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First post, by joeb4print

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I have a PC running Vista that has no serial ports. So I purchased a USB TO SERIAL DB25 Adapter (22429) from CablesToGo. In the Dos Box config file I need to enter a value for Serial1 in the form of:

serial1=directserial realport:????

I assume I need to enter the USB port number instead of a Com number since there are no physical com ports on this PC. Where can I find out what that USB port designation is?

In Device Manager for the adapter it shows:

Location: Port_#0002.Hub_#0004

I've tried entering that but still had no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope this isn't a redundent topic as I've done quite a bit of searching and could not find an answer.

Thanks.

Reply 1 of 15, by Harekiet

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Open a command prompt window and type

wmic /namespace:\\root\cimv2 PATH Win32_SerialPort GET caption,description,deviceid

That should give you a list of com ports and the deviceid is the name you'd be interested in for using in the dosbox config.

Reply 2 of 15, by joeb4print

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Thanks for the reply.

I'm not at that work computer now but I brought the cable home to try on my PC at home. It's running XP and does have physical serial ports, Com1 & Com2. I installed the drive for the USB to Serial cable and it lists it in Windows Device Manager as being Com3. When trying your suggestion it only comes back with information for Com1 & Com2. Nothing about Com3 at all. Any ideas?

Reply 4 of 15, by joeb4print

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Yes, it shows the com port number as Com1 but it doesn't work when I enter in:

serial1=directserial realport:Com1

no errors or anything but it just doesn't work in the DOS application. It's time clock software. It's name is OES-Plus III. Can't find out much info on it. It has been running on Mac OS 9.2 running PC (DOS) emulation software

I've brought the cable home for the weekend and I'm trying to get it working on my XP machine using an old fax/modem. Basically just wanting to make sure it's possible to use the serial to USB cable with Dos Box. On it I enter modem instead of directserial and when I launch DOS Box the status window says "Serial3: Modem listening on Port 23..." Would that mean that it is working on the XP machine?

Reply 5 of 15, by h-a-l-9000

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serialx=modem has nothing to do with a real modem.

Try with a real (non-USB) serial port, could be it works then. Certain USB/serial cables have driver incompatibilities. If it still doesn't work try a CVS build or the one from my homepage, there have been some improvements since 0.72.
There is also a chance it won't work at all...

1+1=10

Reply 6 of 15, by joeb4print

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Like I said, the Vista machine does not have real serial ports. Just testing on the home XP machine that does. I really need the USB to serial cable to work on the Vista machine.

So even though I'm using a USB to serial cable hooked to a modem the setting should use directserial instead of modem? If that is the case it brings me back to my original question of how to found out the USB port number and how to enter it exactly in the config file or even if that will work? And am I right in thinking that although device manager says it's on Com1 that is NOT the realport that I would enter into the config file?

I will try it on the real com port on my XP machine because I suppose I could buy a serial PCI card and put it in the PC to add the real serial ports. I spent $40 on this cable though so if at all possible I'd like to be able to use it.

Reply 7 of 15, by h-a-l-9000

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The comX from the device manager is the correct one to use. The status window should say "Opening comX..."

> So even though I'm using a USB to serial cable hooked to a modem the setting
> should use directserial instead of modem?

yes.

When you have the modem connected run some terminal software in DOSBox and type i.e. 'ATZ', it should return 'OK'.

1+1=10

Reply 8 of 15, by joeb4print

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Thanks, it seems to be working fine on my XP machine. I get the OK after entering ATZ. At least now I know the cable works with DosBox. I'll try the same tests on the Vista machine next week. I have a feeling it's the time clock software program that doesn't want to play along with everything else.

Reply 9 of 15, by joeb4print

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Thanks to h-a-l-9000 and Harekiet for your help. I have it working. In the config file I had entered:

"serial1=directserial realport:com1"

and was having no luck getting it to work with the time clock it was connected to through a modem. I had set up the USB/Serial converter in Vista to com1 as:

Bits per second: 9600
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 2

which matched the settings on the com port from the old Mac and the settings in the timeclock software. I assumed since I set the com port up in Windows with those settings that it would use them. I know, never assume, and once again it came back to haunt me. The solution was to change the config file to:

serial1=directserial realport:com1 startbps:9600 parity:n bytesize:8 stopbits:2

It all worked perfectly after that.

Thanks again. Great software.

Reply 13 of 15, by joeb4print

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Well, after you posted that those values were not evaluated, I went back and removed them it is still working okay. So the line I have now is:

"serial1=directserial realport:com1"

I know I tried that last week and it would not work for anything. And now it is.

?????

Reply 15 of 15, by MiniMax

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What did you drink (or smoke)?

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