API used
to return screen resolution details returns incorrect information. In this
situation the following entries are required to specify the video resolution: Multi-touch / GesturesWEC7 introduced support
for dual touch and gestures
that can work with gesture aware
applications. We added support for
dual touch in UPDD version 5.0.2. This is only available via the GWES interface
if the appropriate settings have been enabled in the
image. The driver receives single and dual touch data from the touch
device and posts this to the GWES interface. As long as the controller output
characteristics are adequate (data rate, timely pen clicks, correct stylus
streams etc) then gestures should be correctly calculated and performed. As documented:
“Depending on your touch screen driver, Compact 7 supports multi-touch
gestures with two contact points, or dual-symmetrical gestures. If your touch
screen driver supports dual-symmetrical gestures, the gesture engine will try
to determine how the X and Y coordinates should be paired. For both
dual-touch symmetrical and multi-touch gestures, the gesture recognizer
designates one contact point as the primary contact and keeps track of the
distance between the primary contact and the secondary contact. You can use CETouchView
to test the raw touch data and gesture messages
generated by your device. Touch interface via mouse portThe driver’s touch
interface into CE is via GWES or standard mouse port. The GWES
interface will only be available if the image was built for touch and
includes the Touch
Screen (Stylus) components. If the
touch component is not built into the image (the stylus calibration option
in the control panel will be missing) then enable the mouse port
interface as follows: Edit the supplied
settings file tbupdd.ini to add this entry: Serial port device and com port
issues
Device and port definition
The
setting autoinstalldevice is used to direct the installation of the device
through the UPDD PNP manager. For USB devices this is handled automatically
but for serial devices this setting is used to select the required serial
device and specify the com port, even when only one is configured in the
software package. This setting is described
below. Example [updd\parameters] autoinstalldevice=1¬Microchip,
AR1100, Serial¬¬COM1 Description autoinstalldevice is
comprised of several fields separated by the “¬” symbol as
described below: 1)
The
controller id. Usually 1. This tells the PnP manager which TSNNN (default
controller settings – one per supported controller in the settings
file) entry to select during installation of the device. This value should
not be changed unless you have a software package with multiple controllers
and you wish to select a controller other than the first defined for
installation. E.g. to select TS003 set this to 3. 2)
The name with
which the device will be installed. This can be freely edited. 3)
Unused (needed
for compatibility with the standard updd installer). 4)
The
COM port. This can be edited as required. This is the com port that will
be selected when the device is installed. See important Port Interface issues below when defining
serial ports. Stop bit definitionAs
of the driver issued Aug 2012 the stop bit definition in the UPDD setting
file has changed such that the entry StopBits=0x0000000N defines
the stop bit usage as follows, where N =:
1 = ONESTOPBIT
2 = TWOSTOPBITS
3 = ONE5STOPBITS (1.5) Prior
to this date the driver interpreted these settings differently, 0 = 1, 1 =
1.5 and 2 = 2. Important
note: when defining a serial device it is important that you do not define
the USB settings in the registry as this will prevent touch working in serial
mode. USB is considered configured if
the vid is defined in the registry [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd] ;"vid"=dword:nnnn It should
not be defined or commented out as in the example above. I2C
interface
To configure this
interface you need to manually update the port type in the settings file
thus: [updd\parameters\1] PortType=0x00000004 The current implementation
uses a I2C proxy driver, which must be loaded, and you need to define the
Port value to a valid value for the proxy driver. In the system we used to
develop the I2C interface the port value was set to “I2C1”. We
believe that an I2C interface will be very implementation specific and the
driver may need tailoring to the specific utilisation of the I2C
interface. Please contact us to
discuss further. Sound
Not currently supported in the new driver. Please
contact us should this be required. Mouse
Mode
As
standard the GWES touch interface does not utilize the mouse cursor therefore
