Serial Port Problem
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Posts: 46,084
I'm having what I hope is a minor problem with my serial port to Board of
Education connection.
I am new to this and successfully made the stamp do several things using my
old 486-66 PC. Not wanting to lug the 486 back and forth between the
basement corner (which has become it's home) and my "experimentation area
(which my wife calls the kitchen table), I bought a laptop.
Now, when I try to send the program, it gets sent successfully, but the only
way I can get the stamp to start doing what I programmed it to do, is to
unplug the serial cable. The stamp then seems to reset, judging by the LEDs
that I have connected, and all is fine.
While the serial cable is connected, even pressing the reset button on the
"BOE" will not help. I have found though that if I enter even one DEBUG line
in the program loop, it will function OK - until I exit the editor at which
time the stamp seems to lock-up until I unplug the serial cable again.
Any ideas ? Would it matter that the laptop is running Windows ME ?
Thanks, John.
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Education connection.
I am new to this and successfully made the stamp do several things using my
old 486-66 PC. Not wanting to lug the 486 back and forth between the
basement corner (which has become it's home) and my "experimentation area
(which my wife calls the kitchen table), I bought a laptop.
Now, when I try to send the program, it gets sent successfully, but the only
way I can get the stamp to start doing what I programmed it to do, is to
unplug the serial cable. The stamp then seems to reset, judging by the LEDs
that I have connected, and all is fine.
While the serial cable is connected, even pressing the reset button on the
"BOE" will not help. I have found though that if I enter even one DEBUG line
in the program loop, it will function OK - until I exit the editor at which
time the stamp seems to lock-up until I unplug the serial cable again.
Any ideas ? Would it matter that the laptop is running Windows ME ?
Thanks, John.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Comments
>
Not sure, but I know that one of my local real estate clients can't
run her serial port devices under ME, she had to revert to Win98 to
get it to work right. It wasn't a stamp, but it was a serial device.
-Chilton
--- In basicstamps@y..., "John Trinca" <john_trinca@h...> wrote:
> I'm having what I hope is a minor problem with my serial port to
Board of
> Education connection.
>
> I am new to this and successfully made the stamp do several things
using my
> old 486-66 PC. Not wanting to lug the 486 back and forth between
the
> basement corner (which has become it's home) and
my "experimentation area
> (which my wife calls the kitchen table), I bought a laptop.
>
> Now, when I try to send the program, it gets sent successfully, but
the only
> way I can get the stamp to start doing what I programmed it to do,
is to
> unplug the serial cable. The stamp then seems to reset, judging by
the LEDs
> that I have connected, and all is fine.
>
> While the serial cable is connected, even pressing the reset button
on the
> "BOE" will not help. I have found though that if I enter even one
DEBUG line
> in the program loop, it will function OK - until I exit the editor
at which
> time the stamp seems to lock-up until I unplug the serial cable
again.
>
> Any ideas ? Would it matter that the laptop is running Windows ME ?
>
> Thanks, John.
>
______________________________________________________________________
___
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com.
installations with no problems.
Mike
At 01:10 AM 3/20/2001 +0000, you wrote:
> > Any ideas ? Would it matter that the laptop is running Windows ME ?
> >
>Not sure, but I know that one of my local real estate clients can't
>run her serial port devices under ME, she had to revert to Win98 to
>get it to work right. It wasn't a stamp, but it was a serial device.
>
>-Chilton
_________________________________
Mike Walsh
walsh@i...
serial port I/O under W98SE. When I went back to W95b the serial I/O worked
OK. I think it is some subtle "bug" involving the BIOS and the operating
system.
Steve
Steve Roberts: sroberts@s...
DOS-based communication software for quite a few years. This is not to say
there are not other work-arounds, but for folks who aren't into serious
Windows stuff, this is the way to get things going.
The port has to exist in DOS and have the correct / matching port number and
address. Plug-n-Pray ports or virtual ports / WinModems are probably not
gonna work right, if at all. You can use DEBUG to figure this out.
If the BIOS lets you configure the port addresses, do so. Don't use AUTO.
Remember, COM1 and COM3 as well as COM2 and COM4 share an IRQ. If you need
three ports, *sometimes* you can assign another IRQ to the third one to
avoid a conflict. The best fix it to stick with two ports max.
If you have to disable a port, do it in Windows first, then turn it off in
the BIOS. Note that I said disable, and not delete. If you delete the port
in Windows, then turn it off in the BIOS, windows will find it again. This
is especially true for laptops, which often have a serial port, IR port
*and* a modem.
Everything up to Windows 98SE should work with no problem, provided the
ports exist in DOS.
If you are running other things that use the serial port, (camera, Pocket
PC, etc...) disable their software.
Original Message
> FWIW I've experienced serial port problems running DOS programs which do
> serial port I/O under W98SE. When I went back to W95b the serial I/O
worked
> OK. I think it is some subtle "bug" involving the BIOS and the operating
> system.