So...bringing it back on topic, this thread is not really about VM-ware, unless specifically about interfaces with rocketry programs.
Spent the morning setting up the interface programs that I have. I'll cover the PerfectFlite DataCap, Beeline GPS Communicator, and the Featherweight Interface Program.
First up, the Perfectflite interface. It's always helpful to have the Device Manager from the Control Panel open when you're hooking up hardware. My Perfectflite hardware uses the older, DB-9 serial port interface cable. It works with my MAWD as well as my Stratologgers. I use an ioGear serial port adapter. Now what I'm about to describe may be different for other brands of adapters, but the general concepts are consistent. I thought that I'd let Windows 8.1 find and install the driver so I just plugged in the adapter (without plugging in the Perfectflite yet) and watched Windows do its thing. No joy, I let it spin for a while, but since my device is older, I cancelled it from searching and used the old fashioned method. I downloaded the 64-bit driver from the ioGear website and ran their installer. Then I plugged in my adapter and viola!, there it was as COM3. Now my machine has three USB ports so I tried each port in succession. Each port gave a different COM number - remember that I have the Device Manager open so I can see what's going on - which is not an idea situation. Some USB-serial drivers allow you to assign the COM port number so from the Device Manager, I opened my driver, selected the "Advanced" tab, and set it to COM10. Now when I plug that same device into any USB port, it consistently comes up as COM10. That's handy when starting the interface program. So after downloading and installing the Perfectflite DataCap program, I was easily able to select COM10 and read my units. So, far, so good.
Next up, the Beeline GPS, unit. Now I have two different versions of the Beeline USB adapter, so I chose the newest one and plugged it in. This time, I just got the identification info from the device manager to see that I had an FTDI chip on the adapter. A quick spin over to the FTDI website and a brief download later, I've got the driver files...hmmm...no installer. I could've opened the unrecognized item in the Device Manager and then installed a driver manually by browsing for the files just downloaded, but I noticed that on the FTDI driver download page, there was an executable version of the driver with installer so I went that route. After that driver ran, my device showed up as serial port COM4. Just as I Did for the ioGear item, I opened the driver and then selected the item to lock down the COM port to COM11. Boom! Suddenly my driver had an error and was unceremoniously dumped by Windows. I did some playing around but couldn't convince the driver to lock down on any number so I pulled out a different, older, USB interface from Big Red Bee, and It showed up just fine (it's still an FTDI chip). This one was able to lock down the COM port for some reason, so I'm going with the slightly older unit. I then downloaded and ran the Beeline Communicator program. It wouldn't let me use the pull-down menu to select a COM port, but I was able to type in "COM11" and things worked just fine. Two down...
Finally, I pulled out my Featherweight Ravens, and plugged them directly into the USB port on the computer (the converter chip is onboard). It also has an FTDI chip and since FTDI uses a universal driver set, it was recognized immediately and I was able to lock down the port to COM12 using the same method above. Soon I was able to reprogram my Ravens.
So, the conclusion is that serial ports are finicky, some "just work" and some need some extra effort to get them installed. In the end, all my electronics now hookup to the laptop and won't change in the field on me. The interface programs all seem to work well with only one minor interface issue.
Dare Mighty Things...
