Garmin GPS 152

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sthurley

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Hello - Can anyone help?

I have had my GPS 152 connected to my PC using a serial to USB converter. On the GPS side the RS232 plug has a LED, which when connected to the PC glows solid. However recently this LED started blinking, on for approx 3secs off for less than 1 sec. When this happens (and hasn't stopped) the PC goes haywire and nothing works until I unplug the connection (which clearly defeats the purpose!!). From what I can see the GPS settings have not changed and the convertor on the PC has been installed correctly (according to the PC diagnostics it is working OK). The cabling has not been upset. So in short it was working one minute and then simply stopped - note at all times the GPS itself works fine - it just won't play ball with the PC?????
 
It sounds like the PC is seeing the serial traffic as a mouse.

Check the comport number that the USB is providing with Contro panel, System, Hardware, DCevice manager agrees with your software. You may have to be consistent about which USB socket you connect to.

You can tell the PC not to respond to a mouse on COM port x which will leave the PC free to take heed of the comms traffic, but how to do so varies with different versions of Windows. I am assuming you are on XP. details below..

However you can Boot the PC first, then connect the USB and Windows 2000 or XP should work, provided your software is using the correct comport but if the GPS is on and connected at boot it will think its a mouse while booting. Once succcessful hibernating the PC instead of shutting down will avoid the boot.



However ...
Google /noserialmouse=COM1 and you will find you can stop the boot sequence from treating it as a mouse.
Control panel,System, Advanced,Startup and Recovery,Edit..
and edit the line that ends in /fastdetect to read /fastdetect /noserialmouse=com1 and save. ( assuming you are using com1, but the USB is likely to be com3 or more.)

VISTA insists on trying to use it as a mouse even after the boot and you lose control of the PC until you unplug the USB. so you will have to do something like this with Vista but I'm not a Vista-ite. so I can't detail the route to do so, but it must be in the control panel somewhere.
 
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Does sound like PC is detecting mouse ...

There are various work-arounds and none really work. You can install Microsofts - that's rubbish, you can disable via Device manager - it then installs to another port ....

Main point is to a) find the illegal entry in Device Manager and remove it entirely, b) restart PC without cable plugged in, c) once started and settled then plug in cable - making sure you use SAME USB socket every time.

You may have craziness odd time you do this - that's when it starts to install mouse again ... unplug, go to Device Manager and remove the entry ... plug in again.

Unfortunately it's Microsoft being too clever !!

If it's not that - then you may need to update your adaptor driver. Most are Prolific driver and you can download latest Prolific driver from internet.
 
Thanks for the responses but I am not sure of what you are telling me.

The pc is operating Vista and was working with the GPS OK - using old version of Cmap for chartplotter.

When I boot up PC I don't connect the usb-serial convertor and all is ok, I then connect the gps and after a breif period the LED on the RS232 plug lights up and then starts blinking, this is when the pc goes nuts, the pointer flies around the screen and menus open and close (much like a mouse I agree) what causes the pc to switch like this?

I have gone into the properties of the com port and have changed to com 1 and made sure baud rate is 4800 as per gps. I have let pc search the net for an updated driver but the response is that the installed driver is the most up to date. The only 'mouse' that I think the pc can see is the integrate touch pad, the port that the usb/serial is connected to reports the correct info i.e. prolific usb-to-serial comm port (com1)

please educate me
 
OK, the news that you are using VISTA is not good, I don't know of a certain fix because I avoid VISTA like the plague.
VISTA sees the USB/serial adaptor plugged in and gets the GPS sentences, but decides to treat it as a mouse so the GPS data is misinterpreted and the cursor flies all over the screen uncontrollably clicking and pulling down windows. You can't take over so you have to unplug it, game over.

Refueller seems to agree with me but says disabling the com port only makes VISTA reinstall on another number and repeats the problem.

My suggestion was to tell VISTA that com1 is not a mouse using the control panel in the same way I do with XP and W2000, so that you keep control of the mouse, then you can teach the plotter software which port to use.

Googling the /noserialmouse and VISTA it seems this method does not work on VISTA, but I found www.marciowb.net/soft/pro/3/f/NoserialMouse.exe
which claims to fix it in XP, 2000 & VISTA, but I cannot vouch for that, I cannot test it.

If all that still doesn't make sense then you need help. there should be enough clues here to give a competent techy a lead on the problem.

I hope that helps.
 
Thanks Chewi. You are all correct. when I connected the gps again tonight after reloading the driver for the usb/serial, the pc automatically installed the driver for 'serial ballpoint' and showed the mouse symbol. So typically the pointer started messing about etc until I unplugged the usb. I have now downloaded the'no serial mouse' utility as directed. However when I open program and select com1 (I reassigned the com port number through device manager etc) and hit fix, I get rejected as the pc throws up the following:

Access not allowed:
\system\currentcontrolset\enum\usb\vid_067b&pid_2303\5&2067697f&0&1\deviceparameters

Any idea what this means? note that the gps is not connected as I am away from boat now.

Thanks again
 
well I think I have 'fixed' the com port! After many hours on the internet and trying to suss out what 'Hkey' is and goig through 'Regedit' it turned out that I just needed to right click the program and select 'run as administrator' this got rid of the error message and allowed me to fix the com port for no serial mouse. Just needto get to boat to see if it has worked?

Thanks for your help guys, it may be useful to someone else when they red this?
 
I had this when I used the very expensive but crappy Garmin serial to USB lead and driver. The driver was only able to talk reliably to earlier versions of Windows. Bought one from Maplins and it worked first time without all this rubbish. Like you I found it installed as a mouse but only occasionally. Other times it worked OK for a while and then reverted to rodent.
 
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