Wildfire563

:? Ok Now I'm totally confused. I have been testing this for 2 months, and it wouldn't work for me, using exactly the same procedures I've described. Then, after I added the \\.\; COM19 worked. I was happy. I figured perhaps I hadn't tried any com ports below 9 (I thought I had, but it was a possibillity). So then I tried COM9 (no \\.\). It worked. Cool, still sort of following the rules of the game. So then I went back and tried COM19 (no \\.\). It worked. Eh? Perhaps there was some memory?? So then I tried a port I haven't used before, COM18 (no \\.\). It worked. ??? I tried turning the computer off and back on and it still worked on COM18. The only thing I can think of is now some corrected default com port settings are being saved and used for all ports. I suppose this still supports your argument above that the \\.\ is needed for the settings, too. So now I'm going to try it on a couple of other computers and I'll get back to you. Cross my heart and hope to die this wasn't working before. Oh well. Thanks!

But the user needs the \\.\ in front of wcesusbsh001. Is this a similar case, then?

Hi Pete, You hit the nail on the head! According to Johan, if you are using CreateFile() to open the port, all ports above COM9 require a \\.\ prefix. So I entered Port=\\.\COM19 in the [GPSOUT] section of the FSUIPC4.ini file and it worked! Thanks!

I'll ask the author to go into more detail. Thanks for listening!

Some more information from the same thread. The problem, of course is you have to go through a bunch of steps to get it to work. It would be more convenient if GPSOut recognized the ports directly. It's not a huge deal, there are workarounds. But I believe that you'll find GPSGate used more often, and it would be nice if you could support the case. Thanks!

If I look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\DeviceMap\SerialComm I see: Name Data Default (Value not set) \Device\bizVSerial19 COM19 \Device\bizVSerial6 COM6 \Device\Serial0 COM1 \Device\Serial4 COM4 \Device\Serial5 COM5 \Winachsf0 COM3 I'm using MixW to connect ports 4 and 5, and Com6 is another virtual serial port from GPSGate that is set as an output.

Yes, as noted above, I have tried that. For instance, I would create a virtual serial port in GPSGate like COM19 as the input, and then set Port=COM19 in FSUIPC4.ini. So far, GPSGate has not received a signal when I've tried that. I know it works though, because if I use XConn, I'll get a connection in GPSGate. I'll keep working on it and let you know what I find.

Hi Pete, Any chance you could take a look at the following issue? I've been using http://www.franson.com GPSGate to supply multiple devices with the GPS stream from GPSOut for both FS9 and FSX. It also works great with WM5 as it will send a signal using Activesync if you have GPSGate installed on both the PC and PPC. I currently have to use MixW or http://www.eltima.com VSPD to create a pair of linked com ports to get GPSOut to communicate with GPSGate. GPSGate has the ability to use "virtual serial ports" for input, which would obviate the need for MixW/Eltima VSPD. IOW, In GPSGate, you create a virtual serial port for its input, and then you can call out that serial port from GPSOut, and GPSGate should be able to read the input directly because you can attach multiple "devices" to a virtual serial port. Unfortunately, in my experience GPSOut doesn't seem to recognize the virtual serial ports created by GPSGate. Another GPSOut-like utility called XConn (http://www.pocketfms.com/2-downutility.asp#Ubi) does, but it only works with FSX. I do not see the virtual serial port listed under available ports to use in the FSX GPSOut interface, and if I enter the port in FSUIPC.ini (FSX) or GPSOut.ini (FS9) it still doesn't work. I imagine the issue may be you only recognize serial ports listed in the Device Manager? The developer of GPSGate offers the following advice from this thread - http://franson.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5198 Thanks!

Part of your solution for running multiple GPS reading devices from a single device is Franson GPSGate - http://www.franson.com They also supply libraries for virtual serial port and bluetooth driver creation.

