USB issues with RF siggen and RF explorer connected at the same time?

[Marco C.]

Hello,

I'm encountering issues when trying to connect both instruments to the USB ports of my hub.

Basically, a single instrument connected works fine, but when I plug in the 2nd, it seems that the USB to UART driver can't open another COM port.

This on XP OS. RF Siggen and Explorer with latest firmwares.

Is this a known issue? What do you suggest?

[Ariel Rocholl]

Hi,

This is not a known issue, we have worked fine with multiple devices connected on the same PC. Did you contact Silabs as discussed by Support email already?

[Roger Rehr]

I realize this is a 2-year old post, but I just today June 23, 2017 I received an RF Explorer Signal Generator and attempted to use it with my RF Explorer Signal Analyzer on a Windows 10 Pro system.  The signal generator came with firmware 01.18, 23-Mar-2017 and I did not update it because that is newer than the version available on the web.  The SA has firmware version 01.20 20-Jun-2017.

Either ONE of the devices will work fine, but when I attach the second device (which can be either the SA or the SG) I always get an error with the typical "Caution Triangle" icon for the device in Windows Device Manager along with the notation in "Device Status" for the non-working device "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)  Object Name already exists".

IF I disconnect the working unit, the non-working unit remains non-working

I have tried to correct for this by [1] moving the second device to several different USB ports, and [2] completely uninstalling and then reinstalling the Silicon Labs devices and device drivers and finally [3] upgrading the Silicon Labs drivers to the most recent version (6.7.4.261, 9/19/2016).

At present one device (the non-working device) is on COM13 with location Port_#0014.Hub_#0002 and the other is on COM5 with location Port_#0001.Hub_#0002.  If I move the non-working device to other USB ports it remains non-working, even if I move it to COM16 with location Port#0004.Hub_#0003.

In terms of the driver details as seen under device manager, both units' drivers of course have the same device description:  "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge".

The working device has device instance path "USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60\0001" and the non-working device has device instance path that is of course different for each different USB port, being for example "USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60\6&D1F2EEB&0&4" when COM16 or "USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60\5&DC4A972&0&1" when COM12.

Both devices have the same Hardware IDs, "USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60&REV_0100 USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60", for both.

Compatible IDs and Matching device ID are the same for both units.

The non-working unit status includes values "01806400" and "DN_HAS_PROBLEM", which are absent for the working unit.

The non-working unit problem code is "0000001F".

The non-working unit problem status is "Object Name already exists, C0000035".

This is a real issue for me; I bought the Signal Generator solely for use with the SNA so that I could use the combination as a SNA.  If this problem cannot be solved, I would like to return the Signal Generator.

Thanks in advance for your help, and Best Regards!

[RF Explorer]

Hi Roger,

This seems a rare issue, coming from Silabs drivers not really our devices, so we need to work with you and Silabs Support to resolve.

As you opened a ticket support with distributor EMR already, we will follow up that thread to resolve the problem with you.

Regards

RFE Team

[Roger Rehr W3SZ]

Thanks!

The problem is solved, and I have also sent an email to EMR Shielding Solutions so that they know that they do not need to pursue this. 

The problem was due to incorrect serial port enumerations in the registry that were "hidden" as they were not reflected in the Device Manager entries, which were correct.  None of these registry errors was a Silicon Labs port, but the incorrect enumerations were preventing the Silicon Labs ports from enumerating properly.

After I discovered and corrected the registry errors, I was able to install Silicon Labs drivers for both RFE devices and use the RFE SG and RFE SA simultaneously in SNA mode, which was my goal.

Thanks for making these wonderful products available!

Best Regards,

Roger Rehr

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[RF Explorer]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your update, it is great you sorted out the COM registry enum problems, it may be helpful record if other user gets into same scenario.

Cheers

RFE Team

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[David Kerr]

Hello,
I too have the same problems reported on this thread.
I only have one Windows device- XP-  (my house is all UNIX/Linux/Mac) and that is a small laptop explicitly for mobile work such as SNA measurements using my RF explorer SigGen and Spectrum analyser.
I have now spent many, many hours trying to get both devices to work simultaneously on XP and failed.
I followed through on what Roger did on Win10.
I followed all the Silabs suggestions for deleting registry keys.