there is no mouse cursor movement when touching the screen. In fact, when using the touch interface the
mouse cursor becomes invisible. For
test purposes, during the development of the new native touch interface we
retained the previous mouse interface (which utilises the SendInputAPI) and
this can be enabled if mouse emulation (and therefore mouse cursor movement)
is required. It should be noted that
operating systems are moving away from the system cursor when utilising touch
and we believe more end users should be encouraged to use touch without the
traditional mouse cursor utilized for visual placement feedback. Mouse cursor
is Mouse interface, other or no visual feedback is Touch. However,
should you wish to see mouse cursor movement then the following UPDD setting
will enable the old mouse interface: [updd\parameters] cesendinput=0x00000001 It
should be noted that any touch functionality built into the OS which is
enabled when touch input is processed via the GWES touch interface will be
lost if the touch data is passed via the mouse interface. This is likely to be more relevant to
Windows Compact (CE 7) than pre CE 7 versions. We
believe that for mouse mode to work you will need to configure the Mouse Catalog
in your CE image. Multi-processor considerationsWindows Compact Edition 7 supports SMP (Symmetric
multi-processor) systems. Until
recently all CE systems have utilised a single processor core and updd has
been tested on such systems. The core UPDD driver software runs on a number of
systems and is known to be stable on multi processor systems. However we have been advised by a customer that on
SMP systems problems can occur. Until such time as we can reproduce this issue we
have implemented a solution to run all UPDD threads on a single core. To utilise this new feature set a registry DWORD
value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd\affinity The value specified is the processor number to be
used, we understand that this is a number from 0 – n-1 where n is the
number of processors available. Priority levels
In order to provide adequate
performance it is necessary for the driver to execute at a higher priority
than other active processes. In particular the explorer component consumes a
lot of CPU in some cases, so dragging items on the desktop can be slowed. By
default all critical threads in the driver execute at priority level 249 (Hex
FA) which gives good results in most cases (which was the same as the HID mouse). Should you wish to alter
this priority for any reason you can change the following settings. For the main driver
(upddce.dll) add the Priority setting in tbupdd.ini setting in the [updd]
section. [updd] .... priority=0x000000FA
<change as required For the USB interface component
(tbupddceusb.dll) add the registry setting [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd] "priority"=dword:fa
<change as required Module size and ram usageThe tbupdd.bib specifies
that all modules/files are loaded: MODULES upddce.dll $(_WINCEROOT)\upddce.dll NK SHK tbapi.dll $(_WINCEROOT)\tbapi.dll NK k.tbapi.dll $(_WINCEROOT)\tbapi.dll tbupddceusb.dll
$(_WINCEROOT)\tbupddceusb.dll NK
SHK tbcalib.exe $(_WINCEROOT)\tbcalib.exe NK tbutils.exe $(_WINCEROOT)\tbutils.exe NK ace.dll $(_WINCEROOT)\ace.dll NK k.ace.dll $(_WINCEROOT)\ace.dll FILES tbupdd.ini.orig $(_WINCEROOT)\tbupdd.ini NK The ACE and TBAPI files
are loaded in both user and kernel space and the user space version may not
be required if the utilities, such as tbutils and tbcalib, are not being
utilised in which case they can be excluded from the tbupdd.bib file. When
using serial devices the tbupddceusb.dll can also be excluded. Excluding these modules
is subject to verification within your own image. Touch packet data rate
In years gone by it had
been observed on some lower end systems that if all the incoming data packets
from fast touch controllers are processed it can have a detrimental effect on
the performance of the system. By
default the driver processes 100% of the packets. This percentage can be
adjusted by the UPDD setting [updd\Parameters\1\]:SampleRate. Changing the setting from
64hex (100 dec) to 32hex (50 dec) indicates to process 50% of incoming
packets. Multi-monitor supportWindows
CE does not support multiple monitors. However UPDD will support a
configuration where 2 or more monitor and associated touch-screens are
utilized in a “shadow” configuration, i.e. where both monitors
show the same image. No special UPDD configuration is required for this mode,
each additional controller detected will bind to the same device definition.
