Let's assume that you have GPS receiver that is already connected to your computer to the physical serial port COM1.
You have a program that opened COM1 and is now receiving GPS data. And all was fine until you wanted to run another program at the same time to get GPS data. But when you tried to run it, you got some weird message like "Cannot open serial port" or something similiar. What happened ? Answer is: serial port can be opened by one application only. Serial port is an exclusive-access device type.
You have several options to deal with this situation:
- Forget about it, close the first program and run the second. And then close the second and run the first... Actually, it is not an option.
- Purchase serial ports extension board. Yes, this option can work. But do you want to spend your time and money, look for free PCI slot and install extension board ?
- If you have two serial ports, you can purchase special cable that splits data from the GPS to each serial port. But if you have one physical serial port only or you need run more than two applications, you can forget about it...
- And finally, you can use software solution, for example, VSPE. It is the best option.
Step 1.
- Close program that opened serial port.
Step 2.
- Run VSPE and create the splitter device. Select COM1 in "Data source serial port" combo box and COM2 in "Virtual serial port".
Step 3.
- Now configure all your programs to receive GPS data from COM2. If you cannot do that, please refer to Mapper device and Connector and Mapper link.
Now COM2 can be used by up to 8 different applications! Simple, isn't it ?
- See also:
- Splitter device
