The Siren Board

Alright, I got the cable today and we installed the soft ware that came with the adaptor cable and hooked every thing together and it keeps saying "no response" when we try to read from the unit. We changed the adaptor name from com 5 to com 1 and it stopped saying "unable to connect to com 1" and as soon as we unplug the adaptor, it says "unable to connect to com 1" so I am wondering if it is a connectivity issue or a problem with the FC itself. I took some pictures of the cable so you guys can see:





Edit: just got off the phone with Dave from blue valley public safety and it looks like we're going to have to buy a new cable set from federal.

Try it with a real serial port and not a usb. Also, make sure you are using the right com port. If you are connected properly, it won't say unable to open com port whatever whenever you open stuff.

theroofable wrote:Try it with a real serial port and not a usb. Also, make sure you are using the right com port. If you are connected properly, it won't say unable to open com port whatever whenever you open stuff.

Yeah, but the only problem is that we do not have any laptops that have a serial port on them. Like I said I talked to Dave at blue valley about a cable and he said that he would see if he would be able to sell the original cable that came with the FC.

I use a serial port adapter card on my laptop for the FSPware.

Early FC uses a serial cable with a null modem adapter for programming. Later models use a serial cable that resembles a cat 5 cable. They also take a proprietary adapter.

Did they send you the federal adapter for the cable?

If you downloaded this program from Federal, it will not communicate with any controller or other piece of hardware since it's a DEMO version. You have to pay $$$ to a dealer for this software to become fully functional. That version is intended as a trial only and core parts of the program have been removed to prevent programming.

However, it appears you purchased the program since you received an RJ11-RS232 adapter, I would give FS a call and let them try and figure it out.

Also, with the RS232 protocol, you need to set your baud rate (usually anywhere from 9600bps to 115,000ish bps). The adapter will not talk to the controller unless the baud rate is set correctly.

Although RS232 serial communication is a much "stronger" protocol versus USB, it's also much less user friendly.

If you downloaded this program from Federal, it will not communicate with any controller or other piece of hardware since it's a DEMO version. You have to pay $$$ to a dealer for this software to become fully functional. That version is intended as a trial only and core parts of the program have been removed to prevent programming.

I help maintain the sirens and I am the only one that really knows about how to work on them. The software came on a disc and I do not think it is a demo version. Like I said I talked to Dave at blue valley and he said he would get back with us ASAP.

Serial port hookup to program something, I deal with that all the time at work programming network switches.
You said that when you install the software for the USB to Serial adapter, it comes up as COM5, you may have to tell FSPWARE to use COM5 to get it to connect.

I personally have never had an issue with a USB to Serial adapter, at least with programming switches.

I would think the serial line parameters are built in to the program with no need to change.
When programming switches, I use
Speed (Baud): 9600
Data Bits: 8
Stop Bits: 1
Parity: None
Flow Control: None


Feel free to contact me via PM if you continue having issues, perhaps I could remote into your laptop via Team Viewer and double check a few things. Or if you are close enough to me in Missouri, I could drive over there.

One more thing Off topic:

What the hell is up with stormsetter, holler, and multiple other avatars?

JasonC wrote:
Although RS232 serial communication is a much "stronger" protocol versus USB, it's also much less user friendly.

you aren't kidding. Yeah, it's flexible in that you can cram whatever bits you want to down the pipe, but I'll be perfectly happy if I never have to deal will garbage like null modems (and whether they're Tx/Rx only or full handshake) again. The dumbest thing to me was things like serial port printers; you'd think the printer would be a DCE since it's 99% of the time going to be connected to a DTE (PC or terminal.) But no, it's a DTE too and you need to try a handful of null modems to get the bleedin' thing working.

RS-232 should be taken out back and shot. It's 2014, equipment vendors should be using Ethernet instead.

Alright, we got the cable ordered from blue valley. We walked Dave through our problems and he was certain that it was the cable we were using. Once it gets here and if it doesn't work I will keep you guys updated.
Edit: what is up with the avatars?