Calibration can take place on either monitor. It is assumed that calibration
on one monitor is good for the other so the devices must be identical. Multi-controller definitionsIn
some cases you may receive a package that supports multiple controller
definitions. In this case you will see multiple entries listed in tbupdd.reg
in sections beginning: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients... This occurs when a controller case have multiple VID or
PID designators. In this case the default tbupdd.reg file must be amended
so that the bootstrap VID and PID entries (shown here) [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\updd] "vid"=dword:afa "pid"=dword:3e8 Match
the controller in use. The default settings will match the first listed
controller. NB the bootstrap entries are in HEX whereas the LoadClients
entries are in decimal. ToolbarsA toolbar is an area on
the touch screen that acts independently from the main calibrated video area.
A toolbar can simply be used to mask off areas of the calibrated video area
or they can be used to trigger an event. Toolbar utilisation is described in
the Toolbar document. To utilize in a CE
environment the toolbars would need to be configured in a OS using the UPDD
Console, Toolbar dialog and then embed the toolbar entries in the settings
file into the CE settings file. Touch Stylus NotesSettingsWe are aware that
Microsoft publishes a number of settings that relate to the GWES touch stylus
and we are unsure if these settings relate to all versions of CE or have in
some cases been superseded by newer versions of the OS. Nevertheless we are aware that various
settings are documented that may or may not affect stylus usage.
Experimentation would be necessary to determine the affect they have on the
stylus interface. One such reference
to stylus registry settings is here. Double
Click Setting
One interesting entry is
the dblTapDist
(also described for WEC7)
setting at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Pen
documented as “Default setting is 20 pixels. Indicates the size of a
reference rectangle constructed around the location of a stylus tap. If a
second tap occurs inside the rectangle within the allowed time, it is
considered a double-tap.” This
Win CE 6 link also references dblTapTime but indicates it is only used
with the Thin
Client shell instead of the Standard
shell. It is documented as “Indicates the time between clicks in a
double-click action. The default value for a thin client is 256 milliseconds
or 0xFF in hexadecimal format.” UsageA good overview of CE
touch related issues can be viewed here. DiagnosticsIf you’ve embedded
the software and the touch does not work there are several things you can
check. Several of these require an active debugger connection, such as that
provided by Platform Builder. 1) Check for known issues Check the known issues section. 2) Manually reload the
driver
This operation requires a
connection to the driver process (implemented in upddce.dll). If a message
indicates that this connection cannot be made then recheck that upddce.dll is
in place and check all registry settings. If you are using a USB
controller and a message box pops up at startup asking for a driver for a
specified device, then check if this message occurs without the controller
plugged in. If not then this suggests an error in the registry settings, pay
particular attention that the vendor id and product id match the controller
in use. See the multi controller definitions section later in this document
if you have more than one controller listed. 3) Check the UPDD modules
loaded Check in the debug log
that both upddce.dll and tbupddceusb.dll (if using USB) are loaded and not subsequently
unloaded. The usage and location of the debug log will be image specific. Typically the module load
entry will read: PID:00400003
TID:03770006 OSAXST1: >>> Loading Module 'tbupddceusb.dll'
(0xC0845838) at address 0xEE5B0000-0xEE5B6000 in Process 'NK.EXE' (0x85302A60) As see in the debug log
below:
Check the log for other
messages including the text UPDD, particularly when touching the screen. In
the event of USB errors useful information is output in the log. Typical
touch related entries are as follows, showing the driver loading and starting
to function: 4294830336
PID:400002 TID:10f0002 DEVICE!RegReadActivationValues
RegQueryValueEx(Drivers\BuiltIn\updd\BusPrefix) returned 2 In this example an
exception has been thrown on the first touch (possibly due to the missing
Touch Stylus component): 4294869773
PID:400002 TID:5300062 TBUPDD: 1748
CUSBConnection::ReadInterruptDataThread read 1 bytes 4294869783
PID:400002 TID:526000a TBUPDD: 1748
CCEMousePort::MouseEvent 41335
43949 4294869827
PID:400002 TID:526000a 4294869827
PID:400002 TID:526000a !ERROR: Calling EnterCriticalSection on a CS
(c0fe2fa0) that is not initialized! 4294869852
