User Guide for the Thank you for deciding to buy an altec product. In order to ensure correct functioning and to avoid problems when installing this high-quality German-made product, please read the entire manual and carefully observe the following points: – – Observe the general guidelines when handling components or modules which can be damaged by electrostatic charge or discharge (this applies to the products described in this manual).
License Agreement This is a legal agreement between you, the user, and altec ComputerSysteme GmbH. This agreement covers the altec PowerSoftware. All rights not expressly granted under this agreement are reserved by the manufacturer of the Software. By installing or using the Software you agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. If you do not agree to these terms, promptly return all Software items (disks, written materials, and packaging) and delete any installed Software.
Table of contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................5 1.1 Features of the PowerSoftware...................................................................................5 1.2 Variants of the PowerSoftware ...................................................................................5 2. Supported CopyStation hardware......................................................................................
3.4.1 Creating a copy job............................................................................................29 3.4.2 Starting and cancelling a job..............................................................................34 3.4.3 Saving and loading job files................................................................................36 3.5 Configuring the user interface...................................................................................37 3.6 User accounts......................
1. Introduction 1.1 Features of the PowerSoftware – – – – – – – – – – – – Support for many altec CopyStations (FlashCard CS, USB CS, IQ CS, Lite CS) Can be used to copy data from an master medium or an image files Time-saving „Copy on Insertion™“ mode which starts the copying process automatically when the memory card is inserted and allows continuous copying; the altec „Parallel Copy“ mode is also available.
MS-Windows compatible file system. Software Option FileCopy 5. Software option DualWrite for using two image files for writing and verification 6. PowerSoftware support for more than one IQ CopyStation (2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 units). The standard PowerSoftware version can only be connected to a single IQ CopyStation.
2. Supported CopyStation hardware The PowerSoftware supports many altec products.
2.1.3 Inserting and removing of memory media Please do not apply any force when you insert the CF Cards or CF Card adapters in the slots of FlashCard CopyStation III CF. Insert the cards with the connector in front and the labelled top facing upwards into the CF Card slots. The black eject buttons of the CF Card Drives will pop out when the cards are properly seated. To remove the memory media, please press the eject button of the respective slot and pull out the memory media completely. 2.1.
2.2.2 Installation instruction for the Lite CopyStation module Hardware Installation: – – – – – – – To install your Lite CopyStation module into you PC, shut down the PC first and disconnect it from the power network. Open your PC and install the lite CopyStation module into a free 5.25“ bay. The Lite CopyStation module is to be powered by using the two SATA power connectors that can be found at the back side of the module.
– Notice that (as shown) there are usually two USB ports unified within one 2x5 pin header. In case the pinout of the USB headers on the mother board does not match the one shown above, the pinout of one end of the internal USB cables needs to be changed according to your mother board configuration.
– In case you are using an optionally available PCI add-on board with separate USB Host Controller, there is provided a separate internal USB cable with a blue marking at the one end. After installing the PCI card as usual, you need to connect the marked end of the cable to the USB header on the card as shown by the following picture .
Hints for the Performance-Tuning: Your Lite CopyStation can only achieve an optimal performance in case both boards of the module are connected to two independent and fast USB Host Controllers. To give an example: By property attaching the Lite CopyStation module to an ASUS P5B mother board including an Intel ICH8 chip set with USB EHCI 2836/283A Host Controllers, Celeron D 3.46GHz CPU and 4GB memory a cummulative performance across all 8 slots or more than 70 MB/s has been observed.
each card slot and the built in LC display show the progress of the copy operation and indicate if any errors have occurred. In stand alone mode, the IQ CopyStation is controlled by three buttons below the LC display. The functions of the buttons, which are context dependent, are shown on the LC display. To initiate the copying process, insert a flash memory card with the data to be copied into the master slot and choose the required copying program using the three buttons.
2.3.4 Using the IQ CopyStation 2.3.4.1 First time usage Before starting to use the IQ CopyStation, check the packaging and make sure that nothing is missing (see Scope of Delivery, chapter 1.3). Check that the power supply cable has the correct mains power plug for your country. Do not attempt to use the IQ CopyStation if there is any visible damage or damage to the power supply. Attention: Never open the IQ CopyStation or the power supply to carry out repairs.
2.3.4.2 LED colors and operating mode The colors of the LEDs next to the card slots indicate the different operating states of the IQ CopyStation as follows: Green: An operation was successfully carried out on the card in this slot. Yellow/orange (permanently lit): The card in this slot was successfully initialised but not yet processed. Yellow/orange (blinking): An operation is taking place on the card in this slot. Do not remove the card from the slot during this phase.
