EM7455 and Windows 10 IoT Professional (Kiosk Mode)

IoT Modules MC/EM Series
1

We are using EM7455 modules on a Windows 10 IoT Professional embedded platform and have a couple of questions. Any advice would be extremely gratefully received.

  1. Device Drivers
    The Windows 10 device driver package doesn’t put the EM7455 module into the Windows 10 MBIM configuration. Instead the EM7455 module has the twin USB RNDIS adapters.

Q: Should the driver put the module into MBIM configuration? If it doesn’t why might that be and how can we workaround this issue? Manual configuration is an option, but not ideal.

  1. Group Policy
    In order to install the device driver package, we have to lower the group policy security settings of embedded OS configuration. It would be nice to know which specific policy setting we could change rather than lowering many unrelated policy settings.

Q: What permission(s) does the driver package require that a typical locked-down Windows 10 embedded configuration might not allow?

I suspect answers to these two questions would interest all companies using these modules in Windows 10 IoT (kiosk mode) applications.

Regards

Tim Clacy

2

Hi timclacy

You can use AT!USBCOMP=1,1,100D to bring the module into MBIM.

AT!ENTERCND=“A710”
AT!USBCOMP=1,1,100D
AT!RESET

Use AT!USBCOMP=? to view the configurations available for the device.
Available configurations are identified as “SUPPORTED”.
- configuration index to which the composition applies, should be 1

- 1:MBIM USBIF, 2:PCIE USBIF, 3:Legacy-Generic, 4:RNDIS

- DIAG - 0x00000001,
ADB - 0x00000002,
NMEA - 0x00000004,
MODEM - 0x00000008,
RMNET0 - 0x00000100,
MBIM - 0x00001000,
RNDIS - 0x00004000,

e.g.
10D - diag, nmea, modem, rmnet0 interfaces enabled
1009 - diag, modem, mbim interfaces enabled

The default configuration is:
at!usbcomp=1,1,100D

AT!USBCOMP=<Config Index>,<Config Type>,<Interface bitmask>

Use AT!USBCOMP=? to view the configurations available for the device.
Available configurations are identified as “SUPPORTED”.

I have not configured the specific policy for driver package require that a typical locked-down Windows 10 IoT (kiosk mode) applications yet.
But I have link below where I would like to provide it to you.

Hope it helps.

3

Donald,

Many thanks for your reply.

Sadly, the default configuration when installed on Windows 10 is not MBIM:

at!usbcomp=1,1,100D

In fact it’s RMNET0 + RMNET1:

at!usbcomp=1,1,50D

I’m using the following document, which seems slightly different to the one you used:

4117727 AirPrime EM-MC74xx AT Command Reference r4.pdf

image

Could you confirm that the default configuration when installed on Windows 10 should be MBIM? If so, why are our EM7455 modules showing up as 2 * RMNET?

We have updated the firmware in these modules using the following firmware updater:

9999999_9904609_SWI9X30C_02.33.03.00_00_GENERIC_002.072_000.exe

Would updating the firmware result in the modules having the wrong configuration?

Regards

Tim

4

Hi timclacy

The latest AT command document EM7455 is 4117727 AirPrime EM-MC74xx AT Command Reference r4.pdf
I have updated it.
Use AT!USBCOMP=? to view the configurations available for the device.
Available configurations are identified as “SUPPORTED”.
(USB composition)
• Valid value: 1
• Reserved values: 2, 3
(Configuration description)
• “(Generic)”—Description of = 1.
(USB composition)
• Bitmask representing all enabled interfaces
• Format: 32-bit bitmask
• Valid values (available interfaces are device-dependent):
• 0x00000001—DIAG
• 0x00000004—NMEA
• 0x00000008—MODEM
• 0x00000100—RMNET0
• 0x00000400—RMNET1
• 0x00001000—MBIM
• 0x00010000—AUDIO

Which USB interface (AT!USBCOMP?) is on your module? It depends on the USB interface configuration on EM7455. You need to configure AT!USBCOMP=1,1,100D to bring the module into MBIM.

AT!ENTERCND=“A710”
AT!USBCOMP=1,1,100D
AT!RESET

No, the USB interface parameters (AT!USBCOMP?) are persisted after the firmware update.

Please help to mark “Solution” if your questions is answered.

5

Donald,

I understand how to get the module into the MBIM configuration. My question is should we really need to do this when the module is used on Windows 10?

Shouldn’t the Windows 10 driver put the module into the best configuration for Windows 10?

Is it expected that end users would have to reconfigure the modules to use the Windows 10 ‘Mobile Broadband Interface Model’ after installing the Windows 10 drivers?

As supplied, the EM7455 module is configured as 0x50D, which is two proprietary Qualcomm RMNET network adaptors. This configuration is not what anyone would want with Windows 10.

Regards

Tim

6

I don’t know anything about Sierra Wireless’ considerations here, but would like to note that doing this would cause issues on systems where the user wants another mode for some reason, e.g dual-booting.

IMHO, it’s best if drivers leave persistent hardware configurations as-is. Choosing one setting or the other should be up to the end user. A one time default change on driver installation might be acceptable. But this is also proven to cause confusion when the os/driver in question isn’t the first installation on that system. You’ll find many such examples in this forum from a few years ago.

I believe RMNET generally is still considered the best option for embedded systems. But I guess that’s not necessarily correct for embedded Windows systems.

It might be possible to order an EM7455 SKU with MBIM as default? SWI will know.

1 Like
7

Many thanks for your prompt reply. I think we would very much prefer the option to purchase these modules configured for MBIM.

This would almost certainly be the preferred configuration for Windows 10 IoT embedded systems.

Please advise how we might discuss this possibility of this option?

8

Hi timclacy

You need to contact Sierra Wireless support as below link to get EM7455 SKU with MBIM as default for Windows 10 IoT embedded systems.