[I.R. Geonut]

It's a Magellan SproTrak Map and Windows XP with a Prolific USB To Serial on com port 1 (Mabsend Topo US software). I cannot get it to connect all the time and today is the worst. It's connnected once today. I copppied the settings to my laptop, watched it not find the GPS, moved it back over to the PCand it didn't connect again.

PLEASE HELP!

[dhbaird]

bonelessi, on Nov 19 2005, 11:52 AM, said:

It's a Magellan SproTrak Map and Windows XP with a Prolific USB To Serial on com port 1 (Mabsend Topo US software). I cannot get it to connect all the time and today is the worst. It's connnected once today. I copppied the settings to my laptop, watched it not find the GPS, moved it back over to the PCand it didn't connect again.

PLEASE HELP!

Serial Ports, even when wired through USB adapters are kind of cranky if you try to do hot swapping. In otherwords, you may have to power off the computer attach the adapter and then do a complete cold start.

This is because you have a mix betwen the old serial protocol and newer USB protocol. Your computeer needs to initialize the serial part of the adapter during the Power On Self Test portion of the boot.

You might get away with un plugging it and re plugging it back in after you have initialized the port with it in place when you power on, but the port will freeze if you don't initialize it when you first start up.

That is the most frequent causes of the PORT NOT FOUND error.

This post has been edited by dhbaird: 19 November 2005 - 03:17 PM

[park2]

Make sure you don't have any other s/w running that may grab serial ports (like Palm or PDA sync s/w or Hyperterm)

Also, make sure the drivers for the USB adaptor are installed (I know that sounds obvious but I once had a coworker's USB port that was really flakey, it would work with some apps & not others until the drivers were installed)

Usually they have to be installed before the first time the adaptor was plugged in. If it has been plugged in, go into device manager & delete it & start again.

[I.R. Geonut]

nope ... thought i had it but i was wrong

This post has been edited by bonelessi: 19 November 2005 - 05:29 PM

[dhbaird]

bonelessi, on Nov 19 2005, 04:52 PM, said:

nope ... thought i had it but i was wrong

Look at the other thread about usb to serial that is going. I gave a more complete answer on how to get everything up and running there.

[Muddler]

I went through this drill over and over until I stumbled on something that works every time for me. I have an Explorist 500 and an older Sony Laptop running XP. I have the Exp 500 attached to the LT and the software running. What I found is that I needed to switch the Exp500 to the File Transfer mode, let the computer do its "Bink-Bonk", then switch the exp500 back to the NEMA mode. There is something in this action that causes the PC to recognise the Com Port that the GPS is using. It works every time for me and up until I found this I could only get the LT to recognize the Exp500 only very rarely!!

This post has been edited by Muddler: 20 November 2005 - 06:25 AM

[Dale_Lynn]

Easiest solution to find COM port is to go into "Control Panel" >> Select "System " icon >> Select "Hardware" >> Select "Device Manager" >> Scroll down to "PORTS" (COM & LPT) and see what new "port" pops up when you plug in USB/SERIAL adapter cable

Mine comes up as "Prolific USB to Serial Comm Port (COM5) "

What ever Comm port number USB port is assigned by "system" (COM5 in my case) is Comm port number you need to use when setting up parameters/properties in your software used to communicate with GPS unit through USB/SERIAL adapter cable.

Be sure USB drivers for adapter cable are loaded from CD FIRST before trying to plug in USB/Seriall adapter cable.

Dale

This post has been edited by Dale_Lynn: 20 November 2005 - 09:29 AM

[ibycus]

dhbaird, on Nov 19 2005, 04:16 PM, said:

You might get away with un plugging it and re plugging it back in after you have initialized the port with it in place when you power on, but the port will freeze if you don't initialize it when you first start up.

That is the most frequent causes of the PORT NOT FOUND error.

Just a comment, I use a USB to Serial adaptor fairly frequently, and have *never* noticed this problem (I never have it plugged in on Start up, and I've never had to reboot to get it to recognize it).

At least for my USB to Serial adaptor, the BIOS doesn't have a clue its there (even *if* I plug it in on startup), and is perfectly happy being oblivious of its existance.

I did however have to load drivers for my USB-Serial adaptor, to get it to work correctly.

Most common problems I've seen are:

1. Something else is grabbing the Serial Port
2. Set to use the wrong serial port
3. Serial Port set at too high of a number for the program to see (i.e. serial port set at COM5+, and the program only looks at COM1-4)

Another thing to check is that you've had it working on a given USB port on your computer before. I know with my Laptop, it sometimes recognizes devices as though they were new, if I've never plugged them in to a given serial port before. Once the drivers have been correctly installed for that port though, it tends to work correctly.


Good luck

[I.R. Geonut]

Ok I got it to work 3 times by plugging in the adaptor and turning the PC on. Then tragedy struck. I accidentaly attached the GPSr into the serial port while turned on. It hasen't detected it since.

[I.R. Geonut]

heh i figured it out

There is a short in my Magellan cord. All the adaptors are fine. You would think I sould have seen this coming. I'm on the phone with Magellan now. I hope they will warranty it, it's only a few months old.

This post has been edited by bonelessi: 21 November 2005 - 02:23 PM

[CompuCash]

glad you found it -

but something else to be aware of -

Like someone said above his comport is 5 - so is mine -
so that is where I have my software setup - all 3 programs

but if I don't pay attention and plug the usb connector into the SAME port every time it is a different comport -

be aware --

cc\