Usb to serial problems

[islayhawk]

I use a Garmin Etrex. Worked fine on my Desktop with serial connection (homemade cable) However! that changed when I got myself a laptop. I got a usb to serial connector and drivers. Loaded the drivers ok but will not recognise the Garmin. It did once! and I thought I had managed it. However the next night all I get was messages such as - unknown Garmin, RS232 string problems etc etc

I use Memory Map for placing and locating caches etc. I run Win xp. The fact that it managed to transfer data once is throwing me. The ports are ok and I have tried different settings in the Interface menu.

Anyone got any ideas - I have trawled the Web looking for an answer

 

islayhawk

[+ecanderson]

I use a Garmin Etrex. Worked fine on my Desktop with serial connection (homemade cable) However! that changed when I got myself a laptop. I got a usb to serial connector and drivers. Loaded the drivers ok but will not recognise the Garmin.

As for the computer itself, it doesn't recognize your Garmin to begin with. It sees and recognizes your USB/Serial device (as a USB device with serial bridge driver), but has no idea what's out at the other end of the cable.

 

I have not used Memory Map, but check one more time to be sure all is as it should be. First, is there any chance you plugged the USB cable into a DIFFERENT USB port on your XP box? Depending upon some arcane junk about whether the USB cable reports a serial number, it's possible that a second instance of the cable exists in your registry, and with a different COMx number associated with it.

 

With your USB/Serial cable plugged into the same USB port on your notebook as when things failed, go to Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager / Ports. You should see a virtual comm port there. Be sure it is the same COMx number that you are reporting to Memory Map when you use it to communicate with your Garmin.

[islayhawk]

No everything is reported as it is. It shows the virtual Com port as being com9 and that is what I have setup memory map with. I find it peculiar that it worked once on the laptop with Windows xp but did not work again.

 

islayhawk

[+TotemLake]

By any chance did you perhaps change the NMEA or serial settings (baud rate, bits, etc.) on the Garmin or the software? IF there is a mismatch, the communication will cause this kind of problem.