USB port not showing in 'My Computer' but fires up

[stoooey2]

Hi
After getting a new PC a few years ago and not having a com port and trying unsuccessfully to connect via USB, I finally bought a 20x4 from Sure Electronics via eBay.

The unit lights up and the display is there to read (a pre-set message from Sure BUT the USB is not connecting in 'My Computer' even though the PC actually confirms connection This is running windows 7 32 bit version I tried on my Lenovo running win 8 64 bit ( I didn't expect it to work) and even my old vista 32 bit with the USB not being found on either system.

The nearest I got was on the vista, where it said it was loading the UART/USB driver but the smartie still does not show as USB connected, even though the PC plays the USB connection noise.

Any help would be great thank you

[hurley]

Did Sure provide a USB driver for the hardware?
They may not have if it just loads as a virtual com port.

Do you get another com port in Device Manager when you plug it in?
Also did Sure provide a Display Plugin for LCD Smartie something like xxxxx.dll?

I used to have a USB screen from LCDModKit which from memory came with two driver files:
LCD2USB.inf the USB driver which just emulated a com port.. I think.
and LCD2USB.dll a Display Plugin to put in Smarties displays folder.

If not check their website for any downloads related to the screen you bought or maybe try it with HD44780.dll and/or all the other Display Plugins listed in Display Settings.

Edit:
Also, if the hardware does show up as a new virtual com port, make sure to set the correct port eg: COM3 in Startup Parameters of Display Settings.
Might help to post a link to the actual item.

[stoooey2]

Hi Many thanks for your reply Hurley

Yes Sure did provide drives and they also sent me a different one to try today but I get the same problem where it does not pick up the USB driver , so does not show in 'My Computer'

the forum would not let me put links in so I have added it to my site for you to check out at ami-diabetic (dot) com/lcdsmartie.htm

When I plug the unit in, in 'Device Manager' I get 'Ports (COM & LTP)' and it shows the driver 'Silicon labsCP210X USB to UART Bridge (COM4) and it also shows that the device is working properly. This is on my vista laptop, which it should work on.

It said to set up on Matrix.dll and set to USB

When I try to open LCD Smartie 5.4, it says " Failed to open device DLL initialize error: MATRIX.DLL exception: can not find USBPort.dll

The LCDSmartie 5.4 works fine on the monitor showing latest news but still no USB connection.

Hope that this helps

Cheers

[hurley]

I don't think USB is the right setting. Your Silicon labsCP210X drivers are a virtual com port which seems to be working fine.
Try COM4,9600 in Startup Parameters and restart LCD Smartie.

Latest drivers for CP210X WinXp-Win8 are here:
http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/page ... ivers.aspx