CE4ALL Windows CE Team Blog

Windwos Embedded Compact 7

2011-05-10T15:27:00.013Z

Direct Insight was recently involved in running a Windows Embedded Compact 7 event at the UK Microsoft Campus. From which an article has been written including information and quotes from me and colleagues.

You can find the article here at http://www.mtemag.com/ArticleItem.aspx?Cont_Title=Real-Time+Operating+Systems%3a+Take+seven

Please have a read and let me know what you think.

>> Nigel

Visual Studio 2005 deploy error after downloading a managed code application to a Windows CE6 R3 device

2011-02-11T09:57:00.001Z

Thanks to William White for this:-

After deploying a managed code application to a windows CE6 R3 device you get a deployment error something like:

Deploying ‘C:\will\VBProjects\CEApp\bin\Debug\HelloWorld.exe’
Deploying ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SmartDevices\SDK\CompactFramework\2.0\v2.0\windowsce\diagnostics\System_SR_enu.cab’
Post-deploy error 0×00000001 returned after calling ‘\Windows\wceload.exe /noui \Windows\System_SR_enu.cab’.
========== Build: 1

Visual Studio 2005 will attempt to download the .NET CF 2.0 cab file (System_SR_enu.cab) and automatically install if the device does not already contain the run time (however the OS dependencies for the .NET CF 2.0 must be included in the WinCE6 image). It appears that the version of .NET CF 2.0 included with Visual Studio 2005 SP1 is not compatible with the R3 release of Windows CE6. To fix the problem, shutdown all instances of Visual Studio 2005 and simply download and install .NET CF2.0 SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=AEA55F2F-07B5-4A8C-8A44-B4E1B196D5C0&displaylang=en

Try again and everything should be fine.

A successful deployment should then look something like:

DeviceApplication1 -> C:\Documents and Settings\XPMUser\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\DeviceApplication1\DeviceApplication1\bin\Debug\DeviceApplication1.exe
—— Deploy started: Project: DeviceApplication1, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ——
Deploying ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\CompactFramework\v2.0\windowsce\wce500\armv4i\NETCFV2.wce5.armv4i.cab’
Deploying ‘C:\Documents and Settings\XPMUser\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\DeviceApplication1\DeviceApplication1\bin\Debug\DeviceApplication1.exe’
Deploying ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\CompactFramework\v2.0\windowsce\diagnostics\System_SR_enu.cab’
========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========
========== Deploy: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

Keeping your Smartphone alive for background processing

2011-01-10T08:18:00.002Z

Want to keep your windows mobile smart phone alive, even if the user is trying to force it off?

This can be achieved by using the unattended mode, the power manager on Windows Mobile has an unattended state that will effectively look like the phone is off but the CPU will be running in the background with the LCD off. This is used for playing music, downloading emails etc. To invoice this

PowerPolicyNotify(PPN_UNATTENDEDMODE, 1);

To release this do

PowerPolicyNotify(PPN_UNATTENDEDMODE, 0);

Whist in this state you may need to poke the device to stay on by calling the above function again. If you want to wake up the device then use another power API:

// Force backlight and power on

SetSystemPowerState(NULL, POWER_STATE_ON, POWER_FORCE);

This will force the system to wake up fully if you want to display information to the user after your background processing.

Why's my Alpha blend not working!!

2010-12-01T20:38:00.002Z

That was what I was saying as I do an AlphaBlend() of a 32 bit bitmap nicely saved in Photoshop, the result was a bitmap with white as the 'background' instead of a nice transparent edge.

I've seen this before and moving between Desktop and WinCE I seem to have slightly different results with Alpha blending and image factory stuff. Anyhow I found a few people mentioning that you need to pre-multiply any alpha per pixel before using the Alpha blend (which has an alpha on the image as well). Sceptical but tried it and hey presto my bitmaps now render perfectly.

Here is what I do in Win32:

HBITMAP hbmp = CreateDIBSection(hdcScreen, lpbi, DIB_RGB_COLORS, &pvImageBits, NULL, 0);

const UINT cbImage = cbStride * height;
if (FAILED(ipBitmap->CopyPixels(NULL, cbStride, cbImage, static_cast<BYTE *>(pvImageBits))))
{
// couldn't extract image; delete HBITMAP
DeleteObject(hbmp);
hbmp = NULL;
}

// Pre multiply RGB on alpha channels else alpha blit won't work!
//
if (lpbi->bmiHeader.biBitCount == 32)
{
 BYTE* linePtr = (BYTE*)pvImageBits;
 for(int y=0;y<height;y++)
 {
  BYTE* ptr = linePtr;

  for(int x=0;x<width;x++)
  {
   BYTE alpha = *(ptr+3);
   *(ptr+0)=(*(ptr+0) * alpha) / 255;
   *(ptr+1)=(*(ptr+1) * alpha) / 255;
   *(ptr+2)=(*(ptr+2) * alpha) / 255;
   ptr+=4;
  }

  linePtr += cbStride;
 }
}

Then just AlphaBlend on my bitmap...perfect, but why doesn't AlphaBlend handle the 32 bit bitmaps anyhow that's what I don't understand.... !

Adding custom notifications to the WM6.5 lock screen

2010-11-15T09:06:00.000Z

If you are wondering how your application can add information on the new WM6.5 lock screen, this can be done easily by utilising a few registry entries! There are two OEM lockscreen entries reserved for OEM applications that will allow applications to register an icon to show on the lock screen with an optional number of unread or unhandled events, when the user slides this to the right or left the application is invoked to deal with the unread events.

The regsitry entry all of this appears under is:

HKLM\Software\\Microsoft\\Shell\\LockScreen\\Notifications\\Notif0

HKLM\Software\\Microsoft\\Shell\\LockScreen\\Notifications\\Notif1

Add the settings like this:

"Command Line"="\program files\myapp\myapp.exe"

"Image"="\icon_notclicked.png"

"FocusImage"="\icon_clicked.png"

"Notification Count"=dword:0

The command line should point to your application, this will be executed when the user slides your cusom slider to the right. The Image and Focus image are two icons which are shown on the lock screen with and without you pressing them. The notification count should be more than 0 to show your icon and 0 to hide your item. The number in the noticication count is displayed on the lock screen so this could be the number of unread messages or emails you've received, whatever you are counting in your application.

You should check that Notif0 and 1 aren't already used by another application and use the appropriate one.

Happy screen locking!

Accessing the phone vibrator

2010-10-27T07:32:00.002Z

How can I access the vibrate function from my apps you may say...?

Well the vibrate function is part of the NLED (or notification LED) driver. You can use the NLED functions to pulse or turn on/off the motor in the same way as any LED. To find the vibrator search through the list of LEDs until you find one with a cycle time of -1, this indicates the vibrator.

The following code is complete example of searching through the available LEDs and turning on and off only the vibrate function. This should work on any Windows Mobile or Windows CE with a compatible NLED driver:

#include "nled.h"

enum Status
{
OFF = 0,
ON,
BLINK
};

int GetLedCount()
{
int count = 0;
NLED_COUNT_INFO nci;
if (NLedGetDeviceInfo(NLED_COUNT_INFO_ID, &nci))
{

count = nci.cLeds;

}
return count;
}

int ledCount = GetLedCount();

void SetLedStatus(Status status)
{
NLED_SETTINGS_INFO nsi;
NLED_SUPPORTS_INFO nInfo;
nsi.OffOnBlink = (uint)status;
for (int i = 0; i < ledCount; i++)
{
// request information from this led, we're looking for a

// cycleAdjust of -1 which indicates the vibrator

nInfo.LedNum = i;

NLedGetDeviceInfo(NLED_SUPPORTS_INFO_ID, &nInfo);

if (nInfo.lCycleAdjust == -1)
{

nsi.LedNum = (uint)i;

NLedSetDevice(NLED_SETTINGS_INFO_ID, &nsi);

}

}
}

void VibrateOn()
{
SetLedStatus(Status::ON);
}

void VibrateOff()
{
SetLedStatus(Status::OFF);
}

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)

{
VibrateOn();
Sleep(500);
VibrateOff();
}

Missing Ordinals in Windows CE

2010-10-12T10:03:00.002Z

If you get the message:

ERROR: function @ Ordinal 297 missing
Please Check your SYSGEN variable!!!

