Topic: VirtualVP - unable to get it to run w/USB to Serial Adapter

[W3DRM]

Have been triying to get my VP2 running again on my new Acer Aspire-one Netbook via a USB to Serial adapter and it just doesn't want to work.

Reconnected the VP2 to the old deskptop via a Serial port and it works just fine so I know the Serial datalogger is okay.

The USB to Serial device adapter I am using is the one Steve (SoftWX) sells on his storefront. I bought it quite a while ago and am just now using it. I also loaded the N8VBvCOM Driver software and set it up but so far, VirtualVP can't find the VP2 regardless of what COMM Port I use (I tried all of them without any success).

Any thoughts on where I may be going wrong here? I'm stumped and I've set up other USB to Serial ports before on other computers without any problems at all. I must be missing something but it is escaping me at the moment, if I am.

[Weather Display]

does it show in device manager, and if so, what is the port number (i.e have you set to use that?)

[Mark / Ohio]

Do you have a memory stick or something that you could plug into the USB port to test that is working?  When you plugged the adapter into the port did Windows detect it at all?

[W3DRM]

To answer both of the last two questions:

• Yes - device manager does show the port as 4. Tried to connect to that but not luck.
• Yes - WinXP detected the new device when I plugged it in and, all USB ports work fine with a USB memory stick as well as when I attach the DVD unit which uses two of the USB ports.

Will go back through everything one more time tomorrow to see if I can find something I may have missed. I do have another USB to Serial adapter I've had for years (from Radio Shack). Will try that out to see what happens. It works fine on my desktop computer for connecting my Kenwood TH-F6A amateur radio HT. Hadn't thought about trying that until just now as I was typing this response.

Won't get done tonight though - am tired from several long meetings today plus this DST switch which always seems to drive me nuts for a few days afterwards. Should have just stayed on Standard Time but have too many external connections that force me to follow the crowd and switch twice a year.

[Ray Proudfoot]

W3DRM,

Have you rebooted the netbook since assigning the COM port? I had a similar problem to yours which was solved once I rebooted.

[W3DRM]

Yahooo - SUCCESS - CARSONVALLEYWEATHER.COM is back on-line 

After some various testing and swapping of two different USB to Serial converters, I've discovered that my "new" USB to Serial converter must be bad. My old Radio Shack converter worked beautifully on both my desktop and my new Acer netbook. Both computers could see the new converter but I was never able to get any good data transfers on the netbook. So, installed the old Shack unit and instantly, I had solid data transfers. Then moved it to my netbook and it worked fine.

So, after the last few hours of moving VWS, WeatherLink, images files and a bunch of other weather related files, I am now running all weather station software and operations solely on my new Acer Aspire-one netbook. All data uploads and programs appear to be running without any problems.

So, Mark/Ohio, now I can change my vote on your thread regarding what system type is being used for weather station operations.

And finally, I will be able to shut down this 8+ year old Dell Dimensioin 8250 down at nights and use it only for email and some web site maintenance. It's been a good old work horse but draws lots of power. Am wondering how much, if any, decrease in power bills I will see...

One thing I discovered during this move is that it is amazing how much of the details one forgets about the various setups and tweaks are needed to set up all of the programs we use to make our weather stations run smoothly. I should have taken some notes along the way but was too busy, of course... 

[Bushman]

Another netbook user... bwa-ha-ha... 

[Weather Display]

glad you got it worked out 

[Mark / Ohio]

... Mark/Ohio, now I can change my vote on your thread regarding what system type is being used for weather station operations...

Go for it!   

I think I set it up so members could come back and update it in the future.  Let me know if you have any problems.


Hard to believe it is little more then a month shy of a year since I posted that.  My old computer that I was worried about is still going and as of this posting been up 62 days without a reboot.   

[W3DRM]

... Mark/Ohio, now I can change my vote on your thread regarding what system type is being used for weather station operations...

Go for it!   

I think I set it up so members could come back and update it in the future.  Let me know if you have any problems.


Hard to believe it is little more then a month shy of a year since I posted that.  My old computer that I was worried about is still going and as of this posting been up 62 days without a reboot.   

Mark,

Can you give me the link to that poll thread? I can't seem to find it.

My netbook has been running flawlessly since yesterday afternoon when I brought everything up. The only problem I had was with VWS getting restarted because StartWatch was mistakenly set to restart VWS when it reached 100MB of memory usage. I reset that to 200MB and so far, it's been running just fine. Amazingly, I've had no errors reported on any of the many VWS FTP uploads or those done via Fling nor any of the processes StartWatch is monitoring. That is a first for me since running a weather station for over 4 years now.

Looks like this new tiny Netbook is going to be a nice machine.

[Mark / Ohio]

I just bumped that thread.   

[W3DRM]

I just bumped that thread.   

Thanks, I've made the update and added a comment too...

[Mark / Ohio]

Good to hear so far it is working well for you.   

It's always interesting the different levels of memory usage we all get with VWS.  Mine has set in the 80-83MB range with all the V14 versions pretty consistent. 

[tinplate]

What virtual serial port did the radio shack usb-serial device get assigned? Regarding the earlier problem you had, sometimes multiple devices/drivers will use the same com port number, causing problems.

When you first plugged in the adapter that didn't work, did you install the drivers, or did Windows auto-detect, download, and install the drivers itself? Letting windows do it worked best for me.

Steve

[W3DRM]

Hi Steve,

When I first tried using the new adapter, I installed the software first and then plugged in the adapter. It came up on port 5. But I was unable to get the adapter to work at all. I tried it on three different computers with the same results. I tried to manually change the comm port assignment but it still wouldn't work. Then I tried the RS adapter (after installing its drivers first). It came up on comm port 2 and is running just fine. I then went back to the original adapter and tried it on comm port 2 but it wouldn't work. Switched back to the RS adapter and it started working right away.

NOTE: The attempts on the two other computers was done using VirtualVP only. It never was able to connect to the comm ports on those machines. I did not try the RS adapter on those machines.

Also, I did not deinstall any of the drivers I installed between attempts and since everryting is running fine now, I decided to just leave it as is for now. If you want me to try something or have some other ideas, I am willing to give them a shot.

Thanks for the reply!

[tinplate]

One thing I'd like you to try is to remove the device if it's plugged in, and then uninstall the drivers for it. Then reboot, and after windows comes up, install the device and let windows find and install the drivers for it.

Steve

[W3DRM]

One thing I'd like you to try is to remove the device if it's plugged in, and then uninstall the drivers for it. Then reboot, and after windows comes up, install the device and let windows find and install the drivers for it.

Steve

Will do that this afternoon and let you know the results.

[tinplate]

I meant to say PLUG IN the device, not install. The idea is to use the drivers windows picks and installs.

[W3DRM]

Steve,

I deleted the USB to Serial drivers, rebooted the netbook and then plugged the USB to Serial converter into the USB port. It found the device automatically and said the device was ready for use. I tried to bring up VVP using the port that Device Manager said the device was attached to (COM4). VVP sent numerous data packets to the device but never received any data back from the Console.

I then removed the USB to Serial converter and simply plugged in the Radio Shack USB to Serial into the same USB slot and Win XP found the device immediately and indicated it was ready for use on COM2. I brought up VVP and changed the port to COM2 and then clicked on CONNECT. Immediately I started receiving data packets from the Console and the green status line turned green. I shut VVP down and then restarted using StartWatch and everything is running just fine.

[tinplate]

Since you have one that's working for you, can I refund you rather than send a replacement? Send me an email to support at softwx.com and we'll work out the details.

Steve
SoftWx