INFICON MDC-260 Thin Film Deposition Controller - Manual (Page 139)

MDC-260 DEPOSITION CONTROLLER
COMPUTER INTERFACE 11-1
11. COMPUTER INTERFACE
11.1 GENERAL
The MDC-260 Deposition Controller features two USB sockets (front and
rear) for remote access and monitoring from a personal computer. The
DCM-250 Deposition Control Manager software may be used for general control
of and logging run-time data from the MDC-260 or a custom software solution
may be developed to provide a more project-specific control and/or monitoring
environment. This section provides details on setting up and using the
MDC-260’s USB interface for such a solution.
CAUTION: The interface is designed only for one connection at a time. Do
NOT attempt to connect both USB ports simultaneously.
The MDC-260 does not support USB hosting capabilities, and therefore cannot be
interfaced with devices such as portable USB memory cartridges. It may only be
connected to a personal computer or other device that functions as a USB host.
The first step to communicating with the MDC-260 is to establish a “link”
between the target MDC-260 and the host [computer]. The DCM-250 (version
2.0 or later) setup program installs the MDC-260 Deposition Controller Driver Set
and a host API (Application Program Interface) provided in the form of a
Windows Dynamic Link Library, SiUSBXp.DLL (see Section 11.2 - Host API
Functions). This DLL communicates with the MDC-260 via the Driver Set and
the operating system’s USB stack.
Once the link is established, the next step is to issue a command to the MDC-260,
using the host APIs SI_Write function. After receiving a complete message, the
MDC-260 responds with a confirmation message (Section 11.5 -
TRANSMISSION RECEIPT) followed by any data that your command
requested. Section 11.3 - PROTOCOL details these commands and their usage.