How I Managed Sticky Serial Ports (With Way More Hassle Than Anyone Tells You)
Alright, so here’s the deal: serial ports can be a huge pain, especially when you’ve only got one and about five programs fighting over it like hungry raccoons. Here’s how I finally got them to cooperate without throwing my computer out the window.
First, you’ll need this little piece of software: Virtual COM port Driver. The name isn’t fancy, but trust me, it does the job.
The Unofficial Playbook to Virtual Serial Insanity
- Download and install that above toolkit. Pro tip: give it admin rights, or you’ll be stuck in installation purgatory forever.
- Once it’s running, you can literally spawn new virtual COM ports. It’s wild—like opening extra doors in a hallway that wasn’t supposed to have any.
- You’re not just stuck with basic one-to-one magic here. You can set up COM port pairs—think digital walkie-talkies that talk to each other inside your computer, no cables required.
- Bundles? Yeah, you can make them too. Imagine a COM port buffet, where software pulls whatever data it wants from the same source.
- And if you ever needed to share one physical port with a bunch of squabbling programs, this lets you clone that port, so not everyone is elbowing each other for space.
- Want to split serial signals between apps? Done. This thing slices—this thing dices. (Just don’t expect any culinary miracles.)
TL;DR (because who reads all this?)
Go get the Virtual COM port Driver, spin up some virtual ports, and you’ll be able to share and split serial ports among multiple apps like an absolute wizard. I swear, if I’d known this trick back when troubleshooting printers in the office, I would’ve saved a ton of headaches. Good luck. You’ll need it.