Bought today the PCGU1000 and tried to get it work - without succes.
After installing the software and both drivers the red lamp stays darkand I always get the following error message after starting the software:
“No Function Generator response.
Please make sure that the USB cable is connected. If connected: disconnect and reconnect the USB-cable”
This happend on an ACER Travelmate 803LCi Laptop with 4x USB 2.0, Windows XP prof. SP3 and all MS Security Updates.
The funny thing is I checked it on my office PC Fujitsu Siemens, also Windows XP prof. SP3 and all MS Security Updates and it works.
I’ve tried to find relevant messages in the forum without luck and I can’t install a LED lamp…
As I can’t use the PCGU1000 at the office I need to have it run on my laptop.
Any help available?
Many thanks,
Postman[/quote]
[color=#0040FF]Take a look at this thread[/color], many netbook and notebook computers cut corners to keep the price low–and one of those corners is proper voltage regulation. The fix outlined in the linked thread modifies the PCGU1000 to more tolerant of those computers with poorly regulated +5V USB supplies…
Are you using the latest PCLab2000SE v4.00 and the driver 5.4.0.0 ?
If you are using the older version of the software then the COM port number for the PCGU1000 must be COM1 to COM9.
Here is a link to download the latest software and driver: velleman.eu/distributor/supp … e=PCGU1000
The hardware modification described in the other post do not help.
It may help only if the error message is:
[color=#BF0000]“No Function Generator response.
Check the power adapter connection.
Disconnect and reconnect the power adapter and restart PcLab2000SE.”[/color]
This error message may indicate the voltage problem causing the communication problem between the IC1 and other hardware via the optocoupler IC2.
Now the error is on “upper level”, and the message is:
[color=#BF0000]“No Function Generator response.
Please make sure that the USB cable is connected.
If connected: Disconnect and reconnect the USB cable.
Program will be closed.”[/color]
This indicates that the virtual COM port can’t be opened.
This indicates driver problem.
If you have a 64-bit operating system Vista or Windows 7, you’ll get this error too.
In the latest software ZIP package there is included description how to get the PCGU1000 driver installed on a 64-bit operating system.
See the Release Notes:
1.3 Workaround to use the PCGU1000 on 64-bit Vista or Windows 7
OK.
It seems there is no need to do any hardware modifications.
It seems also that the new software and the new driver solved the problem.
Maybe the COM port number was not in the range COM1 to COM9 and this caused the problem with the old software version.
VEL255:
I just checked the Hardware Manager:
now it only shows COM port 19 (as it did with the older software version), but it doesn’t show anything at USB-Controller anymore.
With the older version there was the PCGU1000 mentioned as well
[quote]now it only shows COM port 19 (as it did with the older software version) [/quote]Indeed, this was the cause to the problem.
[quote]but it doesn’t show anything at USB-Controller anymore.
With the older version there was the PCGU1000 mentioned as well[/quote]This is OK. The new driver is only seen under the Ports (COM & LPT) heading in the Device Manager.
As a side note to this thread, if you have installed and uninstalled a great number of virtual COM devices you may see some silly assignments like COM43 or even higher.
Thanks Cliff for this hint!
I have been wondering for a long time the big number of occupied COM ports in my laptop…
Following the instructions provided in the link, I have now cleaned the ports list.
There was no need to reboot the PC to get the list cleaned – I just entered to the registry 00 00 00 etc.
Originally there were something like FE FE 1F 00 00 etc.
Also I noted it is important to follow the instructions exactly.
First time I didn’t do this and encountered some driver installation problems:
[quote]You may also want to clean any non-standard or unwanted virtual serial ports from these
registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE/DEVICEMAP/SERIALCOMM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Ports [/quote]
[quote=“VEL255”]Indeed it is good practice to reboot…
Also I noted it is important to follow the instructions exactly.
First time I didn’t do this and encountered some driver installation problems:
[quote]You may also want to clean any non-standard or unwanted virtual serial ports from these
registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE/DEVICEMAP/SERIALCOMM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Ports [/quote][/quote]
Yes, clearing out those entries will erase Window’s memory of the devices, and they will appear as
“new” devices next time they are connected. There are also a few other places in the registry that USB and Bluetooth devices can hide, I’ll try to get time to update the document…
Message #1:
“[b][color=#000080]No Function Generator response.
Check the power adapter connection.
Disconnect and reconnect the power adapter and restart PcLab2000SE.”
If the User Account Control (UAC) is on, then PcLab2000SE has to be run under administrator account.
Right-click on the PcLab2000SE icon on the desktop or in the programs list,
choose Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab,
select “Run this program as an administrator[/color][/b]”
Message #2:
“[color=#000080]No Function Generator response.
Please make sure that the USB cable is connected.
If connected: Disconnect and reconnect the USB cable.
Program will be closed.[/color]”
If you get the message #1 then the solution is to run the program “as administrator”.
It seems that the new software and new drivers to solve the problem. COM port number may not in the range COM1 to COM9, which caused problems with the old software version…
