FarSync Drivers

Hardware Installation


Hardware

This FarSync Drivers supports both FarSync PCI, PCI Express and USB hardware.  This section will lead you through the steps to install the hardware, the software can be installed before or after the hardware.

General Precautions

The PCI cards should be treated as static sensitive. Discharge any static electricity by touching the computer chassis or using an appropriate anti-static wrist strap before handling.

The PCI cards are not hot pluggable in a PCI slot on a standard PC or PC Server, and therefore you should turn the PC off before installing the cards or changing any jumper settings. If your system has defined hot plug slots, protected by isolation switches then they may be installed according to the methods described in your system documentation.  It may still require a system restart to allow software installation to properly complete.

It is recommended you leave the system turned off whilst connecting all external cables and peripherals to a PCI card

There are no special handling precautions necessary when installing the FarSync Flex USB devices.


USB Device Installation

The USB devices are hot pluggable. Plug the "A" end of the supplied USB cable into a suitable USB port on the PC. Fix the "B" end to the USB device and secure the cable to the device with the fixing screws.

Device Ordering

The installation scripts will arrange that on boot up the FarSync PCI driver is started first, followed by the Flex USB driver. This ensures that all PCI devices are allocated device names first, so that USB devices can be connected and disconnected as required.


FarSync PCI card installation

The PCI system uses a jumper-less automatic configuration system and the card can be simply installed in an empty PCI slot. The card should be secured using the bracket retaining screw.

The FarSync TxU, TE1 and DSL-S1 are Universal PCI cards that will operate in either 5-volt or 3.3-volt PCI slots, conforming to revision 2.1 or later of the PCI interface specification. This includes 64-bit PCI-X slots.

Note that some early PCs with PCI bus slots specifically those with an AT format motherboard and AT style power supply connectors) do not supply all of the power signals required by the FarSync TxU, TE1 and DSL-S1 cards. Such PCs are not PCI revision 2.1 compatible.

The FarSync TxUe cards may be installed in any PCI express slot.

Note that to correctly operate, any IRQ in use by legacy devices (such as integrated peripherals or ISA bus cards) must be flagged as such in the PC BIOS configuration pages. Many other problems regarding operation of PCI cards in a particular PC can be resolved by changing settings in the BIOS with or without the card installed. Each BIOS differs in the parameters
available and their naming. Refer to your system documentation for more information.

Card Ordering

At system startup the network interfaces are assigned to the cards in PCI slot ordering. ie. The card in the lowest numbered slot will be assigned interface sync0 and sync1 (plus sync2,3 if a four port card). The card in the next lowest slot will get the next available network interfaces and so on.

A problem with this scheme is that if a card is later added at a lower slot number than an existing card the interface assignment on all subsequent PCI slots will be shifted up.

To avoid this shifting it is recommended that whenever cards are installed they are installed in the lowest numbered slot available, leaving higher numbered slots available for future use.


Cable installation

Various cable assemblies are available for the different cards and USB devices depending on the desired configuration. However the following rules apply to all the assemblies.

Cables should be screwed firmly to the cards/devices using the supplied connector locking screws and posts.

The cables should be secured so that the weight of any additional cables and connectors does not fall on the PCs card mounting bracket.

Don't kink or bend cables so as to stress the PC mounting bracket.

See the Quick Start Guide for more details.

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