Description
VSPE is intended to help software engineers and developers to create/debug/test applications that use serial ports.
It is able to create various virtual devices to transmit/receive data.
Unlike regular serial ports, virtual devices have special capabilities: for example,
the same device can be opened more than once by different applications, that can be useful in many cases.
With VSPE you are able to share physical serial port data for several applications,
expose serial port to local network (via TCP protocol), create virtual serial port device pairs and so on.
Key features
- Virtual device: connector
- Virtual device: data splitter
- Virtual device: pair
- Mapper device
- User mode device: TcpServer
- User mode device: TcpClient
- User mode device: Serial Redirector
- User mode device: UDP Manager
- User mode device: Bridge
- x86, x86_64 (and arm64 kernel driver) processor architecture support
Latest BETA/Preview version: 1.5.0.50
SetupVSPE_Full_1.5.0.50.zip
This version contains new features and changes based on user feedback. Please click the link above to download Beta version.
Highlights:
- Virtual ports are now visible in Device Manager and to all applications
- VSPE service (running with minimum privileges on local computer) is now automatically loading last known configuration on startup (if enabled in settings)
- Native ARM64 platform support
- Introducing transformers for user-mode devices to filter/modify/control consistency of the data flows
- Virtual Splitter device: legacy mode with single shared virtual port or new mode with multiple virtual ports for better data flow control
.. more changes and fixes below:
- All kernel devices: fixes for Read/Write timeouts, supporting additional serial port events
- Virtual Splitter: internal data flow is fully re-written to make Splitter more reliable
- Virtual Connector/Pair: fixed baud rate emulation, resetting DTR/RTS registers on disconnect
- Virtual Splitter/Connector adding option to limit connections from the same application to the same virtual port
- Redirector, UdpManager, TcpServer, TcpClient, Bridge (Serial Port): switched to async read mode for better performance
- Transformers: Added LineSplitter and TextFilter transformers, adding multiple transformers for all supported user-mode devices
- Bridge: added NamedPipe client/server
- Serial Redirector: fixed issue with incorrect settings for device 2
- UdpManager: added read-only and write-only settings for COM port
- User interface: Added Start/Stop/Clone commands for devices
- User interface: "Open with terminal" menu now works for all virtual ports and TcpServer
- User interface: Terminal: fixed new lines, scrolling
- User interface: COM port selection drop list is now correctly pre-filled with existing COM port names
- Installer: validating for x32 platform installer when installing on x64 operating system because it caused driver installation issues
- Removed non-relevant settings (delete devices on quit, set as service helper etc) and command line parameters
- Deprecated: HttpServer is deprecated and removed
- Removed kernel devices data flow monitoring (it will be replaced with better monitoring solution in future version)
- VSPE documentation is fully re-written
- TcpServer: fixed bug with not setting keep alive settings for connected sockets
- TcpServer: added option to Close/Open COM port based on TCP connection state (number of connected clients)
- TcpServer: added maximum number of connections configuration setting
- TcpClient: fixed reconnection timeout setting
- TcpClient, Bridge: moved connection logic to separate thread to avoid lag when creating device
- TcpServer, TcpClient now can have only modem registers control connections (no data connections)
- Bridge file data source: input file is opened with share write permissions, allowing input file to be updated
- Bridge file data source: added option to read file from end
Latest released version: 1.4.7.634
Whats new?
Changes in 1.4.7.634
release:
- Introduced initial DTR/RTS states in serial port settings
- Fixed initial DTR/RTS states for TcpServer and TcpClient depending on connection status
- Removed deprecated python 2.7 python bindings
- Added buffer size in Bridge configuration (Tcp flow)
- Bridge device: not displaying error if initialization failed, allowing it to re-connect
- Fixed ReadIntervalTimeout kernel driver bug
- UdpManager: fixed receiver with datagram size > 1024
- Keyboard navigation UI fixes
- Few UI tweaks and improvements
Download VSPE: 64 bit build (x86_64 platform)
- Compiled as 64 bit app. Works in 64 bit Windows operating systems only. Runs on arm64 Windows 11 as well. Recommended for most users.
- Before ordering the license, feel free to validate if VSPE works for your scenarios.
- After 4 weeks evaluation period should be licensed (see licensing information section).
Download VSPE: 32 bit (x86 platform)
- Compiled as 32 bit app. Works in both 64 and 32 bit Windows systems.
- FREE to use in any 32 bit Windows operating system, no license required. See licensing section below for more details.
License types
License lifetime, major versions and upgrading
The license lifetime is limited to current major version and all previous supported major versions.
It means that your 1.xxx license will work for any 0.xxx or 1.xxx versions (0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.9, 1.999 etc)
When the next major version switch happens you will have the option to upgrade your existing license with discount or you can keep using older version.
