Port Name Recognition Issues + Vixen

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kprach

New member
Hello, all!
I am new to Vixen Lights and have been trying to get it to recognise a device (animatronic controller) under Setup Display and Setup/Change Serial Port. I have already added a space for the Generic Serial controller and am attempting to use an Arduino Uno. However, Vixen will not let me select a port name from its dropdown menu. I've already checked that the USB was functioning and connected on my PC, and everything was reported to be working fine. Unfortunately, I cannot use the controller or program it until it is able to be selected under 'port name'. Is there any way to resolve this? I've tried everything I can think of, from uninstalling/reinstalling, restarting both my PC and the software, changing the COM port number manually on my computer, etc.
 
Mine just popped right up. As I don't have any other devices, COM1 is the only choice.

I just plugged in my mega and when I went back to Vixen, now a COM3 appears. So, it should be pretty dynamic. And I could select COM3 even though the arduino IDE was open and "using it". I then started the Serial Monitor and now Vixen reports it in use but still lets me select it for setup. I am running 3.10u1

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MikeKrebs said:
Mine just popped right up. As I don't have any other devices, COM1 is the only choice.

I just plugged in my mega and when I went back to Vixen, now a COM3 appears. So, it should be pretty dynamic. And I could select COM3 even though the arduino IDE was open and "using it". I then started the Serial Monitor and now Vixen reports it in use but still lets me select it for setup. I am running 3.10u1

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Hi, thanks for the reply! Huh...for some reason, the dropdown menu on my Port Name only shows a blank option and won't let me click anything else. I'm wondering if it's the version of Vixen I'm using. I'm currently running the latest release (3.11.1). As I'm new to downloading software like this, I'm unsure how to get any previous versions. I was told to go to GitHub, but I'm not exactly sure how to download anything from there. Do you have any suggestions?
 
So this is an Arduino that you are trying to connect to Vixen?
is the COM port showing up in the Windows Device Manager?
 
JCB said:
So this is an Arduino that you are trying to connect to Vixen?
is the COM port showing up in the Windows Device Manager?
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Yes, and yes. Windows is showing that it's present and connected, but Vixen won't let me select anything under 'port name'.
 
Need to ask some more questions to rule some things out:
Was the Arduino connected to the PC prior to starting Vixen?
Are there any other program running on the computer that could be holding the COM port in use like the Arduino IDE?

You might also look at \Documents\Vixen 3\logs and see if any of the logs contain anything related to COM port in question.
 
Thank you for the advice! I previously attempted to start up the software both with and without the Arduino connected, but neither method seemed to work. I've just scanned through the logs, and it's relaying that the device attached to the system was not functioning. I'm not quite sure what the issue is, as Windows had registered that the USB was fine. I suppose I'll have to try again later today.
 
Post the information from the log so we can give it a deeper look. Might give us a clue as to what is going on.
 
This is the Application Warn log where I retrieved the information on the device. The rest of the page is essentially just the same message repeated at different times.
 

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That indicates it is scanning all the ports to validate them. Do you have more than one serial device plugged in. Can you post a screen shot of the Device Manager section for the serial ports?
 
jeffu231 said:
That indicates it is scanning all the ports to validate them. Do you have more than one serial device plugged in. Can you post a screen shot of the Device Manager section for the serial ports?
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Nothing else is plugged in other than my wireless mouse. This is the Device Manager with the Arduino USB cable plugged in.
 

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Kind of interesting it shows up as the serial chip. My Mega pops up as Mega. I think my Unos are Chinese clones but they are buried in the junk room.

Windows version and release?

What version of the driver do you have installed? I know you said you uninstalled but maybe check for a update? https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=wch.cn It might be something in the Vixen enumerator but maybe a device driver update will help?

I think it must be something technical in the Vixen/Windows/whatever but JCB or jeffu231 will have to help with that.

​

 
I happened to have a Arduino Nano laying here so I plugged it up to my computer. It shows similar in the device manager. I was able to see it in Vixen. Here is the driver version loaded onto my Windows 10 machine. My nano is new and does not have anything loaded on it. Not sure if that is relevant or not. Maybe whatever sketch is loaded onto the device is misbehaving in some way when Vixen tries to open the port. Maybe try to clear the sketch or disable the serial port part of the code and see if that makes any difference. That might give some additional insight. We may have to use a serial port sniffer as another option to try and determine what is going wrong on your setup.

Edit: One other note might be what the baud rate is set at. When Vixen creates the list, it uses a default baud rate to open the port to test it. That I think should be 57600. If the baud rate in the sketch is different, there is a possibility that could cause some weird behavior as well.

Serial.PNG
 
Since it hasn't been registering, I haven't been able to code anything on the Arduino yet, so I'm assuming it's clear. I haven't used the Arduino for anything else--I'm strictly using it to program an animatronic. I'm not sure how to disable the serial port part of the code. I've tried a few different things, including using a previous version of Vixen (v 3.8), updating the drivers again, and changing the baud rates on both the software and the USB. The USB has a default baud rate of 9600, so I tried switching it to 57600. Unfortunately, the port name is still refusing to show up in Vixen. I'm currently running Windows 11, version 24H2.
 

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Windows 11 may be a bit of an unknown here. Do you have any other serial devices you can plug in just to see if they are detected? The other option is to use some serial port sniffer software to see the traffic back and forth and try to decipher what is going on. Has to be something unique in your setup since there are a lot of folks using Arduino's and the serial port. I'll look around and see what options there are for some sort of serial port sniffer that are free and we can try that.
 
jeffu231 said:
Windows 11 may be a bit of an unknown here. Do you have any other serial devices you can plug in just to see if they are detected? The other option is to use some serial port sniffer software to see the traffic back and forth and try to decipher what is going on. Has to be something unique in your setup since there are a lot of folks using Arduino's and the serial port. I'll look around and see what options there are for some sort of serial port sniffer that are free and we can try that.
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Much appreciated! I don't believe I have any other serial devices, though I have other USB devices/drives I've connected with no issue.
 
kprach said:
Since it hasn't been registering, I haven't been able to code anything on the Arduino yet, so I'm assuming it's clear.
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Um, are you saying you can't connect to it from the arduino ide? You should be able to upload code to it just fine. If not, I think it would change the troubleshooting a lot as that would indicate a problem with the device and not the software.

Upload "blink" to the arduino. See if it works. Then upload a sketch that is opening the serial port for communication and report back.
 
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