Some times one (like myself) may find in a situation that he has to run a new XEM3010 hardware with somewhat old version of FrontPanel (3.0.x). But when trying to run newer XEM3010 hardware with the older FP3.0.10, the automatic Windows Hardware Wizard tends to install a wrong driver - WinUSBCoInstaller.dll. The result is that Windows recognizes the XEM you plugged in, but FrontPanel does not. I have battled with this problem for good two days, and finally figured out.
Here is what I did to install the correct driver, which worked for me.
With FP 3.0.1x installed,
Plug in the new XEM3010, which invokes Hardware Wizard.
Unselect the default "Install the software automatically (recommended), select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) instead. Click on Next.
Unselect the default of “Search for the best driver in these locations.” Select “Don’t search, I will choose the driver to install.” instead. Then click on Next.
4 In the next compatible hardware window, the first line of "Opal Kelly XEM3010 Version: 1.6.527.0(3/3/2005) has a grey shadow over it (don’t know what that means). Click on Next without doing anything else.
On the next warning, click on “Continue Anyway”. The wizard will then find and install the correct driver in folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\okusb.sys. and the new XEM 3010 will appear as “Opal Kelly XEM3010” UNDER “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” group in Device Manager list.
We should clarify that the above is only necessary if you upgraded to FrontPanel 3.1.x (which has a new driver) and need to back out the driver to the FrontPanel 3.0.x release.
As mentioned in the release notes, the two releases have drivers that are not compatible and it is generally not possible to run the two side-by-side on the same machine. The suggested route is to just drop in the new DLL from FrontPanel 3.1.x and your old 3.0.x application should work just fine.
Some times one (like myself) may find in a situation that he has to run a new XEM3010 hardware with somewhat old version of FrontPanel (3.0.x).
— End quote
I just encountered one situation where running the older FrontPanel version is tempting: in conjunction with the Texas Instruments ADS1675REF evaluation board. TI has made available the HDL source code used in the evaluation board. However, when trying to compile the HDL source together with FrontPanel 4.0 libraries (the version I have installed), I get a number of error messages about missing ‘ok2’ ports - it looks like they have been removed in the transition 3.0 → 3.1 .
It may be easy to edit in new definitions to TIs source but the stuff is written in Verilog, whereas I only feel comfortable with VHDL. Now I’m considering to uninstall the FrontPanel 4.0 and use 3.0 instead, but I feel uneasy about it, too, anticipating exactly the kind of problems you have given an example of. Maybe I’ll just get the courage to try modifying the Verilog in blind…
@ttemsk
If you are sure that the TI code is targeted to FP 3.0.x, downgrading FP to 3.0.x would be the easiest solution.
The experts @ OK should give you the correct answer. Here is what I think;
I think the trouble I had is caused by having multiple copies of USB window drivers in the windows OS. Each time when you install a version of FP, a version of USB driver for that FP release is added to windows. But when a FP release is un-installed, the OK uninstaller does not remove the associated USB driver. So you will end up with having a multiple copies of USB drivers in your windows OS all associated with a FP device. Windows Hardware Wizard tends to pick the newest USB driver as the default, which the old 3.0.x does not support.
I think you should just go ahead uninstall the 4.0, knowing its USB driver will still be in there. Install the 3.0.x, and manually direct windows to associate your XEM with the older driver following the procedure I outlined above. Then give it try with your TI eval board. I don’t think there would be any risk doing that. You can always reinstall FP 4.0. HTH