Com Ports Changed or Missing in CAT

James Del Principe

CAT no longer has needed com ports. Running V 1.11.12 and FLDIGI 4.1.08 (latest version) with Windows 10 on PC. I tried FLDIGI for first time in a long while and see that it does not communicate via CAT any longer. CAT for Flex 6500 has Serial Com 8, TCP port 5002 and Serial Com 9. It used to have Com 4 and Com 6 to communicate with FLDIGI.
Add port in CAT now only allows for com 10 and up. These are not available in FLDIGI.
In Windows device manager (show hidden ports clicked) I see 17 ports. (probably many not used?) Com 3 for Flex control, The rest are Flex Radio virtual Serial Port:
Com 10 (grayed out)
Com 104, 105, 106, 108, 109 bold
Com 11, 110, 111 grayed out
Com 131, 231, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 bold
Com 7 for Silicon Labs cp210x usb to uart bridge 
Should these be cleaned up? If so, how?
Why does Com 4 and Com 6 no longer show up in CAT?
These were present in the past and used for FLDIGI.
Sorry for the long description. I really need help with this before upgrading to SSDR 1.12.x
73 All, Jim    KD1I

Clay N9IO

James, Search the community site for "Com Arbiter" Tim describes how and why to use it for maintaining your com ports and getting rid of the ghosted ports that have cropped up on your machine over time is another issue Tim posted a few years ago. Com Arbiter is a free download. One of the first things I install on my PC's. Sorry, at work I'm sure someone will come in to help but I think this is the direction you need to go to. Clay N9IO

James Del Principe

Clay, thank you for the response. I will check for Tim's document. This is a very frustrating subject for me. I have corrected com port issues in the past but this one has me stumped. I'll feed back the results.   Best 73, Jim

James Del Principe

OK, problem solved but not what I expected. I followed your advice and checked on the Community for Com Arbiter. Several entries came up. One from Dudley, WA5QPZ, had the answer. The solution was to reset Smart CAT. Right click on Remove in SmartCAT. Left click on reset FlexVSP Ports. I then added ports 4, 5 and 6. Next I deleted port 5 as I do not useit. My FLDIGI uses 4 and 6. Problem solved.
I suppose I should go into Windows 10 on my PC and delete the grayed out com ports just to be sure. Many Thanks for your input and directing me to the answer. Best 73, Jim

Clay N9IO

Great, glad you found the answer James. 
I find that even though not necessarily easy to search the community the answer has usually been hashed out before. Patience is a virtue. Keep looking...

And yes carefully delete those grayed ports in Device Manager, just went through this myself recently on a new Win10 machine.
Boy did I have a mess going that started with a bad switch.
Didn't realize it was the switch until I had already done the damage to the machine setup.  All good now, reinstalling everything again, ugh... 
Found the answer in a three year old thread.

73' and GL

Clay N9IO

James Del Principe

Clay, this really is an amazing community with a wealth of knowledge. The trick is finding it.  You are right. I need patience.  Not easy sometimes when things just go kaflooy because of an update.   Now for that V 1.12.x update... I WILL read the release notes first.    Jim