Then the problem is most likely to be a missing funciton in CoreDLL, to check which it is go to the private sources:

\WINCE600\PRIVATE\WINCEOS\COREOS\CORE\DLL>notepad core_common.def

In this you should be able to search for the ordinal number

; @CESYSGEN IF COREDLL_BATTERY
BatteryDrvrGetLevels=BatteryDrvrGetLevels @297
BatteryDrvrSupportsChangeNotification=BatteryDrvrSupportsChangeNotification @298
BatteryGetLifeTimeInfo=BatteryGetLifeTimeInfo @713
BatteryNotifyOfTimeChange=BatteryNotifyOfTimeChange @714
GetSystemPowerStatusEx=GetSystemPowerStatusEx @715
GetSystemPowerStatusEx2=GetSystemPowerStatusEx2 @1358
; @CESYSGEN ENDIF

Using events and waking devices using CeRunAppAtTime

2010-09-29T17:35:00.001Z

Want to wake up a CE device at a future time (even if it is suspend), then use the CeRunAppAtTime but instead of running an app use a named event, this allows an application to wake up the device at a set time and also trap the wake event without spawning another process:

SYSTEMTIME time;
CTime nextWakeUpTime;

// get local system time and convert time to CTime for now
GetLocalTime(&time);
CTime now(time);

// 30 minutes in the future
nextWakeUpTime=now;
nextWakeUpTime+=CTimeSpan(0,0,30,0);

// convert to systemtime
nextWakeUpTime.GetAsSystemTime(time);

// set for wake up !
CeRunAppAtTime(TEXT("\\\\.\\Notifications\\NamedEvents\\SCHEDULE_WAKEEVENT_EVENT"), &time);

HANDLE wakeEvent = CreateEvent(NULL, FALSE, FALSE, SCHEDULE_WAKEEVENT_EVENT);

// wait for wake up!
if (WaitForSingleObject(wakeEvent, FALSE, INFINITE) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
{
// sheduled wake up
}

KITL Messages Don't Support Wide Strings

2010-09-10T11:33:00.003Z

I've just tracked down a minor irritation with KITL_RETAILMSG and KITL_DEBUGMSG under CE 6.0 R3 - they can't print UNICODE or wide strings.

On several platforms I've seen the KITL device name is not printed correctly. The device name is the name member of the OAL_KITL_DEVICE structure and is defined as a LPCWSTR.

Typically OALKitlInit uses KITL_RETAILMSG to report the device name but the name is never displayed correctly. The string is formatted as "%s" but only the first letter is shown - this implies that the wide string is being formatted as a character string. Trying %hs or %S to override the default does not help.

Reviewing the private sources confirms the problem. Only the %s format is supported and this is for character strings only.

Also be aware that formatting such as %08x is not supported either, but %X is fine!

Using #include from BIB files

2010-09-06T18:35:00.001Z

Did you know that inside of Windows CE build system that bib files can #include other bib files. This technique is used on many BSP's to implement individual driver registry entries from the driver directory

platform.reg

#include "$(_TARGETPLATROOT)\SRC\DRIVERS\display\display.reg"

The same can be done for the bib file, I didn't release this before, but its there to use if you want to in CE6.0 for sure!

platform.bib

#include "$(_TARGETPLATROOT)\SRC\DRIVERS\display\display.bib"

Page faults on resume from suspend with COMPRESSION=on

2010-08-18T17:41:00.004Z

A short while ago we had a problem on a platform resuming from suspend, a page fault calling a standard function. The function in question was a Registry query function. The fault was tracked down to that fact that when the config.bib specifies compression like:

COMPRESSION=ON

This means that all files are put into the nk.bin image back to back without any space between them, even running the image from RAM most of these files cannot be executed in place as the file aren't aligned on a page boundary, these files need to be copied into ram on a boundary and executed.

In the project above we needed to use the API so a solution was to turn off the COMPRESSION, this increases the NK.BIN size but helps in lower RAM usage and faster response times due to no duplication of files into executable positions.

Transformations in WindowsCE using SetMapMode

2010-07-08T20:33:00.002Z

Unfortunately Windows CE doesn't support transformation of the coordinate system using SetMapMode, SetViewPortExt and SetWindowExt even in Windows CE 7.0 which is rather unfortunate as we had an application just this week that would have benefited from this. The application I'm referring to would have been cross compiled for Win32 and CE so basically I had to support scaling for the PC end as well, no point in having two different systems when the app should be seemless across both platforms, maybe in CE8.0 eh?

Windows CE 7.0 Preview

2010-06-09T07:13:00.003Z

Microsoft have unveiled a technology preview of Windows Embedded Compact Edition (windows CE) version 7.0, the preview can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/compact7.mspx go check it out now!

Summer 2010 EmbeddedSPARK Competition

2010-05-24T11:42:00.005Z

To all you embedded hobbyists. I Just want to highlight the latest Microsoft embeddedSPARK compitition on this summer. Given the latest release, this round of the competition is focused on Embedded Standard 7.

You can find all the information you need to enter at http://www.embeddedspark.com/

A video about this can also be seen at http://www.embeddedspark.com/public/videos/embeddedSPARKSUMMER_howto.wmv

FYI - Round 1 closes on June 8
Any questions or issues I can help with please let me know.

>> Nigel

Setting up COM buffers

2010-05-20T18:40:00.002Z

I was pointed to this today to set the size of serial buffers on WinCE:

 BOOL SetupComm(     HANDLE hFile,   DWORD dwInQueue,     DWORD dwOutQueue   );

This should control the internal buffer sizes for the COM port... but the amusing comment in MSDN says:

 Always returns FALSE because the FIFO queue size cannot be changed

Err... so does this work!?

Realtime CPU calculation for CE debugging

2010-05-12T07:27:00.003Z

Quite often I've been in the situation where a process or thread has gone rogue and I've been trying to track down why the system has ground to a halt.

One of the things I find most helpful is the SnapShot tools, this allows you to take a snapshot of the system for its current running processes or threads, this can be useful in itself but using the GetThreadTimes API you can then print out any high CPU users, basically creating your own mini-task manager for Windows CE.

Firstly take a snapshot of the system:

HANDLE hSnapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot (TH32CS_SNAPTHREAD, 0);

Secondly call Thread32First/Next on the snapshot to retrieve all the thread information:

THREADENTRY32 te[256]; // up to 256 threads

int used = 0;

te[used].dwSize = sizeof(THREADENTRY32);

if ( Thread32First(hSnapshot,&te[used]) )

{

used++;

te[used].dwSize = sizeof(THREADENTRY32);

}

while (Thread32Next(hSnapshot,&te[used]));

}

Finally iterate through the threads getting their thread times, creating times etc:

FILETIME creationTime,exitTime;

FILETIME ktTime[256];

FILETIME utTime[256];

GetThreadTimes ((HANDLE)te[used].th32ThreadID,

&creationTime,

&exitTime,

&ktTime[used],

&utTime[used]);

This can be done in the while loop above, you can also use the results from the snapshot over and over with a sleep(1000), compare the results and print out the top XX threads using CPU to give some realtime feedback on the system usage.

Commonly my applications and kernel development use this method to ensure that the system is using the expected CPU time when being developed.

2010 Embedded Market Study shows Microsoft embedded OS's are on the way up...

2010-05-06T16:57:00.005Z

The 2010 Embedded Market Study from EE Times group is out now, they reviewed 1,574 surveys on embedded designs.