2.3.5 Operation in stand alone mode 2.3.5.1 Introduction to stand alone mode Stand alone mode allow simple operations such as copying, verifying and copying followed by verifying. In stand alone mode, the source of the data is always a master card whose contents is either copied to the destination cards or used to verify the data on the destination cards. The destination cards must have exactly the same storage capacity as the master card which is currently being used. 2.3.5.
When the chosen operation is running, the background of the LC display changes to yellow and the progress of the operation is shown. When the operation has finished, the background of the LC display changes to green. The card slot LEDs light up green alongside the successfully copied cards and red alongside cards with errors. In order to copy more cards, remove the old cards, insert the new cards and press the “Run” button again.
2.3.5.2. Technical specifications, IQ CopyStation Hardware (CopyStation): – – – – – Interface: USB 2.
2.4.2 Features – – – – Duplication of data images to up to 21 USB memory sticks simultaneously. Preinstalled system including altec copying software under Windows XP Professional or Vista with 21 USB 2.0 slots. Compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 memory sticks. Copies up to 21 USB 2.0 sticks with 512 MB in approx. 2.5 minutes (speed depends on USB stick type). 2.4.3 Scope of delivery – – – Quick Start Guide. Software and User Guide (as PDF file) on a CD ROM.
2.4.5 Technische Daten Hardware: – – – Case PC (without monitor) with three USB hubs; incl. keyboard, mouse, graphic card, DVD drive and standard interfaces Supported storage media USB 1.1 or 2.0 memory sticks Slots for 21 USB sticks; horizontal center-to-center distance between the slots 11.5 mm, vertical center-to-center distance 42 mm Performance: – Copying speed (example) 21 USB 2.0 sticks à 512 MB in approx. 2.5 min. (speed depends on USB Stick type) Data transfer rate is approx.
3. Using the PowerSoftware 3.1 First steps The PowerSoftware is available in two versions, Lite and Basic. In addition, software options can be purchased. Accordingly, some of the software functions described in this manual may not be available in your version of the PowerSoftware. 3.1.1 Starting the software for the first time The license agreement is displayed when you first start the software. You must accept the license agreement with the “Accept”button before you can carry on to use the software.
User name Password User group Rights admin Admin User with administrator rights. All program functions can be used. user User User with limited rights. User only has rights to load and run job files. The first time you start the software, the „admin“ user is defined as standard user. You should now see the main screen of the PowerSoftware. Chapter 3.6 describes how you can create new user accounts, edit existing user accounts and automate user log in. 3.1.
The message list on the left side of the screen shows the operations which were last carried out. It also shows errors (if any) and additional information. The status panel on the right shows the status of the connected CopyStation or CopyStations. A separate colored status bar is provided for each media slot. Right click in this window over one of the status bars to get quick access to slot information and the operations which are available for a single slot (single medium).
3.1.3 Interactive help system All main dialog boxes have a small blue button at the bottom right (see red circle in following figure). Click this button to show or hide a help panel on the right side of the dialog box. The help system is designed to give answers to technical questions and simplify the operation of the software. The help panel has two text fields.
3.1.4 Using the IQ CopyStation with the PowerSoftware To use the IQ CopyStation in host based mode, you must install the PowerSoftware and connect the IQ CopyStation to a USB 2.0 port of the PC. The connection to the USB port can take place before or after starting the PowerSoftware (hot plugging). You may be prompted to install a driver when you connect the IQ CopyStation to the PC for the first time. The CopyStation is ready to use with the PowerSoftware as soon as the driver has been installed.
PowerSoftware. With this method the media must be formatted with a Windows-compatible file system (currently NTFS or FAT). This option allows single files or directories to be copied to the media and also allow serialization using an external program. The media are processed sequentially with this method, since only one medium can be mapped to a logical drive letter at the same time on each IQ CopyStation. All other CopyStation hardware will process the mapping operation in a parallel manner.
3.3.1 Create image If you want to copy from a medium image file on the PC instead of from the contents of a master, you first need to create the image file and store it on the PC. To do this, choose “Read image from single medium” in the “Operations” menu (see figure). In the following dialog box, you must choose the device ID of the CopyStation, the card slot with the source medium and the required image file name.
To maximize the speed benefit (minimize the size of the short image file), the master (source) medium should not have fragmented data blocks. Data blocks get fragmented if the medium has often been written to since it was last formatted. If necessary, format the source medium and copy the data back on again before using it to create the short image file. When making copies using a short image, it is only necessary for the CopyStation to write data to some of the memory blocks in the destination medium.