Standard VSPE License for 64 bit Windows (x86_64)
Recommended for most users.
- The license allows VSPE to be running on one computer at the same time - except for the case below.
-
It is OK to run 2 VSPE applications at the same time (registered with the same license key) on 2 different computers when the following are true:
- Both computers belong to the same user and
- Both VSPE applications are part of the same data flow (for example, connected by TcpServer/TcpClient devices)
- If you need to run VSPE on more computers than specified above, you can either close it on previous computers or buy more license keys.
- Please note that Standard license cannot be used for getting access to VSPE API on 64 bit platforms.
Standard VSPE License for 64 bit Windows platform (x86_64) price is $24.95 + VAT.
When ordering multiple licenses (5 and more), the discount will be applied automatically.
To buy license, please click the button below:
- After payment confirmation, your activation key will be sent to you within 24 hours (usually much faster) by email
- If the license email does not arrive, please check if it is in your SPAM folder. If not, please contact Eterlogic support and we will re-send you the license
- All payments are processed by MyCommerce platform
Free VSPE License for 32 bit Windows (x86)
- Free 32 bit license key is included in installation package.
- Free to use in any 32 bit Windows operating system (for example, Windows 10/7/XP 32 bit).
-
(For developers) FREE VSPE API key included in txt file. You can use it to get access to internal VSPE API to extend and customize VSPE functionality.
Please note, that this key is valid for the current version only.
After installing new VSPE version, you should replace old key with a new key.
Contact us
If you have any questions or issues with VSPE, please feel free to contact us immediately.
Please visit our Feedback page for more information.
Technical information
System Requirements
- Officially supported by Microsoft Windows operating system: x86 (32 bit)/x86_64 (64 bit)
- Windows 11 ARM64 kernel driver support added starting from version 1.1.6.760
- Windows 10 (32/64), Windows 11 (64/ARM64) or Windows Server 2019/2022 (but can work on some other versions as well)
- Legacy operating systems require latest Windows updates/service packs to be installed: applicable to Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. In some cases (for Windows XP for example) you will have to use previous VSPE version - see "Legacy operating systems support" section below.
- Latest VSPE versions kernel driver digital signature is not compatible with officially deprecated by Microsoft x64 systems such as Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8 x64. You can either use older VSPE version (1.1.5.458) or (as temporary workaround) disable driver signature verification in your system. x32 platforms do not have such limitation and can still work with latest VSPE releases. We are aware of this problem and working on it by going through re-certification process for legacy systems, but it takes time.
Testing information
Because of the way VSPE emulation works, please ALWAYS test VSPE (without activating it) on your target operating system before purchasing it - to see if it suits your needs
We focus on testing VSPE on the latest officially supported by Microsoft operating systems, including the following:
- Windows 11 x64
- Windows 11 arm64
- Windows 10 x64
- Windows 10 x32
- Windows Server 2022 x64
- Windows Server 2019 x64
Legacy operating systems support
To avoid any problems with kernel driver signature verifications (manifesting as error 241 due to missing root certificate), please ensure that legacy Windows system has all the latest updates installed.
If you are using Windows operating system which is not officially supported by Microsoft (Windows XP, Vista etc), you can hit issues with loading VSPE kernel driver. In this case you can try to using older release which is compatible to those systems:
VSPE_0.937.4.747
Please note that Windows 7/8 x64 (officially deprecated by Microsoft) currently are not able to verify latest VSPE kernel driver signature. x32 platforms do not have this problem.
We are working to mitigate this but it takes time - as we need to go through different kernel driver re-verification procedure.
As a workaround, you can either disable this verification or use VSPE version which uses legacy-compatible drivers:
VSPE_1.1.5.458
Windows 7 x64
Please note that Windows 7 is officially not supported by Microsoft anymore and it is recommended to use up-to-date version of Windows.
VSPE requires Windows 7 x64 to have Service Pack 1 + all security updates to be installed.
If for some reason you prefer not to install Service Pack 1, you can download old VSPE version below which works on unpatched Windows 7 verison:
VSPE_0.937.4.747
Known issues and workarounds
-
Upgrading VSPE fails from 0.xxx to 1.xxx version.
When upgrading from 0.xxx version, VSPE sometimes cannot start kernel driver when executed for the first time, and VSPE will suggeste few ways to fix this if it happens.
The easiest way to avoid this issue is to uninstall old version first, reboot and install new version.
-
Autostart as Windows Service command bug generated by "Helpers -> Set up as Windows Service" (VSPE version: <= 1.1.5.458)
Make sure that the service creation command ends like this (with extra double quotes):
\"" start= auto
and not this (as default):
\" start= auto
Versions archive
In case you hit issues with new build please roll back to the previous version and let us know about the issue.
SetupVSPE_Full zip files contain both 32 and 64 bit install packages.