This year we should be expecting the Wind River (VxWorks) to take the top 17% of upcoming embedded designs, followed by 13% for Debian (Linux), then Windows CE closely following at 13% and then Windows (XP Embedded) at 12%.

Windows CE and Windows XP Embedded are up 1% on last years survey, and between them take a whopping 25% of new designs, great news!

Check out the Webinar on http://www.techonline.com/learning/livewebinar/224000228 for on-demand playback.

Snooze using SleepTilTick

2010-05-06T16:47:00.002Z

A not so well known function, this little API allows a thread to relinquish its hold on the system until the next tick normally 1ms great for polling loops when used in conjunction with high priority threads...

Windows Embedded 7 RTM

2010-04-30T15:54:00.003Z

After months of a CTP version being available the final version has been released to manufacturer. Windows Embedded Standard 7, the successor of Windows XP Embedded was released April 27th 2010 at the ESC West - Silicon Valley

Windows Embedded Standard 7 is the first embedded OS based on the successful desktop o/s Windows 7. Thus the aligned naming.

It is a highly customizable embedded o/s in a componentized form, which allows OEMs to build devices with a control over the memory footprint and the addition of embedded enabling features (HORM etc.) but still get the familiarity and power of Windows 7.

You can find the Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM press release here.

But if you want to learn more and you’re in the UK why not come to the Microsoft HUB event next Thursday 6th May.
I’ll be there on the Direct Insight booth and in our Windows Embedded CE- Hands on Lab event. So why not register via this link

>> Nigel

OEMReadDebugByte in CE6.0

2010-04-22T12:29:00.003Z

I quite often run a simple serial terminal using the debug port, having this we can control the platform without active sync, a keybaord or even an LCD, but when running from CE6.0 the application doesn't build because OEMReadDebugByte fails. If you want an app to be able to do the equivalent of OEMReadDebugByte instead use the function InputDebugCharW.

Waiting for Thread / Process termination

2010-03-31T07:27:00.002Z

When launching child processes from applications I used to use GetExitCodeProcess on the process handle, checking if STILL_ACTIVE is returned if it is still running.. heres the smart way!

After spawning a process or creating a worker thread the end of the process/thread can be waited on using WaitForSingleObject.

For instance for threads:

HANDLE hThread;

hThread = CreateThread(NULL,0,StartThread,&threadParam,0,NULL);

if(hThread1 != NULL)

{

WaitForSingleObject(hThread,INFINITE);

}

For processes:

PROCESS_INFORMATION pi={0};

if (CreateProcess (parameters, NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, 0, NULL, NULL, NULL, &pi))

{

WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess,INFINITE);

}

Registry notifications to pass data between kernel to Apps/drivers

2010-03-25T08:22:00.005Z

This breifly outlines the technique of passing information or state changes between the Windows CE Kernel/OAL and running drivers or applications. Passing events and notification from the kernel to a driver or application can be a little problematic, information flow the other way is straight forward using the kernel IOCtls.

One thing we can use here is the registry and the registry change notifications, for instance, both drivers/applications and kernel can change the registry, the kernel calls are all preceeded by NK, for instance:

Kernel:

NKRegOpenKeyEx

NKRegCreateKeyEx

NKRegSetValueEx

Driver/App:

RegOpenKeyEx

RegCreateKeyEx

RegSetValueEx

So why not set a state or value to pass in the registry, then wait on a particular registry key or value being changed using the following:

// create an event on a particular registry change

HANDLE event = CeFindFirstRegChange(....)

while(1)

{

// wait for notification of a change

WaitForSingleObject(event, INFINITE);

// clear event

CeFindNextRegChange(event);

}

Using this technique small, or large complex data can be shared very easily.

Platform Builder: Remember to enable Multiprocessor Build

2010-03-11T10:14:00.003Z

A support incident today reminded me that many people have forgotten to enable Multiprocessor Build support.

Enabling this will reduce the overall time it takes to build a platform workspace and it can be autodetected if enabled. But it seems the default is a manual selected number of processors=1

The selection is accessed via Tools / Options with the selection options as captured below:

Hope this is of help. Nigel

Passing data using SetEvent on Windows CE

2010-03-04T20:01:00.002Z

Martin in the office came across this one, normally SetEvent is used to signal between two threads or even processes that something has happened, a very light weight message queue shall we say, the major limitation is that you can't pass any parameters or data, so you end up having multiple events or storing the parameter information in the registry etc..but using this API you can associate a DWORD of information against an event that is signalled, pretty handy for simple signalling information between drivers and applications...

BOOL SetEventData(   HANDLE hEvent,   DWORD dwData );

For more information look at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa909185.aspx

Enjoy!

Southern Electronics Show

2010-02-04T07:47:00.003Z

Just a quick note to invite you to come visit me on the ByteSnap Design stand at next week's Southern Electronics show in Farnborough from the 10 - 11 February 2010.

We will be demonstrating a number of customer projects including one from Rotalink, a designer and manufacturer of miniature motors, transmission and controls. This demo hooks up a DC motor speed detector to a mini-fairground wheel to show rotation and angle information via a display using our SnapUI product.

We'll also be showcasing other bespoke embedded electronics designs, embedded firmware and board design services. Come down to have a talk about services we can provide you from PCB design, through Firmware/BSP design to application development.

See you there!

CE6.0 CETK using ActiveSync failes on ARM devices

2009-11-18T08:23:00.003Z

One of the guys here was having problems getting his CE6.0 CETK connected using activeSync to the target device. It sounded like something on the platform or his PC was just not setup correctly as the Platform Builder connection test just wouldn't work... very bizzare.

We're all running Vista 64 or Windows 7 64 so we were thinking it was a 64 bit issue (as there are other problems using these OS's for day to day development work but no it seems that the Platman folders on the PC that are used to store the target binaries for the CETK and remote tools is being checked incorrectly. If you look in this directory:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows CE Tools\Platman\target\wce600\

You'll see the ARMv4i directory but not an ARMv4 one like in previous versions of the Windows CE OS releases. It seems that the PC side application to push these target executables is looking (incorrectly) for an ARMV4 not ARMV4i directory.

To work around this simply copy the ARMV4i folder to create an ARMV4 directory and it should now all connect up.

Calling Kernel IO routines from Apps in CE 6.0

2009-11-02T09:02:00.003Z

In Windows CE 6.0 applications are unable to call kernel IO many routines including new OEM functions in the kernel using KernelIoControl. There are a few exceptions to this rule, these are:

IOCTL_HAL_GET_CACHE_INFO

IOCTL_HAL_GET_DEVICE_INFO

IOCTL_HAL_GET_DEVICEID

IOCTL_HAL_GET_UUID

IOCTL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION:

What is not commonly known is that this list can be extended by adding any new (or existing) IOCTLs to the following public library and sysgen (or copy this to your platform and update the links to build the OALIOCTL.DLL:

%_WINCEROOT%\PUBLIC\COMMON\OAK\OALIOCTL

If your CE5.0 platform had a lot of support for platform specific operations using KernelIOControl these can continue to be called from CE6.0 applications if you wish now!

Active Sync problems using RNDIS

2009-10-28T08:55:00.002Z

I use a number of machine on a day to day basis, one of my development machines refuses to connect using Vista's Active Sync (Windows Mobile Device Center) to any devices using RNDIS as the connection type. The RNDIS connection is made but the device center refuses to attempt any connection... ger!

Connecting using USB serial works without any problems, so here is my work around until I find a fix:

If you are using Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone) then you can switch to using USB Serial from the default that is RNDIS by going to settings->connections->USB to PC and un-selecting the "Enable advanced network functionality". This resorts to using the old fashioned USB serial. There should be a similar setting on Windows Mobile Professional (PocketPC).

Lightweight XML User interface for Windows CE

2009-10-21T10:30:00.003Z

ByteSnap Design have just launched their user interface SnapUI, this UI engine uses XML to separate the graphics engine from the user interface configuration.

