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[arf1410]

Carmine -

I checked hardware profiles / device
manager , etc, and the 2 COM ports are
listed with no special notes or exclamation
marks...everythings looks normal...

[X10 Pro]

The CM15A isn't the problem, but it could be
that the X10 Device Network Service is using
the serial port when it shouldn't be. The
easy way to tell is to stop the service,
either from the Services panel, or by running
"net stop x10nets" from the command line.

[carmine pacifico]

ARF1410

It would not be any exclamation mark; under
ports you should see a name for the device,
and (COMX), if any virtual serial port has
the same  COM number than your physical COM
port , re-map that virtual device to a
different com number.
If everything appears normal than is
probably X10net keeping the port open
(X10net can communicate with some X10
serial devices else). Reboot your computer
without the CM15a, use the Window Task
Manager to end “X10net” process, and you
should regain control o the port.

There a built in windows
utility “msconfig”,this is a very powerful
utility for enable/disable start-up program
+many more features , use it with care.

[arf1410]

at office now, so can't fiddle with home
PC...However, I am fairly certain x10nets
was not running (at least as shown on the
task manager), and that there were no COM
port conflicts, but I will try and check
tonight...

[arf1410]

X10-Pro (or anyone else) - you state that
the CM15A isn't the problem, but could you
explain why / how booting the PC with the
CM15A installed, and keeping the CM15A
installed FIXES the problem?

[roger1818]

ARF:  I think what X10 Pro is trying to say
is that it isn’t a hardware bug with the
CM15a but a software bug with the X10
Device Network Service (X10Net).  Did you
have your CM11A or GPS when installing (or
upgrading) AHP (maybe it is confusing the
GPS for an X10 device for some reason)?
The installation process seems to search
for X10 hardware.  You might try installing
AHP with both of them unplugged.

[arf1410]

after more "Google-ing", it appears X10nets
likely is the problem, and will kill access
to COM ports.  I do not think I can stop it
using the Task Manager, as I don't think it
is listed, but I will try X10-Pro's
suggestion of using the command line
"net stop x10nets"  - do I add the ".exe"
extension?

Do I have to do this every time I want to
use a serial device?  If so, there must be a
better, permanent fix!  Also, I still want
to be able to use my X-10 Firecracker (which
likely is the original cause of this
issue)!  Will that be possible?  

[roger1818]

Arf:  In the Task Manager you have to
select the “Processes” tab to see
x10nets.exe.  It also helps to sort by name
by clicking on the “Image Name” heading.

Overall it might be easier to call “net
stop x10nets” when you want to use a COM
port and “net start x10nets” when you want
to use AHP or Firecracker (AHP will
automatically start it if it isn’t running
and Firecracker may do likewise).

X10 Pro suggested to me in an e-mail that
if I were to plug a MR26A into the CM17A,
X10 nets would confine its use of COM ports
to just that port.  I think the problem is
that the software can’t determine which
port the CM17A is plugged into (it doesn’t
talk back) so X10Nets grabs all the ports
just to be “safe.”

This is ludicrous, especially since the
CM17A has a through port so that you can
plug something else into it.  The proper
thing to do would be to keep all of the COM
ports closed until they are needed.

One other thing you might want to try is to
open the firecracker software and specify
which port the CM17A is connected to.
Hopefully this would confine the port use
to the CM17A’s port.  You wouldn’t be able
to use anything else on that port though.

[arf1410]

thanks for the tips Roger.  Suppose I want
to PERMANENTLY stop / remove the x10nets.
Can that be done?

[roger1818]

Arf:  It can be done, but both AHP
(including SDK) and the Firecracker
software require “x10nets,” so unless you
don’t want to use them anymore, you
shouldn’t permanently remove it.

The proper thing is for X10 to fix the
problem.

[roger1818]

Arf: I forgot to mention, X10 Pro e-mailed
me a program that “will make the registry
changes needed to turn off the X10 Device
Service's use of serial ports.”  Maybe he
can send it to you too or put it up on
X10’s ftp site.  This will allow AHP to
work, but Firecracker won't.

[arf1410]

X10 emailed me that software too, but it
didn't seem to help  - and yes, I rebooted...

Howver am still confused.  You say both AHP
and Firecracker need X10nets...if so, how
will AHP work after x10nets is removed
(either manually, or with special
software)?  I though X10-Pro stated x10Nets
was NOT needed for AHP??

If, hypothetically the problem is AHP, which
for all practical purposes is synonymous to
the CM15A, as they are always used as a
pair, then this is a problem that X10 needs
to fix.  Having AHP making COM ports
unusable is UNACCEPTABLE.

[arf1410]

X10 emailed me that software too, but it
didn't seem to help  - and yes, I rebooted...

Howver am still confused.  You say both AHP
and Firecracker need X10nets...if so, how
will AHP work after x10nets is removed
(either manually, or with special
software)?  I though X10-Pro stated x10Nets
was NOT needed for AHP??

If, hypothetically the problem is AHP, which
for all practical purposes is synonymous to
the CM15A, as they are always used as a
pair, then this is a problem that X10 needs
to fix.  Having AHP making COM ports
unusable is UNACCEPTABLE.

[X10 Pro]

Roger H: I sent ARF the same registry program
I sent you, but since he wants to use the
CM17A, it's not an option.

You make a good point about running
Firecracker and selecting the COM port. I
forgot that you could do that. I'm pretty
sure that if you use the Firecracker settings
to specify the port to use then the X10
service will only grab the one that you have
specified.

On my PC here I run AHP and have the X10
service running all the time. I also have a
CM11A and another serial device connected,
and can use them both without problems, with
and without AHP running.

[arf1410]

I CAN use COM ports without AHP running, but
the CM15A must be CONNECTED to the PC