Knowledge Base FAQ Items

INSTALLATION

You are right: you cannot install the product in an existing directory.

At uninstall, the original directory (default: C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Serial Port Component\) is NOT deleted in case there are files created/modified after the previous installation. You must delete these files/directories manually.

Once the directory (C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Serial Port Component\) is deleted, you can re-install it in that directory.

Yes, on 64-bit systems, you can register both the 64-bit component (for 64-bit applications) and the 32-bit component (for 32-bit applications). You can use the same REGSVR32.EXE command for that:

REGSVR32 AxSerial64.dll
REGSVR32 AxSerial32.dll

You can view the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component Release Notes by using the following URL:
activexperts.com/serial-port-component/releasenotes/

This is not a problem of the ActiveXperts component, but is related to the security settings of your Windows computer.

Please try the following:

To start the command prompt, start it from the start menu by locating the "Command Prompt" in the start menu. Then, right-click on this item and select "Run as Administrator".

Then, issue the following command from the command prompt:

REGSVR32.EXE AxSerial64.dll

or

REGSVR32.EXE AxSerial32.dll

You can also try to turn off UAC (User Account Control)

No, it only installs two ActiveX component files: one 32-bit DLL (AxSerial32.dll) and one 64-bit DLL (AxSerial64.dll) that both make use of the Operating System.

To uninstall the 64-bit component, issue the following command from the command prompt:

REGSVR32 -u <path>\AxSerial64.dll

To uninstall the 32-bit component, issue the following command from the command prompt:

REGSVR32 -u <path>\AxSerial32.dll

Most probably, you don't have administrative privileges on the machine where you install the product. You must have local administrator rights to install ActiveXperts Serial Port Component on the computer.

For a list of new features and fixes, see ActiveXperts Serial Port Component Release Notes.

You can simple uninstall the software by using the 'Add/Remove' applet in the control panel. It will delete all files, except two: AxSerial64.dll and AxSerial32.dll. This article explains how to uninstall these files manually.

The core of ActiveXperts Serial PortComponent is two DLL's: AxSerial64.dll (to be used by 64-bit applications) and AxSerial32.dll (to be used by 32-bit applications). These DLL's are shared components, which means that they might be required by other software vendors. Therefore, these DLL's are NOT unregistered/deleted from the system using the 'Add/Remove' applet automatically!

To uninstall AxSerial32.dll manually on a 32-bit operating system:

• Open a new command prompt and change directory to: C:\Program Files\ACommon Files\ActiveXperts\
• Execute from the command-line: REGSVR32 AXSERIAL32.DLL
• Execute from the command-line: DEL AXSERIAL32.DLL

To uninstall AxSerial64.dll and AxSerial32.dll manually on a 64-bit operating system:

• Open a new command prompt and change directory to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\ActiveXperts\
• Execute from the command-line: REGSVR32 AXSERIAL64.DLL
• Execute from the command-line: DEL AXSERIAL64.DLL
• Change directory to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ActiveXperts\
• Execute from the command-line: REGSVR32 AXSERIAL32.DLL
• Execute from the command-line: DEL AXSERIAL32.DLL

Yes it can. To install the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component DLL on another machine, simply copy either the AxSerial64.dll (for 64-bit applications) or AxSerial32.dll (for 32-bit applications) to the target machine and issue the REGSVR32 registration command on that machine.

To register the 64-bit component, issue the following command:

REGSVR32 AxSerial64.dll

To register the 32-bit component, issue the following command:

REGSVR32 AxSerial32.dll

Please note that on 64-bit systems, you can register both the 64-bit component (for 64-bit applications) and the 32-bit component (for 32-bit applications).

PORTS AND DEVICES

The Windows Telephony device name is valid,. There can be two reasons for this error:

• The Windows Telephony device is already in use by another application;
• The port speed is wrong; Windows is able to open the port, but is not able to initialize the device properly because of the wrong speed. Make sure that the port speed of the device and the port settings of the Telephony device in the Control Panel both match.

ActiveXperts Serial Port Component is not event driven. You need to call the QueryDSR function to check the state of the DSR signal. If you need to check the state continuously, you need to call this function regularly, probably in a separate thread.

To monitor CTS (Clear-To-Send), use the QueryCTS function; to monitor DCD (Data-Carrier-Detect), use the QueryDCD function; to monitor RI (Ring-Indicator), use the QueryRI function.

The means implies that the Windows Telephony device is valid, but that the associated COM port is either already in use, or does not exist.