The XML file describes the whole screen menu structure and icon layout, any text placement, language and interaction, whilst the engine is responsible for rendering this configuration to the user and interfacing with any propriety hardware on the embedded system

The tool is aimed at embedded devices using Windows CE but can be run using the same graphics files on a Desktop PC for quick development, testing, demos etc, read more from the article on WindowsForDevices SnapUI

Bytesnap Design Ltd are a UK based company near Birmingham, read more about the SnapUI and design services at www.bytesnap.co.uk

Using WinCE APIs From Kernel OEM Routines

2009-10-14T07:14:00.003Z

There are many occasions where you want to implement some functionality in a Kernel IOCTL or OEM kernel callback but you can't call the normal Windows CE API because you're in kernel space. So tasks such as setting or reading registry entries, creating events and signalling processes etc can't be done... or can they..?

Some of the basic API functions for this support are available but the functions have a prefix NK or K, for instance:

NKSleep()

NKRegCloseKey()

NKRegCreateKeyExW()

NKRegOpenKeyExW()

etc

Note that not all of these are documented, so for more information see:

\WINCE600\PUBLIC\COMMON\OAK\INC\nkexport.h

More advanced functions are available in:

\WINCE600\PRIVATE\WINCEOS\COREOS\NK\INC\syncobj.h

This is the publicly available Windows CE private kernel code, and includes event, Semaphores and even message queues!:

NKSetEvent

NKPulseEvent

NKResetEvent

NKCreateMsgQueue

etc!

So don't use flags and share memory, do it properly with some thread and process intercommunication! :)

Negating the need to run MakeImage when developing device drivers on WinCE

2009-09-30T07:08:00.002Z

Debugging of drivers on Windows CE can be painful when downloading large images, NK.bin's of 10-30mb are typical and having to download the whole of this just for a driver modification can mean long times between compilation and testing. Here are my three methods for quicker development without having to push the full nk.bin down each time.

The firstly two methods have pretty much the same outcome but from a different approach:

1 - Remove the driver from the platform.bib file.

This means that the driver isn't embedded in the OS image (nk.bin), then run this image when on KITL enabled (the debug transport typically used to connect the target device to the development PC). This will result in the DLL being pulled from the desktop release directory over the KITL transport and being ran as if it were in the image.

2 - Tell Platform builder to force loading of modules over KITL

In Platform Builder go to

Target -> Release Directory Modules

Then include the DLL's that you want to force loading over the KITL connection, this tells the OS on start-up to ignore any DLLs included in the image. The benefit of this is that you don't even have to build the NK.BIN again.

3 - Load the drivers at runtime using ActiveDevice

This method is handy if you don't have a KITL connection, here we populate the registry with the driver entries, but instead of putting them under HKLM\Drivers\Builtin\ put the registry entry under HKLM\Drivers\Test\ to ensure that the system doesn't load the driver on start-up.

Then create a simple application that will tell device.exe to load the driver when you run it:

HANDLE device = ActivateDevice(L"Drivers\\Test\\myDriver", 0);

Using the handle returned, you can also force it to unload the driver. This means you can start (and stop) the driver without a KITL connection but allowing you to copy new versions of your driver on from an SDCard or ActiveSync, you'll need to rely on serial debug prints probably to debug here but it’s a quick easy mechanism if you don't have a debug transport.

Attending ESS'08 and Hosting half-day Windows Embedded Workshops

2008-09-24T11:54:00.009Z

Just a quick note to invite you to come visit me on the Direct Insight stand at next week's Embedded Systems Show at the NEC. Stand 449 October 1st and 2nd. You can get your free exhibition pass here.

Also in conjunction with Microsoft and Silica, Direct Insight will be hosting half-day Windows Embedded Workshops. These 100% technical workshops will take you through the process of building and deploying with both Windows Embedded CE and Windows XP Embedded.
This is a unique hands-on opportunity to check out how Windows Embedded stacks up against Linux, and the various RTOS solutions out there. Places are strictly limited, so please visit the link below to secure your place.
http://www.directinsight.co.uk/services/windows-embedded-workshop.html

Hope to see you there.

-Nigel

PS. At the show, we're also introducing a new, high performance, low-power Windows CE module, at a ground-breaking price. See this, and our other solutions for platform-based design on Stand 449 at ESS'08 (October 1st & 2nd at the NEC)

Register for Microsoft® Tech•Ed EMEA 2008 Developers before 26th September and save €300

2008-09-19T15:10:00.002Z

On behalf of Microsoft I would like to invite you to take advantage of the early bird discount and register for Microsoft® Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers (10 - 14 November, Barcelona, Spain) before 26th September 2008.

As Microsoft will no longer be hosting the Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) there will be a significantly increased Windows® Embedded presence at this event. This will be focused around 2 key areas:
· A dedicated Windows Embedded track
· Increased Windows Embedded presence in the exhibition hall - on the Ask the Experts Pavilion and dedicated Windows Embedded Partner Zone

Attend to:
· Enhance your technical skills in the development and implementation of Windows Embedded operating systems
· Network with both the Windows Embedded and wider community
· Engage with the largest audience of Microsoft Technology Specialists that come together across EMEA
· Visit the Windows Embedded exhibition space – the exhibition hall is at the heart of this event. A new layout design will promote networking across the hall, offering presentations, informal Chalk and Talk, comfortable social areas and continuous community activities

Don’t forget to register before 26th September and save €300!

Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers is the Microsoft premier technical education conference just for developers. For five days, you and more than 4,000 of your peers have countless opportunities to explore about the latest cutting-edge technologies from Microsoft. For general event information please visit www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/

>> Nigel

Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 Fundamentals

2008-09-05T11:59:00.005Z

Great book available called "Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 Fundamentals"

Synopsis
Delve into the fundamental tools and techniques for Windows Embedded CE—and get ready to deliver the next innovation in powered devices. Covering the newest version of the technology—Windows Embedded CE R2—and led by two embedded-development experts, you'll get both the hands-on instruction and pragmatic reference you need to begin building a range of small footprint, smart, connected, and service-oriented devices. This book examines the architecture, built-in programming tools, drivers, and build process, and shows how to take advantage of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Software Development Kit (SDK). Whether new to programming with Windows and Windows Embedded, or already working with the platform, you'll find the best practices and real-world guidance you need to get productive quickly.

Delve into the fundamental tools and techniques for Windows Embedded CE—and get ready to deliver the next innovation in powered devices. Covering the newest version of the technology—Windows Embedded CE R2—and led by two embedded-development experts, you'll get both the hands-on instruction and pragmatic reference you need to begin building a range of small footprint, smart, connected, and service-oriented devices. This book examines the architecture, built-in programming tools, drivers, and build process, and shows how to take advantage of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Software Development Kit (SDK). Whether new to programming with Windows and Windows Embedded, or already working with the platform, you'll find the best practices and real-world guidance you need to get productive quickly.

To find out where to buy follow this Link to the correct vendor for your country.

> Nigel

Stopping home screen on Smartphone and other backlight tricks

2008-08-05T11:09:00.005Z

If your smartphone application displays information to a user without any user input you may wish to stop the home screen from being shown, or the auto lock from kicking in by reseting the idle timer using:

// prevent home screen from being shown, lock and idle timers
SHIdleTimerReset();

You can force the backlight on and reset the other idle timers using:

SystemIdleTimerReset();
SetSystemPowerState(NULL, POWER_STATE_ON, POWER_FORCE);

The latter works also on PocketPC and Windows CE

Interesting Article

2008-05-12T12:41:00.002Z

Was directed at this article to read and thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.embedded.com/columns/guest/207402542

Interesting views on one of Windows Embedded main competitor.
I’ll let everybody make up their own minds.

>> Nigel

Hooking keyboard events in Windows CE/PPC

2008-04-10T10:01:00.003Z

Hi,

I saw someone had asked about this on a newsgroup. Hooking keyboard events is where we can insert some code into GWES to see any keyboard presses that are happening in the system.

