What should I know when transitioning the CEI-710 to the CEI-715?

CEI-710 to CEI-715 Application Transition Reference

CEI-715 Enhancements over the CEI-710

  1. Single 37-pin subminiature D connector instead of two 15-pin subminiature D connectors. View our online Cabling Guide for details about pinouts.
  2. Four bi-directional discrete channels versus two each input and output discrete channels.
  3. 2048 message buffers for each transmit and receive channel versus 512 message buffers.
  4. An independent 2048 message merged mode receive buffer.
  5. 64-bit, 1 msec time-tag for each received data element versus a 32-bit 20 msec time-tag for each received data element.
  6. On-board ARINC 429/561 label filtering, not available with the CEI-710.
  7. Programmable baud rates for ARINC 429, ARINC 561, and CSDB, versus fixed low and high-speed baud rate selections.
  8. -M configuration has 4 ARINC 429 Rx channels versus 2

The CEI-715 API was designed to provide for a minimum impact to existing CEI-710 applications. Application project modifications required to transition a CEI-710-based application are documented as follows for the C, Visual Basic, and LabVIEW programming environments:

  1. C Language Applications
    1. Header Files - In your application's C source and project definition, the following CEI-710-specific header files should be replaced with the CEI-715 counterparts.
      CEI-710 H filesCEI-715 H files
      cei710_api.hcdev_api.h
      cei710.hcdev_hw.h
    2. Library File - In your application project link definition, the CEI-710-specific API library CEI710_API.LIB reference should be replaced with the CEI-715 counterpart C715_API.LIB.
    3. Dynamic Link Library (DLL) File - The CEI-710-specific API DLL is named CEI710_API.DLL, where the CEI-715 counterpart is named C715_API.DLL. The installation for CEI-715-SW installs the DLL in the same manner as the CEI-710-SW installation.
  2. Visual Basic Applications
    Although Visual Basic was never formally supported for the CEI-710 API, informal VB files have been distributed. The CEI-715-SW distribution contains Visual Basic support files with CEI-710-compatible global constant and prototype declarations. Reference the \Examples\VB folder in the CEI-715-SW distribution for the declarations file named CDEV_API_VB.TXT. Although you can import all of the global constant and prototype declarations from this file into your VB source file, it is recommended you only import those declarations referenced by your application.
  3. LabVIEW Applications
    1. Custom LabVIEW applications referencing the library CEI710_API.DLL via Call Library Function invocations will have to change the DLL reference to C715_API.DLL.
    2. LabVIEW applications referencing the Condor CEI-LV LabVIEW ARINC product will have to update to CEI-LV revision 2.61.

Functional Differences Between the CEI-710 API and the CEI-715 API

The following paragraphs describe the API functional and operational differences between the CEI-710 and the CEI-715. Although basic API initialization and operation for the CEI-715 should be compatible with any existing CEI-710-based application, there are some minor operational omissions, as well as some features of the CEI-715 offering enhanced capabilities.

  1. Device initialization is performed via invocation of the API routine AR_LOADSLV for both the CEI-710 and CEI-715. The underlying initialization routines contained in the API's differ as follows:
    1. The CEI-710 API initialization routine named AR_BOARD_INIT_PTR was renamed in the CEI-715 API to AR_INITIALIZE_API.
    2. The CEI-710 device initialization routine named AR_BOARD_INIT was renamed in the CEI-715 API to AR_INITIALIZE_DEVICE.
    3. The device initialization routines designed specifically for the CEI-710-C and CEI-710-M devices, named AR_429_BOARD_INIT and AR_UPM_BOARD_INIT were omitted from the CEI-715 API. The logic contained in these CEI-710 API routines was implemented in the CEI-715 API routine AR_INITIALIZE_DEVICE.
    4. The CEI-710 device initialization/test routine AR_BOARD_TEST can be invoked to test either the CEI-710 dual port RAM or ARINC 429 internal wrap capability based on the value of the testType parameter. Since there is no dual port RAM on the CEI-715, both the internal RAM and ARINC 429 wrap capability is tested by invocation of this routine, (regardless of the value passed in the testType parameter).
    5. The CEI-710 dual port RAM bank selection routine AR_SETUP_MEMORY_BANK is not supported by the CEI-715 API.
  2. Channel configuration is supported with the CEI-715 API using the same API routines provided with the CEI-710 API. There are slight modifications and some omissions for certain parameters values used with the channel configuration routines, documented as follows:
    1. The AR_SET/GET_CONFIG routine item parameter options for ARINC 429 receiver SDI filtering, ARU_RX_CHnn_SDI_FILTER (nn of 00 to 07), are not supported by the CEI-715 API.
    2. The AR_SET/GET_CONFIG and AR_SET_CEI710_CONFIG routine item parameter options regarding assignment of the interrupt enable and status registers, ARU_INT_MASK and ARU_INT_STATUS are not supported by the CEI-715 API.
    3. The AR_SET/GET_CONFIG and AR_SET_CEI710_CONFIG routine item parameter option used to set all discrete output channels in a singe invocation, ARU_DISCRETE_RAW, is not supported by the CEI-715 API.
    4. The AR_SET_CEI710_CONFIG routine item parameter option used to enable a reset of the time-tag reference counter, ARU_DISCRETE_TTAG_RST, is not supported by the CEI-715 API.
    5. The AR_SET_CEI710_CONFIG, AR_SET_573_CONFIG, and AR_SET_CSDB_CONFIG routine item parameter option used to disable a transmit channel, ARU_TX_DISABLE, does not disable the transmit channel under CEI-715 API; rather, it only disables external transmission from the transmit channel. To fully disable CEI-715 transmit channel operation, the item parameter ARU_TX_FIFO_ENABLE should be used with the value parameter set to AR_OFF. Since CEI-715 receive channels cannot be externally disabled, the ARU_RX_DISABLE item parameter is used in the same manner with the CEI-715 API as it was used with the CEI-710 API.
    6. The AR_SET_573_CONFIG routine item parameter option used to specify the sub-frame size for ARINC 573/717 receiver synchronization auto-detection, ARU_573_RX_SUBFRAME_SIZE, is no longer exclusive to the receiver bus speed assigned via ARU_RX_BITRATE. The sub-frame selection and bus speed are forced to provide the standard four-second frame duration specified by the protocol.