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OA47

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Joined: 11/04/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 986

Posted: 09:40pm 28 Dec 2020

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I was wondering if any other shedders are experiencing issues with the CH340 USB-SERIAL converters in WINDOWS 10. I have had a VB application start failing a few weeks ago and it seems only to fail on 64 bit versions of WIN 10. I have tried updating drivers for the CH340, rolling back drivers and replacing the CH340 modules but I still get the issue.
The driver files are CH341S64.SYS and serenum.sys and I have tried versions from 2005 thru to 2019 and all seem to currently fail on the application.

Unfortunately I can only replicate the issue running the VB app on some PC's and notebooks and not others. I am using the CH340 to communicate between the app and a LoRa serial input radio.

I would hope that this is not another episode like the Prolific USB-Serial drama.

Any help would be much appreciated.
OA47

pdeivendran

Newbie

Joined: 18/09/2020
Location: Malaysia
Posts: 9

Posted: 09:54pm 28 Dec 2020

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Dear OA47,

These are Chinese manufactured chips, although cheap maybe be unreliable in quality and plus may not be fully certified as a windows 10 driver. Especially with the windows 10.

Try using other manufacturers like FTDI and others, they have new and cheaper chips for serial communications.

Most important, non of these USB-Serial chips are stable on VMWare environment....windows is getting better!!

Dave aka siliconfreak

TassyJim

Guru

Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6283

Posted: 10:23pm 28 Dec 2020

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I use a few CH340 devices. All my Arduino nanos use them as well.
Never had any problems with Windows 10 or Linux.

They are my preferred USB-TTL adapter at the moment.

I use PureBasic.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

OA47

Guru

Joined: 11/04/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 986

Posted: 10:28pm 28 Dec 2020

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Thanks for the reply Dave. As the offending PC is an hours drive away, I have been first hoping for a software fix as I have remote access to the PC. It is unusual that the application has been working with the CH340s for a number of years before the issue arose some weeks back.

OA47

lizby
Guru

Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3378

Posted: 12:01am 29 Dec 2020

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I probably have 2 dozen of the CH340 usb/serial modules. Occasionally, they die, I have found, but mostly they just work for me (Win10 and various routers with USB ports running openWrt).

PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5091

Posted: 06:03pm 29 Dec 2020

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Hi OA47,

When the device is in a remote location, is it possible there is hardware damage due to nearby lightning.?

I had one (not sure if it is a CH340) USB serial interface board that has weak ESD damage, and outputs logic levels that are not reliable (Vhigh out = 2.0V). It worked unreliable, depending temperature. I found this out the hard way, AFTER the application was installed at customers home.... Shame, shame.

But your case sounds different. If the device has operated well for years, and after a W10 software update it stops working...

Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

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