Windows Driver Package - Release Notes

Here is some version information on the Meinberg Driver Package for Windows.

• Pre-release version from 2023-03-10.

• Installer / setup program:
  • Removed check for free disk space from the installer.
    The test might have returned a wrong result if the disk had huge free space.
  • Temporarily removed support for ISA cards. The .inf file directives required
    to support this are no longer accepted by the Microsoft Driver Signing Dashboard.

• General program changes:
  • Improved detection of some device features.
  • Let the driver fix the configuration reported by early TCR180USB versions
    which claim to provide serial ports with configurable string types, even though
    those firmware versions don't support the API at all.
  • Changed the serial settings for a non-standard configuration.
    Using this special configuration setting can result in a degradation
    of the accuracy that can be achieved with a serial time string,
    so usually it should *not* be used.
    If the serial configuration flag MSK_SERCLOCK_READ_NORMAL has been
    set e.g. via bit 1 (0x02) of the registry parameter Serial: Flags,
    a non-standard configuration for the serial port is applied to account
    for non-standard serial port drivers.
    The timeout settings of this non-standard configuration were modified
    as a workaround for a bug in a virtual serial-over-TCP port,
    namely the VCOM driver for the Exsys EX-6128 device server.

• Monitor program (mbgmon.exe):
  • Fixed the COM tab mode selection box for the case that not all
    known string types are supported by a device.
  • Improved entering of DST dates.
    Limited also the range for the day-of-month of the end-of-DST to
    the range 1 … 31. When entering DST settings, the background color
    of some selection fields is changed to red if the associated values
    represent an invalid date.

• Time adjustment service (mbgadjtm.exe):
  • Fixed some event log messages.

• Released 2022-07-08.

• Kernel drivers signed for Windows 10, Server 2016 and newer are now automatically installed.

• mbgmon.exe now shows the processor type of devices, if available. This can be used to select the correct processor type in the mbgflash utility.

• Implemented a way to omit access restrictions to devices. Distinguish between granted permission to configure a device and permissions required by the OS, i.e. Windows.

• Improved SYN1588 device handling. SYN1588 devices are now enumerated after native Meinberg devices, and the PTP_SYNC_STATUS word is supported.
  Requires specific versions of the SYN1588 PCI NIC firmware, kernel driver, and PTP stack.

• Fixed mbgdevio functions mbg_chk_dev_has_xmr, mbg_chk_dev_has_ptp_unicast, and mbg_chk_dev_has_gpio.

• Released 2020-07-02.

• Fixed potential data corruption in case of heavy concurrent device access.
  Some 3rd party software suffered from this bug, but the time synchronization
  service shipped with the driver package was tolerant enough to ignore this.

• Fixed a bug where many entries where generated in the Windows application event log
  when the monitor program (mbgmon.exe) was running but the NTP service was not installed.

• Released 2018-12-04.

• Additionally support the new device GNS181PEX.

• Improved PCI bus access on current server hardware.

• Improved user interface of the monitor program mbgmon.exe.

• Released 2013-10-04.

• Additionally support the new device GLN180PEX.

• Account for PTP270PEX v2 cards which can indicate when the have finished booting and are ready to be accessed.

• Set VLAN Parameter correctly on PTP270PEX cards.

• Windows Time Zone information is not overwritten when the system time is stepped. This caused the Windows time zone information to disappear on Windows 7 and newer systems.

• Log IRIG Debug status changes in event log.

• Released 2012-05-08.

• If a PTP270PEX card is installed then the driver start at boot time is delayed if required until the card has finished initialization.

• Released 2012-04-30.

• Fixed a bug in the time adjustment service that caused the system time adjustment to be discontinued after the insertion of a leap second.

• The bug has been present since driver version DKWIN304.

• Released 2011-12-09.

• Fixed occasional crashes on some Windows 7 machines that could occur when using USB devices.

• Released 2011-12-01.

• Additionally support the new devices:
  • GPS180PEX
  • DCF600USB
  • PZF180PEX
  • MSF600USB
  • WVB600USB

• Support reading and displaying the raw IRIG data bits of devices which support this.

• Released 2009-08-18.

• Support reading the raw IRIG time from IRIG receiver cards which support this.

