UPS + com1 port connection problem

[Contact]

Hello,

I decided to give a try and install software for my UPS device today. But faced device detection problem on Win Xp. After I installed the software (Power X1 v.4.2) for Lestar UPS I have problems with software detecting UPS via com1 port. This com1 port cable was included into the original package of UPS device. But I think that connecting via usb would solve this problem. However I don't have usb cable yet. Any thoughts how to make it work on com1 ?

[Kaleun]

Punting a guess off the top of my head - the default setting for UPS service is WinXP is set to "manual" and therefore stopped by default. (sorry - i don't know your tech level ,so i'll go thru step by step)

Try start > run and type services.msc then scroll down to the service "Uninterruptible Power Supply" and set the Startup up type to "automatic" and then start the service via the Start button.

I hope this fixes your problem

Kaleun

[CaptainHaplo]

Couple of possibilities. Kaleun gave you a good one. Another is remember that Com 1 is often assigned by the Bios as the serial port on the MB. Most current MB's dont have a serial connection built on anymore, but the bios still has the settings so it assignes the resources even if the device isn't present.

Often people try to get around this issue if they need a com port by using a usb to serial adapter - but when you do - they usually default install to com 5 or above. If your using one of these, make sure you disable the com1 assign in Bios, then set the adapter to be com1.

The next thing - Microsoft in their wisdom decided that if you set your system to go into standby or hibernate - when it wakes back up - it does NOT wake the serial port. Make sure you reboot your PC before attempting to use com1 - as it might simply still be "asleep". This can and oftend does cause anything using com 1 - to fail. Sometimes an app calling com1 will wake the port back up - but that is kind of a random it may or may not thing.

[Contact]

Punting a guess off the top of my head - the default setting for UPS service is WinXP is set to "manual" and therefore stopped by default. (sorry - i don't know your tech level ,so i'll go thru step by step)

Try start > run and type services.msc then scroll down to the service "Uninterruptible Power Supply" and set the Startup up type to "automatic" and then start the service via the Start button.


I hope this fixes your problem

Kaleun

Thanks guys for the support.

I did changed "Uninterruptible Power Supply" to automatic. But not sure what you ment by "and then start the service via the Start button" ?
I've restarted my pc and checked if software detects UPS now, but no joy still message "UPS Disconnected"

Edited.

Ok I spoted now what you ment :) The service are now started but I had to configure UPS settings and enable com1 port there in winxp before I was allowed to start the service. After that I have shuted down my pc and turned off UPS for 10 sec. After I switched everything back software still don;t show any sighns of life. I'm totaly confused :(

[CaptainHaplo]

ok - lets start from the beginning.

The cable - being new and provided - we can rule out being an issue. They wouldn't provide a crossover by mistake either - so lets figure the issue is elsewhere.

Couple of things that can make the com port not function as intended. Check the documentation and see what baud rate the com port needs to be at. Often, this can be changed in your monitoring software. Find out what the default for the device/software is. Then go into device manager and make sure that the properties for the com port match. If the software is running at 9600, and the port is set to 2400 for example - your going to have issues.

Also double check the flow control for the port. If its set to hardware or Xon/Xoff, set it to none and reboot.

Also - provide model and data on the UPS - we may be able to research a bit more with that info if you need further help.

[Contact]

ok - lets start from the beginning.

The cable - being new and provided - we can rule out being an issue. They wouldn't provide a crossover by mistake either - so lets figure the issue is elsewhere.

Couple of things that can make the com port not function as intended. Check the documentation and see what baud rate the com port needs to be at. Often, this can be changed in your monitoring software. Find out what the default for the device/software is. Then go into device manager and make sure that the properties for the com port match. If the software is running at 9600, and the port is set to 2400 for example - your going to have issues.

Also double check the flow control for the port. If its set to hardware or Xon/Xoff, set it to none and reboot.

