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Comm Port and Other Set-Up Problems


Lisa Kennedy

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I am working with a new laptop and the new LOR 2 Advanced software this year (only my second year with LOR) and I cannot seem to get the Hardware Utility to recognize the controller I have hooked up. I am using a USB485 adapter with the CAT5 cable connected from the adapter to the controller and the USB hooked up to my laptop. I was able to download the new driver for the adapter that works with Windows Vista with no problem.

Now when I hit 'Auto Configure' on what should be Unit 1, it goes through several Comm Ports very, very slowly and never seems to land on one. There are no controllers listed in the 'Select Unit' box either and the Comm Port selectors start at Comm 3, which makes no sense to me.

The red light on my controller keeps flashing and not connecting. I have read through every forum I can find and can't seem to find anything that helps me get this problem resolved. This is one of my two controllers that I used last year connected to my old desktop, but now I need to connect these two along with my five new controllers.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as my stress level is climbing!!

Thanks,

Lisa

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D.T.,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did install the new driver from www.ftdichip.com for Windows Vista. It downloaded CDM 2.04.16 with no problem. I also just went through the adaptor troubleshooting piece from LOR again and identified my Comm port as Comm21, but then when I press the refresh button, the scanning network box comes up and is very, very, very slow to run through.

Thanks for any help,

Lisa

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Lisa,

You can manually plug in the comm port into the box. Since you know it is comm 21 manually put that in the box instead of doing the auto config.

Some time in the past. LOR did have a problem with finding comm ports above a certain range. I think that was resolved, but you still might be out of the new range.

Chuck

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Chuck,

I was able to manually put Comm21 in the box, but there are still no units being found in the 'select units' box and the box just to the left of the refresh button says 'found 0 units.' When I hit the refresh button, it just scans the network very slowly -- took over 30 minutes last time.

Not sure what to do now...

Thanks,

Lisa

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Have you rebooted the computer since installing the drivers? Since it is scanning the network does sound like it is at least seeing the controller(s).

How many controllers do you have? Is this the first time you have hooked things up this year?

Could you modify your profile to fill in your location. Helps the rest of us to plug in and maybe get you hands on help.

Chuck

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Is it possible to get Windows to assign a lower com port number?

Are you doing this with a controller that you used last year, or a new one?

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Sorry about the profile part -- just updated things there. I am located in Mooresville, North Carolina.

I have rebooted the computer a couple times with the same reaction. The controller I am using right now or trying to use is one from last year. I have not plugged any of the new ones in yet. But this is the first time that I am trying to plug things in this year. I have been working on my song sequences in LOR 2 and decided that I wanted to get the boxes functioning in order to test some of the new custom pieces for this year.

Not sure how to get Windows to assign a new Comm Port number, but Comm21 was in the drop down list under manual select -- it's just that the controller is not being seen now.

Thanks again for any and all suggestions.

Lisa

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Unplug the power from the controller, disconnect the comm cable. Remove the jumper on the 18 pin header. Plug the controller in. The LED should flash quickly. After about 15 seconds, unplug. Replace the jumper on the second row of pins from the top. Connect the comm cable and plug back in the AC cord.

Then try to communicate to the controller.

Chuck

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Just went through the complete reboot process for the controller, uninstalled and reinstalled my LOR software and waited through another complete 'refresh' process that took almost 30 minutes with no controller found again.

Should I have anything in the Unit ID boxes down the left side? I have tried both ways setting it to 01 and also made old ID 'any' and new ID '01'.

I just don't know what else to do to make it work...feeling stressed and lost. But I so appreciate everyone's suggestions and am still wanting to try anything you can send my way.

Thanks,

Lisa

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Lisa... let's see if we can prove the controller you are working with is still good. Do you still have the machine you ran LOR on last year? If so, set up the controller over on that machine, and verify that it can see the controller. If you can't see the controller from last year's machine, then you may have a bad cable or a bad controller. Try to prove one piece at a time... controller, cable, USB485... one step at a time to isolate the problem. Also, I know that an email to support at LOR will have someone working on your issue in short order.

D.T.

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Here are my (brief) notes on changing the COM port number for the USB485 Adapter in XP:

Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager
Ports (COM & LPT) / USB Serial Port (COM__)
Right Click / Properties / Port Settings / Advanced
Set COM Port Number: COM__
Press OK



Attached files 181099=10305-Changing USB485 Adapter COM

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I did a little testing on a Vista box here, that has never had the USB adapter installed before. Just plugging it in, Vista found the FTDI drivers, version 2.4.16.0 on its own. I think it originally came up as com2. I used the device manager to change it to com21, and while I could select it, I could not get the hardware utility to scan for adapters, as I would get an error opening the port. For all com port numbers over 16, I would get an error. Any open com port number up to 16 worked for me.

Also, do check what your max ID is set to when scanning. F0 will take a while. For testing like this, you can turn it down to like 5, if you think your controller was set lower than that.

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Which controller are you using?

What is the unit id set too?

IIRC, the unit ID on the first controller has to be 0 or 1.

I could easily be wrong, but just trying to throw out some ideas.

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Lisa,

I re-read the post today. One person had the idea, can you connect up to the same computer as you did last year? If so, does it find the controller?

I would also suggest that you try another controller, you mentioned that you used 2 last year.

I would also look at changing the comm port to a lower number such as was mentioned by klb.

The reset procedure I sited would have worked for the PC of the CTB16. If it was a deluxe board with the selector switches, then you just set them to 00.

I would be more than happy to try and walk you through this on the phone. If that sounds good to you, then forward your contact info in PM to me.

Chuck

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