• Introduced new status line in mbgmon.exe which displays a warning if the system time is also adjusted by some other program.

• Updated help files to include PTP.

• Released 2009-06-10.

• Support configuration of LAN interfaces and PTP settings with cards which support this, like the PTP270PEX.

• Timeout for cyclic USB messages was set to 1.2 seconds as default.

• Released 2009-03-27.

• Support configurable time scales (TAI, GPS) for device which also support this.

• Support reading GPS UTC parameters for devices which also support this.

• Support reading IRIG control bits for devices which also support this.

• Support reading raw MM timstamps without cycles count for devices which support MM timestamps.

• Bug fix in non-pnp driver for Windows NT: A trap could occur with the previous version if two applications accessed the device simultaneously.

• Bug fix in mbgmon.exe: number of handles were increasing if the NTP tab was left open.

• Bug fix: programmable synthesizer on TCR170PEX cards was not detected.

• Released 2009-01-14.

• Additionally support the new PCI Express card TCR170PEX and the new WWVB USB device WWVB51USB.

• Improved detection and suppression of time steps on a faulty reference clock device.

• Improved time adjustment accuracy with DCF77 and USB devices.

• System time adjustment with GPS devices will continue even if the receiver changes its status temporarily from sync state to free running state.

• Support memory mapped access for devices which also support this, e.g. the GPS170PEX.

• Contains 64 bit versions of the DLLs to support user applications on Windows x64 systems.

• Released 2008-02-27.

• Additionally support the new USB devices TCR51USB and MSF51USB.

• Support service event handling, i.e. a batch file can be executed whenever the device synchronization status changes. This can be used e.g. to stop the NTP service if the clock device has been freewheeling for too long.

• Allow an initial time step once after startup of the time adjustment service even if the time difference exceeds the Max. Difference parameter configured for the service.

• Display Windows time zone names containing umlauts, accents, etc. correctly in the monitor program.

• Fixed a bug in the mbg_get_hr_time_comp() API function where an overflow of the fractions was propagated with wrong sign. This affected only 3rd party applications which use this API function.

• Released 2007-10-17.

• Fixed a bug in PNP kernel driver which caused an error on some machines when starting USB devices.

• Released 2007-10-12.

• Support hotplugging of devices.

• Additionally support the new USB device USB5131.

• New distinct logging codes for event log entries and language dependent messages texts.

• New menu entry in mbgmon.exe to display Windows event log entries.

• Dropped support for obsolete ASCII logfile.

• Released 2007-07-27.

• Additionally support the new PCI Express cards
  • PEX511
  • GPS170PEX
  • TCR511PEX

• All binaries include a certified digital signature, so this driver package runs without limitations under Windows Vista x64.

• Fixed unresponsiveness of the monitor program as long as the NTP tab is active.

• Fixed a bug where PC port COM10 and above could not be used.

• Fixed a bug where the inverted output level flag had not been updated when programmable pulse output configuration changes were saved.

• Fixed a problem to install ISA cards under Windows 2000 and newer.

• Released 2006-08-09.

• Updated the monitor program to support additional IRIG code formats.

• Released 2006-07-05.

• Additionally support the new PCI card GPS170PCI, and TCR511PCI.

• Revised the configuration tabs in the monitor program.

• Released 2006-05-24.

• Additionally support the new PCI card PCI511.

• Fixed a bug in the monitor program mbgmon.exe where negative time zone offsets could not be configured.

• Fixed a bug in the mbgsvctl DLL where admin rights could not be determined correctly on systems where many groups of users are defined.

• Revised the format of the event log messages generated by the time adjustment service.

• Revised checking for Windows system time inconsistencies.

• Revised detection of faulty clock devices.

• Continuously try to open the serial port if it could not be opened immediately.

• Updated help files.

• Released 2006-01-11.

• Bug fix: With a DCF77 card installed the monitor program generated an error message once per second in the Windows application event log.

• Bug fix: Output mode of the serial string of plug-in cards could not be changed.

• Bug fix: The monitor program trapped if started under Windows NT.

• Released 2005-12-20.

• Enhanced handling of leap seconds by the time adjustment service.

• Revised configuration tabs in the monitor program.

— Martin Burnicki martin.burnicki@meinberg.de, last updated 2020-07-02