jnealand Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Time to get ready to put stuff out for Halloween and update my firmware. Hooked up the USB adapter with voltage booster to my laptop and it shows up as COM2 loaded.Connected a cable to a controller and the system shows that the device is not working - yellow exclamation mark. Went to ftdi corp and downloaded the latest driver from them, 2.4.16, and installed it. Same problem the device does not work. This USB adapter was purchased in Feb 08. If I connect the USB adapter with no controller connection the device manager show everything good. As soon as I plug in the ethernet cable I get the error.Got out a new USB adapter that I bought in March 09 to have as a backup and test box to use when my show was running and it loads as COM8 and communicates to the controllers just fine. Used the same cables and same ports on the PC and the controller just swapped the box out of the middle. Also notice that one or two times I got a quick message popup that says power surge on USB hub. I have no Hub installed so they must me the LOR USB since it has two ports. I'm running XPSP3Why does the original seem to come up as Com2, but then fail while the new one comes up as Com8 and work just fine. If these are the same devices I would expect them to be recognized using the same config and to be interchangeable.Device Manager shows both as using the 2.4.16 driver version.Now what do I do to get the old one working? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Each individual one comes up as a separate com port. I think it must track them by some serial number, or other identifier in the adapter. If they did not do this, how would a show with more than one network reliably get the same com port number on each of the adapters after every reboot? I run one show that currently uses three networks, and the PC only sends the commands for each network to the com port that leads to that string of controllers.As for not having a hub plugged in, many PCs do not have as many actual USB ports as they have USB jacks. They usually do this by having hubs built into the motherboard. The USB system has zero awareness of the two jacks on the USB-485B, as they are completely past the USB to serial adapter. But, to date, I have never received that power surge message on any of my systems or adapters.Is it possible that there is some damage or other abnormal wiring on the cable you are using that is draining some of the power that the USB-485B is supplying to the cable? And that one of the adapters just isn't passing quite as much through, and not taking the adapter off line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Contact support@lightorama.comI would suspect they will take care of this.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 HI,Attached is a trouble shooting guide. I recommend that you install new drivers as decribed on or around page 10 of the guide.Dan Attached files RS485_Adapter_Troubleshooting.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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