Flexcontrol on 6500 failure?

dan martin

I get the FlexControl running and after awhile (random time never more than an hour) it fails and when I click OK on the error box it closes SmartSDR I have tried different ports on the CAT with same results. 
Any suggestions on what I may have done wrong? It was working fine except every time I started SmartSDR I had to unplug and plug it back in to get it started. With out it being plugged it SmartSDR has been running over 6 hour no problem.



Thanks 
Dan

Steve W6SDM

Dan, it could be  a USB port conflict.  Do you know what port your Flex Control is grabbing?   Are you sure that there isn't a virtual port being assigned to that same number?  You can start by checking the virtual ports in the port map tab on SmartCat.  You can check the virtual and serial ports in WIndows Device Manager.  That my give you a clue to follow up on.

dan martin

That may be it, I had it on port 8 in device manager and thee was a port 8 in virtual ports as well. I find the digital interfacing (in the virtual word a bit confusing) after lots of years with my AEA PK-232's etc with lots of wires.. to now do it all with software.. Thank for the suggestion I have cleared all the virtual ports but one. It's currently running WSPR at 1 watt and on port 7 the only virtual port and when I plugged in the FlexControl it went to port 5 on it's own...
I'll post again to let everyone know it that the cure... I start off all problems assuming I have done something incorrectly...

73's and Regards
Dan  KC4GO 

Tim - W4TME

Dan - based on the error and the module that is throwing it, I suspect that there is something going on with the Windows enumeration of com ports.  In general we handle the enumeration of non-standard com port names (Bluetooth devices are notorious for this), but something else is going on.

So I am converting this topic to a support HelpDesk ticket (http://helpdesk.flexradio.com) so we can investigate what is happening on your particular machine that is causing this problem.  I'll be contacting after I create your support ticket.

Steve W6SDM

I hope that works for you.  My FlexControl grabs the same port each an every time.  You will see the port noted in both Device Manager and in CAT, that's normal.  The problem occurs when something else grabs the port assigned to the FlexControl or when two USB devices are trying to use the same hardware.  Windows sucks in the way it assigns port numbers and lists devices.  There's no such thing as consistent numerical or alphabetical order.

USB/Serial emulation can be confusing.  Ever since we started doing away with hardware serial ports in favor of virtual "look alike" RS-232 ports, there have been little inconsistencies to overcome.  We still have to consider things like DTR. RTS, and baud rate, even though they no longer exist.  This stuff dates all the way back to the 1980s dumb terminal days. You would think there would be a better way to pluck a chicken, but until someone finds one, this is what we're dealing with.

KY6LA_Howard

Steve You just. Explained why Ethernet devices are so preferable to serial devices.

dan martin

After resolving the port conflict with the virtual ports all is well again... Thanks for all the assistance and advice...  For things that look simple sometimes they can be incredibly difficult 

73's 
Dan KC4GO