My laptop RS232 port not working

[Shirish]

I am having a HP make laptop. I usually use this laptop to communicate with a Delta Tau (USA) make motion controller for our industrial automation projects. But recently while working all of a sudden my laptop RS232 communication problem stopped working. Now it is not at all communicating. However the controller is OK. What must be the problem & how to repair my laptop port.

[Jayanth]

Hello Shirish,

When was the last time you tried using the RS 232 port? And for what application?

Cheers,

Jayanth

[Shirish]

Hello Jayanth,

Thanks for reply, I am checking every day. I am using this for our motion controller application. We connect PC to a Motion controller (Delta Tau make) using RS232. It was working very well earlier, but all of a sudden it stopped one day. However the controller is still working OK with other laptop.

[Jayanth]

Hello Shirish,

The port may not respond if there is an activity which is continuously  consuming the resource.The resource in this case being your serial port. So first of all, try to see what tasks (that utilise the serial port) are active in your computer. Shutdown any unnecessary task and then try again. Your port should start responding. 

If the port still does not respond, check the driver files for the serial port.  If everything seems fine, I believe it is a hardware issue with your laptop and HP support team should be able to help you in this regard.

Cheers,

Jayanth

[Brian_Beal]

Are you using PEWIN32PRO2 to talk to the Delta Tau or some other program?  Are you using ASCII commands or PCOMM server?

[Shirish]

Yes I am using Pewin32pro2 with PCOMM server.

[Brian_Beal]

Either another program has control of your serial port, or there is a hardware problem.  Which PMAC are you using?  Can you use Ethernet or USB instead?  Do you have a USB to serial converter?

[Shirish]

I think the problem is with laptop hardware. We are using PMAC 1 (which is not having USB / Ethernet). At present I don't have USB to serial converter. I wanted to know whether USB to Serial converter works well with PMAC?

[Brian_Beal]

Most of those converters are hit or miss.  Some of them work on some devices, but not others.  I have had very good luck with one from Radio Shack.  The Edgeport products are also very good.  There is nothing special about the PMAC serial interface.  Are you using a PMAC PCI or ISA card outside of the computer?

[Shirish]

I am using PMAC PCI situated outside in a seperate box. Actually I had already tried on USB to Serial converter. It is not worked with my laptop for PMAC, however it works well with an Industrial PC with PMAC, however both working on same operating system i.e. Windows XP.

my email ID is kmshirish@gmail.com. Presently I am online for next 30min. If you feel free then we can have some chat regarding this topic.

Message Edited by Shirish on 03-14-2009 07:36 AM