This is a useful process if you want to record a series of keypresses from a user which may span over a number of applications. Once recorded you can play back the keypresses by inserting them into GWES again using Keybd_event.

Note in Windows CE you can't hook mouse messages like in XP.

Heres the code:

// keyboardHook.cpp : Defines the entry point for the application.
//
#include "stdafx.h"

#define WH_KEYBOARD_LL 20

extern "C" BOOL WINAPI UnhookWindowsHookEx(HHOOK hhk);
extern "C" LRESULT WINAPI CallNextHookEx(HHOOK hhk, int nCode, WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam);
extern "C" BOOL RegisterHotKey(HWND hWnd, int id, UINT fsModifiers, UINT vk);
typedef LRESULT (CALLBACK* HOOKPROC)(int code, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);
extern "C" HHOOK WINAPI SetWindowsHookExW(int idHook,HOOKPROC lpfn,HINSTANCE hmod,DWORD dwThreadId);

#define SetWindowsHookEx SetWindowsHookExW

struct HHOOK__ * hKeyHook=NULL;

typedef struct tagKBDLLHOOKSTRUCT {
DWORD vkCode; // virtual key code
DWORD scanCode; // scan code DWORD flags;
DWORD flags; // unused
DWORD time; // time stamp for this message
DWORD dwExtraInfo; // extra info from the driver or keybd_event
} KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT, *PKBDLLHOOKSTRUCT;

//Low level Keyboard Hook Proc
__declspec(dllexport) LRESULT CALLBACK TabHook( int code, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT* v_kbdllData = (KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT*)lParam;
RETAILMSG(1, (TEXT("nCode = %d, wParam = %d\r\n"), code, wParam));
RETAILMSG(1, (TEXT("vkCode = %d, scan = %d, time = %d\r\n"),
v_kbdllData->vkCode, v_kbdllData->scanCode, v_kbdllData->time));
return CallNextHookEx(hKeyHook,code,wParam, lParam);
}

// This is a simple message loop that will be used
// to block while we are logging keys. It does not
// perform any real task ...

void MsgLoop()
{
MSG message;
while (GetMessage(&message,NULL,0,0))
{
TranslateMessage( &message );
DispatchMessage( &message );
}
}

HHOOK InstallHook()
{
HINSTANCE hExe = GetModuleHandle(NULL);
return SetWindowsHookEx (WH_KEYBOARD_LL,TabHook, hExe, NULL);
}

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// WinMain - Test Entry point
//
int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
hKeyHook = InstallHook();
MsgLoop();
UnhookWindowsHookEx(hKeyHook);
return 1;
}

Bluetooth signal strength

2008-03-29T15:49:00.003Z

On XP it seems that most of the BT stacks support the ability to sense the signal strength when communicating with a device, apart from when using Java-ME and the Microsoft Stack on XP, for instance

BlueSoleil

BLUETOOTH_DEVICE_INFO_EX
{
..
CHAR cSignalStrength;
};

Toshiba

Using the BtGetRSSI command you can get the difference (db value) of a received signal index on the strength of "Golden Receive Power Range"

BroadCom
Using the GetConnectionStats() you can get the signal strength, from -128 to 127

Microsoft (Windows CE/Mobile)
Windows Mobile version of the MS stack supports signal strength through the BthReadRSSI, again a range of -128 to 128, but i can't find the same in the XP version, see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa362927(VS.85).aspx for the APIs.

There is a BluetoothIsConnectable() which returns a TRUE/FALSE but nothing else, the bluetoothapis.h which contains all the structures doesn't seem to have anything in it either, such as RSSI, strength or even signal so i don't think it is supported at least by any documented API.

Anyone else know if you can get the RSSI signal strength using the MS BT stack on XP?

Windows CE Codenames

2008-02-15T16:15:00.007Z

Found this nice bit of text describing the history of Windows CE codenames which for some Windows CE Engineers might be interesting:

Before the Windows CE product was released we had an internal set of tools known as the Oem Adaptation Kit also known as the OAK - an OAK of course is a type of tree.
The initial releases of Windows CE were therefore named after trees, as follows.

Windows CE 1.0 - Alder (Nov 1996)
Windows CE 2.0 - Birch (Nov 1997)
Windows CE 3.0 - Cedar (Apr 2000)

Interestingly, there was a second team within the Windows CE group that worked on the tools, I guess you could consider tools to be something that makes a job easier, or cuts the job down to size - therefore the tools releases were named after things that cut down trees - as follows...

Windows CE 1.0 - Alder - Tools: Axe
Windows CE 2.0 - Birch - Tools: Buzzsaw
Windows CE 3.0 - Cedar - Tools: Chainsaw

For Windows CE 4.0 the original plan was to call the O/S DougFir (DouglasFir), the thing that cuts down DougFir trees was going to be Dozer (BullDozer) - interestingly, at Windows CE 4.0 the o/s team and tools teams merged together to form a new, combined team - the codenames for the operating system and tools also changed at this time from trees/tools to Whiskeys - so the codenames for Windows CE 4.0 onwards are as follows.

Windows CE 4.0 - Talisker (Jan 2002)
Windows CE 4.1 - Jameson (Jun 2002)
Windows CE 4.2 - McKendric (Apr 2003)
Windows CE 5.0 - Macallan (Aug 2004)
Windows CE 5.0 Network Device Feature Pack - Tomatin (Apr 2006)
Windows CE 6.0 - Yamazaki (Sep 2006)

* I found it on Test Embedded but it was originally posted by Mike Hall;

- Nigel

New place of work

2008-02-11T16:09:00.000Z

Thought I'd just let everybody know that keeps an eye on this Blog that over the last couple of months you might have noticed the new company web links appear.
This has been due to both my self and Graeme leaving Intrinsyc after they decided to close the EMEA office.

I'm sure Graeme will let you know more about his new plans creating ByteSnap but for this entry I'll focus on my self (but keep it brief).

I've joined another EMEA Embedded Gold Partner in the UK called Direct Insight Ltd.(www.directinsight.co.uk) as the "Embedded Platform Architect".
Direct Insight supplies embedded development platforms encompassing reference kits, production ready modules, embedded development tools, training and services. Thousands of developers across Europe rely on our expertise, support and product solutions to get to market. We are also experts in the field of JTAG test and programming.

Anyway enough advertising. But what I can say is this new role will let me continue to build on and keep my Windows Embedded knowledge up to date which I can share with you all and help enable more products to design in Windows CE, WinMo and XPe.

- Nigel

Finding Cellcore examples for use in CE6.0

2008-02-05T17:24:00.000Z

If you are trying out the Cellcore component in CE6.0 to dial voice numbers, receive calls, send and receive text messages and are looking for code examples then try the Smartphone SDK, there are examples under here most of which will compile as they are:

\Program Files\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone SDK\Samples\CPP\Win32\Cellcore\..

For example the SMS\HelloSMS code can be used for sending and receiving SMS messages, this uses the SmsOpen and SmsSendMessage functions which are identical between CE6.0 and Windows Mobile.

There are many code examples in here which certainly helped me out with the TAPI system for setting up voice calls for outgoing and incoming calls.

Cab Installation Debugging Issues

2008-01-31T14:39:00.000Z

Having problems with CAB files installing on devices; remember a detailed XML log of the installation process can be found on the device under:

\Application Data\Volatile\setup.log

Unfortunately this doesn't include information about available memory and file system usage on the device at the time of installation but it can be useful for debugging purposes especially for registration of DLLs and read only files failing to be copied over.

Using custom DShow filters without registering DLLs

2008-01-24T14:26:00.000Z

If you are creating a media application or utility that requires a DMO or DShow filter but instead of having clunky separate dlls that may need code signing and/or registring with DShow, did you know that you can embed the filter within your main application.