The error does NOT mean that the Windows Telephony device is invalid (that would reported as error 30201); it neither means that the Windows Telephony device is already used (that would be reported as error 30204).

Software flow control is only used for data transfer. By default, flow control is switched off. Devices like modems (sending/receiving to eachother) requiore software flow as soon as data transfer begins.

For more details, please read FAQ item 3100010 and FAQ item Q3100015.

This means that the Windows Telephony Device you are using, is NOT defined on the computer. You may have made a typing mistake. Error 30201 does NOT mean that the port is already in use (you would get error 30202).

The ComTimeout property is the timeout in milliseconds before functions ReadString, ReadBytes and ReadByte return.

This means that the COM port does not exist. Error 30102 does NOT mean that the port is already in use. If the port is in use, error 30103 will be reported ("Unable to perform operation because the device is already opened") instead.

Most probably it takes to long to read strings from the device. For instance, there's a time-out before the end-of-line character is received. To fix this problem, try to increase the ComTimeout value.

Yes, as long as your modem supports a voice command set. It is easy to find out if your modem supports voice or not: issue the 'AT+FCLASS=?'. A modem supporting voice will respond with a list of numbers that includes the number 8.

To enter voice mode, issue the following command: 'AT+FCLASS=8' (or 'AT#CLS=8'). In voice mode, you can answer voice calls, playback sound files and record audio.

For a complete list of voice modems commands, check your modem manual.

Both are used for handshaking (see also FAQ item 3100010).

With Hardware Flow Control, the receiving device sends a positive voltage along a dedicated handshaking circuit as long as it is ready to receive. When the transmitting computer receives a negative voltage, it knows to stop sending data.

With Software Flow Control, the handshaking signals consist of special characters transmitted along the data circuits rather than along the hardware flow control circuits.

Most probably, the baud rate causes the problem: COM port and modem are not sending/receving at the same speed. We stronly recommend to change the baud rate to the same speed configured for the modem.

Yes you can. Set the BaudRate property and call the UpdateCom function to apply the property change.

No, the component does not trigger events. All received data is buffered in memory. You need to poll for new data using a timer, or use a separate thread for receiving your data.

In many scenario's, it is necessary for the transmitting device to know whether the receiving device is ready to receive information. You might, for example, be sending data to a printer, and the speed of communication may be faster than the speed of the printer. The printer will need to be able to stop the computer from sending any more chatacters until it is ready to receive them. Similary, you may be sending data from one computer to another, and the second computer cannot process the data as fast as it is coming in.

In both cases, information must be sent back from receiving device to the sending device to indicate whether it is ready. This is known as 'Flow Control'. There are two types of Flow Control: Hardware Flow Control and Software Flow Control.

Only when the USB device provides a serial port driver. For instance, most modem manufacturers provide serial port drivers for their modems, so that the modem can be accessed through a virtual COM port. These modems can be used by ActiveXperts Serial Port Component.

It is easy to achieve, using the InterCharDelay property. This propery indicates the delay (in milliseconds) used by the WriteString and WriteBytes between each byte transmitted.

Please note there's also another property that can be used for slower devices: PreCommandDelay. It specifies a delay (in milliseconds) used before bytes are written to the port using one of the 'Write' functions.

This means that the port you are attempting to open is already in use by another application.

Check if there's another application that is already using the COM port. In some situations, you may want to benefit from a thing called 'port sharing', where one port can be shared by multiple applications. To benefit from 'port sharing', you must use Windows Telephony devices (like 'Standard 9600 bps Modem').

You can't change your hardware flow while a port is opened; you must specify the hardware flow control before you Open the port.

Software flow control can be changed while a port is opened. First change the SoftwareFlowControl property, and the call the UpdateCom function to apply the property change.

This depends on the the DCE (Data Carrier Equipment), the device to which you are connected. If this device requires hardware flow control, you'll need it too. In most cases, hardware flow control is required; that's why it is enabled by default.

For more details, please read FAQ item 3100010 and FAQ item Q3100015.

VISUAL BASIC, VBA AND VBSCRIPT

Please read the following document: How to use ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

You have not installed and registered the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component ActiveX component. This component can be installed and registered automatically by running the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component installation. You can download the installation file from the ActiveXperts download site.

To install the component manual, see the manual, chapter Installation (Manual).

Please read the following item: How to use ActiveXperts Serial Port Component in Visual Basic. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

Please read the following item: How to use ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with VBScript. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

You must refer to the object before you can declare and create it. Go to the 'Project' menu, choose 'References...' and put the checkbox near 'ActiveXperts Serial Port Component Type Library'.

