Caller ID, MSCOMM32.OCX MSComm Control

Sample Code:

MSCOMM32.OCX MSComm Control

This MSComm control (MSCOMM32.OCX) came with Visual Basic 6.0. We have a license to distribute this OCX with our Visual Basic application. If you need it to run our sample code to interface with our Caller ID Identifier unit or the Caller ID modem code, here it is:

Download a Copy of the MSCOM32.OCX

Download Now mscomm.zip 50K bytes
The MSCOMM32.OCX should be stored in your \windows\system folder.

Register with MS Access

To register within Access go to TOOLS/ACTIVE X CONTROLS and select \windows\system\mscomm32.ocx or Microsoft Communications Control and click on the REGISTER button.

If you use this OCX in a development environment like MS Access you may get a license error. If you get the licensing error

You do not have a license to use this ActiveX control.

The only way we know to get the licensing is to install VB 6 Professional. You can try the registry entry listed below.

We were sent this string to be entered into the registry to clear the license issue. We have not tried it but the sender says it worked for them and was confirmed by another. As far as licensing legal issues go, you're on your own. If you have any doubt don't do it. There is a known legal solution for .NET below.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved.
Modify the registry at your own risk.

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Run dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
Add the following.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses\4250E830-6AC2-11cf-8ADB-00AA00C00905]@ = "kjljvjjjoquqmjjjvpqqkqmqykypoqjquoun"

Someone else says this worked install the license for MSCOMM32.OCX with VB.NET

I executed VB6Controls.reg from the VB.Net installation CD and registered the .ocx and it worked.

.NET Solution

When you try to add an ActiveX control that was included with Visual Basic 6.0 to a form in Visual Studio 2005 or in Visual Studio .NET, you receive the following error message:

You do not have a license to use this ActiveX control.

CAUSE

You must have a design-time license to use Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX controls. These errors occur because the system registry does not contain the design-time license information. When you upgrade a project that contains Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX controls, or when you try to use Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX controls on a form in Visual Studio 2005 or in Visual Studio .NET, those controls must be installed and licensed on the target system.

Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio .NET do not install the license information for Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX controls unless the Visual Basic 6.0 controls are installed on the computer that is running Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET. This behavior may occur if Visual Basic 6.0 was never installed on the computer.

You do not receive these errors on a computer on which both Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET are installed because Visual Basic 6.0 installs the components and registers the licenses.

RESOLUTION

Add the licensing keys to the registry.

To resolve this problem, you must install the .ocx files for the ActiveX controls on the computer before you upgrade the project or before you use Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX controls on a form in Visual Studio 2005 or in Visual Studio .NET. To do this, use one of the following methods:

Method 1: Install Visual Basic 6.0 on the computer that is running Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET

Unlike earlier versions of Visual Basic, there are no conflicts between Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET when you install these programs on the same system. In many cases, Microsoft recommends that you install Visual Basic 6.0 on the computer that is running Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET.

If Visual Basic 6.0 is available on the computer, you can change the original Visual Basic 6.0 project more easily before you upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 or to Visual Studio .NET.

Method 2: Add the licensing keys to the registry

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. We guarantee that these problems can be solved.
Modify the registry at your own risk.

To add the licensing keys for the Visual Basic 6.0 controls to the registry, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET Installation Disk that has the \Extras\VB6 Controls folder in the in the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. The following list describes what disk to use for each product edition on CD-ROM:

Visual Studio 2005

Note The VB6Controls.reg registry file is not on the distribution media for any Visual Studio 2005 product.

Visual Studio .NET 2003 (not the MSDN disk)
All Enterprise Editions - Disk 2
Professional Edition - Disk 2
Standard Edition - Disk 1
Academic Edition - Disk 2
Visual Studio .NET 2002 (not the MSDN disk)
All Enterprise Editions - Disk 4
Professional Edition - Disk 4
Standard Edition - Disk 3
Academic Edition - Disk 4

2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Run dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
In the Registry Editor dialog box, click Import on the File menu.
5.Locate the \Extras\VB6 Controls folder on the Installation CD-ROM, select the VB6Controls.reg file, and then click Open. This step inserts all of the Visual Basic 6.0 ActiveX Controls license keys in the registry.

How the MSCOMM32.OCX Works

The MSComm control provides serial communications for your application by allowing the transmission and reception of data through a serial port.
Syntax
MSComm
Remarks
The MSComm control provides the following two ways for handling communications:

Event-driven communications is a very powerful method for handling serial port interactions. In many situations you want to be notified the moment an event takes place, such as when a character arrives or a change occurs in the Carrier Detect (CD) or Request To Send (RTS) lines. In such cases, use the MSComm control's OnComm event to trap and handle these communications events. The OnComm event also detects and handles communications errors. For a list of all possible events and communications errors, see the CommEvent property.
You can also poll for events and errors by checking the value of the CommEvent property after each critical function of your program. This may be preferable if your application is small and self-contained. For example, if you are writing a simple phone dialer, it may not make sense to generate an event after receiving every character, because the only characters you plan to receive are the OK response from the modem.

