?The handle (or entry) is invalid'

Iska · Post by **Iska** » October 6th, 2008, 8:45 pm

Hey all,

I'm using the PalmConnect USB->Serial because I don't have a serial/lpt port. It works fine with others devices (like Palm's and PIC programmers) but when I try to use it with LCDSmartie (matrix.dll COM3 (ya, it COM3 for sure

) it got an error: 'Failed to open device: DLL Initialize error: MATRIX.DLL Exception: The handle is invalid (or The input/entry is invalid, it's in Dutch over here

)'! I tried different DLL's, reinstalling my PalmConnect and switching it to another COM-number but without any succes :S

Does anybody know how I can solve this problem?

Thanks in regards,
Iska

Post by **caesar** » October 6th, 2008, 9:50 pm

Can you try this version: http://czi.uni.cc/LCDSmartie/matrix.dll
and see if it works for you?
I think it's the Dutch Windows, the "dot" [.] is used instead of the "comma" [,]

Iska · Post by **Iska** » October 7th, 2008, 2:37 pm

I checked the values with a volt-meter with the GND to the most left pin (seen from the bottom of a female DB-9) and the other to the middle pin (3) and the values shifted from -5B to -10V so I think it's working

Post by **caesar** » October 7th, 2008, 5:33 pm

Sorry, I fail to understand what this has to do with this topic...

Iska · Post by **Iska** » October 7th, 2008, 6:10 pm

That means that LCDSmartie is correctly sending data thru the USB->Serial

Post by **caesar** » October 8th, 2008, 9:30 am

Ah, ok, I understand now.

What startup parameters for matrix.dll do you use?
Should look like: COM3,115200 or COM3,19200 depending of the speed you need for communication.

Iska · Post by **Iska** » October 8th, 2008, 11:30 am

COM3,9600.. I don't know the max baudrate that my converter is able to handle, so I kept it low

Post by **caesar** » October 8th, 2008, 5:26 pm

Do you by any chance have other programs trying to use the same COM port?

Another possibility is that your USB-serial adapter is not providing a real serial port emulation. FTDI especially and some prolific adapters are known to work well.

Iska · Post by **Iska** » October 8th, 2008, 6:12 pm

I'm using my hobby-pc right now, which has a build-in serial-port. It read voltages between 0 and -15V but when I read the voltages from the LCD, I got just 0.0V except for the unused ports :S