“Create short image” for this option. Choose „Calculate and store MD5 checksum“ if you want the PowerSoftware to calculate a checksum and store it in the information file (*.ii). This feature is not available and the checkbox setting will be ignored if you save the image in *.img or *.short format. When the copy job is run, the checksum allows the Power Software to check whether the image has been modified since it was created (e.g. to a hard disk defect or unauthorized manipulation). 3.3.
copy from a master card, you can choose whether the PowerSoftware should try to create a short image file. This is only possible if the medium has a FAT16 or FAT32 file system and is only meaningful if the master medium is not full of data. See chapter 4.3.1 for more information on short image files. Generally speaking, it is faster to copy internally (from the master to memory cards in the other slots) than it is to transfer an image file via USB 2.0 to the CopyStation during the copy process.
The storage capacity of the master (or the medium from which the image was made) must normally be identical to the storage capacity of the destination media (the media onto which you want to copy). The PowerSoftware will cancel the copy operation and output an error message if the destination medium is larger or smaller. Check the check box “Allow image file smaller than medium” if you want to ignore the size mismatch.
With the FAT checks & optimization option, the data of the MBR, the partition sector and the FAT copies are verified for integrity. The Write Protection tab is used to set and remove the write protection bits on SD/MMC cards. If the write protection bit has previously been set on the cards, you must choose “Remove write protection” to allow data to be written. The write protection will be removed before starting any other operations in the copy job.
In the registry tab DualWrite you have the possibility to specifier a second image for writing and verification. This make it possible to use special test pattern image for testing propose and than write a second image to the media with a valid file system.
The Flow Control tab is used to configure the behaviour of the software with larger copy jobs. Choose “Single run” if the job should only apply to the media which are presently inserted in the CopyStation. Choose “Multiple run” to continue processing further media when the currently inserted media have been programmed. In this case, it is possible to limit the total number of media to be processed or allow the copy job to continue indefinitely until it is explicitly canceled by the user.
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3.4.3 Saving and loading job files The settings for the current copy job can be saved in order to use them again for another copy operation. Job files have the file extension *.job.
3.5 Configuring the user interface Many of the elements of the user interface of the PowerSoftware can be configured. The View menu contains the menu items “Toolbar”, “Status bar” and “Logo”. Choose “Toolbar” to show or hide the toolbar (the icons below the logo.) Choose “Status bar” to show or hide the status bar at the bottom edge of the screen. Choose “Logo”to show or hide the company logo. A tick alongside the menu item shows that the item is currently chosen (visible).
3.6 User accounts Choose “User settings” in the “Settings” menu to configure the users and user groups for the PowerSoftware. To login as a different user, select the user and click “Change user”. You will be prompted to enter the user’s password. Click “Add user” to create a new user account. To edit the user settings, select the user and click “Edit user data”.To delete a user, select the user and click “Delete user”.
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3.7 General settings Shade status bars: Show status bars with a shading effect Smooth animations: Use an animation for the card slot status bars when the status changes. Number of messages: Specify the total number of unfiltered messages to show in the message list of the main window. Maximum size of log file: Specify the maximum size of each log file in bytes. When the specified size has been reached, a new log file will be started and the old log file will be archived.
Do not load log files at start: Choose this option if you do not want to show existing (old) log file messages when you start the software.With large log files or slow computers, this can otherwise significantly increase the program loading time. Ignore unsaved job settings: Choose this option if you do not want to be prompted to save unsaved job settings when you quit the software. Always save job file on closing: Choose this option to save the currently open job automatically software.
3.8 Language settings When you start the software for the first time, the correct language is normally chosen automatically. If necessary, you can change the language of the user interface manually to either German or English. You must restart the software for the new language setting to become effective. 3.9 Sound Settings If you desire an acoustic feedback you can use the sound settings dialog to define some sound files for several events.
3.10 Log file analyser The PowerSoftware records all of the messages which are shown in the message list of the main window in plain text log files together with the time and date of the message. In addition, information is recorded on the logged in user, the medium serial number, the serial number of the CopyStation, the status of the slots and/or media and the copy operation counter. The log file analyzer allows you to display, edit and export this information.
Choose “Filter string” in the “Filter”menu if you only want to display entries which contain a specified string. Entries which do not contain the string are no longer shown. To deactivate the string filter, enter a new string or choose “Reset string filter” in the “Filter”menu. Filtering using strings is currently only possible in the Message List view.
The “Analyzer view” menu allows you to choose various views of the data. The following options are available: Show message list: Standard view which shows all logged data in a table. Show completed media vs. Time: Shows the number of media completed and the number of faulty media per hour in a table. Show completed media vs. time as a chart: Shows the number of completed media and faulty media per hour as a chart.
