Communication Error

[Charger]

Anybody familiar with a communication error in xlights.


When I try to turn on the lights for testing, I get a communication error, stating....

Error occurred while connecting to OpenDMX network on COM3 (available ports: error 2 (can't get serial comm ports from registry))

Things to check:
1. Are all required cables plugged in?
2. Is there another program running that is accessing the port (like the LOR Control Panel)? If, so then you must close the other program and then restart xLights.
3. If this is a USB dongle, are the FTDI Virtual COM Port drivers loaded?

unable to open serial port, error code=-1
Proceed anyway?



It is a USB dongle and the drivers are updated, cables are plugged in and I don't think there is another program running that is accessing the port.


I can get the lights on with the same setup using other programs.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

[JonB256]

If you have had other programs checking and using that COM port, they may not have "released" it when exited.

If you are sure they are not running, shutdown xLights, then unplug the USB, wait a few seconds, then plug it back it. It should now be free for access.

[Charger]

Hi Jon, thanks for the reply.

I tried unplugging then reopening xlights and then also tried restarting the computer and going straight into xlights, but still the same error.

[Gilrock]

Have you checked device manager to see if COM3 is even a valid port and is mapped to that dongle?

[JonB256]

I can get the lights on with the same setup using other programs.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

In Other Programs (could you list them?) how is the USB dongle defined?

and what USB dongle is it?

[Charger]

Hi Gilrock,

Yep, the dongle is linked to com port 3 under device manager.

Jon,

The dongle works in Vixen 2 & 3 as well as Da DMX test program.

Here is the link to the dongle I have - http://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/product/usb-dmx-dongle/

Thanks

[Gilrock]

I've never used anything but E1.31 in xLights so all I can do is browse the code.  It looks like that error is coming from code we have that is trying to find a list of the available serial ports listed in the registry.  Maybe Windows isn't listing them in this location anymore.  I'll admit this code looks really ugly in this function.

If you know how to look in your registry checkout under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to see if there exists a HARDWARE, DEVICEMAP, SERIALCOMM section like the picture I attached.  Screenshot it for me if you can.