For example for a source filter you can specify a new class and base it on the DShow components you require:

class MySourceFilter : public CSourceStream
{
public:
MySourceFilter( HRESULT* phr, LPCWSTR pName);
virtual ~MySourceFilter(void);
..
..
}

When you create your filtergraph you can use AddFilter to add an instance of your class:

// Create and add new source filter
m_source = new MySourceFilter(NULL, &hr);
hr = m_pGraph->AddFilter((IBaseFilter*)m_source, L"Source");

Simple as that!

You don't need to support the registration or have registry files to allow DShow to find your filter as you've explictly added it yourself.

Configuring MSI installers for Vista

2008-01-10T13:43:00.000Z

When creating an MSI installable project (could be for your new Windows Mobile / Windows CE CAB project), you may encounter a problem with security on Vista, the error :

"The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2869."

To get around this I use the following in a PostBuildEvent on my PC installer project in visual studio 2005:

cscript.exe "$(ProjectDir)..\..\scripts\CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js" "$(BuiltOuputPath)"cscript.exe "$(ProjectDir)..\..\scripts\WiRunSQL.vbs" "$(BuiltOuputPath)" "INSERT INTO `Error` (`Error`, `Message`) VALUES (1001, 'Error [1]: [2]')"

You will need

- cscript.exe (provided in Windows XP)
- CustomAction_NoImpersonate.js (see Aaron Stebner's site for more information )
- WiRunSQL.vbs (Windows Installer Software Development Kit SDK)

Making an MSI to install PPC/SP Cab files

2008-01-03T14:41:00.000Z

Want to install your mobile application from your PC with your PDA connected via active sync but not sure how to do it?

Visual Studio 2005 includes all the tools to be able to create an installable CAB file for your PocketPC device but making the link between a PC MSI file and this CAB file isn't obvious.

It can be done by creating a PC installer that first installs your .CAB file on the PC, then afterwards launches small VB/C# app which invokes the Windos CE App Manager. This pushs the CAB file down onto the device either now or on next connection.

The basics of this and the VB/C# launcher can be found on MSDN:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838273.aspx

Note this is for VS2003 which didn't include as rich a set of project types, check out http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/31198/1954?pf=true which is written for VS2005, very handy!

Note for Vista you will need to alter the security properties of the MSI file as it will not have the correct permissions to launch the Windows CE App Manager (or Vista Mobile Device Center as its known). This is a command line operation, i'll detail this in a later post!

Enjoy!

Determining Broadcom vs Microsoft Bluetooth Stack on PPC

2007-12-19T09:30:00.000Z

I was always under the impression that Smartphone used the Microsoft bluetooth stack and PocketPC used the Broadcom stack, but this isn't true!

OEMs for PocketPC can use any stack, so some PPC devices still use the Microsoft stack.

To determine this at runtime try loading the broadcom dll:

HINSTANCE hInst = LoadLibrary(L"btsdkce50.dll");

If this fails then try the microsoft bluetooth APIs...!

TrakAx Video Mixing Application Is Released!

2007-12-09T15:47:00.000Z

I've been lucky to be involved in the development of the new Highandes TrakAx video mixing application for Windows Smartphones and PocketPC devices.

This has got to be one of the most powerful mobile video editing applications, taking phone content such as music, pictures, videos you can mix them together with effects to create a video to MMS, Email or save to your device to show your friends!

Heres a quick mix I made on my S710 (E650) 200Mhz phone from a recent skiing trip:

All mixed from the hotel bar afterwards!

A must for all Windows mobile phone owners!

See http://www.trakax.com/ for more information including a 7 day free trial!

SDHC support in Windows CE 5.0

2007-09-13T13:19:00.000Z

With SD cards getting bigger and bigger many people don't realise that there is a different standard when you get up above 2GB's. This normally means 4GB and above.
A 4GB+ card is part of the SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) Standard.
SDHC uses the FAT32 file system which supports a higher data density than FAT16. It uses the same form factor as SD, but the SD 2.0 standard in SDHC uses a different memory addressing method (sector addressing vs byte addressing). SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices. The SDHC trademark is licensed to ensure compatibility.

To support this there is an update for CE 5.0, which can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933809. This enables deployment of SD 2.0 specification functionality which can theoretically take you up to 32GB. SD 2.0 functionality is available out-of-the-box in Windows CE 6.0.

In the dark with backlights...

2007-07-25T09:35:00.001Z

Nice easy one here, which is always useful...

On PPC/Smartphone if your app needs to keep the backlight on you can requst that the backlight driver is kept in a high power state (i.e. ON!)

// force backlight on
SetPowerRequirement(TEXT("BKL1:"), D0, POWER_NAME POWER_FORCE, NULL, 0);

On PPC you may need to keep the system alive as well else it'll go into suspend, but this'll work indefinately on smartphone.

Use ReleasePowerRequirement to return the backlight to system timeout control. Note unlike some SatNav software this is nicer than editing the control panel system settings...! ;)

Enabling DShow Debug

2007-07-13T09:18:00.000Z

Having problems debugging your new DShow filter?

When using a debug CE build (or a retail build with a debug quartz.dll) if you can enable DShow logging by turing on the following debug zones of quartz (tested in CE6.0):

Good luck debugging!

In previous OS versions (certainly CE4.2) you could edit the registry to enable these zones:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Debug\GLOBAL]
"TIMING"=dword:0
"TRACE"=dword:0
"MEMORY"=dword:0
"LOCKING"=dword:0
"ERROR"=dword:0

The levels go from 0 (none) to 5 (full). Try first changing TRACE and ERROR to 5 to start with.

Video Driver Speedup

2007-07-12T12:47:00.000Z

I've been working recently on improving the video performance on a Samsung 2413 processor.

The platform I'm working on does not have hardware video acceleration or a hardware cursor.

Did you know that if you disable the software cursor in the driver and remove the overlap detection for emulated line and blit you can get a two fold speed increase at least with drawing polygons.

The hardware supports DMA and I've started to look at using this to accelerate line fills and various blits. Unfortunately the hardware does not support block DMA which cuts down how it could help with majority of blit operations. Another snag with this approach is the overhead it takes to setup the DMA controller and cope with odd end of line conditions.

DeviceEmulator Slow?

2007-06-19T18:13:00.000Z

Recently I was working with DeviceEmulator on Windows CE 6.0 and it seemed slow. If you are using Windows CE 6.0 and you would like debug OS images to be a little more responsive when running on DeviceEmulator here’s a couple of things we found that you can try.

Add a DWORD value in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Platform Builder\6.00\Debug called "SynchronousDebugMessage" and set it to 0.

This tip found here:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder/browse_thread/thread/860b1ff6347ed62c/0d3af9395d161fce?lnk=st&q=%22(un)load%22+windowsce&rnum=3&hl=en#0d3af9395d161fce

The other thing you can try is to ignore module loads until later.
Go to target->connectivity options dialog
Switch to the "service status" tab
Click "settings" for "Kernel Debugger OS Awareness".
Switch the "Module (un)load notification to the debugger" option

The help from the dialog says the following options are available:
Always off: Never catch notification, module changes are updated on each halt. Boot time and execution is fast, real-time, but breakpoints cannot be instantiated on time.
Always on: Catch notification of all module changes immediately. Boot time and execution is slow, non real-time, but breakpoints can be instantiated on time.
Off until first halt: Suppress notification until first target halt, then catch all notifications.

This tip found here:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder/browse_thread/thread/860b1ff6347ed62c/0d3af9395d161fce?lnk=st&q=%22(un)load%22+windowsce&rnum=3&hl=en#0d3af9395d161fce

Command line (Console) over serial

2007-06-19T09:39:00.000Z

I'm a big fan of command line access, if you've got a headless device or a device with a custom shell / UI this tweak is really useful...!

To configure the command processor shell on windows CE to run over a serial connection add the following to your registry

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\Console]
OutputTo = REG_DWORD:1 // Redirects CMD to COM1
COMSpeed = REG_DWORD:19200 // Speed of serial connection

This redirects all input and output for all console applications to the serial port, hmm wonder if it'll work with bluetooth as well... :)

Using Image Factory under CE/Windows Mobile

2007-06-14T09:25:00.000Z

Having trouble getting Windows CE/Windows Mobile factory working to load pictures?