PID:400002 TID:526000a Coredll: DEBUGCHK failed in file
d:\yzkiqfe\private\winceos\coreos\core\dll\cscode.c at line 117 4294869881
PID:400002 TID:5300062 4) Enable UPDD debug log
information Additional UPDD debug
information can also be seen by setting the tbupdd.ini debuglevel setting to
5. TBUPDD.INI file [UPDD] Debuglevel=0x00000005 The USB component also shows
more debug information when executed in a debug build. 5) File based debug
To enable file based
debugging define these settings: [updd] DebugLevel=0x00000003 FileDebug=0x00000001 Under CE the file
produced is /application data/updd.log. FileDebug=0x00000000 is
OFF. If after following the
steps above you are unable to resolve the issue please send the log file to
us for further analysis. Serial debug connection If you wish to use a
Serial connection to the Windows CE device for debug purposes we did document
many years ago that there is a consideration that is not always made clear in
the Microsoft documentation. A null modem cable is required, but this differs
from a standard null modem cable in that the RI pin is connected straight
through. Without this connection it will be impossible to make a serial
connection from the NT host to the Win CE device. Nowadays most system integrators do not
debug over serial so we are not sure if this is still a valid issue. Port interface issues – importantSerial
Touch-screens
may be connected to a CE device via a standard serial (COM). A CE image
builder should bear in mind that the default CE image generated by platform
builder might well make assumptions regarding the usage of such ports. E.g.
debug output will be sent to the first physical COM port, preventing its use.
By default, CE creates two com port instances, Com 0 and Com 1. Com 0 is used
as the debug port and relates to the physical port com 1. Com 1 is therefore
the first port that can be used by the touch screen that actually relates to
the physical Com 2 port. Many
customers have been unable to get their touch screens working with a default
CE build until they have plugged the touch screen into com2 or changed the
BIOS so that serial port is referenced as Com2, although the references in
the CE build refer to com 1 !!!! In
some circumstances the CE builder will need to amend the CE configuration to
alter the default serial port behavior. If you are not familiar with this
procedure we have technical bulletin that covers this subject. Port
initialisation
We
have discovered that with serial communications on some motherboards if we
set up UART flow control options then we receive either no data or garbage.
When this setup is omitted the serial port works as expected. This is fine for serial controllers that
do not need either a specific state or change of state in the CTS/RTS lines
in order to operate. We
have introduced a device level setting called “IgnoreDCB” and if
it is set to 0x00000001 then the com port flow control initialisation is
skipped. [updd\Parameters\1\]:IgnoreDCB
= 0x00000001 We
found that the TI OMAP Platform motherboard required this setting. This
is also used for the Zytronic ZXY100 controller on ARM hardware where setting
DCB causes rubbish to be read USB
The CE image must be
amended to support the USB host controller (this is the system’s USB
host controller and NOT the USB touch controller). Consult the
manufacturer’s documentation and or Platform Builder help for details
of how to achieve this with the particular model of hardware in use. A 3rd
party driver might be required for the host controller, although this has not
the case for the hardware we have tested so far. To ensure the CE
system’s USB host controller is functioning use a HID mouse prior to
testing the USB touch controller. PS/2
PS/2 support needs to be reinstated
for the new driver as and when required…. Known issuesThe
list of known issues is as follows: 1)
Device
warning message in debug log with touch working fine 2)
After
installing driver image worked once but failed to boot on subsequent reboots 3)
Hot plug of
device not working 4)
Missing
\application data\updd folder and therefore no tbupdd.ini 5)
Exception
shown in system log when touching – touch no longer working 6)
Serial not
working 7)
Touch not
working although debug logs showed GWES and Cesendinput driver interfaces
both working as expected 8)
Multi-core
processor issue LimitationsKnown
limitations to be addressed as required: USB
and serial and i2c (Nov 12) support only. Other interfaces to be added as
required. No
sound support. Dynamic
rotate untested. Hardware
based eeprom storage not supported. Limited
testing of software based eeprom calibration storage. No
GUI settings dialog (UPDD Console) to allow for dynamic setting changes. Contact For further
information or technical assistance please email the technical support team
at technical@touch-base.com. |
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