HTML AND JAVASCRIPT

The sample ONLY runs on Microsoft Internet Explorer (64/32 bit). Microsoft Edge is NOT supported. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari are NOT supported either.

Please read the following article: How to digitally sign an ActiveXperts software component.

By default, the Mozilla FireFox browser is not configured to support sites that load ActiveX controls. By using a plugin it is possible to run the Serial Port Component control. Click here to learn how to enable Serial Port Component for your Mozilla browser.

Please read the following article: Using Serial Port Component with HTML. This document describes how to refer to ActiveXperts Serial Port Component, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

Yes it is possible. There is an online sample that shows how to use the component in an HTML page.

In this sample, the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component ActiveX component is downloaded and installed automatically from the ActiveXperts web site. You get prompted to trust the activexperts.com site. You can customize this HTML sample, and let the ActiveX source point to another location by changing the 'codebase' reference inside this HTML file.

To avoid prompting, please read article Q3250025.

There are basically three ways to avoid prompting:

1. Add the website that hosts the ActiveX component to the trusted sites of all Internet Explorers. This would need some automatic configuration on your LAN's Internet Explorers, for instance through Group Policy (recommended) or through logon script. This way you only decrease Internet Explorer security for that particular site. Security for all other sites remains the same. This solution only works as long as the Serial Port Component users are part of your network.
   
   
2. You can sign the component (the actual AxSerial32.dll). If you only use the component for internal use (i.e. in your network), you can use the standard Windows Certificate Server (part of Win2000 and higher). For more more information on signing an ActiveX component yourself, see activexperts.com/support/toolkits/sign. If the component is used outside your network, you should use a public Certificate Authority, for instance Verisign.
   ActiveXperts Software does not offer facilities to sign ActiveX COM/OLE components.
   
   
3. From the Internet Explorer menu, select "Tools" -> "Internet Options"; click the security tab, and click the 'Custom level...' button.
   In the list of options, change the 'Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting' setting from disable to prompt. When you restart Internet explorer and run the page again, Internet Explorer will ask you whether to run the control or not. When asked click 'Yes' and the page should work correctly.

VISUAL C++

This means, that you have not included the MFC libraries in your Visual Studio installation.

Solution:

• Insert the Visual Studio installation media
• Launch the 'Visual Studio Installer'
• Click on the 'Modify' button
• Select the 'Individual Components' tab
• C++ MFC for latest build vXYZ tools (x86 & x64)

After that, rebuild the C++ MFC Forms project

You need Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 or higher. All sample projects are created in Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2019. If you use a newer version of Visual Studio, then Visual Studio will prompt you to convert the project file.

If you use an older version of Visual Studio, you must recreate the sample projects yourself and add the source files.

In all C++ files that make use of an ActiveXperts Serial Port object, you must include 'AxSerial.tlb' and 'AxSerialConstants.h'. No files need to be added to the project.

In all C++ files that make use of an ActiveXperts Serial Port Component object, you must include 'AxSerial.tlb' and 'AxSerialConstants.h'. No files need to be added to the project.

Yes, you can, but you can only compile the Console Applications. The Forms applications make use of the Microsoft MFC framework, which is not supported by Microsoft Visual Studio Express.

VISUAL BASIC .NET AND VISUAL C# .NET

Please read the following document: Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with Visual C# .NET. This document describes how to refer to the SMS Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

You haven't installed and registered the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component ActiveX component properly. This component can be installed and registered automatically by running the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component installation, or by registring manually (see also FAQ Q3000015).

Please read the following document: Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with Visual Basic .NET. This document describes how to refer to the SMS Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

You haven't installed and registered the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component ActiveX component properly. This component can be installed and registered automatically by running the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component installation, or by registring manually (see also FAQ Q3000015).

The samples require .NET Framework 2.0 or higher.

You need Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or higher. All sample projects are created in Visual Studio 2008. If you use a newer version of Visual Studio, then Visual Studio will prompt you to convert the project file.

All .NET samples make use of .NET framework 2.0

ASP .NET

See FAQ 3350007.

See FAQ 3350030.

You haven't installed and registered the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component ActiveX component properly. This component can be installed and registered automatically by running the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component installation, or by registring manually (see also FAQ Q3000015).

See FAQ 3350005.

See FAQ 3350003.

See FAQ 3350002.

ASP

Please read the following document: Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with ASP. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

The ASP sample opens the port on the ASP Web Server's machine. This is because the object is instantiated on the web server. However, it is also possible to use the component on the client's PC with the browser. You must then create the object from within the client's HTML code using Javascript. Please check FAQ item 3250020 for details.

