Netbooks and usb/serial adapters help? [SOLVED]

[Astroman]

Hi all,

I have a HP Netbook running Windows 7 Starter (32bit), with 3 USB ports and am trying to get it to talk to my Magellan MAP330 GPS unit via the Belkin USB/Serial adapter I have. I have tried several setting including changing the baud rates to changing the assigned comm ports without any success. I tried using Oziexplorer and EasyGPS to talk to it but it just will not recognise it.

I tried the exact same setup ie. Belkin USB/Serial adapter and the GPS on my HP Laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) and it works perfectly.

Is there something in the Windows starter system that prevents me from being able to run it?

[supernova1965]

I am not sure what it is that is the problem but win7 starter is a very cut down version of the OS and I am willing to bet that it being starter is the problem. If I were you I would install win7 home premium or XP. I run home premium on my aspire one net book with no problems if you do goto home premium you will have better driver support with the 32 bit version.

[Jackson42South]

Take a look at this, it may help?
http://www.expertgps.com/usb-to-serial-adapter.asp

[Astroman]

I saw that Paul and it's not the problem (I don't think) as the USB/Serial adapter works fine on another laptop running win7 64bit . If it was the adapter driver etc.. then I would be inclined to think that the 64bit version of windows would have the problem not the 32bit version.

I might go try it on another computer running 32bit win7 Home premium.

[Astroman]

Thanks Warren, is there a free upgrade available for this?

[supernova1965]

Not free I am afraid amazon have this deal I am not sure if it is available for us in OZ

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Anytime-Upgrade-Starter/dp/B002K7C1HG

[gary]

Hi Andrew,

Have you checked what COM port number that Windows assigned the USB Serial
Adapter?

On the Desktop, right click on Computer and select Properties.
A dialog will pop up. In the left hand column, select Device Manager.
The Device Manager dialog will pop up.
Where it says Ports (COM & LPT), expand it by clicking on the arrow.
You can then determine which COM port number if any was assigned to the
device.

My guess is that the problem is unlikely to be due to some limitation of your OS.
Generally, more users have difficulties with 64 bit installs than 32 bit installs of
drivers of this type simply because not all vendors supply 64 bit drivers.

Finally, not all USB Serial Adapters are born equal. With our own customers, we
know some that will have luck with the Belkin and some who will not. For our
own customers, we recommend the Keyspan USA-19HS USB Serial Adapter.
Time and time again we have seen the Keyspan work on every known variant
of Windows as well as Mac OS X and Linux.

But check the COM port assignment first as it may save you buying another
adapter.

Best regards

Gary Kopff
Mt Kuring-Gai

[Barrykgerdes]

I have GT-3321 GPS unit (make?)
I remember I had trouble originally connecting it to my laptops but I read the manual and found I wasn't doing it the way they expected.

I can't check it at the moment because the GPS is not here.

Barry

[Astroman]

Hi Gary,

Yes I have checked all the assignments and have them setup on the same comm port etc... Same Baud rates everything is the same, the only thing different is the OS Win7 version.

Hi Barry,

I have never had this sort of trouble connecting this GPS to a computer before, I just tried it on a Win7 32bit home premium machine and it works also, so now all I can think is wrong it it IS the OS.. I also tried a different USB/Serial adapter but that did not work either.

So now I am thinking that it is the OS, now to see if I can do a work around, if possible.

[2stroke]

open device manager and see if its there to start with, if it has a little yellow mark beside it, right click in device manager, update driver and choose the path on your cd.

[Astroman]

no yellow mark, got me stumped why it looks to be working, but doesn't

[Exfso]

Andrew, if you are willing to try Flea Bay, this guy looks like a reputable seller. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Microsoft-Windows-7-Anytime-Upgrade-From-Starter-to-Home-Premium-/150955796492?pt=US_Operating_System s_Software&hash=item2325aaa80c

Much cheaper than Aust prices.

[Astroman]

Got some more head scratching to do now, I just had my LX modified Philips 900NC working with Sharpcap in long Exposure mode on the serial cable and it worked fine, not a problem at all... This was using the same USB/Serial adapter. So now I am not sure whats going on....

[2stroke]

Sounds like something to do with your gps device not putting through nema commands if the serial is working, maybe try a low board rate 9600 ect, also read the doc's that came with your gps for required com settings ect. I ended up going a bluetooth unit which works great with a mirco usb Bluetooth doggle, it was just 100% more reliable and hassle free.

[mithrandir]

What's the COM port number? Some devices will not work with COMx for x>9 but will with x<=9, and some only work for x between 1 and 4. Either badly written drivers or programs.

Methods of getting rid of unused COMx have been discussed several times here.

[Barrykgerdes]

Andrew has a good point there that causes lots of bother at times. The USB adaptors allocate the first available COMx and if you change the USB port a new number will be allocated each time reserving the previous one. Thus COM port numbers can easily be allocated beyond the range of the connected equipment.

As I use a lot of utilities that are compiled Basic. I can only use COM1 or COM2. This means that I always need to check the allocated COM port. If the is no physical COM port on the computer COM port COM1 will still be reserved and not used for the USB adaptor. However this port can still be used as COM1 for the USB adaptor by editing the com port allocations.

Barry

[Astroman]

The GPS has been allocated to Com2 for most of the tests, other times it was on Com7 both had the same result.

Jay, NEMA commands are working on my other laptop fine, the GPS works perfectly on there. It is the only device that doesn't work on the Netbook, my other devices that use the same serial adapter work fine, ie Webcam, Orion Teletrack mount.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Andrew

I have an acer netbook with XP and a GT3321 GPS so that is not much help but I have found my original notes on the installation and I did have some troubles. The GPS has an inbuilt USB/COM port but it does use the pl2303 protocol.

I will attach some notes I made during installation they may give you some ideas

[Astroman]

Hello all,

Firstly I really would like to thank all of you for your input, it has helped me try and find the correction to the problem. I was about to give up but thought I would give it one more shot. Well as a stroke of luck I had removed my wireless mouse so I could try the USB port in. So I installed the USB adapter and the lights started flashing, well this looked promising, so I loaded up Oziexplorer and connected to the GPS and it is now working. I can download/upload waypoints and also have a moving map so looks like there may have been some sort of conflict between the wireless mouse and the GPS. I have heard of conflicts in the past, but thought this was only on the wired mice. So now I am going to find out a way to use both the mouse and GPS together....

Thanks again.

[naskies]

Could it be a power issue? I had similar weird problems on my imaging laptop, but once I moved all the USB devices to an external hub with an external regulated power supply, all my USB problems disappeared...