PowerTap Pro - Manual (Page 37)

37
TROUBLE SHOOTING
Tips on Serial Ports
The normal serial port connector is a trapezoid shape with rounded corners and has nine pins. It is about 5/8" wide and 3/8" tall. The technical name is a "DB-9 connector".
Serial ports are a very finite resource on the computer. It can have many, but only two can be used at one time. Devices that use serial ports are:
Digital camera
PDA (Personal Digital Assistants like Palm Pilot)
Mouse
Modem
Check the computer BIOS that the serial ports are turned on and in a normal state. The “plug and play” mode should work for most computer setups. Sometimes this does not work and the default
manual settings should be used. The typical default is COM, 3F8, INT4 and COM2, 2F8, INT3. Note that Windows NT will not recognize the “plug and play” settings.
Testing Original Powertap Hardware and Serial Ports with HyperTerminal
· HyperTerminal is a serial port / terminal emulation software that comes with Windows. It will allow you to test the basic communication between your computer and the Powertap link cradle and
Powertap CPU. It is usually found under: start->programs->accessories->communication-> HyperTerminal
· If you can't find it, search on your system (start->find->files or folders) for hyperterm.exe.
· If you still can't find it - it probably was not installed on your system during setup. Go to start-> settings->control panel->add/remove programs. Select the windows setup tab. In Communications,
select HyperTerminal. You will need your Windows installation media. Restart.
1. Start HyperTerminal. When the program starts you will be asked to enter a name. Type in something you will remember like "linktest". Set the "connect using" pull down menu to Direct to COM 1
(or your active COM port) and hit OK. Set the port settings to 9600 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and no flow control. Then select OK. At the bottom of the window it should say connected.
2. With the Powertap link cable connected to the serial port (DB-9 9 pin connector) in the back of your PC and no Powertap computer attached, characters you type on the keyboard should be
echoed back (appear) on the screen. If not, make sure you are using the correct serial / COM port on the PC. Note: You must see the echoed characters appear on the screen. This is a basic test
that the serial connection is actually talking to the Powertap Link cradle.