Windows Serial Port Compatibility With eMonitor Software
Adding Serial Ports To Your Computer
Windows serial ports are numbered upwards starting from one, such as COM1,
COM2, etc. Many of today's modern computers have only one RS232 serial port,
or even none. If you do not have a serial port available, you must use a USB->Serial
converter. These USB devices plug into an available USB port on your computer
and provide one or more RS-232 serial ports for older devices.
An alternative to the USB->Serial converters are expansion cards, such as
PCI cards, which must be installed on the logic board of your computer. These
usually provide four serial ports, or may be combined with a parallel port.
Since they must be installed on the logic board, your computer case must be
opened up and the installation may be beyond the capability of the user. USB->Serial
converters are much more user friendly. In most cases, procedures in this document
describing USB->Serial converters will also apply to expansion cards.
USB->Serial converters may require driver software
to be installed. Check for an installation CD packaged along with your USB->Serial
converter. Follow the instructions which came with your particular USB->Serial
converter for installation of the driver software.
Using USB->Serial Converters with eMonitor
The eMonitor software for Windows operating systems requres that the serial
port used be between COM1 and COM16. However, when using USB->Serial converters,
Windows may map your serial port to a port number greater than 16, such as
COM17 or COM29, depending on which USB port you plug your converter into, whether
or not a USB hub is used, etc. If you plug in your converter and eMonitor displays
a port number above COM16, you will need to follow one of the two steps outlined
below to rectify the problem so that the eMonitor software will be able to
communicate with your monitoring device. Which ever method you use, you should
only need to perform the procedure once.
Method 1 - Trying a different USB port
Using this method, you will unplug the USB end of your USB->Serial converter
from your computer and plug it into a different USB port on your computer.
Then you will reload the web page you use for
accessing the eMonitor to check to see if the new port number assigned to the
added serial port is within the range of COM1 to COM16. If not, try a new USB
port.
- Unplug the USB end of your USB->Serial converter from your computer (or
USB hub)
- Plug the USB Converter into a different USB port on your computer. Plugging
into a USB hub tends to increase the port numbers, so plugging directly into
the computer most often provides the best results.
- In your web browser, reload the web page that you use for posting your
daily measurement for the device you are using (scale, blood pressure, glucose,
etc.). You may do this by either quitting your browser and relaunching, or
if the page is already loaded, just select Refresh from the menu.
- Click on the Serial Port menu to see if the port added by the USB->Serial
converter is between COM1 and COM16. If it is NOT, return to step one and
select a different USB port. If it is, select the port in the serial port
menu and you are all done.
Method 2 - Remapping a Serial Port
A serial port may be remapped to a different number, such as changing a serial
port from COM19 to COM5. This may need to be done if method 1 above does not
result in a serial port between COM1 and COM16, or if you prefer to use a USB
hub or a specific USB port on your computer. The following instructions are
for Windows XP, but other Windows versions should be similar.
- Open the System Properties window by right-clicking
on
"My Computer" or simultaneously press the Windows
and
pause keys.
- Select the Hardware tab and click the
Device Manager button to open the Device Manager.
- Click on the box with the plus next to Ports (COM & LPT) to disclose the
installed ports.
- Select the port which is provided by the USB->Serial converter. The name
will vary according to the make and model of the converter, as well as the
software driver, but will be along the lines of "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm
Port (COM25).
- Right-click on the port you selected in step four above and select Properties
from the contextual menu to display the properties for that port.
- Click on the Port Settings tab of the properties window.
- Click on the Advanced button to show the advanced property settings for
the port.
- Select a COM Port Number in the range of 1 through 16. If possible, select
a port which is NOT marked as "in use" in the COM Port Number menu. If all
of the ports are marked as being in use, select port number 16 unless you
know for sure that something is actually using COM16. You will get an alert
when you close the window telling you that the COM port number may be in
use by another device and asking if you want to continue.Click "Yes" to continue.
- Close all windows that you have opened up to this point.
- In your web browser, reload the web page that you use for posting your
daily measurement for the device you are using (scale, blood pressure, glucose,
etc.). You may do this by either quitting your browser and relaunching, or
if the page is already loaded, just select Refresh from the menu. In the
Serial Port menu of the eMonitor software, select the COM port which you
just setup.