USB-PTS Installation and Use Guide

This document describes how to install and use the latest control programs and drivers for your USB-PTS device.

This section describes the installation procedure for Windows machines. These drivers can be used with Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. The instructions and screenshots described below are for Windows XP, however the procedure is virtually identical for other versions of Windows.

Installing the drivers

1. If you have not already done so, download the latest bundle of the SpinAPI Spincore Driver Suite from Software & Download page and unzip this file to a location on your computer.  Please keep track of this location, as you will need it in Step 5. The location used in this example is "C:\USB-PTS\".

2. Connect your USB-PTS device to the computer with a USB cable.

3. The "Found New Hardware" wizard will then launch and state that it has detected new hardware. You do not need to search online for drivers.  Choose "No, not this time", and click "Next".

4.  In the next step, the wizard should detect the USB-PTS device. The device name will show up as "USB-PTS". Choose "Install from a list or specific location", and click "Next"

**NOTE** For some revisions of the board, the device may show up as FTDI FT8U2XX Device. In this case replace USB-PTS device with FTDI FT8U2XX Device for the remainder of the instructions.

6. Windows will then install the drivers for the device. This may take a few minutes. During this process, a window may appear pertaining to Windows Logo testing. You may safely choose to "Continue Anyway".

7. A window will appear to indicate that the driver installation has finished. If Windows asks you to reboot your computer, please do so.

8. After installation has finished, you can check to make sure the device has been installed properly by looking in the Device Manager (instructions). Your SpinCore product will be listed under the Universal Serial Bus controllers category. This step is optional.

Once you have connected the USB-PTS device to your computer and installed the drivers, you are ready to begin controlling your PTS synthesizer.  First, connect the USB-PTS device (with USB cable still attached) to the 50-pin port on the back of your PTS device labeled "Remote Control".  Next, go to the windows command line and move to the directory in which you saved the software and drivers.  The control program will be in the folder entitled "FS".

Once you have switched to the "FS" folder, you can now call the control program. For the PTS160 and PTS250 simply type "FS160" or "FS250" followed by a space and then the deisred frequency in MHz.  For the PTS300, type "FS300" followed by the desired frequency and then phase shift.

It is not necessary for you to include a decimal point in your input if you do not wish to. For example, "34" will be interpreted as "34.0000000".

PTS160/PTS250


PTS300





How do I access the Device Manager?

On Windows XP:
1. Click the Start Menu and choose Control Panel
2. Click the System Icon. (If you don't see a System icon, you may need to click the "Performance and Maintenance" icon first)
3. In the window that appears, click the "Hardware" tab and then choose "Device Manager"

On Windows 98:
1. Click the Start Menu, choose settings, and then choose Control Panel
2. Click the System Icon
3. In the window that appears, click the "Device Manager" tab

For other versions of Windows, the procedure should be similar if not identical.

Please refer to the PTS-USB for Mac OSX document submitted by Tom Pratum from Western Washington University. Please note that this document was generously submitted by one of our customers and has not been verified by SpinCore Technologies.