[1]
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Q
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What is the difference between EasyIO and
EasyConnection? |
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A
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EasyIO is Stallion’s fixed-port-count high
performance multi-port serial (RS-232) card and comes in four (4) and eight (8)
port varieties. EasyIO is suited to a wide range of connectivity
applications including remote access, terminals and printers, factory
automation and many others. EasyIO cards cannot be expanded to higher
port counts but extra cards can be added to the computer. RJ-45 and DB25 RS-232
interfaces are supported.
EasyConnection is Stallion’s expandable series of high performance
multi-port serial cards and uses external asynchronous modules or panels. Each
panel has either 8 or 16 RS-232 serial ports and a maximum of 64 ports can be
installed on a per card basis.
EasyConnection cards include Stallion’s Intelligent range of high
performance multi-port serial cards which use in-built processors and memory to
support high port counts and high overall throughput applications.
EasyConnection also supports the RS-232/RS-422/RS-485 Dual Interface
Asynchronous Module (panel) which provides all of the above signals on each
port, making it very flexible in industrial and control applications.
Both EasyIO and EasyConnection are supported under a wide variety of operating
systems, including Windows (95/98, NT), WinFrame, DOS, NetWare, OS/2, Linux and
most Intel based UNIX operating systems (including SCO ODT 3, Open Server 5,
UnixWare, SunSoft Solaris (Intel only), SVR4 UNIX, BSDI and more).
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[2]
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Q
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What is the difference between the new EasyConnection
XP asynchronous modules (panels) and the older modules? |
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A
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The original EasyConnection panels had a maximum
speed of 145 kbps per port while the current XP panels support speeds of up to
460 kbps per port.
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[3]
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Q
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Can I lengthen the cable between the EasyConnection
host adapter and the first asynchronous module (panel) beyond the supplied 1.5
metre (6 foot) cable? |
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A
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No, the supplied cable is the only option and the
cable length cannot be increased. The reason for this is the cable is an high
performance bus interface and the cable has been designed specifically for this
connection. Stallion does not support other cable configurations cannot
guarantee the reliability or suitability of other cable arrangements.
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[4]
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Q
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How many EasyConnection Asynchronous Modules (panels)
can I attach to an EasyConnection host adapter and how many ports? |
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A
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All EasyConnection cards have 2 limits that effect
the total number of ports that can be attached to a card:
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There is a maximum of 4 panels allowed per host adapter.
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The total number of ports allowed is either 32 or 64 depending on the model of
the card.
This means that to obtain 64 ports on a card you will need to use four (4) 16
port panels. If any 8 port panels are used then you cannot get the maximum port
count of 64 ports. Similarly, if you have a card that is limited to 32 ports
then you could only attach two (2) 16 port panels or any combination of 8 or 16
port panels as long as no more than four (4) panels are used.
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[5]
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Q
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Do I need to change any BIOS settings on my computer
when installing Stallion EasyIO or EasyConnection cards? |
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A
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You do not normally need to modify any settings in
the BIOS when installing any Stallion cards. The following are some possible
exceptions:
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If you are installing an ISA card at a particular interrupt and that interrupt
has been reserved for PCI cards in the system BIOS.
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When you need a particular interrupt for the card being installed and that
interrupt is currently being used by an in-built device such as the parallel
port
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[6]
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Q
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What symptoms might I see when there are interrupt
conflicts with Stallion multi-port cards. |
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A
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PC interrupts are used by devices in the computer to
notify the CPU that the device needs to be serviced. For example, a laser
printer might send some status information to the PC via the parallel port. The
parallel port will receive this data and will generate an interrupt (using
interrupt line 7) to the CPU to tell it that is needs to do something with this
information. When the CPU services this interrupt it will execute the
appropriate interrupt service routine for that device which will know what to
do with status information from a laser printer.
If you have a clash between two or more devices that have been configured to use
the same interrupt then when one of these devices sends an interrupt to the CPU
on a particular interrupt line, the CPU will not know which device sent the
interrupt and will execute the interrupt service routine which may be the wrong
routine for that device. Thus the data that needs to be handled may not get
received by the appropriate service routine and something will break. This is
not usually a problem for PCI devices as most PCI devices and their associated
drivers (i.e. interrupt service routines) can handle sharing interrupts with
other devices. ISA card cannot do this and must have their own unique,
non-shared interrupt.
So the most likely symptom of an interrupt conflict when using multi-port serial
cards is an inability of the device attached to the card to send any data to
the computer. The computer may be able to send data to the device. This can, of
course, result in various other symptoms depending on the device attached to
the serial port and the way it is configured. An interrupt clash can result in
other unexpected behaviour, depending on the device that the serial card is
clashing with, from devices not working to system instabilities and crashes.
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[7]
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Q
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I can not get any data through an EasyIO or
EasyConnection card installed in a Windows NT or Windows 95 system using
interrupt (IRQ) 15. |
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A
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This problem is most likely due to an interrupt clash
on IRQ 15, which is frequently used by the PC for the secondary IDE controller
or possibly by another device such as a SCSI controller.
To resolve the problem try doing the following:
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Try using a different IRQ. Normally IRQ's 5, 10, 11, or 12 can be used,
depending on what other devices are installed in the computer.
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Check the PC's BIOS and ensure that the IRQ you are trying to use is reserved
for legacy ISA cards. This is an option in most PC BIOSs.
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Run the Stallion DOS diagnostics (on the Windows driver disk in the \DIAGS
directory) using an available IRQ. If all of the diagnostics pass then record
the IRQ and IO address chosen for the diagnostic and use these when configuring
the Windows NT or 95 EasyIO driver.
Details on using the DOS diagnostics are in the EasyIO and EasyConnection
manuals.
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[8]
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Q
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My Windows NT 4 system cannot auto-detect the modems
attached to the Stallion EasyIO or EasyConnection serial ports. What could be
wrong? |
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A
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There are several possibilities, including:
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The EasyIO/EasyConnection card may be set at the wrong interrupt or IO address
or the settings allocated to the card may clash with another device in the
system.
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In the case of ISA cards, the PC BIOS may have reserved the interrupt being
used by the EasyIO/EasyConnection card for PCI cards only.
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The cable or connectors between the serial port and the modem may be incorrect
or faulty.
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[9]
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Q
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I am having trouble getting an EasyConnection 8/64
ISA card to work in a fast Pentium II based computer. What is wrong? |
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A
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This appears to be caused by an ISA bus speed that is
running too fast. The ISA bus speed is derived from the system clock speed
which is either 75, 66, or 60 MHz on a Pentium II motherboard. Depending on the
motherboard, the ISA bus speed can vary somewhat from the usual 8.3 MHz. It was
found that in this case setting the system clock to 60 MHz allowed the DOS
diagnostic to pass.
It was also found that once the ECC memory was removed and replaced with
standard DIMM's that the EC 8/64 ISA Intelligent host adapter worked fine, so
the problem may also have been faulty or incompatible memory.
This issue is usually only a problem on memory based cards as the problem is
caused by data corruption when the EC8/64 ISA cars attempts to read or write to
its memory map in upper memory, due to the speed of data access casued by the
ISA bus speed.
The only work around is to use an EasyConnection 8/64 PCI card which is not
affected by ISA bus speed issues.
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