Windows 7 32 bit - Activdriver 5.7 via usb to serial cable

[stevee]

Windows 7 32 bit - Activdriver 5.7 via usb to serial cable

 

Trying the above setup with the latest drivers and software. We're using Keyspan USB to serial adapters as the machines don't have serial ports.

 

Device manager shows the Promethean Serial driver and Serial board, the USB COM port is listed in ActivManager but it will not find/connect to the board itself. I've selected serial support in the activdriver installation.

 

The keyspan adapter is working and shows up fine in device manager. When I get Activmanager to search for the board, the light on the USB2COM goes nuts, so it's "barking up the right tree" so to speak.

 

We have this issue on 40 whiteboards with the same setup!

 

Tried the usual uninstall, reinstall, reimage etc.

 

I'm now short of ideas! Anyone have a fix or a workaround?

[Michael]

If these machines are desktops, I would highly recommend a PCI Serial port instead of using a USB > Serial adapter. This does solve a lot of problems, but I appreciate there is a small cost in doing this.

 

Although the USB > Serial adapter shows up in Device Manager, I would still install the driver that came on the disc or search for a driver online. Microsoft's built in drivers are not always the best

 

I suspect this is what is 'blocking' communication between the computer and whiteboard. Of course the other thing to remember is to switch on power to the whiteboard.

[Sylv3r]

I come across this issue yesterday - thankfully we don't have as many Keyspans as you.

 

For some reason I couldn't get the Belkin ones we had to work (2 of them) but the Keyspans were fine. I seem to remember after picking initially plugging the board in and installing the driver the machine required a restart before it worked - it was using COM4 as well if that helps, but if your doing a Find - it should still pick it up.

 

Good luck.

[TRobinson]

Hi Steve,

 

Most likely cause is that the wrong drivers are installed for the Keyspan adapter, one way to check would be to attach another serial device to see if this works with the keyspan. You need to check that there is a Win 7 driver out there or try the one off the CD.

 

This may sound like a silly question but do you need the kepspan adapters, are your ActivBoards the serial only model (early 1st generation) or are you running long cable runs (if so makes sense why you are) but I tend to find that people started to use these when the boards had previously been attached to serial only PCs and then moved to USB models. If you have our second generation of boards you can leave the serial cable in place to deliver power to the board electronics and then simply attach a 5m USB lead to the USB socket on the board electronics. Let me know your product codes and I can confirm.