One of the things that Win 7 does a lot is to rearrange com ports. This may NOT be your trouble, but it certainly happens enough, and is NOT a driver problem, and can still happen and keep you from talking to your K3.
After you plug in the USB cable for the USB/serial, bring up the device manager (type device manager in the start menu search bar and click on it in the list of candidate programs it generates). Click on Ports (COM & LPT). Look for the com port THAT WAS ASSIGNED BY WINDOWS. Start up the K3 utility, click the "Port" tab. Set the COM port to match what you just found in device manager. YOU MAY HAVE TO DO THIS EVERY TIME YOU START WINDOWS, particularly if you have a lot of different USB devices you attach and remove from time to time. This is one of the reasons I bought a PCI-Ex Serial Card. It gets registered at bootup and is always in the list. You can then right click on the device and select properties, click the Port Settings tab, and then assign a low COM port number that it will permanently retain. I use COM1 and COM2, and have simply quit having com port troubles of any kind. The com ports of Microham devices can be made stable, even though it uses USB to get to the box, by simply loading the USB Device router at boot time. So my COM 7 and COM 8 never change, because those numbers have been set in software before any variable plug and play USB stuff is run because of whatever USB stuff you have plugged in today. I don't personally know of a way to fix USB com ports in the registry or some such, without the device actually active. I did go looking for that information. Anyone know how to do that? 73, Guy. On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 6:26 PM, Robert Redmon <k5sm....@gmail.com> wrote: > Dick, > > I tried the driver on the Elecraft download page first. It loaded okay > and windows recognized the adapter when I connected it, but it could not > communicate with the K3 using the K3 Utility (latest release version). I > will download and try v1.30 of the prolific driver when their download > site is up and working properly again....It isn't right now. > > Bob K5SM > > On 12/25/2010 5:06 PM, Dick Dievendorff wrote: >> I think I understand that issue. Sometimes the driver issues a data >> available signal but when you subsequently ask for the data, none is >> there. My view is that this boundary condition could have been >> handled a bit better by the MS VB common communications DLL, but my >> view doesn't help the poor guy using That DLL. >> >> You make a good point, but I'm not sure Prolific is entirely at fault >> here. >> >> Dick, K6KR >> >> On Dec 25, 2010, at 14:15, WILLIS COOKE <wrco...@yahoo.com >> <mailto:wrco...@yahoo.com>> wrote: >> >>> Dick, I had no difficulty with the Elecraft supplied K3 utilities, >>> but could not control the K3 from N1MM and XMLog. These logging >>> programs were complied using Visual Basic and I was told that the >>> Prolific driver and Visual Basic had a register conflict. When I >>> bought the PCIe RS-232 card it cured my problems and I have not >>> worried with it since. I got the latest Prolific drivers from the >>> web site a little over a year ago, but have not updated them since I >>> quit using the Elecraft supplied Prolific converter. >>> Willis 'Cookie' Cooke >>> K5EWJ >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> *From:* Dick Dievendorff <die...@comcast.net <mailto:die...@comcast.net>> >>> *To:* WILLIS COOKE <wrco...@yahoo.com <mailto:wrco...@yahoo.com>> >>> *Cc:* Robert Redmon <k5sm....@gmail.com <mailto:k5sm....@gmail.com>>; >>> "elecraft@mailman.qth.net <mailto:elecraft@mailman.qth.net>" >>> <elecraft@mailman.qth.net <mailto:elecraft@mailman.qth.net>> >>> *Sent:* Sat, December 25, 2010 3:49:16 PM >>> *Subject:* Re: [Elecraft] Windows 7 64bit and USB to RS232 adapter >>> >>> I use an older Prolific based KUSB with my Windows 7 64 bit system >>> that I use to develop and test the various Elecraft Utilities. I got >>> my drivers from the Prolific web site listed in K3 Utility Help, see >>> Troubleshooting USB to serial adapters section. >>> >>> Dick, K6KR >>> >>> On Dec 25, 2010, at 12:57, WILLIS COOKE <wrco...@yahoo.com >>> <mailto:wrco...@yahoo.com>> wrote: >>> >>> > Bob, the Prolific converters do not work well with W7. I have been >>> using W7 >>> > with my K3 for over a year with a PCIe card RS-232 port. It worked >>> the first >>> > time with no problems. Elecraf has quit selling the Prolific >>> converter, but the >>> > one they were selling two years ago was Prolific. I think that >>> some are having >>> > good results from the FTDI chip set converters which Elecraft is >>> shipping now. >>> > You will need the latest drivers which are available from the FTDI >>> web site. >>> > Surely Prolific will eventually get their act together and publish >>> a driver >>> > which will work with W7, maybe they have by now. >>> > Willis 'Cookie' Cooke >>> > K5EWJ >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > ________________________________ >>> > From: Robert Redmon <k5sm....@gmail.com <mailto:k5sm....@gmail.com>> >>> > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net <mailto:elecraft@mailman.qth.net> >>> > Sent: Sat, December 25, 2010 2:26:43 PM >>> > Subject: [Elecraft] Windows 7 64bit and USB to RS232 adapter >>> > >>> > I have a new laptop with W7/64bit and can't get my USB/Serial >>> adapter to >>> > work (with my K3). It all works fine on my XP (32bit) computers. >>> Anyone >>> > who can help? >>> > >>> > 73, Bob K5SM >>> > ______________________________________________________________ >>> > Elecraft mailing list >>> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >>> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >>> > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net <mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> >>> > >>> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >>> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > ______________________________________________________________ >>> > Elecraft mailing list >>> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >>> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >>> > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net <mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> >>> > >>> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >>> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >>> > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
