This section is provided for the XScale-Lite, 5.7, Mini, Maxi, Magnum, Extreme, and Micro-Pod units only.

This section is provided for the XScale-Lite, 5.7, Mini, Maxi, Magnum, Extreme, and Micro-Pod units only.

Question: Do your units support me using Windows Vista on my workstation PC?
Answer:Yes our units are able to run with you using Windows Vista on your PC workstation. Just follow the steps in the Getting Started Manual, but when it comes to installing the RLC-SDK use the following steps to install it. Here's what you need to do to successfully install the RLC SDK on Vista:
1. Click on the Start menu, All Programs, Accessories.
2. Right click on Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.
3. Click Continue in the User Account Control dialog that appears.
4. In the command prompt window, navigate to the directory on the RLC CD where the SDK .msi file exists.
5. Install the SDK by simply entering the name of the .msi file (including the .msi) in the command prompt
window and press return.
6. Follow the SDK install dialogs as normal.

Note that on Vista you MUST install VS2005 SP1 plus a special SP1 addendum for Vista, and you MUST configure VS2005 to run as Administrator in order to get VS2005 to function correctly on Vista. Upon launching VS2005 on Vista, it will inform you if any of these things are missing.

Question: What happens if your product is not right for my application?
Answer: Our development kits are the most complete, least expensive, and by far the best on the market and come with a 30 day money back guarantee for first time purchases. We are so confident that you will like our products and you will be able to start developing in a short amount of time, that we offer a 30 day money back guarantee. In those 30 days you are provided with free phone in and email technical support, if the need arises. However, if you find that our product just simply doesn't fit your application needs, you can return the development kit for a full refund, check terms and conditions for full details.

Question: What does your development kit include?
Answer: We will provide you with everything that you will need to evaluate our unit and get started on your application. We even provide you with the latest Visual Basic and Visual C++ embedded software development tools from Microsoft. You can write and debug your VB or C++ applications in a professional manner without the need to purchasing expensive third party tools. You simply take it out of the box, plug in, and start exploring. We provide you with an easy and illustrative getting started guide that comes in your development kit and you can also find it on our web site under technical support. Along with the getting started guide we provide you with over 50 demonstration programs in Visual Basic and C++ complete with source code. Our development environment is easy and so simple to use we guarantee that you can start developing your application right from the start. RLC guarantees its products with a 30 day money back guarantee on all first time purchases. No other company on the market offers this type of money back guarantee.

Question: How much does your development kit cost?
Answer: All of our pricing is provided on our web site. Our development kits are simple, complete, and a great deal compared to other companies whose development kits can cost between $3000-$5000 for just the computer board. Their development kits come in poorly made, hand-wired, basic cases to hide the computer board. These cases are for development purposes only and can not be put into a finished product. RLC's development kits work right out of the box and you can use the same computer board in your final application!

Question: What is the long term availability of RLC products?
Answer: RLC takes pride in the fact that we can still make any board we have ever produced. We still sell Z-80 boards every year to companies who originally started purchasing them from us 20 years ago. Intel has guaranteed the PXA270 chip to be around for another 5 years, with hopes of 10 years. This equates to a constant supply and price for all our new products; the Mini, Maxi, Magnum, Lite and Extreme.

Question: Why choose Windows CE 5.0 instead of another OS such as Linux?
Answer: Microsoft has done an incredible job creating an embedded OS which is cheap, reliable, and has ease of use for software developers. A common complaint RLC hears is that Windows CE 5.0 is too expensive and that Linux is free. The facts are that Windows CE 5.0 costs $14 per copy, and only the source code for Linux is free. After buying all the tools necessary for Linux development, the price of Linux has risen to the tens of thousands of dollars. Windows CE and Microsoft Visual Studio form a simple development environment that allows developers to write applications on their PC and test/debug the code directly on their RLC units. Simply install Microsoft Active Sync, connect your RLC unit to your PC with the provided USB cable, and start developing!

Question: Does RLC provide any source code or demo programs for software developers?
Answer: RLC provides every customer with over 40 demo programs written in Visual Basic .NET, Embedded Visual C++, and C#. All source code for every demo is included on a CD shipped with our development kits. These demo's show basic functionality of the .NET Compact Framework and Windows CE API, as well as how to use our custom RLC DLL which provides an easy interface to I/O on all the RLC products. Our competitors do not supply you with any software support, you will actually be lucky to get Windows CE up and running correctly on their boards.

Question: Does RLC use headers for I/O on the CPU boards?
Answer: Unlike our competitors, RLC uses real connectors whenever applicable for I/O. This means DB-9 connectors for serial I/O, standard USB host and USB client connectors, audio jacks for audio in/out, an SD card socket, as well as a full size PCMCIA socket (or compact flash socket depending on your model). Our boards have headers for analog and digital I/O and a header for the LCD interface, which a ribbon cable from the LCD plugs directly into. Our boards also have a 40-pin header for I/O expansion, allowing you to interface one of our add-on I/O boards or any custom board created by you!

