ADMS VERSUS USB !!

[VK3UCL]

G'day all,

My new computer does not have the old serial type ports for programming cables, i have a USB programming cable but the program, and computer for that matter , will not recognize it.

Have gone through the help section and attempted to alter settings through the device manager, so far to no avail. The device manager recognizes the cable under " Other Devices/ USB-Serial Controller " and from that point on it wants me to install a driver for it. Have searched with comport setup also and it can only find the dial up modem on comport 3. There is no driver to install because the ADMS program detects the cable via available com ports, after many com port searches the only one that can be found is COM3 which is the modem and there apparantly aren't any others.

Is it possible to allocate a USB port as a com port ? I do have the usb port address and hub address where the cable is plugged into.

Gratefull for any suggestions,

Ric.

[VK4APN]

You havent supplied too much detail to give an exact response....so generally I suspect you are using a Virtual Com Port or VCP. The most popular of these is FTDI, so I would download the drivers on their website and their instructions for VCP drivers as a good place to start.

http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm

I have several devices that use this particular chip/set and they have all required a bit of tweaking to get going, the order of installation being one of those issues.

sorry cant be much more help - good luck.

[VK6ADF]

I had to go through what you are going through. I have a couple of USB devices that needed a driver not supplied. In the end some devices used the FTDI driver mentioned above and others used a Prolific driver. This might be a page for Prolific http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31 I can't be sure now as it was a while ago and I can't remember where I got it from exactly. I know in the end after installing drivers the USB programming cable was recognised as Comport 23 which was not a choice in the software so I had to renumber it to a low comport figure. Maybe thats the tweaking that VK4APN mentioned in his posting.

I hope you are not using Vista as I just noticed a mention that Prolific are not providing drivers for Vista.

I have installed both the FTDI and Prolific drivers in my PC as to suit different devices requirements. Your other option if it is a desktop PC, which I have also done, is install a serial card in a spare slot. I got mine on eBay reasonably cheap from the UK and it works a treat. I use the serial card to drive my PCR1000 and memory management of my FT847. The USB programers for other rigs,handheld etc.

Good Luck, its frustrating I know but the end solution in the end appeared quite simple once the drivers were obtained.

73 Phil...VK6ADF