MSCOMM Active-X Control

[Daveyk01]

I have built an automated procedure in VBA Access 2000 that is now great (thanks to a lot of downloaded help from this forum). I use the MSCOMM active-x control to talk to an instrument via the serial port.

Question: Is that control only working because I also have VB6 installed on this same computer? It seems to me that I tried something like this a year ago and could not get MSCOMM to work in Access, but at the same time, I didn't have great MSCOMM examples to go by. I do now as I could rob them from other programs my company has written in VB6.

I have both VB6 and Access 2000, but chose to develope this procedure in Accesss because of the heavy amount of data to store (and I know VBA much better than I do VB6). I thought Access is a natural. But now I am wondering if I will have problems distriubuting this database to other service offices that may not have a machine with VB6 on it?

Do they need just plot MSCOMM32.OCX in to their system32 directory??

 

[RuralGuy]

I don't have a good answer for you but found a couple of interesting links:
http://mc-computing.com/Databases/MSAccess/ActiveX.html
http://www.thescarms.com/vbasic/commio.aspx
Maybe it will help.

 

[Daveyk01]

I don't have a good answer for you but found a couple of interesting links:
http://mc-computing.com/Databases/MSAccess/ActiveX.html
http://www.thescarms.com/vbasic/commio.aspx
Maybe it will help.

Here is from Microsoft:
Hello David,

Thank you for Contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand from your e-mail that you would like to know whether Microsoft provides an installation package for MSCOMM32.OCX for Access 2000 without installing Visual Basic 6.0.

I recommend that you contact our Developer Support Professionals to receive assistance. They have the technical understanding of this issue and they will be able to assist you further. You can contact them at (800) 936-5800 (available from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. Pacific Time Monday to Friday).

David, you may search the Product Solution Center or the Knowledge Base of self-help articles to resolve your issue using the following link:
http://support.microsoft.com/

I hope your issue is resolved soon and appreciate your patience in this regard.

Thank you,

Girish
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

 

[RuralGuy]

They ducked it too. Nice! Good luck with your quest.

 

[Daveyk01]

They ducked it too. Nice! Good luck with your quest.

If they don't want to sell me a MSCOMM32.OCX package, I can always make a requirement that VB6 is installed on the testing system. Probably most of techs will already have that already since this isn't the only automated procedure we have. The rest are in compiled VB6 programs.

I haven't tired the regestry entry suggestion given by that one web site. My first desire would be to purchase propperly licensed OCX packages. If they are not available... oh well, I'll figure something else out

 

[DT]

David,
I am doing something similar. I ended up creating a VB front end for the end user and the database for the managers. We are getting weights from a scale. The problem we are having (not really a problem) is that they user has to press a button on the scale to get the info and press a button in the VB form to send to the database. They don't like this. So I've purchased a program called WinWedge ($260). I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. You might want to check into it. It will talk directly to Access. I'll my results when I get the time.

Derek

 

[DemonDNF]

I don't have a good answer for you but found a couple of interesting links:
http://mc-computing.com/Databases/MSAccess/ActiveX.html
...
Maybe it will help.

That read makes me want to cry. I'm finishing up a beta version of an Access 2002 system that uses MSCOMM32.OCX.

I made a test folder with a copy of my MDB, copied the OCX into the folder and keep getting UNABLE TO MAKE AN MDE error using MS Access 2002, MS Office Pro.

I have Visual Studio 6 Enterprise "somewhere" in the house. Is there a utility in there that would make deployment less painful?

Robert