Thread: Virtual COM Port Splitter

Good find, I've been looking for something like this too. I found a bunch of things but they all wanted about $200 and this looks free!

I've made a physical splitter. It works too.

Originally Posted by yuprules

Somebody try running Streets and Trips with Mappoint 2004 at the same time

I'm going to try Mapsource Canada v4 with Mappoint 2004, I'll report back soon!

Originally Posted by ukchris

Awesome! I just got this working, I have my GPS on COM4 now spewing NMEA data to COM5 and COM6! Now all I need to do is figure out how to read it in Delphi...!

Chris.

Ermmm,

I don't suppose you can explain how you got it working can you?
Can't make head nor tail of it! My GPS is on Com3 and I'd like to split it Com4 and 5.
Really appreciate it if you can assist.

Regards
Doug

ComFoolery/CPR instructions
For the purposes of this example, let's say that we're trying to create virtual comports 4 and 5 that both alias to COM3.

1)Run Comfoolery.
2)Set it up to point to Com3 (it's in the settings. After you do this, it should say "Com3 Open" or something very similar in the upper-left box.
3)It defaults to making TCP port 5751 as your read/write port.
(This has taken all data going into and out of Com3 and made it available via a TCP port. If you were to read and write data to this port, you would actually be reading and writing data to COM 3.)

---------------------------------------------
1)Now run the Comport Redirector.
2)Click on "Com Setup"
3)It will show you the ports that are available for it to create. If Comports 4 and 5 actually already exist on your computer, they will be greyed out, and Comport Redirectory (CPR) won't let you make comports there. Put checkmarks next to the two comports you are trying to create. (Let's assume for as second that Comports 4 and 5 are available for you to do this with.)
4)Now click "OK".
5)In the "Port Configuration" box, you will now see it say "Redirect COM4 To:"
So it is telling us that it will make a virtual COM4, but it needs to know what this virtual COM4 will be reading from and writing to in the background, so let's tell it.
6) Click on "Add IP"
7) In the "Host field," put 127.0.0.1 (This is the IP address for your local computer.)
8) In the port field, put 5751, since that is the port that Comfoolery has made for us.
9) Click on the dropdown box and Select COM5. Do steps 6-8 on it too.
10) Now this next part took me a while to figure out. CLICK ON PORT SETTINGS.
11) Click on "Raw Mode" If you don't do this, CPR will think it's talking to some other special program with their own special protocol, and that's not at all what we want, as Comfoolery has no idea what that special protocol is. It only understands bits in and bits out. "Raw Mode" tells it to just send the raw data it receives through the virtual COM ports it makes through to the IP addresses we have configured it to.
12) Click Save and Close

-----------------
1) Reboot your machine so that CPR can create the virtual comports you set it up to.
2) Run Comfoolery again. It should remember your settings and say "COM3 open"
3) To test, open up hyper terminal. Click "cancel" on that first box that asks you about icons for your connection.
4) Click on File->Properties
5) In the "Connect Using" field, choose "Com4"
6) Click OK
7) Hit enter when you are on the main hyperterminal screen.
8) It will now try to connect to COM4. CPR should pop up a box telling you that it is redirecting COM4 to 127.0.0.1:5751.
9) Comfoolery should list 127.0.0.1 as a client.
10) If you type something into Hyperterminal, it will show up in the Comfoolery box as "Data to port" box.
11) You can also open another Hyperterminal window now, connect to COM5, and type stuff in that window. Now you have two hyperterminal windows that THINK they are talking to separate COM ports, which are, in reality, talking to COM3. They will of course be able to see each other's traffic as well, so everything you type in one Hyperterminal you will see in the other.

Let me know if this works for you.

Cheers,

Taytay

Originally Posted by moahdib

There's a program called Serial Splitter @ www.eltima.com
I don't know the cost but it works for XP. U can make 255 virtual COM ports. That means 1 GPS receiver and 255 apps

Thanks for the info moadib (dig the handle by the way), but the programs we are talking about are freeware (in the case of version 1.0 of Comfoolery and the Com Port Redirector Program), or cheap ($10) shareware (in the case of the latest version of Comfoolery). They allow you to do the same thing.

Cheers,

Taylor