Question: How does my application run on an RLC unit?
Answer: Once your application is written and ready for customers, simply flip a switch (dip switch 4) and that program will be loaded at boot time without the windows desktop ever being displayed. Typical boot times for our new units are 5-8 seconds. Your program will be stored in onboard flash memory, which appears as a disk drive. This onboard flash is also available for file I/O or any other data storage your application needs. If this onboard flash does not provide enough room, simply use an SD card or Compact Flash card to expand your storage capabilities.

Question: How are RLC units different from Pocket PC's?
Answer: RLC customers use our units in industrial, medical, and commercial applications, although they are not meant to be used as handheld devices similar to Pocket PC's. With all the onboard I/O capabilities, our units are just too expensive for a handheld application. See our customers list to see how our products are being used around the world!

Question: Why choose the Intel PXA270 processor?
Answer: The PXA270 processor replaces the PXA255, which coincides with Windows CE 4.x. Although the PXA255 was an upgrade over the StrongARM processor, it had many problems and required an unreliable companion chip for full functionality. The new PXA270 chip does not need a companion chip, and is also faster and more reliable than the PXA255. Our competitors are still developing boards with the PXA255 chip while we are proud to have 5 different boards with the new PXA270 processor in full production. Some companies offer PXA270 modules, which require you to develop an application board that this module plugs into. Our boards have every bit of functionality that you would want, saving you from engineering an application board for these modules. If there is something you would like that is not on our boards, see the custom boards section.

Question: Do you have a distributor in my country?
Answer: RLC uses UPS to ship directly to our customers all over the world. We put our products through a strict and rigorous testing procedure before shipping them out the door. Every board is guaranteed to work right out of the box. Our competitors choose to use distributors that sell old, broken, even used products to customers. RLC only sells brand new products to our customers. We have also found that we are able to pass on better prices to our customers by selling our products direct.

Question: I noticed that you advertise "up front pricing" in a recent advertisement of yours. What does this mean and how do I get it?
Answer: Up front pricing is a commitment to our customers guaranteeing that every customer pays the same price for our products. On our web site, we publish a comprehensive price list, complete with discount schedule that we strongly adhere to. Unlike our competitors, our prices are for complete systems. We do not sell "module boards" or "ram upgrades" or many other features that our competitors use to add significant cost to their boards with. Beware of companies that try to sell you a BSP package. Unless your intention is create your own computer board, this package IS A WASTE and will frequently cost in the 10's of thousands of dollars just to get started.

Question: I have wireless Ethernet as a requirement for my project. I've tried a couple competitors' products, and could never get a wireless network going. Does your XScale line support wireless products?
Answer: Not only do we support wireless Ethernet cards, the drivers are already built into our Windows CE Operating System. Simply plug in one of our supported cards (frequently updated lists are available on our web site), and it will automatically begin searching for a wireless network. That's all there is to it. You will not find another competitor who can boast ease of use like this!

Question: I've heard that to write my own application for Windows CE, I need a Board Support Package. Is this true?
Answer: Absolutely not. We completely thought out every necessary feature for an engineer designing an application for a product, without having to use Platform Builder or a BSP. Through our experience, we have found that providing BSPs for our customers actually hinders their product development. They spend too much time trying to get drivers to work correctly instead of getting their application ready. We focus on an operating system set up for customers writing their own applications for a finished product. This way, you can get to market as quickly as possible without the additional worry of having to port an operating system.

Question: Your competitors claim to support more LCD screens than you. Some have as many as 40 different models listed. How come you don't support them as well?
Answer: There is a major difference between RLC and our competitors in this regard. While our competitors say they can support a host of displays, we have actually engineered our displays into our products. A significant amount of time and work goes into finding suitable displays and designing their interfaces into our boards. With RLC embedded controllers, you don't need to worry about buying the display from a distributor or writing the driver or designing the interface board, or even finding a matching touch panel to interface to the board - all of this has already been done. In our experience, most customers who try to work up an LCD/touch panel interface on their own end up with an unprofessional finished product. All of our boards are complete and easy to interface to; our line of available LCD panels are just another part of making your application development that much easier.

Question: What if I have a problem with one of your units? I've never been able to get the technical support I need from some of your competitors.
Answer: At RLC Enterprises we realize that if you are not successful developing your product, we will not be successful selling our product. For over 20 years, RLC has prided itself in offering free technical support during your product development. Unlike our competitors, our technical support consists of more than just documentation and telephone operators. Part of our actual product engineering staff at RLC also work to address technical support issues. This way, our customers are more successful developing their applications. It also provides our engineering team with direct feedback about our products, so that we can engineer customers' ideas into our new products.

Question: I see that you have a bright, sunlight readable display but can't I just add additional back lights to one of the existing LCD displays and get the same results?
Answer: Other companies advertise that simply adding additional back lights will make the LCD display bright and sunlight readable. R.L.C. Enterprises has tried this method and found that even though the LCD display becomes very bright, it also becomes very hot and overheats. Power consumption also goes up tremendously as additional back lights require more power to light it and the sunlight visibility only goes up 5%. RLC has a true sunlight readable, transflective LCD display that is very bright and easily readable in the direct sunlight. This LCD Display is completely integrated into our product line including back light controls. There is no additional work required, simply plug in the LCD.