The code below will load a JPG/GIF/PNG (or whatever decoders are installed on your device) etc from a file and paint it to the screen:

CoInitializeEx(NULL, 0);
IImagingFactory* pImageFactory;
IImage *pImage = NULL;

HDC dc = GetDC(0); // insert your window handle here, else this is the desktop

HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ImagingFactory, NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
__uuidof(IImagingFactory),
(LPVOID *)&pImageFactory);

// Load image from file
pImageFactory->CreateImageFromFile(bitmapName, &pImage);

// Get image information
ImageInfo info;
pImage->GetImageInfo(&info);

RECT rc={0,0,info.Width, info.Height};

// draw jpg/gif etc onto temp dc
pImage->Draw(dc, &rc, NULL);

// Clean up
pImage->Release();
pImageFactory->Release();

CoUninitialize();

Memory Leaks with MFC CPtrArray

2007-06-13T12:45:00.000Z

Just finished debugging some 3rd party code with memory leaks.

The code used the RemovalAll member operation on the MFC CPtrArray class. This operation needs to be used with care as all the array elements need to be deleted AFTER the call to RemoveAll. Calling RemoveAll before deleting all the array objects will cause a memory leak.
Another memory leak was caused by deleting a class pointer that had been passed to a function as a void pointer. When delete is executed on a void pointer the destructor of the class is obviously not called.

One final comment on memory leaks fixing is beware when using the EVC4 debug environment. Over the past few days I was chasing a memory leak that did not exist but was a symptom of using the debugger!

Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista

2007-06-12T13:52:00.000Z

You can now find the latest release of WMDC version 6.1 available.

The key updates delivered in this release include:

IRM activation
HTML mail
Certificate enrollment
File synchronization on all WM 6 devices (Yes, even Smartphone!)
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 support
Automatic device authentication
Product registration
Silent-mode install for corporate deployment
And more!

But from our basic testing it looks like it solves the previous versions problem which is connecting Vista to a Windows Embedded CE device via it's Activesync module. Even though the MS official descriptions only indicate WinCE 6.0 I have had it tested with a WinCE 4.2 device (seen here). So I see no reason why it's not going to work with 4.0, 4.2 & 5.0 etc.

New contributor

2007-05-15T15:34:00.000Z

This is my first post and should go someway to introduce myself and let you know my relevant background and experience.

My name is Nigel Goodyear and I've spent 19 years in the mobile and embedded computer industry. 14 of these working at a rugged handheld manufacturer, Husky Computers (now Itronix) and have been with Intrinsyc since 2002.

Both jobs have led to in depth experience with mobile computers, embedded systems and wireless communications.
My Microsoft Windows Embedded experience includes:

Porting BSP's, device drivers and low level firmware
Windows Embedded CE version 2.11 to 6.0 and Windows Mobile
Customer Account and Project Management

(q) No prize - but does anybody remember the o/s variant and kernel this device executed?

Bluetooth Stacks and Windows Mobile

2007-05-03T14:41:00.000Z

If you want to programmatically access the Bluetooth stacks on Windows Mobile its worth knowing that the Pocket PC stack is different from the stack in Smartphone.

Pocket PC uses the Broadcom stack, the SDK can be freely downloaded from Broadcom at http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_sdk.php

Smartphone uses the standard Microsoft stack that has its API set built into the Smartphone SDK, the details of which can we seen on MSDN http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms834669.aspx

Routing IP traffic via specified adapter

2007-05-02T09:50:00.000Z

On a recent project it became necessary to be able to route certain IP traffic via a specified network adapter. Although rather involved this is not as hard as it may first seem. On a desktop this would be achieved by changing the IP routing tables using the ROUTE command, but how do you do this programmatically on a handheld?

First it is necessary to find the IP address, gateway address and interface index of the adapter that you wish to route over. This information can easily be obtained by calling GetAdapterAddresses() a number of times to enumerate all network device data.

Once the IP information has been obtained for the selected adapter then CreateIpForwardEntry() can be called to setup the route. The CreateIpForwardEntry() API takes a PMIB_IPFORWARDROW parameter essentially a route definition. This needs to be setup as follows:

dwForwardDest - Set to the IP address of server you will be connecting too.
dwForwardMask - Mapping IP address mask. This will need to be 255.255.255.255 for specified traffic.
dwForwardPolicy - Set to zero.
dwForwardNextHop - This needs to be set to the discovered IP adapters gateway address.
dwForwardIfIndex - This needs to be set to the discovered IP adapters index.
dwForwardType - This is set to MIB_IPROUTE_TYPE_INDIRECT.
dwForwardProto - This is set to MIB_IPPROTO_NETMGMT.
dwForwardAge - Set to zero.
dwForwardNextHopAS - Set to zero.
dwForwardMetric1 - Set to 1.
dwForwardMetric2-5 - Set to 0xFFFFFFFF.

It is now possible to simply use sockets to connect to the server or service that you specified in the dwForwardDest. All IP traffic over this socket will be directed via the adapter that was specified.

At the end of the session the DeleteIpForwardEntry() API should be called to tear down the route.

Changing start menu appearance

2007-05-02T08:31:00.000Z

I've just read this on the newsgroup 'microsoft.public.smartphone.developer' and did not realise how easy it was to do. The display setting for the start menu is controlled by the registry key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Shell\StartMenu\GridView

Set it to 0 to get a list view and a 1 to get a grid view.

Using Multi/Dual Core Processors with Platform Builder

2007-04-30T12:01:00.000Z

If you’re lucky enough to have a dual core development PC, try adding this to your PC environment variables to enable parallel builds on both CPUs:

set BUILD_MULTIPROCESSOR=2

You’ll then see in taskmanager that your CPU usage goes up to 100% now instead of just past 50%!

Removable disk timeouts in CE

2007-04-30T11:59:00.001Z

Ever wondered why it takes ages for the Windows CE filesystem to remove SDCards from the filesystem after physically removing the card?

Well its because there are two FATFS registry settings which affect this behaviour. Also these are the reason why after a resume an SDCard can take 12 seconds to become responsive again if a ReadFile operation was called when the driver was powering down for the suspend.

"PNPUnloadDelay"
Specifies the time delay in milliseconds between unmounting and detaching a device.
Used during suspend/resume cycles where a block driver might unload and reload on resume.
Default is 5000 microseconds.

"PnPWaitIoDelay"
Specifies the amount of time waited before re-trying an I/O operation on an unavailable device.
This subkey is not present in the default registry, but may be added by the OEM. If this value is not specified, it is assumed to be three times that of PNPUnloadDelay

See :

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa912238.aspx

The default is set in CE5.0 as 4 seconds to unmount the volume after device removal, this is the delay you see in explorer. And 3 x 4 seconds if any IO operation fails (i.e. if an app is reading/writing to an SDCard whilst the device is suspending/resuming)

Bluetooth (serial) SPP using Sockets...!

2007-04-25T13:25:00.000Z

If you wondered how to connect to a BT serial device using SPP over sockets... heres how!

// create your BT socket
SOCKET s = socket (AF_BTH, SOCK_STREAM, BTHPROTO_RFCOMM);

// Create the connection information, this is the RFComm protocol for SPP
SOCKADDR_BTH sa;
memset (&sa, 0, sizeof(sa));
sa.addressFamily = AF_BTH;
sa.btAddr = device;
sa.port = BT_PORT_ANY;
sa.serviceClassId = RFCOMM_PROTOCOL_UUID;
// connect...
connect (s, (SOCKADDR *)&sa, sizeof(sa))

Once connected you can use send/recieve to send over the SPP connection:

send (connectedSocket, (char*)str, len,0)
recv( connectedSocket, str, len,0)

This way you don't have to map serial ports, this was tested on Windows XP but should also work on windows CE.

