Losing Com Ports and Settings

Andrew Holman2 · October 2016

In windows 10, lately (on occasion), I will open up SmartSDR and I need to reset my Flex Control , usually that comes with me looking at Dax and all the com ports I created are gone. I am guessing this is more windows 10 than SmartSDR, are there solutions to this?

Ken - NM9P · October 2016

Once you have FlexControl Knob working, go to "device manager" in Windows, find the port it uses, and go into its "properties>advanced" and change the port number to a high number that nothing else uses. I use 99, Tim uses 100, but right around the 90-100 mark is good. It keeps it away from the user end of CAT ports, but is below the "radio end" of the CAT ports (which are usually +100 above the CAT port number. )

Ken - NM9P · October 2016

Additional: this solves the problem that many had of other ports taking over the hard COM port used by FlexControl Knob. I have had to do the same with my Baofeng programming cable and the port used by my AA-54 antenna analyzer. COM port conflicts can be a pain in the neck.

Andrew Holman2 · October 2016

Thanks, giving that a whirl. Not only did I have a Flex Control knob but also a GreenHeron RT-21 at Com-6. I moved the RT-21 and Flex Control to 99 / 100 and wiped out the old com ports and installed 1.9.13 so we will see how this goes. Thanks for the info!

James Del Principe · October 2016

Great tips! I have had this in the past with Windows 7 (still running that for the Flex) but not for a while. However, I will make that change just in case. Thanks for the info. 73, Jim

Tim - W4TME · October 2016

If your DAX and CAT ports are not showing up in the CAT and DAX applications after Windows boots up, then the settings file has become corrupted. This can happen when Windows does a forced reboot and the PC shuts down before the file is properly closed.