Unable to establish communication with any data acquisition hardware

Diagnosing Communication Problems

MP160

See MP160 Troubleshooting Guide and associated MP160 flow chart.

MP150

See MP150 Troubleshooting Guide and associated MP150 flow chart.

MP100

For an MP100, the most likely issue is a missing device driver. If the computer is networked, then the device driver may be found automatically in the Windows repository. Open the Device Manager control panel, locate “Universal Serial Bus controllers”, and expand it to find the USB1W. If the device is not listed there, look for an “unknown device” category and see if the device is listed there. Unplugging the USB1W and then plugging it in while the Device Manager is still open may be a necessary step to finding the device’s entry in the manager. Watch for an item that disappears when the USB1W is unplugged and reappears when the USB1W is plugged back in. Once the device’s entry in the device manager has been found, right-click on it, choose “Update Driver”, and then allow Windows to search for the driver. Alternatively, the driver may be found on the BIOPAC Systems website. From here, the driver may be downloaded directly to the computer or, if the computer is not networked, it may be downloaded elsewhere and transferred with a flash drive. Then when telling the computer to update the driver, Windows should be told where to find the driver (the location to which the files were transferred, but make sure to uncompress the folder first — typically you can right-click on the folder and choose “Extract all files…”).

AcqKnowledge versions that support data acquisition with MP100 also support data acquisition with MP150.  The software checks the Windows registry to determine which type of hardware to look for.  If upon startup AcqKnowledge reports that it cannot find any MP150s, then the registry is not set up appropriately for acquisition with an MP100.  The relevant registry items can be edited with the “MP Communication Type Utility”.  This utility is installed with the software and can be found (usually in an “AcqKnowledge” folder) in the Windows Start menu.  Click on the Windows icon at the lower left of the desktop and select “All Programs” to find the AcqKnowledge folder.  If the MP Communication Type utility indicates that the software should look for an MP100 but AcqKnowledge reports that it cannot find the MP100, try switching the hardware type to MP150 and then switching back to MP100.  To do this, launch the MP Communication Type utility, click on the MP150 radio button, click the “Switch” pushbutton, click “OK” to acknowledge that the registry has been edited, click the MP100 radio button, and click “Switch” again.  This may repair a corrupted registry and allow MP100 communication again.

Another problem that sometimes prevents communication is poor electrical contact with the pins in the 8-pin mini DIN connector between the USB1W and the MP100. On some models of USB1W the cable can be detached at both ends. In others, the cable can only be detached at the MP100. In either case, detach the cable where possible and verify that the pins on the male side of the connector are straight.

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