Each MSComm control you use corresponds to one serial port. If you need to access more than one serial port in your application, you must use more than one MSComm control. The port address and interrupt address can be changed from the Windows Control Panel.
Although the MSComm control has many important properties, there are a few that you should be familiar with first.

Properties	Description
CommPort	Sets and returns the communications port number.
Settings	Sets and returns the baud rate, parity, data bits, and stop bits as a string.
PortOpen	Sets and returns the state of a communications port. Also opens and closes a port.
Input	Returns and removes characters from the receive buffer.
Output	Writes a string of characters to the transmit buffer.

OnComm Event

The OnComm event is generated whenever the value of the CommEvent property changes, indicating that either a communication event or an error occurred.
Syntax
Private Sub object_OnComm ()
The OnComm event syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.

Remarks
The CommEvent property contains the numeric code of the actual error or event that generated the OnComm event. Note that setting the RThreshold or SThreshold properties to 0 disables trapping for the comEvReceive and comEvSend events, respectively.

CommPort Property

Sets and returns the communications port number.
Syntax
object.CommPort[ = value ]
The CommPort property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	A integer value specifying the port number.

Remarks
You can set value to any number between 1 and 16 at design time (the default is 1). However, the MSComm control generates error 68 (Device unavailable) if the port does not exist when you attempt to open it with the PortOpen property.
Warning You must set the CommPort property before opening the port.
Data Type
Integer

Handshaking Property

Sets and returns the hardware handshaking protocol.
Syntax
object.Handshaking [ = value ]
The Handshaking property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	An integer expression specifying the handshaking protocol, as described in Settings.

Settings
The settings for value are:

Setting	Value	Description
comNone	0	(Default) No handshaking.
comXOnXOff	1	XON/XOFF handshaking.
comRTS	2	RTS/CTS (Request To Send/Clear To Send) handshaking.
comRTSXOnXOff	3	Both Request To Send and XON/XOFF handshaking.

Remarks
Handshaking refers to the internal communications protocol by which data is transferred from the hardware port to the receive buffer. When a character of data arrives at the serial port, the communications device has to move it into the receive buffer so that your program can read it. If there is no receive buffer and your program is expected to read every character directly from the hardware, you will probably lose data because the characters can arrive very quickly.
A handshaking protocol insures data is not lost due to a buffer overrun, where data arrives at the port too quickly for the communications device to move the data into the receive buffer.
Data Type
Integer

RThreshold Property

Sets and returns the number of characters to receive before the MSComm control sets the CommEvent property to comEvReceive and generates the OnComm event.
Syntax
object.Rthreshold [ = value ]
The Rthreshold property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	An integer expression specifying the number of characters to receive before generating the OnComm event.

Remarks
Setting the RThreshold property to 0 (the default) disables generating the OnComm event when characters are received.
Setting RThreshold to 1, for example, causes the MSComm control to generate the OnComm event every time a single character is placed in the receive buffer.
Data Type
Integer

Settings Property

Sets and returns the baud rate, parity, data bit, and stop bit parameters.
Syntax
object.Settings [ = value ]
The Settings property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	An string expression representing the communications port settings, as described below.

Remarks
If value is not valid when the port is opened, the MSComm control generates error 380 (Invalid property value).
Value is composed of four settings and has the following format:

"BBBB,P,D,S"

Where BBBB is the baud rate, P is the parity, D is the number of data bits, and S is the number of stop bits. The default value of value is:

"9600,N,8,1"

The following table lists the valid baud rates.
Setting

110
300
600
1200
2400
9600 (Default)
14400
19200
28800
38400
56000
128000
256000

The following table describes the valid parity values.

Setting	Description
E	Even
M	Mark
N	(Default) None
O	Odd
S	Space

The following table lists the valid data bit values.
Setting

8 (Default)

The following table lists the valid stop bit values.

Setting
1	(Default)
1.5
2

Data Type
String

InputLen Property

Sets and returns the number of characters the Input property reads from the receive buffer.
Syntax
object.InputLen [ = value ]
The InputLen property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	An integer expression specifying the number of characters the Input property reads from the receive buffer.

