Driver Installation
Please visit our downloads page to download the latest copy of this file,
EZ-Tap drivers and installation guide for your operating system. The typical user will unzip the driver files
into a directory on his/her hard drive and use the Windows hardware installation wizard to complete the
install. If this does not work for you, refer to the instructions in the appropriate driver installation guide for
help. Once the EZ-Tap driver has been correctly installed, EZ-Tap will be shown as 2 sequentially
numbered COM ports under Windows Device Manager.
RS232 Monitor Application
EZ-Tap uses the receive channel from each of 2 USB COM ports to capture RS232 passively capture
bidirectional RS232 data. There are several software options you can use to acquire and display with EZ-Tap.
Option 1 – Windows RS232 Terminal Program (eg. Hyperterminal)
Perhaps the simplest software option is to use a simple terminal program such as Hyperterminal to
capture the RS232 data traffic. With this approach you open 2 instances of the terminal program and
assign one of the 2 EZ-Tap COM ports to each. Be sure to set up the correct COM parameters (baud
rate, etc.). The RS232 traffic will then be displayed in the terminal windows as it is transmitted.
Option 2 – Third-Party RS232 Monitor Programs
Another option is to use one of the many commercially available third party RS232 monitor programs.
Most of these programs are designed to work with a custom passive tap cable and 2 com ports. EZ-Tap is
fully compatible with this mode of operation – simply assign the EZ-Tap COM ports in the program’s COM
port settings.
Option 3 – Use the EZ-View RS232 Monitor Program
Stratus Engineering’s EZ-View RS232 Monitor program is the best software solution for applications that
demand higher performance. EZ-View bypasses the Windows virtual COM port layer and interfaces
directly to EZ-Tap hardware for low latency access.
Option 4 – Develop Custom software using the EZ-Tap Windows API
For users requiring more sophisticated data extraction and analysis Stratus Engineering provides the
EZTap API, a Windows-DLL that allows the user to develop custom software that interfaces directly with EZTap.
The EZ-Tap API interfaces directly to EZ-Tap hardware for low latency access and provides submillisecond
data time tagging.
