data transfer

I have no experience with the Geodimeter end of your equation but I was working with a customer recently who had a laptop computer with Windows 7. He had a USB to serial adapter that he used with the same equipment and it worked fine through that serial connection.

But even though Windows 7 ran the old utility program we were using just fine, apparently that is, even though the program "saw" the COM port assigned to the adapter when plugged in, the program would not connect to the hardware through that port.

The only reason I relate this is that I suspect that we are dealing with similar vintage programs. The program itself appears to work fine but for whatever reason, Windows 7 handles the port in some way that this program wouldn't use it.

I hope you have more success than we did. The solution for me was to put my customer onto a newer utility program that did work with his hardware.

> I have an old Geodimeter 510 which has a 9 pin serial connection.
> I am trying to use a USB to 9 pin cable to transfer data to & from the total station.
> I have a Windows 7 laptop (USB ports only) and can not communicate between the two.
> I have tried "windows mobile device center" and "trimble data transfer" with no sucess.Can anyone help please??
> Max

First make sure you've installed the correct driver for the USB to Serial cable.

Windows Mobile Device center will most likely never work to transfer data from the Geodimeter. So if Trimble data transfer is supposed to work, that's the one to use.

The serial to usb cable is not the fastest ever made - be sure your baud rates match up, and be patient as the cable can take 5-10 seconds to register the connection and display the files.

Also, I use the same setup from time to time to transfer TPS files off of Hipers- I often have to click in and out of browser panes in order to actually see the files.

Hope this helps.

be willing to spend 200-300 dollars and buy a true serial port replicator. Many of these serial to USB are not true serial ports.

It's like using an online translator from English language to German language. Something will come across, but what?

Same deal there.

Get a true serial port (no el cheapo serial to usb adapter) and you problems should go away.

:beer:

I have spent many hours and at least $200+ on cables, card ports and other adapters and gadgets and installed drivers to get one or more of them to work and then an update is installed on my computer and resets everything to make it not work again ans start the whole process over.

Some computers are just not going to adapt to our needs, especially expecting abandoned software and hardware to plug into the new models and operate correctly.

I use many vintage programs and hardware myself.

My solution is to go to most any computer shop and buy a repaired workstation (Win98 or XP) with a serial port and Cat5 communication port made into the motherboard for $150 or less and setup and use as a transfer station connected and wired with Cat5 thru a router to your network or other computer(s).

I have a windows 7 64 bit computer that I bought last year that I STILL have not transitioned to using all the time. But, it does work just fine with Trimble Data Transfer and a IOGear GUC232AWM, which is a simple USB to serial converter.

I know it works because for some unknown reason my windows desktop XP computer with serial ports no longer works with data transfer. Not sure why, but I didn't troubleshoot it much since the newer computer downloads just fine.

I'm still using XP, but I know that on my non-serial port computer I had to really play around with the Null USB cable and settings. Basically, I had to really slow down the transfer rate on the controller and the program. Also, you will have to try all the different port number options to make sure you have them seeing each other. good luck.

I am pretty sure you are going to need a serial adapter to get it working. Trimble recommends the Edgeport brand of USB to serial adapters. I use a JDI GoldX USB to serial adapter on my service computer and I haven't had any problems connecting to older equipment.

Thanks for your replies.
I have an IOGear cable but have lost the disk.
I'll chase up drivers and see how I go.
Max