PEAK-System Forum

Hello everybody

?? Virtual PCAN Gateway will not detect PCAN Ethernet Gateway that comes online after Windows coldstart ??

In a pipe organ application a PCAN Ethernet Gateway DR (S/N 185, 2.6.0) is placed in the organ and the Virtual PCAN-Gateway (PCAN_LAN.sys 4.1.2.16115, PCAN-VIRTUAL.sys 4.1.2.16115) runnning on an embedded pc (windows embedded standard 7, other windows 7 pcs for testing purposes) in the detached console where the player sits.

Both systems have to be connected every time manually by a simple LAN cable not using any switching device inbetween (No wireless device admitted in the concert hall, stringent realtime CAN-Frame transmission required in the ms range).

The system works well if the PCAN Ethernet Gateway DR is powered up first, wait and then the ipc is powered up, the Virtual PCAN-Gateway driver loads and the application using PCANBASIC communicates normally.

Sometimes however, people switch on the application and no cable is present or the organ was not switched on.

The ipc application initialisation will then give the correct error code "0x1400 no driver" (and routes in the Virtual PCAN-Gateway would be yellow, of course).
If the PCAN Ethernet Gateway comes online after the startup of the IPC, the Virtual PCAN-Gateway will never refresh and detect this now correct situation.

The only solution so far with my state of knowledge is to tell the user to reboot the system (which takes 1m20s). Users to not accept this.

Question: How is it possible to tell the Virtual PCAN-Gateway driver programmatically that it should redetect connected devices and therefore "switch its routes to green" such that the application could connect to the remote PCAN Ethernet gateway?

Note: This is a client/server application with no manual access possiblity from the user to the ipc windows. Any job would have to be carried out programmatically by the ipc server application.


Thank you very much,

Daniel Debrunner

Hello,

DanielDebrunner wrote:The ipc application initialisation will then give the correct error code "0x1400 no driver" (and routes in the Virtual PCAN-Gateway would be yellow, of course).
If the PCAN Ethernet Gateway comes online after the startup of the IPC, the Virtual PCAN-Gateway will never refresh and detect this now correct situation.

We just tested this in our labor and, indeed, it seems to be a problem in this case. We will investigate this.

DanielDebrunner wrote:Question: How is it possible to tell the Virtual PCAN-Gateway driver programmatically that it should redetect connected devices and therefore "switch its routes to green" such that the application could connect to the remote PCAN Ethernet gateway?

It is not possible to force a reload programmatically, though you can achieve this using the "Virtual PCAN-Gateway Configuration" tool. For this go to the "Configuration" site of the Device section and click the "Reload" button.

Dear Kenneth

Thank you for your answer. My problem is that there is no keyboard, no display attached to the ipc server computer. So nobody can start the gateway software and click the reload configuration button.

?? Could you imaginge something like a command line switch parameter that launches the Virtual Gateway software, calls the reload configuration function and shuts the software down??

"..\VPOIConfig.exe /reloadconfig /noconfirm"

Like this, the server application could call this by a shell command.

We are looking forward to your solution.

Best regards,

Daniel Debrunner

Hello Daniel,

yes, I'm aware of your problem and of the need for a command line for the configuration tool. It is indeed a good feature. We will include it in our ToDo list.

I think we have spotted the problem. I can give you a TEST-Version of the Virtual PCAN-Gateway service, so that you can check if our fix solves your problem. If you are willing to test, please contact our support per e-mail (support[at]peak-system.com) making reference to this forum. I will then give you further instructions.