Show user login times: Shows the log in times of the PowerSoftware users in a table. Show media per user: Shows the number of media completed and the faulty media for each user.
Choose “Export to text file” in the “Export” menu to save the currently shown table as an ASCII text file using the tab character as the column separator. This type of text file can be read in e.g. by most popular office programs or Matlab in order to display the data graphically. 3.11 Firmware update (only IQ CopyStations) The firmware of the IQ CopyStation contains basic software functions for controlling the device and for the copying functions which are provided in stand alone mode.
Click “Select” to confirm the device ID. Then click “Start” to back up the current firmware to a file.We do not recommend you to skip this step. The status bar turns green after saving the firmware file successfully. After making the firmware backup, click “Browse” and choose the new firmware file which you have received from altec. After choosing the file, check the Version and Devices fields to make sure that the firmware file is appropriate for your IQ CopyStation model.
The status bar turns green after transferring the firmware successfully. In addition, the IQ CopyStation will reset automatically. It is ready for use again when the reset is completed.
3.12 Medium slot usage Choose “Slot history” in the “Expert Tools” menu to get statistics on the usage of the medium slots of the CopyStation. The dialog box shows the data which has been logged by the CopyStation. The CopyStation stores for each slot the number of times a card has been plugged in and the number of write, read, initialization and verification errors. 3.
3.14 Locking and unlocking CopyStations If required, you can lock the IQ CopyStation to prevent it from being used in stand alone mode. This ensures that it can only be used with the PowerSoftware. Choose “Lock/Unlock devices” in the “Expert Tools” menu, choose the device ID of the IQ CopyStation to lock or unlock and click the appropriate button. 3.15 Production control The production control is used to control the production process, quality of media and operators.
Media speed test are currently not supported by the IQ CopyStation. With all other CopyStation this option can be used to detect slow media. Especially cheap USB Sticks have a wide range on speed dispersion inside the same charge. Since the overall copy speed depends on the slowest media it might be useful to remove slow media. When activating Interpret slow media as failure the application will not generate a warning and start blinking.
3.17 Medium and device info pages To get information on a medium which is inserted in a particular slot, click the “I” button alongside the slot in the status panel of the main window or right click the slot status bar and choose “Info Slot ...” from the context menu. Right click any other part of the status panel in the main window (not one of the slot status bars) and choose “Info for device ...” to get an information page about the CopyStation instead of the medium.
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Choose “About the PowerSoftware” in the help menu ? to get information on the software such as the the software version number and installed software options. The ? menu also contains a copy of the software license conditions and this user guide as a PDF file.
3.18 Software interface for external serialization The software option “Interface for external serialization” allows the customer to serialize SD/MMC, Memory Stick PRO cards and USB Sticks during the copy job. Serialization of media can be used to protect card contents such as data files or programs against unauthorized duplication or usage.
The customizing of the error messages are optional. If not done the PowerSoftware will just add the integer error code to the log list. Example (Std. parameter): The example program shows how to access SD/MMCcards using standard file I/O functions. The first command line parameter is the CID and the second command line parameter is the logical drive letter. The CID is then written to the text file CID.BIN on the card. #include "stdio.h" #include "stdlib.h" #include "string.
3.19 Interface for creating SD password You can create individual passwords for SD/MMC cards by using an external application. The application is called by the PowerSoftware using a file path and name as second argument. This file contains the CID of the SD/MMC card. The program is responsible to modify the file so that it will contain the new password. The maximum length of the file is 16 Bytes. The PowerSoftware will interpret a return codes of 0 as success.
if( iBytes != 16) { iReturnCode = 3; } // if( iBytes != 16) } // else // if(pFile == NULL) }else // if( iBytes != 16) } // else // if(pFile == NULL) } else // if (argc == 2) { iReturnCode = 1; }//else // if (argc == 2) return iReturnCode; } 3.20 Connecting and using several IQ CopyStations The PowerSoftware allows you to control up 32 IQ CopyStations from a single PC. Slots for all of the connected CopyStations are shown in the status panel on the right of the main window.
4. Technical specifications, PowerSoftware Software: – PowerSoftware compatible with:Windows XP, Vista 32 Bit or Windiows 7 32 Bit. Min. specification PC: CPU 1GHz, 256 MB RAM, min. 50 MB available hard disk capacity, USB 2.
5. Support and further information Support for the hardware and software components of the IQ CopyStation is provided directly by altec. Support Hotline of altec ComputerSysteme GmbH: Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm German time (CET): Phone +49-511-98381-70 or eMail support@altec-cs.com For information on further altec products such as CopyStations, Flash Card Drives, Solid State Disks and flash memory products – please ask for our product overview or visit our website: www.altec-cs.
