ArcPad 10 Error

Question

andres olaya‌ asked in the Esri Forestry Group (EFG)‌:

I'm using ArcPad 10 in order to grab some tree locations among woodlots, when I activate the GPS tool an Error 21 appears saying: "Error 21 when attempting to open communications port COM 10." Does anyone have an idea how to troubleshoot this issue?

TheKenerson · Answer

Check the COM Ports for sure. And compare that with the manual. The manual will let you know what COM Port is the GPS. Once it is aligned correctly, restart the device.

jamesengland · Answer

I would agree it sounds like the COM port or baud rate is incorrect. You dindt say which device it is but I would try looking under the GPDS menu on the device settings out with ArcPAD and see what it comes up with. If there is a utility to test the GPS status I would give that a go. then you would just need to ensure in GPS properties in ArcPAd that it has the same variables for the COM port.

Regards

James

JorgeOrellana · Answer

Sounds like the com port configuration of the GPS unit and Arcpad are off. In Arcpad under the GPS preferences you can search for the ports and see if the program can find it. (see here: ArcPad Help‌) If it cannot find it, you'd have to provide more information on the type of unit you are using to check the hardware settings to see if they are set correctly.

But as a general rule of thumb if it's not working, reboot the device. I used to manage and troubleshoot hand-held data collectors and a large portion of the time where errors were being displayed a good ol' fashion reboot would solve the issue as well.

Cheers