1. All SOHARD ARCNET products are long-term available. You may order them using our online shop or by directy contacting us (order(at)sohard.de).
2. If you are searching for a substitute for a product of another manufacturer please consult the table. Please contact us if the product is not listed in the table.
3. Please tell us the manufacturer and the name of the item you want to replace. In some cases we have to slighty modify our product to ensure compatibility.
| Bus | Chipset | Model (of other manufacturer) | Equivalent Model (SOHARD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISA | 90Cxx | AISA1517 | SH ARC-66 |
| ISA | 90Cxx | SMC PC600 WS | SH ARC-66 |
| ISA | 90Cxx | PCA66 | SH ARC-66 |
| ISA | 90C66 | AN-520BT | SH ARC-66 |
| ISA | 90C66 | PCAI 1B | SH ARC-66 |
| PCMCIA | 200xx | APCM1519A | SH ARC-PCMCIA |
| PCMCIA | 200xx | PCM20 / PCM20H | SH ARC-PCMCIA |
| TCP/IP | 20022 | AI-SRVR | SH ARC-GATEWAY |
1. Make sure the current version of the driver necessary is installed. There are different ARCNET RAW drivers for PC cards and USB devices.
2. Check if the device is listed by the Device Manager. SH ARC-USB is listed under "Universal Serial Bus controllers", PC cards under "SOHARD ARCNET".
3. Check the device properties in the Device Manager:
• The device musst be working properly.
• The Driver Access Name of the device must correspond to the name your application is accessing to the device.
• Multiple devices must not share the same name.
• There may not be resource conflicts with I/Os or memory or interrupts.
Possible approaches are:
• Restarting the system
• Deinstallation and installation of the latest driver
• With resource conflicts: Checking the resource settings in the BIOS, removing the hardware component causing the conflict
Occasionally manufacturers of ARCNET products use bitrates (mostly with coaxial transmission) deviating from the specified rate (2.5 Mbit/s with coax).
Please tell us, when your ARCNET network uses such a deviating transmission rate. We offer to adapt our products accordingly and make sure they are tested in a propriate environment before being shipped.
1. If your software is using a SOHARD RAW driver, you may swap to every other SOHARD card without the need to adapt your software.
Please download the latest RAW driver from our website, to ensure that all SOHARD products are supported.
2. Unless your software accessed the ARCNET hardware using SOHARD drivers the adaption of your software will be inevitable.
In general SH ARC-PCIu is downwards compatible to SH ARC-PCI. SH ARC-PCI may only be used in PCI slots with 5V supply, while SH ARC-PCIu tolerates 5V and 3.3V alike.
Whether you can replace SH ARC-PCI by SH ARC-PCIu, thus, only depends on the way your software communicates to the card:
1) If your software uses the SOHARD ARCNET RAW driver, then you can take SH ARC-PCIu as a direct replacement.
2) If your software accesses directly to the COM20020 controller, then you can take SH ARC-PCIu as a direct replacement. Please be aware, that the card resources (IO and memory areas, IRQ) for every PCI device can be allocated differently.
3) If your application uses a non-SOHARD driver, then we cannot guarantee that the SH ARC-PCIu will be working in your environment.
The Windows Device Manager lists the error code 52 for the device as well as the message that the driver could not be started.
This behavior is caused by errors referring to the signation of the driver:
1. Driver files are corrupted.
2. The root certificate "GlobalSign Root CA" is missing.
3. The driver has been installed from a network drive or via an RDP share (RDP: Remote Desktop Protocol) installiert. This may also cause cerfitication issues.
SOHARD offers SH ARCALYZER as a powerful means for analyzing data transfer
on ARCNET networks on an almost atomic level of the ARCNET protocol.
The device records every APE (ARCNET Protocol Element) transmitted on the bus
and gives to it a timestamp with a 25 nanoseconds time resolution.
Furthermore the SH ARCALYZER hardware is able to record two external signals:
one TTL compatible, i.e. 5V for a logical one;
the other PLC compatible, i.e. 24V for a logical one.
The reception time of these external signals is also recorded with a timestamp
resolved to 25 nanoseconds. The basic use case is to map external events to certain APEs (but also malfunctions) on the ARCNET bus.
Furthermore a master-clock can be distributed using a separate line. The several nodes can register it as an external event and record the reception time. Thus, network participants can e.g. be synchronized.
The timestamped ARCNET and external events can be stored in a file or be communicated
via the SH ARCALYZER software using plug-ins.
External signal levels may also be adapted for customer requirements (e.g. twice TTL
with 3.3 V).
SH ARCALYZER can thus be used for precision time measurements of ARCNET and
external events at the same time and independently of any PC software which is
subject to interrupts, scheduler breaks and other imponderabilia.
Please update the SH ARCALYZER-Application to Version 5.2. You find the file under Download & Support.
RS485AC is the SOHARD expression for the ARCNET signals of the SMSC transceivers HYC4000 and HYC5000. As with RS-485 / EIA-485 logic ones are transmitted as rectangular pulses. However, the pulses have alternating polarities, so no DC current will be invoked on the transmission line (thus "AC").
Other terms used are "EIA-485 AC coupled" or "RS485 isolated".
The table below provides an overview of the supported hardware and ARCNET RAW drivers as well as the respective distribution packages
| SOHARD ARCNET cards | Windows | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 | Me | NT | 2000 | XP 32/64 bit | 2003 32/64 bit | 2008 32/64 bit | Vista 32/64 bit | 7 32/64 bit | 8 32/64 bit | 10/11 32/64 bit | |
| SH ARC-66 | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-ISA | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-ISA-HUB | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-PC104 | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-PC104-HUB | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-PCI | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-PCI104 | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-PCIe | - | - | - | - | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) |
| SH ARC-PCIu | - | - | - | - | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) | 4) |
| SH ARC-PCMCIA | 1) | 1) | 2) | 3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) | 3)/3) |
| SH ARC-USB | - | - | - | - | 5) | 5) | 5) | 5) | 5) | 5) | 5) |
1) UARC RAW driver, last version 6.3 (Download)
2) UARC RAW driver, last version 6.4 (Download)
3) UARC RAW driver, last version 7.4 (Download)
4) UARC RAW driver, last version 7.5 (Download)
5) USB ARC RAW driver, last version 5.2 (Download)
Many installed facilities use ARCNET networks. However, there are less and less PLCs featuring an ARCNET interface.
SH ARC-Gateway converts between the ARCNET and the TCP/IP protocols.
Here you can find a sample project (using ST according to IEC61131) that shows how a gateway is being initialized by an SPS and how communication takes place via the device.