OT: Serial COM port numbering...

[Steve Horn]

I'm having issues with my serial ports. They're being used for Ocelot (a "physical" RS232 port), and receiver control (USB/RS232 serial conversion "virtual" port). Over time, as I've changed port assignments thru addition/removal etc. of USB/RS232 serial, the port numbering, even though I only have 3 in use is COM1 (hard RS232), COM7 and COM8 (USB/RS232). Where is the numbering/assignment of these ports and is it changeable?
The point of this is the "issues" part. Occasionally, the HB server PC forgets the USB port assignments; it does not recognize the HB server's "calls" to the ports. And of course, HB Server starts reporting comm failures. Once I reboot the box (and re-enable the HW interfaces affected) all is ok. I suspect the problem is caused by a flaky driver associated with the USB/RS232 port converter, a two port device. I want to add a physical 4 port RS232 card to the PC and get rid of the USB/RS232 dongle, as I'll be converting to more 2way RS232 device control instead of IR and think that physical RS232 ports would be more "stable". But I was curious about the COM port assignments...

[lostdreamer]

In windows go to the start menu, right click My Computer and go to Manage.
In the new window go to the device manager.

Find the COM ports that you wish to change and double click it, Go to the tab Port Settings (I think it's called, I have a dutch version) and press the 'Advanced' button.
Down in that window you should be able to change the port number.
This method also works for the rs232 <-> USB controllers


Regards,
LostDreamer

[Steve Horn]

Lost,

Found it! Thanks for the tutorial!