Welcome to the 1-Wire SDK for Windows Help
Version 4.00 Beta 2
The 1-Wire Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows is divided into 3
sections, each representing a unique Applications Programmer Interface
(API). The first focuses on the 1-Wire .NET J# libraries and is called OW.NET API. The second section
focuses on a second API (pretty much a subset of OW.NET API) called Compact.NET API. This is
a limited port of OW.NET to C# and is focused on
Windows CE/Mobile/Pocket PC using the Compact .NET framework. For
now Maxim only provides the equivalent of the DSPortAdapter object in
the Compact.NET API. However, an open-source
effort is taking place to provide more pure C# classes (such as
OneWireContainers, MemoryBanks, etc). It is available from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/owdotnet/. The third API is
the TMEX API. This is a basic
low-level, natively-compiled API that performs 1-Wire communication and
file structure primitives (as opposed to the .NET APIs that are
high-level and object oriented). Both the OW.NET API and the TMEX
API need the 1-Wire Drivers package
installed before the example programs will run. Compact.NET programs
can run without the 1-Wire Drivers as it can make calls to C#'s serial
port library.
So, if using TMEX or OW.NET, please install the latest 1-Wire Drivers
installation package from http://www.maxim-ic.com/1-wiredrivers
(Version 4.02 beta or higher) before using this kit. The 1-Wire
Drivers setup program will install the 1-Wire low-level device drivers
that are used by both APIs
to communicate through any supported 1-Wire port adapter (serial,
parallel,
or USB). The setup program also installs all necessary code
libraries
for the TMEX API. This includes all appropriate TMEX
API dlls and a JNI (Java Native Interface) dll that provides a Java
interface to the TMEX API. In addition, the 1-Wire Drivers setup
program installs the OneWireViewer software application. The
OneWireViewer can demonstrate and exercise the features available
on virtually any 1-Wire/iButton device.
The 1-Wire SDK for Windows supports the Microsoft Windows operating
systems supported by a specific version of the 1-Wire Drivers.
Version 4.02 beta or higher directly supports Windows Vista®, XP
(service pack 2 and higher), and 2008, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Below are useful starting points in navigating the provided html help
files.
OW.NET API
OW.NET Primer,
OW.NET API.
Compact.NET API
Compact.NET API.
TMEX API
TMEX API Introduction,
TMEX API Overview,
TMEX API Alphabetized Function List
Which API Should You Use?
The application developer is free to choose one of the three APIs
presented above. However, there are a few deciding factors that
can influence the choice. Here are a few of them:
1) Rapid Application Development. The OW.NET API has
advantages in this area. This is an object-oriented, high-level
API. It has method calls such as readDevice(),
getTemperature() and doADConvert() that can take the place
of several TMEX API function calls. The TMEX API functions are
lower level and deal with sending and receiving bytes to and from
1-Wire devices. The programmer must write his own subroutines to
actually "get" the temperature or do an A-to-D conversion for a
particular 1-Wire device.
2) API dependencies. The TMEX API has fewer
dependencies, so the application programmer has less to re-distribute
with his 1-Wire application. The OW.NET API is dependent upon the
installation of Microsoft's .NET framework version 2.0, and the J#
redistributable version 2.0 Second Edition. For more information
on dependencies and software redistribution with the
1-Wire Drivers, please see White
Paper 6 "1-Wire Drivers Installation
Guide
for Windows". It can be found in the list of Application Notes
and White
Papers here: http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes10.cfm/ac_pk/1.
3) Supported Features. Although both APIs support
the same 1-Wire adapters and 1-Wire features, OW.NET has more built-in
functionality. Since OW.NET was designed to be a high-level API
(a J# compiled version of our 1-Wire
API for Java), it supports more features than the TMEX API such as OneWireContainer
objects
and MemoryBanks.
4) Windows CE/Mobile/Pocket PC
Development. The Compact.NET API is perfect for
this. Although it only provides DSPortAdapter functionality for
now, it can be used to develop 1-Wire applications communicating
through the serial port of the development machine without any 1-Wire
Drivers installation.
1-Wire SDK Contents
For list of the contents of this SDK, please see:
OW.NET SDK Contents,
Compact.NET
SDK Contents, TMEX
API SDK Contents
For more information
- iButton information:
http://www.iButton.com
- Maxim Integrated Products information:
http://www.maxim-ic.com
- Technical Support Request Submission:
http://support.maxim-ic.com/1-wire
or,
join the 1-Wire-Software-Developers discussion forum:
http://discuss.dalsemi.com
*Windows Vista is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.