PAC not recognised by USB

Hi, I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with the new version of PICED 3.8.0 not recognising the Pascal Automation Controller when the USB lead is plugged in. I am running Win XP and have tried unisnstalling all of my USB drivers and re-installing them.
Currently PICED 3.8.0 on my PC will recognise some PAC's but not all. I have a second laptop running Win 2000 and with the older version of PICED (3.6.0) which seems to have no problem recognising the PAC.

Is this to do with the new software having issues with the older firmware or something else entirely. This issue also happened on my bosses laptop (running WIN XP) when trying to use PICED 3.8.0 to connect and download the code out of an older C-Bus install. I took my old laptop to site with PICED 3.6.0 installed and had no problem connecting and downlaoding the code from the PAC.

I now take a spare PAC with me to site as it is a lottery ticket as to when my PC will recognise the PAC on the end of the USB or not (comes up with unknown device).

Any insite into this issue would be greatly appreciated. I have tried uninstalling and re-installind PICED, updating the USB driver and removing and re-installing the USB driver manually (USB to Comm Bridge Driver).

 

Some early PAC controllers had a hickup in the USB configuration and need a different driver, maybe this is one of those. See this link for more information.

http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/downloads/software/cp2101

One thing you can check is if the COM port for the PAC is showing up in Windows Device Manager as you plug it in and disappearing when you remove it.

 

If the driver installs correctly it will igonre the serial and assign the com port based on the physical USB port the PAC is connected to. This is to prevent large quantities of com ports being created for an installer who may program many PAC's over time.

 

Thanks for the prompt reply.
I will try the driver and let you know how it goes. This sounds like the problem as apart from the USB port not recognising certain PAC units it was working fine (used for USB to RS232, memory stick and conneting to most PAC units).

Cheers Ian

 

PC still not recognising PAC

Hi,

My PC still won't recognise the PAC unit and will not let me update the driver. The PAC always gets assigned to an unknown device driver.

The USB port appears fine as I use this port with a USB to RS232 convertor for toolkit to connect to PCI's and my pen drive all the time. The USB and PAC unit must be OK as I can connect to the PAC unit using the USB lead via my old laptop (and old PICED software).

It seems to me that it could be a WIN XP SP2 issue. Has anyone else had this problem using WINXP SP2. I do not know much about how USB actually works but I am assuming that the USB device communicates a code to tell the operating system what device has been connected and this is used to associate the device to the correct driver. Where would I go to remove all the driver associations with the PAC unit.

Sorry I am not a computer guru (just know enough to be dangerous) so be gentle

 

goto

C:\CLIPSAL\PICED\USB to Com Bridge Driver

in Windows Explorer and drag and drop the file Pac_Un.u2k on top of the Pac_Un2k.exe application (this causes the driver to be silently uninstalled, you won't see anything happen).

In that same directory run the program PreInstaller.exe, you should get 2 warning messages about unsigned drivers. Ensure you ckick the Install Anyway option.

Now plugin the PAC (or unplug and replug in). You should get the driver wizard.

If not goto the Windows Device Manager and find the PAC Device in the tree (most likely with a warning icon next to it). Select the PAC and choose Action|uninstall from the menus. Now reboot if it says (probably won't but this is windows). Now unplug and replug in the PAC. You should now get the driver wizard.

With the wizard select not to go to windows update (or whatever its called) and then next. Select to automatically install. You will be prompted about unsigned drivers, make sure you let them install.

Hopefully that should work.

 

Hi Richo,

I followed the above instructions and everything went according to plan except that windows would not let me update the driver. The PAC comes up as an unknown device in device manager but does not have a yellow exclamation next to it.

Even if I try to point manually to the .ini file it will not recognise any of them as the correct file and will state that the best driver is already loaded for the device.

 

Hi Ian,

You SHOULD be able to manually force windows to accept any driver you want for a piece of hardware. I will do my best to describe the procedure:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Open "System"
3. Click on the "Hardware" tab, then on the "Device Manager" button
4. Right click on your "Unknown Device", then select "Update Driver"
5. Click on the "No, Not this time" radio button, and then click Next
6. Select the "Install from a list or a specific location (Advanced)" radio button, and then click on Next again
7. Select the "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." radio button, and click on Next again
8. Untick the "Show compatible hardware" checkbox, then click on the "Have Disk" button.
9. Find the driver you want to install for the hardware, (it will be a .inf file) and then hit "Open"
10. This should present you with a description of the hardware the driver was written for, and from here you should be able to tell windows to install it, regardless of it being what Windows thinks is the wrong driver.

Hope this helps
Darpa

 

HI,

Thanks for the input but I've tried this.

I have tried everyway I know how to update the driver, I have even tried to delete all the USB drivers and re-install.

My system just won't let me change the driver. I select the unknown device and try to force it to change drivers but it just won't do it, it just keeps saying that the best driver is already installed.

As I mentioned before it recognises some PAC units but not others and I do not have any other issues with any of the other USB devices I have.

Re-loading Windows is not an option at this time.

Anyway I have a work around, take two laptops one with the old software and one with the new.

By the way my laptop is an IBM Thinkpad R52 if anyone else has the same problem with the same laptop.