38
M2i.30xx / M2i.30xx-exp Manual
Compatibility Layer (M2i cards only)
Software
Firmware upgrade
One of the major features of the card control center is the ability to update
the card’s firmware by an easy-to-use software. The latest firmware revi-
sions can be found in the download section of our homepage under
www.spectrum-instrumentation.com.
A new firmware version is provided there as an installer, that copies the
latest firmware to your system. All files are located in a dedicated subfold-
er „FirmwareUpdate“ that will be created inside the Spectrum installation
folder. Under Windows this folder by default has been created in the stan-
dard program installation directory.
Please do the following steps when wanting to update the firmware of
your M2i/M3i/M4i/M4x/M2p card:
• Download the latest software driver for your operating system pro-
vided on the Spectrum homepage.
• Install the new driver as described in the driver install section of your
hardware manual provided with the card. All manuals can also be
found on the Spectrum homepage in the literature download section.
• Download and run the latest Spectrum Control Center installer.
• Download the installer for the new firmware version.
• Start the installer and follow the instructions given there.
• Start the card control center, select the „card“ tab, select the card from
the listbox and press the „firmware update“ button on the right side.
The dialog then will inform you about the currently installed firmware ver-
sion for the different devices on the card and the new versions that are
available. All devices that will be affected with the update are marked as „update needed“. Simply start the update or cancel the operation
now, as a running update cannot be aborted.
Please keep in mind that you have to start the update for each card installed in your system separately.
Select one card after the other from the listbox and press the „firmware update“ button. The firmware in-
staller on the other hand only needs to be started once prior to the update.
Do not abort or shut down the computer while the firmware update is in progress. After a successful update
please shut down your PC completely. The re-powering is required to finally activate the new firmware ver-
sion of your Spectrum card.
Compatibility Layer (M2i cards only)
The installation of the M2i driver also installs a special compatibility DLL (under Windows). This dll allows the use of the M2i cards with
software that has been build for the corresponding MI cards. The compatibility dll is installed in the Windows system directory under the
name spectrum_comp.dll. There are two ways to use the compatibility dll:
Usage modes
• Re-compile the old application soft-
ware and including the new library
spectrum_comp.lib that is delivered
with the compatibility DLL. This is the
recommended usage. The new com-
patibility DLL now has control of the
older driver for MI, MC and MX driv-
ers as well as of the newer driver for
the M2i cards. The newly compiled
program is now capable of running
with old cards as well as with new
cards without any further changes. The
compatibility DLL will examine the sys-
tem and support both card types as
they are found. Any driver updates of
either the older MI cards or the newer
M2i will just update the correct part of
the system. SBench 5 uses this mode
and is therefore capable of supporting
