TMS International BV

 

Getting started

The driver package provides support for a large variety of TMSi data acquisition devices. To simplify application development all communication with the devices is performed through a single Dynamic Link Library (DLL) that exports a limited number of functions.

In the directory ExampleCode on de Driver CD, you will find example code written in C, and the TMSiSDK.h include file with the prototypes of the functions.

The frontends can be connected to the PC using an WLAN, Bluetooth or USB connection.

All communication with the frontends is performed through a single DLL. This DLLis named 'TMSiSDK.DLL' and is automatically installed in the Windows system directory during driver installation. This library exports functions for controlling the front ends. The functions use the Microsoft __stdcall calling convention, and have a "C" declaration, so they can be called from a C program.

Because the location of the Windows System directory may vary from system to system it is best to use the WIN32 API GetSystemDirectory to locate this library. A handle to the TMSiSDK.DLL can now be opened and the pointers to these functions loaded using the GetProcAddress function. The following example shows how a pointer to an exported function can be obtained.

Excerpt from the example code:

typedef BOOL ( __stdcall * PCLOSE )(HANDLE hHandle); // Prototype from TMSiSDK.h

TCHAR Path[ MAX_PATH ];
GetSystemDirectory(Path, sizeof(Path) / sizeof(TCHAR) );
lstrcat(Path, "\\TMSiSDK.dll");
HINSTANCE LibHandle = LoadLibrary( Path );
PCLOSE Close = (PCLOSE) GetProcAddress( LibHandle , "Close" );

Refer to your Microsoft Windows Platform SDK for more information about using dynamic link libraries and runtime linking. For a complete list of all available functions see the functions part of the SDK documentation.

In case loading any function exported by the DLL fails, use the WIN32 function GetLastError for more information.

The TMSiSDK.dll is not thread-safe. When using threads in your application, you must take care that functions are not called concurrently.

The example code demonstrates how several common tasks are done, like getting information about the serial number and name of the connected frontend, the channel layout and properties, setting the RTC clock etc.