DB9 to USB 2 adapter/driver

[David M]

I am attempting to connect a GPS to a computer so it can run some navigation software.

I forgot the exact wording, but I get a Windows popup that says it does not see a driver for this hardware. Where might I find a driver? There are no instructions with the hardware nor anything on the packaging about a website that may have drivers for downloading.

I then talked to my boss about this and he let me borrow a DB9 to USB adapter that did come with a driver but it was for Widows XP. I installed the driver into a Windows 7. 64 bit machine anyway, but it did not work.

The motherboard has no DB9 port and it has only one PCI-e slot which is being used by the graphics card.

[David M]

I went to Fry's and bought this... IOGEAR - GUC232A - USB to Serial RS-232 Adapter

It comes with a driver disk.

When I go to install the driver I get a message that says: 'flash.ocx' or one of its dependencies is missing or not correctly registered. So I checked to make sure that Flash is current. I don't know if it is asking for Adobe Flash to be installed or not. I have the 32 bit Flash for non-IE installed.

What else might I try in order to get the driver installed?

[David M]

Ok, I went to IOgears website to see if they have a driver. They do have a driver for for Windows 7 32 and 64 bit listed here....
Drivers & Manuals - IOGEAR

I selected the 88.87 kb file for the Windows 7 version, extracted the zipped files and get four files. None of these files seem to be a setup or .exe file. One is a setup information file but it is of no help in describing how to install the driver.

Edit, I found some generic drivers. I have an adaptopr that is just a USB to serial connector, without the electronics in the middle of the cable. So now I have to decide if this is safe... http://www.gilsson.com/um_pl2303_v11.pdf
http://www.gilsson.com/usb_drivers_download.htm

At least it has an InstallShield Wizard file.

Opinions?

[pam123]

This sounded familiar so I went to Adobe Support.
The whole thread is worth reading through (You are not alone!) but this post stood out : Adobe Forums: Error message: cannot find flash.ocx

[David M]

Hey Pam...thanks.

It sounds like it has nothing to do with Adobe Flash. Please see the edit to my previous post.

I found the drivers on the website for the Win7 drivers but I cannot find the file within the driver that starts the WinShield installation.

Do you happen to see them?

[pam123]

I'll check later this evening, gotta start dinner now.
Sorry the link wasn't more help.

[David M]

I appreciate your help.

Call George and tell him to drive faster.

[pam123]

David you've got the latest InstallShield ?

Download a Free Version of InstallShield 2012 Today

[David M]

That's interesting. I did not know there was a paid version, and I presume a better version of iInstallShield. I always thought it was something that Microsoft produced that came with the OS in order to load software.

I will give the trial version a try.

Thanks

[David M]

I tried the generic drivers and they loaded.

Now I want to see the NMEA 0183 data stream from the GPS to the computer, since the chart software does not seem to be receiving GPS data.

It looks like Microsoft got rid of Hyperterminal in Windows 7. Why?...doh!

So in looking around, I found this thread...
I would like to know if Windows 7 has Hyperterminal capabilities like - Microsoft Answers

Unfortunately I do not have an XP machine machine to copy hyperterm.dll and hyperterm.exe from to Windows 7.

Any ideas on how I might be able to see a data stream in Windows 7?

[David M]

Problem solved....

I figured out how to get the driver installed and set the baud rate to 4800.