Device Drivers - SIGNALCORE SC5312A Operating And Programming Manual

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R O G R A M M I N G N T E R F A C E

Device Drivers

The SC5312A is programmed by writing to its set of configuration registers, and its data is read back
through its set of query registers. The user may program directly at register level or through the API library
functions provided. These API library functions are wrapper functions of the registers that simplify the
task of configuring the register bytes. The register specifics are covered in the next section. Writing to and
reading from the device at the register level through the API involves calls to the sc5312a_RegWrite and
sc5312a_RegRead functions respectively.
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For Microsoft Windows operating systems, The SC5312A API is provided as a dynamic linked library,
sc5312a.dll, which is available for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. This API is based on the libusb-1.0
library and therefore it is required to be installed on the system prior to development. The libusb-1.0.dll
will install along with the SC5312A.dll as well as the header files needed for development. Files required
for development are in the \win\Driver directory. SignalCore makes every effort to bundle the latest third-
party tools in our software installer. Occasionally however, third-party updates may not be identified and
bundled in time for a given product shipment. Therefore, for the latest version of libusb-1.0, please visit
http://libusbx.org. To install the necessary drivers, right click on the sc5312a.inf file under the \win
directory and select "Install." After installation is completed, when the device is plugged into a USB port
and powered on, the host computer should identify the device and load the appropriate driver. For more
information, please see the SC5312A_Readme.txt file also located under the \Win directory.
A LabVIEW API is provided and it consists of function wrappers that call the sc5312a.dll. A LabVIEW API
written in G that uses NI-VISA is also available from the SignalCore website. The National Instruments
driver wizard that is part of NI-VISA can be used to create a driver for most operating systems. For the
SC5312A, the Vendor ID is 0x277C and the PID is 0x0018.
For Linux systems, the shared library libsc5312a.so is provided. To install the shared files and links, type
"make install" in the /Linux/ directory. The user may need to acquire root privileges to perform the install
operation. Ensure the libsub-1.0.X.dev package for the Linux distribution is installed on the host computer.
For other operating systems, users will need to write and compile their own drivers. The device register
map provides the necessary information to successfully implement a driver for the SC5312A. Driver code
based on libusb-1.0 is available to our customers by request. Should the user require assistance in writing
an appropriate API other than that provided, please contact SignalCore for additional example code and
hardware details.
Using the Application Programming Interface (API)
The SC5312A API library functions make it easy for the user to communicate with the device. Using the
API removes the need to understand register-level details - their configuration, address, data format, etc.
Commands to control the device are greatly simplified when using the API. For example, to obtain the
device temperature, the user simply calls the function sc5312a_GetDeviceTemperature, or calls
sc5312a_SetFrequency to tune the frequency. The software API is covered in detail in the "Software API
Library Functions" section.
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