Pooter to Pooter conversations!

[kath2407]

Have talked to various people about this and can't seem to get anywhere.

New Vyper and Laptop don't seem to want to talk to each other. Laptop only has USB ports. I have bought a USB to serial converter so that I can plug serial pooter cable in.

However, Dive Manager keeps telling me that "the interface was not found on any of the COM ports". I need to try and convince my laptop that its USB socket is now a COM port.

Last push on your brains for the week. I'll print any ideas out adn take them home and have a go tonight.

T minus 1 hour and 13 minutes til I go home! No pressure guys!

K XX

[tom]

You've installed the drivers for the converter?

[Kristen]

I've had the same problem. Try using another serial port. Then press the auto detect or whatever it is in settings and it will search for the right port. Try this with and without the Vyper connected. May need to switch off your firewall ?

[beanie]

what you need to do is find out what com port its on
(my computer - properties - hardware - device manager - ports)
then set dive mangler to the com port of the usb jobby

[aclivity]

I have a similar problem with my (archaic) solution alpha ... well, I think the problem is more to do with the USB to serial adaptor. Every time I use the thing it chooses to be a different serial port (this week, I are being mostly COM9). I have to follow the instructions to 'detect COM port' which involves putting a 50p across 2 of the contacts on the interface box.

Sorry this probably isn't much help but I thought I should let you know that you weren't alone.

Andy

[Rob Evans]

Originally Posted by beanie

what you need to do is find out what com port its on
(my computer - properties - hardware - device manager - ports)
then set dive mangler to the com port of the usb jobby

Double click on whichever port it's on, then if you go to the port settings tab and hit the advanced button, you can assign the converter doohicky to whichever com port you like. It won't necessarily hang onto that setting when you restart the pooter but it seems to work pretty well on mine.

[turbanator]

Originally Posted by aclivity

I have a similar problem with my (archaic) solution alpha ... well, I think the problem is more to do with the USB to serial adaptor. Every time I use the thing it chooses to be a different serial port (this week, I are being mostly COM9). I have to follow the instructions to 'detect COM port' which involves putting a 50p across 2 of the contacts on the interface box.
Andy

I've had the same problem too with one ot the homemade interfaces, it's not the interface because it works on a PC with a serial port, and the PC that only has USB ports will not work with a homemade or genuine Suunto interface using the USB to Serial adapter.

The USB to serial adapter works, because I tried it with a GPS and there were no problems, it just seems the combination.
I also saw the Com ports going up one at a time every time I loaded the drivers, so you are difinatly not alone.

Andy - thanks I'll try your tip - will it work with a 10 shilling note ?

[KimH]

This is part of a response I got from the Suunto helpdesk in response to similar problems I had getting my laptop running XP to recognize my Vytec. I did what they recommended and it worked. I had tried everything apart from number 8 below and that little thing obviously made all the difference. You also need to download the latest driver from their website as the one you get with the computer is often not the most up to date version.

If you have problems getting the connection to work, please check the
following things on your computer.

Since you use a serial to usb adaptor make sure that the adaptor uses
com ports 1-8. There are several kinds of adaptors on the market
including Suunto's own serial to usb adaptor. If you are unsure of the COM
port number, open the Control Panel, Click on System then click on Device
Manager (found under the Hardware tab on WinXP). Right click on the USB
adapter and select Properties. This should tell you the COM port
number. Where the usb and the Suunto unit are connected is important. The
converter must be connected to the PC usb port or a powered downstream
port. In other words if you have a 2-port hub (normally unpowered), the
converter will work, but the Suunto unit won't. If you have a powered
4-port hub (with an DC adaptor), both the converter and the unit should
work. High screen resolution (more than 1024x768) is a problem if you
use the Serial/USB converter. The minimum requirement for display
resolution is 800x600 with 16 bit color depth.

Then check that your port settings are suitable:

-Go to Port settings and make sure that the speed is 9600 and buffers
are
set to low (both receive and transmit).
In order to do this go to:

1. Start
2. Settings
3. Controlpanel
4. System
5. Device Manager
6. Com Port 1 (click)
7. Click Port Settings
7. Click Advanced
8. Scroll Buffers to Low on both the Receive and Transmit Buffer

Please check that no other programs are polling the port you want to
use for the software. This has often turned out to be the case with Palm
or other PDA-devices, which may interfere although they are using other
ports and even when they are not used at the same time as the Suunto
software. Most electronic organizers have synchronization software, such
as HotSync, that prevent SDM from using the COM port. Usually, an icon
for this software is visible in the system tray (lower right hand of
the screen). Right click on the icon and disable the software, then try
downloading the dive computer again.

NOTE TO WIN 2000/XP USERS: It is possible that the HotSync (or similar
program) is running as a service. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and click on
the "Task Manager" button. Click on the "Processes" tab. If you see the
HotSync software, highlight it and click "End Process". When you get the
warning message, click "Yes".

Please go to your Dive Manager and check your transfer settings there.
Go to Transfer / PC-interface setup. Make sure that the Com delay is
set to about 30 sec.

If you get an interrupt warning, you should exit and re-enter the TR-PC
mode before attempting a new transfer. Make sure that you have
remembered
to press "Select" in the TR-PC mode. Once the computer is in the TR-PC
mode, please wait a few seconds before connecting the dive-computer to
the interface. The optimum COM-delay value is 20-30, over that usally
does not work at all. Please also note that the test in Dive Manager
doesn't always work, especially when using a serial to USB adaptor.

HTH

[CotoChris]

Still can not figure why Suunto does not sell the PC connector awith USB as standard. My mind boggles of this.

[KimH]

Originally Posted by Chris Guimaraens

Still can not figure why Suunto does not sell the PC connector awith USB as standard. My mind boggles of this.

They did tell me it was in the pipeline and having looked at their presentation for the new D9 it looks like USB support is included in Dive Manager V2 which they've obviously held back for the new computer. Hopefully it will be available soon.