Also - provide model and data on the UPS - we may be able to research a bit more with that info if you need further help.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2323/clipboardt.th.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboardt.jpg)

I assume if I can see com1 port in device manager it means that it works ok isn't it ?

Default speed of com1 port was already set to 9600 when I opened it, nothing else was changed by me. Picture is at it's original stage. However I was not able to find anything about baud rates in motherboard manual. (My motherboard type is Nvidia Nforce3 250 - 8kda7i10)

My UPS device is: Lestar MD-625 E.

:hmmm:

[CaptainHaplo]

I will do some research on that device.

As for it showing in the device manager - no that doesnt mean its working right - lots of things can go wrong with serial ports - but testing them means you need a good test app (which I can get you should you need it) and the ability to short pins on the port or on the cable.

I am tweaking this box with win7 at the moment - so give me a bit to research and let me see what I can find.

[Reece]

I have a UPS, a few years old now but still works well & have just replaced the batteries, however I never used the DB9 connector before, I assume it must be to a com port, but what does it do?:hmmm:
Thanks.

[Contact]

I have a UPS, a few years old now but still works well & have just replaced the batteries, however I never used the DB9 connector before, I assume it must be to a com port, but what does it do?:hmmm:
Thanks.

With certain software it allows you to monitor your UPS status and lets to set some settings manually as well.

[Contact]

I will do some research on that device.

As for it showing in the device manager - no that doesnt mean its working right - lots of things can go wrong with serial ports - but testing them means you need a good test app (which I can get you should you need it) and the ability to short pins on the port or on the cable.

I am tweaking this box with win7 at the moment - so give me a bit to research and let me see what I can find.

Yes I was thinking about testing this port somehow too. Should I google for test app ? Since I don't have anything elso to connect to com1 port to see does it work at all.

[CaptainHaplo]

I can get you one - shoot me a pm with your email address and I will send it this eve, as well as some directions on how to test.

[Contact]

Ok you have a pm.

[Contact]

I can get you one - shoot me a pm with your email address and I will send it this eve, as well as some directions on how to test.

Still waiting for it :)

[CaptainHaplo]

Hmm - sent it yesterday morning - lemme get back in there and resend.

[CaptainHaplo]

Found the problem - I copied the addy wrong - forgot the # - corrected and resent. Let me know if you need any assistance.

[Contact]

First of all I do experience lots of hungapps (Not responding) status when operating this program.

Usually it crashed on me when hiting serial port button. Then when I finally managed to brake through hungups this is what I saw:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/141/bliat.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bliat.jpg)

It's not like there (Com 1 should read N N N N Y Y on the signals)

and after I put the dot on com1 and hit OK it hungups again :nope:

I did disconnected the UPS end of the cable, completely switched off pc. Turned it on back again. And there were still lots of hungapps. :06:

When I disconnected the RS 232 cable from pc restarted and ran the digicom.exe again signals changed to N N N N Y Y on com1, but hangups still occur

[longam]

Nothing like a challenge, but I would just get a USB cable and hook it up that way.

[Contact]

Nothing like a challenge, but I would just get a USB cable and hook it up that way.

There is no usb connection on my ups. But I'm thinking RS 232 to usb converter cable might work..

[longam]

There is no usb connection on my ups. But I'm thinking RS 232 to usb converter cable might work..

Oh ok, you mentioned getting one in the first post.

Like said before, double check your BIOS to check the comm port settings.

[Contact]

Oh ok, you mentioned getting one in the first post.

Like said before, double check your BIOS to check the comm port settings.


Checked that in first place it's set to: 3F8/IRQ4 (COM1) as it should be..

[Contact]

BTW I'm having different system and boot discs. My system drive is C: but OS boots from drive D:

I would like to move boot files to system drive C: but still not sure how ? :hmmm:

Could this be related somehow to issues with serial port com1 ?

I found some info about it here: http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-5685-moving-boot-sector.html

But I'm still not finding it clear what was ment to do at the second post from the top there..