It was tested printing GPS information from a TOMTOM reciever.

CE6.0 and DumpMem()

2007-04-25T09:31:00.000Z

There is a known issue with DumpMem() in Ce6.0. It does not correctly format the memory and only the memory offsets are shown. This is evident no matter which debug stream is used.

Debug in CE6.0 and PB6.0

2007-04-25T09:13:00.000Z

Platform builder 6.0 supports two options for the way debug messages are handled.

Sync Mode

Here the target device waits until the host displays the debug message. The advantage being that you see messages when they were sent but it does slow down the target device.

Async Mode

Here the target device runs as fast as possible. The debug message is queued on the host to allow the device to continue. Debug is only displayed on the host as time permits.

These debug modes are available via the host's registry.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Platform Builder\6.00\Debug
DWORD value "SynchronousDebugMessage"
0 == ASYNC
1 == SYNC

How to get IMEI, SIM number, Operator and country

2007-04-24T15:57:00.000Z

Whilst working on my current project I discovered how to get the following information out of Windows Mobile.

The Modem IMEI number
The SIM number (not the phone number)
The SIM operator
The SIM operator ID and cell country

These can all be obtained via TAPI. The IMEI and SIM number are available via the lineGetGeneralInfo API. These are returned as the SerialNumber and SubscriberNumber. The SIM operator, ID and cell country are returned by a call to the lineGetCurrentOperator API. Check out about more ExTAPI calls on MSDN here.

Taking control of the "Back" button on Windows Mobile

2007-04-23T12:22:00.000Z

Ever wanted to know how to get control of the "Back" button on Windows Mobile? The answer can be found in this MSDN article.

How to get your phone number

2007-04-19T09:17:00.000Z

Just discovered how to pragmatically get your phone number from Window Mobile. This is documented well on the Windows Mobile Team Blog Site here.

EVC 4.0 Remote Tools

2007-04-18T15:53:00.000Z

Having problems with EVC 4.0 tools greyed out and pointing to the wrong SDK? A collegue of mine has just found the answer. The workaround is in the online EVC 4.0 Release Notes:

View the file properties of the directories:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows CE Tools\Platman\Bin
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows CE Tools\Platman\Bin\WCE500

Click the "Advance" button
Click to check the "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder" check box
Click "OK"

Vista and ActiveSync

2007-04-18T15:04:00.000Z

For the Vista users out there you have probably discovered that ActiveSync is no longer supported. What you should be using is Windows Mobile Device Center more info and available for download from Microsoft here.

One unfortunate oversight is that it will not currently Sync with the new Vista Windows Calendar or Email applications. Microsoft, however, are planning a new service release that will support this applications in the future.

Signing Windows Mobile Application Code using Miicrosoft Visual Studio 2005

2007-04-18T13:44:00.000Z

This post deals with signing code against the Windows Mobile SDK developers certificates. If you have not already installed the SDK certificates on your device see this post. The first step is to install the SDK certificates on your development machine:

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Windows Mobile 5.0 SDk\Tools
Double-click on the SDKSamplePrivDeveloper.pfx file
Press the "Next" button on the "Welcome to the Certificate Import Wizard" dialogue
Press the "Next" button on the "File to Import" dialogue
Press the "Next" button on the "Password" dialogue
Press the "Next" button on the "Certificate Store" dialogue
Press the "Finish" button on the "Completing the Certificate Import Wizard" dialogue
Press "Ok" on "Completed" dialogue
Repeat the process for the SDKSampleUnprovDeveoper.pfx file

Having installed the certificates you will now need to sign your CAB's, DLL's and EXE's against them. This is done as follows:

Open your Microsoft Visual Studio project solution
Select from the menu Project->Properties
Expand the "Configuration Properties" tree in the left-hand pane
Expand the "Authenticode Signing" in the "Configuration Properties" tree
Select "General"
In the right-hand pane change the "Authenticode Signature" selection to "Yes"
Select the "Certificate" field and press the "browse" ellipse to the left
Select the certificate you wish to sign against marked "TEST USE ONLY - Sample Privileged Root for Windows Mobile SDK" or "TEST USE ONLY - Sample UnPrivileged Root for Windows Mobile SDK" and hit OK
Select "OK" to properties dialogue

On your next build Visual Studio will now automatically sign your executable.

Visual Studio 2005 and Windows CE6.0 Problems

2007-04-18T13:19:00.000Z

Running VS2005 with a custom CE6.0 SDK requires installing Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (see msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/vs2005sp1/default.aspx) without this the application can fail to deploy to the platform correctly.

Also SP1 is needed when running on Windows Vista.

Unlocking a Smartphone for development

2007-04-18T13:18:00.000Z

To develop on a Windows Smartphone you will first need to get the SDK certificates to sign against installed. This is a non-trivial process which involves a couple of registry entry changes and the installation of a CAB file.

First a signed registry editor must be located to run on your target device. These can be found by doing an Internet search for "REGEDIT.EXE". When found copy the EXE onto the device, launch it and change the following registry values:

Navigate to HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies\
Change the "00001001" value to a decimal 1
Change the "00001005" value to a decimal 40
Reboot the device

At this point your Smartphone is "Unlocked" to run any code. In the development environment we want to be able to sign code against the correct privileged certificates. The next step is to install these certificates.

First install the Windows Mobile Smartphone SDK. This is available here from Microsoft.
Copy the file C:\Program Files\Windows CE Tools\wce500\Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone SDK\Tools\SDKCerts.cab onto the device.
Launch the CAB file.
Reboot the device.

It is now advisable to "Re-lock" your Smartphone so that you can check you are signing your application against the right security certificates. This is done by launching "REGEDIT.EXE" and changing the following registry values:

Navigate to HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies\
Change the "00001001" value to a decimal 2
Change the "00001005" value to a decimal 16
Reboot the device

See Stuart Preston's Blog for more information.

Cellcore on Windows CE6.0

2007-04-18T13:00:00.000Z

Cellcore is the telephony component used on Windows Mobile, this enables voice, data and text functions via a GSM modem.

CE6.0 comes with two examples modem drivers (RIL - Radio Interface Layers) for the TTPCom and Enfora Modems.

Most of the sources, headers and registry entries can be found under the CE6.0 tree here:

C:\WINCE600\PUBLIC\CELLCORE

Here you’ll also find the 710 Multiplexer, this component effectively splits the single serial port that the modem is available on into two virtual serial ports (default is COM9 and COM7).

To make phone calls Cellcore uses TAPI (Telephone Application Programming Interface) see some of the Smartphone/PocketPC SDK examples for some coding examples.

Making data calls can be done using RAS Dial up, but the RAS setup needs to specify the APN for the data connection. There are no examples under Windows Mobile as this is all handled in Connection Manager on WinMobile.

CE6.0 comes with a WWANDIS component which looks like it virtualises data connections to have a ‘Virtual Ethernet’ driver over GPRS, but there aren’t any docs I can find, anyone know how this works?

Mike Hall has a demo of Cellcore in action on an electronic picture frame… see Mikes Cellcore Demo

C4All The start of a new era

2007-04-18T12:50:00.000Z

This is the first post of what we hope will be many. The contributors want to share their combined experiences of the Windows Embedded operating systems. So who are these contributors?

Rob Nock

Spent 9 Years working with Mitsubishi PC Division (Apricot Computers) and has been with Intrinsyc since 1999.
Both jobs have led to in depth experience with embedded systems.
Worked on Windows CE from version 3.0 up to 6.0.
Worked on Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0.
Ported BSP's, written numerous drivers and applications.

Graeme Wintle

Previous to Intrinsyc (also since 1999 - Rob started the same day!) working at Nokia Telecoms and GST Technology
15 Years of experience in the embedded space
Experience ranging from OS Porting to Application design on Windows CE and Windows Mobile
17 hardware platforms under my porting belt so far...!