3 The Drivers for Windows
3 The Drivers for Windows
This chapter of the manual documents the drivers for Windows Operating Systems. The driver is
the same for all USB-COM available, independent of the model. As one consequence there is only
one driver for download, linked to from all the products. It does not matter which link you use.
The USB-COM appear in Windows as several components, depending on the specific model. This
can be seen in the Device Manager, while or after installation of the drivers.
•Single port models appear as a “USB FAST SERIAL ADAPTER”, which finally installs as
a “USB Serial Converter” plus a “USB Serial Port”.
•Dual port models appear as a “USB Composite Device” first, which installs USB Serial
Converter A and B. These then install the serial ports.
•Some quad port models also appear as a “USB Composite Device” first, which installs USB
Serial Converter A to D. These four converters then install the serial ports.
•Multiport models with 4 to 16 serial ports first appear as one or two “Generic USB Hub”,
plus some USB Composite Devices. These install USB Serial Converter A and B or A to D
each. The converters then install all the serial ports.
Windows already has a driver for a USB Hub, and it also handles USB Composite Devices without
configuration and help by the user. The specific drivers are for the USB Serial Adapters, and the
USB Serial Ports installed by them.
The manual first describes the process of installing the driver software, followed by instructions
for removing the drivers in the unlikely case you wish to do this. After this the configuration of
the serial ports is described. There is no option to configure the other drivers installed for the
USB-COM, so the options are the same for all different models.
Many USB-COM may be installed simultaneously. In fact the driver does not limit the number of
USB-COM installed, Windows does. In Windows the maximum number of serial ports installed
is 256, no matter which driver installed and controls them. The current version of the driver is
2.04.16.
With the current driver version there are two methods of installation. There is the classical variant,
where Windows detects the new hardware as soon as it is connected to the PC. Then Windows
requests the driver from the user, and installs them. The modern way of installation uses a Pre-
Installation Executable to put the drivers onto the system, when the hardware is not yet connected
to the PC. When it is connected later, Windows already knows about the drivers, and installs them
without further interaction by the user.
3.1 Install Drivers by Pre-Installation Executable
Do not connect the USB-COM to your PC. The driver installation program is usually named as
USBCom-CDM_20416.exe, depending on the version number. This file is found on the driver
CD-ROM, in the top folder. Just log on to Windows with Administrator privileges, and start the
program. It is a self-extracting archive, which in turn executes the included installation software.
The installation is a text-mode Console Application, which pretty much looks like a DOS box (see
figure 6).
June 2009 USB-COM PRO User Manual 10
