GETTING A SERIAL COMM PORT ONTO A TABLET PC?

alisdair4

alisdair4

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midnightdrifter.net
Does anyone know how I fool my tablet PC (which is about 4 years old) into recognising a serial to USB adapter which takes the feed from the GPS?

The GPS input to a previous Laptop via the same method, so I am pretty certain that the problem is not with the GPS or the Serial/USB adapter.

I am running Seapro Lite, and when I scan for the COM ports, the programme recognises no free ports. Worse, when I try to detect the ports in Control Panel, there are no ports at all!
 
a) as mentioned the driver
b) some operating system versions recognize the USB converted serial signals as an additional mouse - you would have to manually designate the COM port. I had to do this every time the PC started (Acer TRavelmate, Garmin GPS w/ USB). I used COM3 since 1 and 2 were in use already.

good luck
chris
 
I use Seapro lite. You have to make sure the COM port is not to greater than 8 as summarised here seapro help page

The key paragraph is
5. My USB to serial converter is not working (Euronav supplied or third party)

Make sure you have read the instructions and loaded the correct drivers, if the USB to serial adaptor is supplied with a cable, make sure the converter is connected as well (!). When you install the driver note which com port the adaptor has been installed to or check using the device manager (Right click my computer and then hardware) .

You need to ensure that its installed on com port 1 to 8, if not you will need to alter the driver settings. Typically this is done from within the Device manager (ports) right click and select properties and then Settings advanced - change com port as required. Note if a com port is marked as 'In use' - it may not actually be so.

Modify the serial ports in seaPro to match (use Refresh option in the serial dialog box to see which serial ports are available).

Does this help?

TudorSailor <span style="color:red"> </span>
 
All - installation of the driver is probably the right answer. Unfortunately, I can't check it right now as the driver disc is probably in Germany and I am in Scotland!

Installation of the USB/Serial convertor didn't cause an issue on my previous laptop - in fact, I didn't even need the driver disc. However, on the tablet PC I am using, the software is Windows for Tablet PC - this may not be as PnP compatible as XP.

Ah well, it'll have to wait till April - the perils of remote boating!

Thanks for the help! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
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