BU-353S4 causing windows10 to crash every time

[jsmbythebay]

I'm running the latest version of OPenCPN 5.0.0 on a Windows 10 Home laptop.

System and program run find w/out GPS

I followed the OpenCPN instructions to add the GPS puck. The good news is that it works.

Bad news is that w/in 60 seconds the entire system crashes with a Windows10 blue restart screen.

If I keep the puck in the USB port or add it, same thing, BSOD crash.

If I take the puck out of the USB Port, OpenCPN runs fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks and sorry if this is an inappropriate protocol. I am in Guadeloupe and have barely any internet....

[rgleason]

I believe this is a configuration problem.

Since there are several ways to configure please give details step by step of what you have done and what your connection settings are for the gps.

Also please attach your ini file and just the last recording of your log file (one where it crashed).

Help to do this -look in FAQ of the manual and read (items at the top). how to attach files. Also hit the ? in the toolbar and read how to get the ini and log files.

[jsmbythebay]

Thank you fro the quick reply and sorry for my tardy one (internet issues)

I followed these configuration instructons https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...rted:gps_setup

The only adjustment I made was to select the COM port and to choose 4800 bit/second

[jsmbythebay]

can't seem to upload these files but the are at

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qo...h_HvwvPj3fcqTZ

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CG...s_WHdSohjW6_pU

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by jsmbythebay

I followed the OpenCPN instructions to add the GPS puck. The good news is that it works.

Obviously it works not. There are several lines in your logfile saying:
4:31:34 AM: NMEA input device open failed: COM5


Either you have a bad driver or the connection cable is damaged.

[jsmbythebay]

Thanks

Brand New gps unit

And driver install

Not many gps pucks in these parts. So guess i am out of luck

Surprised by the bsod still

[rgleason]

Before trying opencp with the puck, did you confirm that the puck is working using their software, it used to be "gpsinfo".
Once you know the puck is working that way, shutdown gpsinfo, and find the com port being used. The start opencpn and configure the connection. Do not run 2 gos programs at the same time. This is shown in the documentation.

You are not describing in detail what you have done. For us to help you must take rhe time.

Also never remove usb from port without ejecting it, or you may damage it. This is electronics!

[Akka]

I'm having the same problem with OpenCPN and AIS data. I'm downloading AIS data from my Standard Horizon GX2150 VHFradio on COM4 at 38600 baud, via a Prolific Serial-to-USB connection. AIS targets appear on O, apparently correctly. Then, after several minutes, Windows 10 displays the Blue Screen of Death and reboots.



I'm downloading GPS data concurrently, using COM3. My .ini and .log files are attached.



I noticed that the log file includes lots of "Changing NMEA Datasource for GPRMC to Serial:COM3 (Priority: 1)" messages. What's that all about?



I'm also attaching a snippet from the AIS data stream, as recorded by Tera Term. I notice that the data consists of what must be AIS sentences, then suddenly becomes garbled. Is that causing the problem? If so, is there some way to configure O to reject those garbled sentences?

[JohnGC]

The problem may be the drivers for your Prolific device.

I would check that you have the latest driver from Prolific and that your device is supported on W10.

At one time, Prolific had a particularly bad reputation and caused W7 to blue screen quite often. I haven't used them since W7 and much prefer devices based on FTDI or SiliconLabs serial-USB bridges.

Around the time MS started to impose strict compatibility testing, Prolific said they would withdraw from the market. However, I think they came back again.

John

[barnakiel]

Try a different driver. It is likely the driver that causes the crash.


Try the newest one, then try the one -1 ver.



b.

[Akka]

Thank you, barnakiel and JohnGC, for your quick responses.
OK, I've got it -- I should trash the Prolific connector and buy a different brand. I'm already using an old driver, on purpose -- the Prolific drivers since 3.2.0.0 (which is maybe 10 years old) don't work. There's lots about this on other threads on this forum.

But what I don't understand is, Windows 10 doesn't ever crash when I'm bringing this data in and reading it on a terminal emulator. This, it seems to me, points to a problem with O-CPN 5.0.0. Inasmuch as rgleason experienced the same problem using a BU-353S4 puck and O, I would have thought the place to look for a bug is in O's processing of outside data, not in the various drivers he and I are using. The fact that both rgleason and I have logs showing O closing down ports also would seem to point to a problem with O, not the drivers.

I already bring GPS data in via a Brainboxes device. I'll do a test -- bring in the AIS data through that device, feed it to O, and see what happens. I'll report the result.

[JohnGC]

Blue screens and other symptoms result from "clashes" between the use of resources. EG Using the same memory.

All you can really diagnose from what you have seen is that the Prolific driver and OpenCPN clash. Without detailed investigation you can't determine which is at fault (or indeed if both are).

OpenCPN may well be using a resource legitimately that your terminal emulator does not. So the problem only occurs with OCPN even though it isn't at fault. This too is speculation.

I'd apply Occam's razor; Prolific USB bridges had a poor reputation for causing blue screens with Windows 7 onward and OCPN "in general" does not.

I have had to diagnose problems caused by the mismanagement of memory on Windows; it is hard to do because of the external influence of other applications and background services. The fault rarely manifests on executing the line of code at fault but usually sometime later.

On a side note: I first used Brainboxes serial devices around 1993. They were and still are based in Liverpool. Back then, their product and support was second to none.

[transmitterdan]

Several changes to the serial port code are in latest OpenCPN V5.2 for Windows. Have you tried the latest version of O?

[Gilletarom]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Several changes to the serial port code are in latest OpenCPN V5.2 for Windows. Have you tried the latest version of O?

On the French forum Hisse-et-Oh, there are also users of O5.2 who notice that this GPS, which they had managed to run under 5.0, does not work under 5.2.


But, without crash problem.



Gilletarom.

[wholybee]

Definitely switch to a device that uses the FTDI chipset. 3 issues with the prolific:

There are compatibility issues with a lot of software. Especially older software.
There are many counterfeits of the chipset. The driver issue you have is a symptom of that, as prolific updates the driver to break the counterfeits.
The prolific will often use a different com port if you reboot, and/or move it to a different USB port. The FTDI will always use the some com port designation.