Pump connected to a computer
I am having trouble connecting to my pump. I do see the occasional situation arise like this, and they all end up working.
Try this simple troubleshooting procedure:
| 1. Disconnect the pump from the computer, and it’s power source |  |
| 2. Remove the USB-RS232 device from the computer – if your using one – you should be. | |
| 3. Shut the computer down | |
| 4. If you feel the need open a window and yell | |
| 5. It’s important that you take a several minute break here – because it takes some of those USB rs232 devices a few minutes to power down properly. Coffee break! |  |
Take a deep breath and:
- Forget that it was working
- Forget what you have done
- Adopt the artificial point of view that this is the first time you have connected the pump and the computer.
I say this because most of these scenarios seem to include folks saying but I did ….. and in the end clearly they cant have done ….. or it would have worked. It’s a mental block that the hardware doesn’t share with us humans.
Ok – let the rebuild begin.
| 1. Power up the pump with power only connected,. | |
| 2. Issue a reset command to the pump. How to reset your pump. | |
| 3. Turn on your computer. | |
| 4. Plug in the USB-RS232 device keep an eye out for Windows saying it has detected the hardware. Ttry using a different USB port – it can help – it shouldn’t make a difference – but it does. |  |
| 5. Inspect the pump communications cable carefully – these seem to become unreliable. Some cables are not wired correctly – try to compare the colors and the connections in both of your cables. Wouldn’t be the first time some has bought a new cable and it’s wired wrong for our application, and at the same time the original cable is faulty. | |
| 6. Connect the cable between the pump and the USB-RS232 device. Make sure you connect to the socket marked computer on the pump’s rear panel. |
|
| 7. Launch SyringePumpPro…. it should connect automatically at this point. If it doesn’t you can try the Pump Network -> Discover Pumps – but I suspect that wont work. But I would like to be told I am wrong. :-) |
If this hasn’t worked you really should contact me and let me help you work this out
Other things to try:
Sometimes it’s a hardware failure with the USBRS232 device, but most often it’s the cable to the pumps or um…. operator being all thumbs. :-)
The most common problem is that the wires/cables/connectors are bad or not making good contact. Please check all the cables and connectors.- If you are using a USB to rs232 device, ensure that the driver is installed on your computer, then restart the program.
- Make sure your pump (or one pump on the pump network) is set to address 0. (This is set as the default from the factory)
- Ensure that the pump baud and the program baud rates are the same
- If you have more than one pump on the network, please ensure only one has address 0. It would be better to connect only one pump initially and get that working.
- Will reinstalling SyringePumpPro resolve my issue? No probably not. It won’t hurt anything if you try this, but I have not had anyone fix and installation. You won’t need a new license key either – if your using the same computer.
The most common problem is that the