GPSout Windows8.1 COM issue

[G Klasson]

have used FSUIPC for several years on WIn 7 and was successful in wirelessly linking to my foreflight on the ipad.

 

I have moved to Win 8.1 and have installed FSUIPC4 and now have an issue in that Win 8.1 has no place where it identifies a serial port by name and as such FSUIPC only has a drop down with 'none' highlighted. 

 

I tried the setting that I had used on my Win 7 laptop which was COM3 and that does not work.  I have tried to put in either COM 1 or 2 and that doesn't work either. 

 

I have spent several hours researching this on this site as well as youtube and the sim community forums too no avail.

 

 

Running Windows 8.1, FSX Steam Edition with FSXFlight... simconnect has been properly activated within FSX SE.  FSX works well... just can not get GPSout to work.

 

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pete Dowson]

I have moved to Win 8.1 and have installed FSUIPC4 and now have an issue in that Win 8.1 has no place where it identifies a serial port by name and as such FSUIPC only has a drop down with 'none' highlighted. 

 

So, does Win8.1 not support serial ports -- COMn etc? Maybe it does but there's no way to ennumerate those from the Registry? Have you tried entering the port explicitly, for instance in the INI file?

 

If your device is a USB type device then maybe you can use the USB type string name for it?

 

FSUIPC only needs to be able to use a device name in its opening call to Windows. All the comms code is standard Windows API. You just need to determine the name of the port you are using.

 

Is there a Device Manager in Win8.1 (usually part of the System Control Panel applet)? I usually work out which COM port something is connected to by watching the list in that whilst connecting/disconnecting the device.

 

Pete

[G Klasson]

Hi Pete

 

thank you for your timely response.

 

Win 8.1 may support serial ports - Com but they have removed any reference in Device Mgr or Computer management.

 

have not entered a port into ini because I cannot find any reference to any specific name.

 

I have tried using Com 1, 2, 3, etc. within the GPSout  but nothing comes back...  The program I am working with is FSXFlight and it works perfectly with my Win 7 box... The GPSout for win 7 shows a Com3 connection.

 

I am also trying to get in touch with the developer of the App ( who has posted to this forum) to see if he might have run into 8.1 issues.   Continue to scour all the likely forums to see if anyone else might have a workaround.

 

thanks again

 

Greg

[Pete Dowson]

I have tried using Com 1, 2, 3, etc. within the GPSout  but nothing comes back...  The program I am working with is FSXFlight and it works perfectly with my Win 7 box... The GPSout for win 7 shows a Com3 connection.

 

Why not use the WidefS option, then?

 

 The program I am working with is FSXFlight and it works perfectly with my Win 7 box... The GPSout for win 7 shows a Com3 connection.

 

I am also trying to get in touch with the developer of the App ( who has posted to this forum) to see if he might have run into 8.1 issues.   Continue to scour all the likely forums to see if anyone else might have a workaround.

 

 

Okay. Hope you find a solution. Unless a port name can be found, there's really no solution. I'm sure serial port support can't have been withdrawn completely in Win8!

 

Pete

[gr8guitar]

This may help. I use a lot of old drivers and Windows 8 & 8.1 want these drivers signed - ugh! Back in the "good ole days," this was not required. For example, I use VSPE's virtual serial port software because it allows one GPS (whether Bluetooth or hard-wired) to service many applications (an option called a Splitter). This is handy for my Electronic Flight Bag. I use Chartflier and AnywhereMap, anyway, I digress. To get VSPE to work with Windows 8 & 8.1, MS does allow unsign drivers to work but it takes a few steps to get there. I found the info. on the Internet but basically, you get the where you can make the selection of "disabling unsigned driver protection."  Anytime one chooses to install an unsigned driver, this is required - which it is recommended to install all unsigned drives you can think of at the same time because the option is not persistent. I digress again, maybe it's just me but it seems Microsoft's security is to prevent the user from their OWN computer. The other step I take is to take complete ownership of the C: drive, its folders, and subfolders. That way, I have complete access to ALL the folders, like ProgramData, AppData, etc. Installations/software seem to work more reliably this way for me...