Test and Measurement Forum

Hi Pico support people,

I've got an ADC212/3 connected via parallel port to a laptop running Win98.
Picoscope is displaying "Waiting for ADC" and nothing is happening.
In Help/About, I get "Error 13 (H255 S0)"
My Driver is ADC 200 V4.02
My Picoscope version is Rel 5.13.3 -32 bit.
pico.vxd is v1.5

The bios for the parallel port on the laptop is set to "normal mode".
I've just done a clean install of win98 and there's no other peripherals set up.

Any ideas of what the problem is ?
What is Error 13 (H255 S0) ?

Regards,
Patrick.

Hi

Thank you for your post.

Does the red light go out when the software tries to open? If it does then the computer is at least making contact with the unit.

Firstly I would recommend checking the output of the mains adaptor to make sure it is giving a sufficient voltage. It should be giving around 18V when unloaded. I would also recommend trying the unit on another computer to see if it is faulty.

Let me know how you get on with this.

Best Regards

Hi Sarah,

thanks for your reply. The light stays on and doesn't blink or anything.
I'll check the power supply as you mention.

I've contacted tech support and I believe that the installation software is not installing correctly. I'm running win98. I can't find a .inf on the pc after installation so I'm suspecting there's a problem.

I'll update this post if/when I get some answers.

Regards, Patrick

Hi

Thank you for your post.

If the light is not going out then it is not making contact with the unit at all.

Try selecting all the available LPT ports. Try LPT1, LPT2 and LPT3 to see if any these give readings. This is because Windows can virtualise the parallel port and it could be going by a different number.

If this doesn't help, then check and make sure that nothing else is installed to the parallel port. Printers, scanners and zip drives can all cause driver conflicts. If there is anything installed try assigning it to a different port or uninstalling it and see if this helps.

Also check the parallel port settings in the BIOS of the computer. It should be set to one of the following modes:

SPP, Normal, Output Only, Unidirectional

It should not be set to ECP, EPP or Bidirectional.

The inf file is not normally visible - it is in a hidden folder. It should reside in C:\Windows\inf and is called picopp.inf. You will need to turn the invisible folders on to see this.

Let me know how you get on.

Best Regards

Hi Sarah,

just as a follow-up. I got the ADC216 working after I replaced the parallel cable. I found out that my cable was for 'direct connection to another computer'. These cables won't work with the picoscopes.

Regards,

Patrick