Q: Does FrontPanel work with Visual Basic?
A: Yes! Our FrontPanel DLL will work with Visual Basic. Please visit this forum topic to see some user-contributed code that will help get you started.

Q: Does FrontPanel work with C#?
A: Yes! The FrontPanel DLL will work with C#. Please visit these forum pages for information from our customers regarding C#:
http://forums.opalkelly.com/showthread.php?p=1301

Q: Does FrontPanel support isochronous USB transfers?
A: No. Isochronous transfers are typically used with streaming devices such as speakers, microphones, and webcams where the data delivery is not critical, but certain latency or bandwidth must be guaranteed. Isochronous transfers do not have any error-correction methods to guarantee the correct delivery of data. Bulk transfers (which FrontPanel uses) come with this guarantee baked right in.

Q: Do you sell or recommend any enclosures for your XEM3001/XEM3010?
A: Unfortunately, we do not sell any enclosures for our products. Most of our customers integrate the modules onto their own design, so the enclosure would be application-specific. If you have found any enclosures that work particularly well, please email us. We’d be happy to list them here.

Q: How do I install a “minimal” FrontPanel system on Windows (i.e. just the drivers) ?
A: You have two options. First, you can use our DriverOnly installer which is available on the installation CD and the Software Downloads forum.

If you want to incorporate the install into your own installer, you need to install the following files into the respective directories:

okusb.sys  --> $SYSDIR\drivers  (typically c:\windows\system32\drivers)
okusb.inf  --> $WINDIR\info     (typically c:\windows\inf)

Q: Using Synplify, I get an error about multiple drivers on the ok2 bus. Is there a workaround for this?
A. (Thanks to David at Harris Corporation) You can setup black box attributes in your code like this:

attribute syn_black_box : boolean;
attribute syn_black_box of okTriggerOut : component is true;
attribute syn_black_box of okTriggerIn : component is true;
attribute syn_black_box of okWireOut : component is true;
attribute syn_black_box of okWireIn : component is true;
attribute syn_black_box of okHostInterface : component is true;
attribute black_box_tri_pins : string;
attribute black_box_tri_pins of okTriggerOut : component is "ok2[16:0]";
attribute black_box_tri_pins of okTriggerIn : component is "ok2[16:0]";
attribute black_box_tri_pins of okWireOut : component is "ok2[16:0]";
attribute black_box_tri_pins of okWireIn : component is "ok2[16:0]";
attribute black_box_tri_pins of okHostInterface : component is "ok2[16:0]"; 

Q: (ModelSim) There appears to be a problem opening the simulation library directory structure:

# ** Error: (vcom-7) Failed to open design unit file
"C:/mlibs/mapped/okFPsim_v2/fifoctlr_ic_v2/_primary.dat" in read mode.
# No such file or directory. (errno = ENOENT)

A: The library failed to open because it was incompatible with your version of ModelSim XE which is unable to refresh libraries compiled with a different of the software. Opal Kelly tries to maintain a release of the simulation libraries using the latest free ModelSim XE. These packages are available in either the installed FrontPanel application directory, or are available for download through our online forum. We do not typically support older versions of ModelSim XE because upgrading is free.

Most versions of ModelSim SE and PE can automatically refresh our libraries generated by ModelSim XE upon first use. You will see a string of warning messages, but the library will then overwritten with the refreshed data and not produce warnings with repeat use.

Q: (ModelSim) The simulation architecture is not loading:

# ** Error: (vsim-3173) Entity './work.okhostinterfacecore' has no architecture.
# ** Error: (vsim-3173) Entity './work.okwirein' has no architecture.
...

A: The Opal Kelly FrontPanel simulation libraries are either not mapped properly to ModelSim, or you are not linking to the library when starting the simulation. For help with both of these problems, please see the ModelSim tutorial, or examine some the FrontPanel sample applications included in the FrontPanel installation that include a /simulation subfolder.