On the webserver, the IUSR_<computername> credentials are used for all SMS operations. The IUSR_<computername> is only member of the Guests group by default; it doesn't have sufficient permissions to query the Windows Telephony Devices. By making the IUSR_<computername> account member of the Local Administrators group, you will be able to see all Windows Telephony Devices.

DELPHI

Please read the following document: Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with Delphi. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

PHP

By default, COM is disabled in Xampp. You must enable COM in your PHP.INI file:
extension=php_com_dotnet.dll

Besides that, make sure you register both 32-bit and 64-bit DLL's to avoid error "Uncaught com_exception: Failed to create COM object 'AxSerial.ComPort': Invalid syntax in C:\Xampp\htdocs\serialport\index.php".
To do so, please register both 32-bit and 64-bit DLL's from the command line in Admin mode:
REGSVR32 AxSerial32.dll
REGSVR32 AxSerial64.dll

First of all, COM is enabled on Xampp, so there's no need to modify PHP.INI. The problem is that the ActiveXperts COM component is not registered. Best is to register both 32-bit and 64-bit DLL's, so you're not dependent on the type of web-application or Xampp version (32/64 bit). The 32-bit and 64-bit ActiveX controls can both be registered at the same time without a conflict.

So, make sure you register both 32-bit and 64-bit DLL's from the command line in Admin mode:
REGSVR32 AxSerial32.dll
REGSVR32 AxSerial64.dll

Please read the following document: Using Serial Port Component with PHP. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

COLDFUSION

Please read the following document: Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with ColdFusion. This document describes how to refer to the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component library, and how to declare, create and use the objects.

LICENSING

Renewals that come in after the maintenance has expired will be backdated to start from the old expiry date. Also, you are only able to get Technical Support and Software Maintenance when your support contract is valid.

Please read the manual, chapter: Purchase and Product Activation.

No, we do not ship or sell the source code of our products.

The only source code that is included with our products are code samples shipped, to show how to use the component in various programming languages.

After 30 days of evaluation, you won't be able to call the Open method anymore. If you call this function, nothing happens and LastError will indicate a license expiration.

During the first (1) year after purchase, Maintenance is free. After this free Maintenance year, Licensee may purchase Maintenance. The price for the Maintenance Agreement is 15% of the price that was payed for the product.

Customers choose between one-, two- and three years Maintenance Agreement renewal. Please read the Maintenance Agreement document for more details.

To learn about the different license options for ActiveXperts Serial Port Component, click here.

For detailed sales information, check the Sales webpage.

ActiveXperts' Maintenance Agreement entitles customers to use ActiveXperts' technical support services, and to receive all product upgrades, free of charge, during a specified Agreement duration. The Maintenance Agreement applies to all ActiveXperts products.

After purchase, you get 1 year Maintenance for free

After this free Maintenance period, Licensee may purchase Maintenance. The price for the Maintenance Agreement is 15% of the price that was payed for the product.

Read our Maintenance Agreement in PDF format.

Please read the following online article: How to distribute an ActiveXperts Component.

The 'Distribution License' allows you to 'bundle' the component with your own software. It allows you to ship the product to an unlimited number of customers for an unlimited period of time. There are no limitations to functionality of the software.

Click here for more information about the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component licensing options.

Once you have obtained a Distribution License, you receive a key that you can use on the target computers. Click here to read more about how to distribute this key with the core product DLL on the target computers.

Click here for more information about the ActiveXperts Serial Port licensing options.

MISCELLANEOUS

Yes, ActiveXperts Serial Port Component is 100% thread-safe. It can be used by multiple applications simultaneously, and each individual application can have multiple simultaneous threads using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component. This doesn't mean that COM ports can be shared by different threads; usually this is not possible.

Basically this is how it works (illustrated by a VBScript sample):

Set o1 = CreateObject( "AxSerial.Comport" )
Set o2 = CreateObject( "AxSerial.Comport" )

o1.Device = "COM1"
o1.DeviceSpeed = 19200
o1.Open

o2.Device = "COM2"
o2.DeviceSpeed = 19200
o2.Open

Use the WriteByte function. It sends one byte of data to the comport. Usually, you call 'WriteString "ATZ"' to initialize a modem. You can also use the following commands to accomplish this:

obj.WriteByte 97
obj.WriteByte 116
obj.WriteByte 122
obj.WriteByte 13 ' 13 means: vbCr, the carriage character