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Ports are not available

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by mishal sayer

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A user has a PIII laptop which has one serial port. In the past he was able to use this port to download statistics from a Datalogger he plugs into his serial port. He also has a Palm V PDA.
He is able to Synchtronise the Palm V PDA using the serial port but can no longer download from the datalogger using the serial port (Can't plug them both at sametime). We purchased a USB Serial adaptor to create another serial port to be used on his machine, but he has been unsuccessful using any of the two divices through this adaptor.
I have tried downloading data from the datalogger using my laptop (exactly the same) with no problems, but also can?t get the datalogger to talk through the USB serial port adaptor.
Please could someone try to look into this problem and reach a solution which will allow the user to Allow for both the Datalogger and Palm V to be connected to his computer (i.e. one device using the adaptor)

5 replies

by sgt_shultz

how about a 2-port serial port sharing switch? Jameco has a 4-way one: #183417 for $20. (also known as an RS232 'a - b' switch. in your case the 'a' position would be Datalogger and the 'b' position would be Palm.)
but seems like it should work to have both devices on at same time. both are fighting for same com port? i could understand the datalogger program being too 'dumb' to look anywhere but COM1 or COM2. but the PALM PDA program oughta be configurable to use the port you tell it...did you check on their web-site and search for USB?
sorry if this doesn't help...

by paulp

I am not familiar with the software you're asking about, but from my past experiences with serial connections, the serial port and the software need to be configured for the appropriate communications type and speed. The Palm synchronise, being newer, probably automatically makes the setting adjustments, but the other software may not. Check the software documentation for references to serial port settings and set them manually BOTH in the software and on the PC through hardware device manager.

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