How to identify USB to RS232 dongle

[HakanSe]

Is there a way in Labview to uniquely identify the USB-to-RS232 HW for a COM-port?

The scenario is that we want implement a datacollection system where the user is allowed to freely connect and disconnect USB-to-RS232 dongles.

There will in a lab be a number of RS232 instruments with USB-to-RS232 converters and a number of datacollecting computers which can be mixed in a "random" configuration.

As I see it the only way for the user to configure the system SW is to pair a lable on the dongle with connected equipment.

Since the COM-port number will differ between systems depending on in which order the dongles are connected, can that n.ot be used.

One way would be to get hold of the USB-dongle serial number.

But I have so far not been able to figure out how to do that using Labview. At least not with the dongle I am testing (from MCT).

[Davidek]

Hi HakanSe

I'm not completely sure this is possible. The USB-to-RS232 interfaces I've seen(which sadly does not include a MCT one) are completely transparent, i.e. all you see in your system is a COM-port, not a USB device. If you look in the Device Manager in Windows do you see the MCT dongle in there somewhere? In that case you may be able to read the serial information from the Windows registry (there are VIs for reading Registry keys), but like I said I'm not sure if the information you need is stored in the Registry.

Coudn't hurt to look though. A good place to start could maybe be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB in the registry. Compare the codes under there to the Device Instance ID you can find under the Details tab in the Properties Page for you MCT interface in the Device manager. Check if there is a serialnumber or some other unic entry for that device in the registry that you can read to identify it.

Best Regards

David

NISW