Hi, I'm wondering if anybody has any suggestions for me. My computer does not have any dedicated com ports on the motherboard. I'd prefer not to have to use my last PCI slot to add one. I have a Garmin 396. It uses a USB connection. My computer has lots of USB connectors. Is there a program which routes data from a serial port to a usb port virtually? I have seen a couple of people saying you are connecting your Garmin 396 to GPSOut. How are you doing it? A com port (on computer) to USB (on 396) converter? Any thoughts for how to get the data out through a USB port? I have MapSource and nRoute. Thanks,

Hi, Has anyone gotten FS9 to connect to PocketFMS through GPSOut on an HP Rx5915 Travel Companion with the built in GPS receiver? I've got the setup working fine with my HP Hx4700, but I can't get any "signal" into the 5915. My settings are: [GPSout] Sentences=RMC,PGRMZ,GGA,GSV,GSA,GLL Interval=1000 Port=\\.\WCEUSBSH001 ; the dot is very important Speed=19200 connected using the following procedure: A. Shut off USB access to ActiveSync. You may want to unconnect the cable and do a soft reset of your iPAQ after doing this. 1. Make sure the USB cable is unconnected 2. Start PocketFMS on the PPC 3. connect the USB cable 4. Enable the GPS in PFMS on the PPC 5. Move to the map page 6. Start MSFS 7. Make sure to check back that the GPS is still enabled, enable it again if it is not. 8. That should be it. I definately suggest reading the other thread on http://www.pocketFMS.com on this subject. I've made sure ActiveSync is killed on both the PC and the iPAQ. I've tested it with the Hx4700 and it works fine; so I know there is something I am missing about getting it to work with the 5915 with WM5. I've tried various com ports and no go. I set the internal GPS to connect through the program port (None). The screen says there is no explicit way to turn off the GPS, and that it apparently tries to turn on when something tries to connect to its com port, but, since I've set it to "None", I'm hoping that's not interfering. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi Pete, Being a noob, I didn't understand your instructions. I linked using the MixW drivers with using Wideclient, when no such link existed. I get it now. I never did get the MixW drivers working with Goops. It's possible the problem had to do with it appears to me the MixW drivers fix the speed of the port to 1200, and the minimum speed Goops supports is 2400. David Hite of Goops said he would add a 1200 speed, too. On the other hand, some documentation I read said the speed of the port is immaterial. Not understanding these things, I don't know what the real problem is. I ended up purchasing a serial port bridge driver from Eltima to get the job done and it works great. I have an email in to the MixW folks, but have not heard back from them (as far as I know, anyway, this spam stuff sucks). Thanks!

Well, I've gotten a little further. When using portmon, make sure to start it before you start FS, then you can see the output of gpsout. I downloaded a couple of commercial virtual serial port bridge/null modem programs, and they work fine with goops. For some reason goops can't speak to a port opened by MixW CommEmul. Perhaps it's because MixW fixes the baud rate at 1200 and the minimum baud rate goops can read is 2400??? I don't know. But I was unable to control the port with MixW, and the commercial vendors allowed you to change the port using mode. Any help would be appreciated. I still don't understand why Google Earth was able to see the data output by gpsout, even though it wasn't being reported on the virtual com port.

Hi, I'm sorry I'm so stupid. I'm trying to connect FS9 through GPSout.dll through Goops to Google Earth. I set up gpsout.ini to port=com5. I set up MixW to link ports 5 and 6. I originally was able to use Microsoft's portmon to look at com6 and it showed my gps output coming in to com6. I was able to turn on Google Earth's GPS reader, and it is able to see the data and position the icon in the right place. But Goops 1.91 would not read com6 no matter what I did. Then I did something (killed the gpsbabel process after turning off Goops and GoogleEarth is the only thing I can think of) at which point, portmon was only reporting what was going out on com5. So I rebooted the computer, now portmon doesn't see anything when FS is running. Google Earth is able to read the gpsout data as it sees something, but I can't figure out where it is getting its data from???? Portmon reports nothing on com6. And of course Goops is not working. Is there any way to log the output of GPSout? Is there any way to tell where the data is going? Google Earth can see it. I'm very frustrated here as I know practically nothing about com ports. The first thing I want to know is exactly what GPSout is writing. Then I want to know where it is writing it to and where Google Earth is able to find the data. Why can't portmon see it? Is there a command that I can write on the command line to redirect the data from a com port to a file? I'm so upset, I had everything working the way I expected except that Goops wasn't working right, and now I don't know what is going on or what I did to change it. Everything seems to be functioning, except I can't figure out where the gpsout data is and how to see it and figure out what is going on.

Ahh, maybe that's the trick! Pete's directions keep talking about MixW in the context of setting port=WideFS, but perhaps they are different concepts, use Port=WideFS when running WideClient on a different computer, and use MixW when using GPSout on the same computer. That's Brilliant! (to steal a phrase from a commercial) Sometimes I'm kinda thick. Thank you