Virtual Com Ports - What should I see in Device Manager?

[K3TN]

Getting RRCs going on local LAN, with latest firmware installed. Will be used for a remote Windows XP PC operation of a FT-1000 with N1MM and maybe DXLab Commander at the Control end eventually.

I've gotten the basic functionally working locally - TX/RX audio, PTT, CW keying etc. Now want to get the computer connection running.

When I installed the Microbit Setup Manager and then connected each RRC, a number of virtual com port drivers seemed to be installed with each one, I had to click through Windows warnings of non-compliant drivers, etc). Reading W1UE's thread, I see I should see COM 0-3 in Device Manager but I don't.

I see a COM1, no COM0 and nothing that seems to say RRC or Microbit.

This PC has a MicroHam Microkeyer attached, so has a lot of Eltima virtual ports, mostly higher numbered (above 12) but does show Eltima 2, 3 which might be a conflict? Do I need to not run the Microham Router software to make this work?

What actually should I see in Device Manager if the Microbit virtual ports are installed and operating correctly?

73 John K3TN

[Jan (Microbit)]

Experience tells that many virtual com ports' installation programs installs them in such way that other com ports, like RRC/Webswitch ports, fail when trying to install them. So in your case that could be the cause.

In XP the RRC/WS drivers are not signed as it is done in another way than Vista and newer.

The ports should be called "RRC1258 COM0", "RRC1258 COM1", RRC1258 COM2" and "RRC1258 COMExtra" for the RRC and "Webswitch 1216H Comport" for the Webswitch. Note that the actual Com port numbers will become whatever Windows consider suitable.

We have made a small diagnose/fix program that might help in this case. I have attached it to this post. It's a console program which needs to be "run as administrator". It asks a number of things:

This program needs to be run as Administrator.
Press Y if you are doing that or any other key to exit.

Press Y

Do you want to uninstall all Microbit devices automatically? Press U = YES
Do you want to fix the Com port database? Press F = YES
Do you want to interactively uninstall devices? Press I = YES

Press Enter(=No)

Created/Appended log file XXXX\DeviceInfoLog.txt
Press a key to exit and show the log file in Notepad

After this a text file should be opened which you could email me so that I can have a look at it. (But I will be away from work until next week so might take some time for me to have a look).

[K3TN]

Thanks, Jan - the file is attached.

73 John K3TN

[Jan (Microbit)]

Well, there are a number of problems:

1/
COM3, COM5, COM6 and COM7 are overlapped. That is usually not good.

2/
There is a mismatch between actually installed ports and what Windows has marked as "in use" in its Com port database regarding COM2, COM15 and COM16.

I assume that before you attached for example the RRC which got COM5 an ELTIMA was already using COM5, but without having marked it as "in used" in Windows' Com port database and so the RRC got COM5 too.

You should have all devices unplugged when doing these things:

I think that in order to attempt to reorganize the assigned Com ports and avoid overlapping you should try uninstalling all Microbit devices by answering U to the question "Do you want to uninstall all Microbit devices automatically? Press U = YES".

I also think it would be a good idea to uninstall all other Com ports which are overlapping. That can be done by answering I to the question "Do you want to interactively uninstall devices?" and then pick the right Com ports. This assumes that you have access to the necessary hardware/software used to re-install them.

After running the program doing those things you could run it once more, answering only F to the question "Do you want to fix the Com port database?".

Then you plug in the RRCs/WSs you are going to use and after that re-install the other ports.

Running the program once again should hopefully show no overlapped ports and a matching Com port database vs. actually installed.

[K3TN]

Thanks, Jan - I have remote VNC access to that PC and will try that.

Is it possible for the Microham (Eltima) Virtual Ports and the Microbit virtual ports to co-exist if there is no overlap? If all the Eltima virtual ports were 4 or higher and Microbit using 0-3?

I will run into this same issue eventually on the Control PC, where a Microham MK2R+ is used for home station operating and Remote Rig would be used for controlling the Remote station.

73 John K3TN

[Jan (Microbit)]

In general virtual Com ports should be able to co-exist as long as they do not overlap.