Indeed, I uninstalled the Silabs SW, deleted every key referencing Silabs and RF explorers in the registry and then reinstalled the latest Silabs drivers from their website- these are 2014 and the same as on the RF Explorer site.

What I would like to know now is, has ANYONE actually used both devices at once, with the RF Explorer software, on Windows XP?

I can get it to work on MacOS. (But that is useless to me because I cannot carry the Mac to the place where I want to do measurements).

I can get both devices to enumerate okay at the same time on Linux.

I see that Roger got it working on Windows 10.

I am starting to believe it is not possible on Windows XP.

Dave Kerr

[Graham]

Dave,

I am currently running both devices connected to an old Thinkpad with Win-XP (Service pack 3), so it is definitely possible.

I have also run it on Win 7 and Win 10 with no problems.

I am not at all clear from your post where the problem you are having is occurring. i.e. Windows loading the second device or in RF Explorer and I would also not be the best person to give advice on how to get your issue resolved.

I am not sure how critical order is in this process, but the following steps just gave me a successful connections to both devices. 

1. With no RF Explorer USB devices connected to the USB ports, power up the laptop.
2. Start RF Explorer.
3. Plug in the Spectrum Analyzer to a USB port on the laptop (i.e. not to a hub)
4. Open the Windows Device manager and expand the LPT
5. Select the "Ports (COM & LPT)
6. Look at the entry "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge" and determine which Com port was assigned to the RFE SA
7. Leave the Device Manager window open but select the RFE window
8. In the RF Explorer software, in the SA tab, click on the '*' to re scan the ports.
9. Select the port # identified in step 6 and CONNECT.
10. Now plug in the Signal Analyzer to a USB port on the laptop (i.e. not to a hub).
11. Select the Device Manager window and refresh if necessary.
12. Look at the new entry for "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge" and determine which Com port was assigned to the RFE SigGen
13. Close the Device Manager
14. In the RF Explorer software, in the Signal Generator tab, click on the '*' to re scan the ports.
15. Select the port # identified in step 12 and CONNECT
    

If this does not work, post in which step you first encountered the problem and I am sure someone here will get you pointed in the right direction.

Best regards,

Graham

[David Kerr]

Thanks for the info. Good to hear that someone can make both devices work at once with XP. The problem for me has been in windows (XP service pack 3). Because the RF Explorer devices have identical vid/PID and serial numbers, Windows refuses to load the driver for the second device (I really wish the different RF explorers had different serial numbers, not all 0001!) In the end, I have given up and found another  laptop, not nearly as portable and am running successfully on that with Vista. So I will live with that as I have already wasted a day trying to get the small eeepc laptop working with two devices at once.

Regards,

Dave

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[Ariel Rocholl]

This is actually interesting - we no longer have a physical PC with WinXP in our lab, but we test this in a VMWare virtual box, and works fine with multiple devices connected for us. 

There are actually not issues with same USB device ID being connected in multiple ports in our WinXP tests, each one should be allocated to their own COM port accordingly. If you eventually get a solution for this problem please let us know, we can document it for other users who may find the same issue.

Note: The RF Explorer for Windows recent versions automatically detects which device is a Generator and which is an Analyzer, so it should be straightforward to have the two devices working together.

Regards

Ariel

On Monday, October 2, 2017 at 12:49:12 AM UTC+2, David Kerr wrote:

Thanks for the info. Good to hear that someone can make both devices work at once with XP. The problem for me has been in windows (XP service pack 3). Because the RF Explorer devices have identical vid/PID and serial numbers, Windows refuses to load the driver for the second device (I really wish the different RF explorers had different serial numbers, not all 0001!) In the end, I have given up and found another  laptop, not nearly as portable and am running successfully on that with Vista. So I will live with that as I have already wasted a day trying to get the small eeepc laptop working with two devices at once.

Regards,

Dave