[Contact]

Ok so I reinstalled OS now the program ain't crashing anymore. But signals on COM1 shows Y N Y Y Y Y with cable pluged in to pc. I suppose cable might be the bad ?

[CaptainHaplo]

Contact - do the wrap test as I suggested in my email - click wrap and short pins 2 and 3 - if it fails the port is bad and you will need to use a usb2serial adapter. If it passes - well - I don't know at that point.

ynyyyy is what I would expect from a working cable plugged into a UPS.

[Contact]

Contact - do the wrap test as I suggested in my email - click wrap and short pins 2 and 3 - if it fails the port is bad and you will need to use a usb2serial adapter. If it passes - well - I don't know at that point.

ynyyyy is what I would expect from a working cable plugged into a UPS.

Shorting of 2 and 3 pins test passed. I can see sent/received when doing so.

But this is the only test I was able to make because signals are: DCD - red; RI - green; DSR - red; CTS - red.

I suppose they should be all green there as you mentioned in that readme you've sent me ?

[CaptainHaplo]

When the cable is plugged up they will be r g r r

When you unplug the cable - they should realtime update to all green

RI - should never go red - it stands for ring indicator and is your pc's way of saying its connected to a ringing telephone.

Getting nnnnyy when the cable is unplugged and ynyyyy when the cable is plugged in - and also passing the wrap test - means the port on the pc is good. I assume you ran the test thru the cable - and if so that means the cable is good to.

That leaves 2 possibilities - a glitch in the software - or a problem with the port on the Ups itself. No way to check the second possibility really unless you have an exact duplicate UPS.

[SUBMAN1]

UPS's can be run either via the com port, or a USB cable. Most APC's have both. When connected via USB, you are not using the COM port. Reconfigure your software to look for a USB device. Windows should have detected it upon plugging it in.

The COM port seems to be already in use on your device manager tab. That means you either need to use a real RS-232 cable (make sure you don't use a null cable - it won't work) on COM 1, or use the supplied USB cable. You will not be able to make the system use COM1 when COM1 exists on your system for a real device/port that exists. You are creating a conflict.

-S

[CaptainHaplo]

Subman - Com 1 in device manager doesnt show anything other than the device is there. It doesn't mean its in use.

[SUBMAN1]

Subman - Com 1 in device manager doesnt show anything other than the device is there. It doesn't mean its in use.

True, but since it shows up, it is 'already' reserved. You guys either need to use another COM port that is not already reserved, or switch to using that physical COM port with an RS-232 cable. If his app is trying to make a USB connection look like COM1, you will fail.

This also may be difficult with all the damn Bluetooth reservations he has to try and use another COM port. Most apps that deal with COM ports will only use 1 through 4.

-S

[CaptainHaplo]

He is trying to use a straight 232 (serial) cable - no usb adapter involved. Regular mb serial port. The app I sent him does nothing more than verify the port doing loopback, cts and dsr tests.

The port is passing (and running the app will also tell us if its in use by another provess) - so its either the port on the ups (which is really doubtful) - or something in the software.

[SUBMAN1]

Thinking.... Making sure it is not a Null modem cable - checked?

App upgrade? Maybe he has a wrong rev for his app?

Let me think if I have any other ideas.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

If this helps:

Normal (both sides - this is what you want):

http://www.lammertbies.nl/picture/db9_pin_name.png

These are what you don't want:

Null:

http://www.lammertbies.nl/picture/db9_null_dumb.png

Null w/ loopback handshaking:
http://www.lammertbies.nl/picture/db9_null_loop.png


Null with partial handshaking:

http://www.lammertbies.nl/picture/db9_null_part.png



Null with full handshaking:

http://www.lammertbies.nl/picture/db9_null_full.png


Full page here:
http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/cable/RS-232.html

[Contact]

Ok guys thanks for your hard efforts in die trying to solve this issue with me. Anyway I decided to upgrade core components of my system next week and there will be no more serial ports with my new mobo. I say toss this thread once and for all :woot: