Pronterface can't connect to Mendel

I am a noob with a problem.

I have a Mendel that uses the Techzone remix of the gen3 electronics. I have been able to connect using the Arduino IDE and have loaded the firmware on the main board and the extruder board with no problems. When I try to connect using Pronterface I get a message that says "can't connect to port COM3, Access is denied"

I think that this means that Pronterface thinks that the COM port is in use but I don't know what to do about it. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

I had previously connected just fine with the Reprap host software on my Linux machine but that laptop has failed so I am trying to get things going on my WinXP desktop box. Reprap host doesn't seem to be happy there and won't run.

Did you check the connection speed?
The speed will depend on how you configured the firmware.

Silly question. You did close Arduino IDE before you tried Pronterface?

I have a similar problems if I try to access my Prusa from one without closing the other. Sometimes I have to replug my USB to get 2 consecutive runs of Proterface to access the port.

A big THANKS geoffd!

Quite a few people seem to succumb to this connection problem. It's happened to me twice now - the first time 6 months ago, on a different PC, and I wasn't really sure how I got it working first time.

I was running Pronterface + Sprinter with Sanguinololu, now trying Marlin in place of Sprinter; all else the same.

The USB unplug, re-plug with two consecutive runs of Pronterface seemed to do it for me too.

You've just given me the confidence to update my firmware a lot more regularly

Cheers,
Hamish

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2012 04:31AM by hairykiwi.