Hello and Help :-)

[coops1]

Hello all,

My name is Ricky and I have been PAT testing for a few years now for schools. I was a site manager in a school in London and they used to sub me out to other schools in the area.
I have now left and decided to go it on my own. I have set up a web site and built a database and just done my first mail shot so fingers crossed I get some work.
I have just brought a Seaward Supernova which although 10 years old looks new. I went and had it calibrated and it turns out it has only done 70 tests in its life so is as good as new.
It come with patgard 3.0 which I have uploaded onto my laptop. I don’t want to buy anything else until I start getting customers then I might go for patgard pro.

Now for the bit I need help with:

Patgard has all loaded and seems to be working fine. I have done a few tests in the house and can’t seem to get them to download
onto the laptop or the patgard database.
I have both manuals for the supernova and the patgard but am struggling. Any help would be very much appreciated as have spent hours on it now and am not getting anywhere.

 

[patdev]

Hi Ricky,

Couple of things you could check.

1) Are you using the download cable that came with your supernova? The wiring of download cable for these pat testers is specific.

2) Are you also using a USB to Serial converter (you would need this if you have a newer PC which doesn't come with a com port (9 pin serial port).

3) If you are using a USB to Serial converter you still need to use the download cable in line as well.

4) If you are using a USB to Serial converter you may need to check the drivers are installed correctly. Those converters with an FTDI chipset seem to work best when downloading PAT Testers.

5) If you are using a USB to Serial converter you may want to check it has assigned it a low com port number (between 1 and 4) as sometimes it will be assigned a high number com port 15 for example and software may struggle to see a com port that high. You can often change the assigned com port through device manager.


You could also try seawards help line.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[coops1]

Thank you for your reply Patdav, you have been very helpful.

I think from what you are saying I can see where I am going wrong. I have just pluged in the usb to serial converter direct from the pat tester to the lap top. It has assigned a com port 3 so that part is all ok and the settings on the supernova and the com port all look right. I will try conecting the other cable that come with the pat tester in line and see if that gets me anywhere.
I dont know if it is a "chipset" or not as it is one I had in my odds and sods draw
I see them for sale for around £10/20 though and it has blue plugs with a silver wire?!
Many thanks again
Ricky

 

[coops1]

All sorted, just needed to add the other lead in line. You wouldn't believe how many hours I spent changing settings and reading two sets of manuals as well as trawling the net. Thanks again for the help

 

[patdev]

Glad you are up and running, or downloading

Just for information, if you want to check which chipset your USB to Serial Converter is using:

Under Ports (Com & Lpt) in Device Manager (accessed through control panel on your PC), right click on the USB Serial Port and select properties, and click on the Driver tab.

You should see the name of the Driver Provider there.

Rich.

 

[oldtimer]

Coops before I left my last job I wrote a procedure for this sorry to say I cannot get a copy but yes at the time I was advised to get a serial -USB convertor and I loaded Patguard lite onto the laptop but had problems so I call Seaward technical and he took me through the procedure via the device manager section as I had to change the Comm ports and the bit rates he was very helpful.