Dell FTDI Drivers

[tknight]

Good Morning All,

On a previous IHG call we spoke of some communication issues between newer Dell rugged Laptops/Tablets and SonTek M9s when using the supplied SonTek radio modem. We’ve seen the driver come standard with all newly purchased Latitude 5430 Rugged and 7330 Rugged systems and installed on some systems during the Dell Critical Update.

We’ve also reproduced the same communication issues when using USB-Serial cables that use a FTDI chip when trying to communicate with the M9, SL3G, and IQ.

The cause of the problem is due to a custom version of the FTDI driver that Dell is installing on their systems. Dell’s FTDI driver version will show as 2.14.1.6 or greater. The easiest way to fix the issue is to uninstall the driver and install the highest stable version posted on FTDI’s website (2.12.36.4). In the advanced settings of Dell’s driver “Serial Enumerator” has been disabled and “Enable Selective Suspend” has been enabled.

USGS has an open support ticket with Dell in attempt to resolve the issue. We have also included SonTek representatives in our correspondence with Dell to help with the process.

Topic

[tknight]

A quick update on this issue.

We have recently started hearing reports of users of RDI ADCPs having communication issues when using USB-Serial cables with FTDI driver versions greater than 2.12.36.4. They’ve seen the system tests end early and start live data readout, for example on a RioGrande the system test performs 17 tests instead of the full 23. There are no indications in WinRiverII that some of the tests are missing. Users have also reported data collection suddenly stopping and needing to power cycle the ADCP to regain communication.

[isaac.jones]

Hi all,

Here at SonTek we are aware of this issue and are working on gathering data and writing up a technical service bulletin (TSB). Our tech support group will distribute this TSB to all customers registered in our database. I will also post the TSB here once completed in the next few days. Until then, for those who have admin rights on their PCs I’ve attached instructions on how to change your FTDI driver.

Testing to date indicates the incompatible versions of the FTDI driver are v 2.14.1.8, 2.14.1.6, 2.14.1.2. These come installed on new Dell Latitude 5430 Rugged and Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme laptops.

The most current driver provided on the FTDI website (v 2.12.36.4) works well. We recommend reverting to this version of the driver if possible.

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