Win8.1 hardware - port finding
Thread Starter
I have a Samsung i7 laptop PC running Win8.1 and I am trying to get a programme called HDSDR to communicate with a ham radio. The radio signal inputs (actually IF I&Q signals) are fed into the microphone inputs and this bit is working. The other connectivity is a control interface from HDSDR to the radio which allows the radio settings to be controlled by the PC, this is through a bit of software called Omni-rig which runs in the background of HDSDR. This bit isn't working.
I have the USB serial lead for the radio, it was supplied with the radio and has been used to update the radio's own OS when the radio was first built from a kit. It wasn't used with this computer though.
The HDSDR installed and ran in it's default settings. It provides a button for accessing the settings for Omni-rig. These have defeated me so far. The HDSDR programme has a help page for getting Omni-rig working which says to plug in the radio lead and let the driver software install, I did but I don't know if it did. The radio has been set to the suggested serial port settings, baud rate, etc. but I have failed to determine which port is in use. The help says to look into the PC device settings and see "Ports (COM and LPT)" to see which port is the USB. My PC device manager doesn't have list of Ports (COM and LPT) but it does have a number of USB hubs and things listed.
How can I tell if the driver for the new hardware has installed?
How can I identify the port being used by the radio USB lead?
The helpful help page is http://hdsdr.de/Elecraft-KX3_with_HDSDR.pdf
ps, when the radio lead is connected to the USB there is no Safely Remove option in the little icons at the right hand end of the task bar. Does this mean it doesn't think anything is plugged in? Perhaps this only happens with storage devices.
I have the USB serial lead for the radio, it was supplied with the radio and has been used to update the radio's own OS when the radio was first built from a kit. It wasn't used with this computer though.
The HDSDR installed and ran in it's default settings. It provides a button for accessing the settings for Omni-rig. These have defeated me so far. The HDSDR programme has a help page for getting Omni-rig working which says to plug in the radio lead and let the driver software install, I did but I don't know if it did. The radio has been set to the suggested serial port settings, baud rate, etc. but I have failed to determine which port is in use. The help says to look into the PC device settings and see "Ports (COM and LPT)" to see which port is the USB. My PC device manager doesn't have list of Ports (COM and LPT) but it does have a number of USB hubs and things listed.
How can I tell if the driver for the new hardware has installed?
How can I identify the port being used by the radio USB lead?
The helpful help page is http://hdsdr.de/Elecraft-KX3_with_HDSDR.pdf
ps, when the radio lead is connected to the USB there is no Safely Remove option in the little icons at the right hand end of the task bar. Does this mean it doesn't think anything is plugged in? Perhaps this only happens with storage devices.
Thread Starter
I have made some progress. In the swapping of port choice in Omni-rig set up and checking that the radio was set to the same baud rate I had messed up the radio RS232 settings AND the port driver I am using doesn't like the USB3 port the hardware was plugged into. When I moved it to a USB2 port and set the radio to be the same as the Omni-rig settings I found the radio was connecting when Port3 was selected.
Now I just need to tweak something to sort out a noise band which appears in the centre of the display and find out why whole waterfall display seems to be mirror imaged around the centre noise band. I suspect that the sound card in the PC is not keeping the left and right channels fully isolated, ie there is some mixing of the audio channels to help with mono sound tracks. The audio driver user interface doesn't have any options for this, it seems to be pretty dumbed down like much stuff in Win8.1 (like no ports in the device manager listing).
Andrew.
Now I just need to tweak something to sort out a noise band which appears in the centre of the display and find out why whole waterfall display seems to be mirror imaged around the centre noise band. I suspect that the sound card in the PC is not keeping the left and right channels fully isolated, ie there is some mixing of the audio channels to help with mono sound tracks. The audio driver user interface doesn't have any options for this, it seems to be pretty dumbed down like much stuff in Win8.1 (like no ports in the device manager listing).
Andrew.