Remarks
The default value for the InputLen property is 0. Setting InputLen to 0 causes the MSComm control to read the entire contents of the receive buffer when Input is used.
If InputLen characters are not available in the receive buffer, the Input property returns a zero-length string (""). The user can optionally check the InBufferCount property to determine if the required number of characters are present before using Input.
This property is useful when reading data from a machine whose output is formatted in fixed-length blocks of data.
Data Type
Integer

Input Property

Returns and removes a stream of data from the receive buffer. This property is not available at design time and is read-only at run time.
Syntax
object.Input
The Input property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.

Remarks
The InputLen property determines the number of characters that are read by the Input property. Setting InputLen to 0 causes the Input property to read the entire contents of the receive buffer.
The InputMode property determines the type of data that is retrieved with the Input property. If InputMode is set to comInputModeText then the Input property returns text data in a Variant. If InputMode is comInputModeBinary then the Input property returns binary data in an array of bytes in a Variant.
Data Type
Variant

PortOpen Property

Sets and returns the state of the communications port (open or closed). Not available at design time.
Syntax
object.PortOpen [ = value ]
The PortOpen property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	A boolean expression specifying the state of the communications port.

Settings
The settings for value are:

Setting	Description
True	Port is opened
False	Port is closed

Remarks
Setting the PortOpen property to True opens the port. Setting it to False closes the port and clears the receive and transmit buffers. The MSComm control automatically closes the serial port when your application is terminated.
Make sure the CommPort property is set to a valid port number before opening the port. If the CommPort property is set to an invalid port number when you try to open the port, the MSComm control generates error 68 (Device unavailable).
In addition, your serial port device must support the current values in the Settings property. If the Settings property contains communications settings that your hardware does not support, your hardware may not work correctly.
If either the DTREnable or the RTSEnable properties is set to True before the port is opened, the properties are set to False when the port is closed. Otherwise, the DTR and RTS lines remain in their previous state.
Data Type
Boolean

DTREnable Property

Determines whether to enable the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) line during communications. Typically, the Data Terminal Ready signal is sent by a computer to its modem to indicate that the computer is ready to accept incoming transmission.
Syntax
object.DTREnable[ = value ]
The DTREnable property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
Value	A Boolean expression specifying whether to enable the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) line, as described in Settings.

Settings
The settings for value are:

Setting	Description
True	Enable the Data Terminal Ready line.
False	(Default) Disable the Data Terminal Ready line.

Remarks
When DTREnable is set to True, the Data Terminal Ready line is set to high (on) when the port is opened, and low (off) when the port is closed. When DTREnable is set to False, the Data Terminal Ready always remains low.
Note In most cases, setting the Data Terminal Ready line to low hangs up the telephone.
Data Type
Boolean

RTSEnable Property

Determines whether to enable the Request To Send (RTS) line. Typically, the Request To Send signal that requests permission to transmit data is sent from a computer to its attached modem.
Syntax
object.RTSEnable[ = value ]
The RTSEnable property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	An boolean expression specifying whether the Request To Send (RTS) line is enabled, as described in Settings.

Settings
The settings for value are:

Setting	Description
True	Enables the Request To Send line.
False	(Default) Disables the Request To Send line.

Remarks
When RTSEnable is set to True, the Request To Send line is set to high (on) when the port is opened, and low (off) when the port is closed.
The Request To Send line is used in RTS/CTS hardware handshaking. The RTSEnable property allows you to manually poll the Request To Send line if you need to determine its state.
For more information on handshaking protocols, see the Handshaking property.
Data Type
Boolean

CommEvent Property

Returns the most recent communication event or error. This property is not available at design time and is read-only at run time.
Syntax
object.CommEvent
The CommEvent property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.

Remarks
Although the OnComm event is generated whenever a communication error or event occurs, the CommEvent property holds the numeric code for that error or event. To determine the actual error or event that caused the OnComm event, you must reference the CommEvent property.
The CommEvent property returns one of the following values for communication errors or events. These constants can also be found in the Object Library for this control.
Communication errors include the following settings:

Constant	Value	Description
comEventBreak	1001	A Break signal was received.
comEventFrame	1004	Framing Error. The hardware detected a framing error.
comEventOverrun	1006	Port Overrun. A character was not read from the hardware before the next character arrived and was lost.
comEventRxOver	1008	Receive Buffer Overflow. There is no room in the receive buffer.
comEventRxParity	1009	Parity Error. The hardware detected a parity error.
comEventTxFull	1010	Transmit Buffer Full. The transmit buffer was full while trying to queue a character.
comEventDCB	1011	Unexpected error retrieving Device Control Block (DCB) for the port.

Communications events include the following settings:

Constant	Value	Description
comEvSend	1	There are fewer than Sthreshold number of characters in the transmit buffer.
comEvReceive	2	Received Rthreshold number of characters. This event is generated continuously until you use the Input property to remove the data from the receive buffer.
comEvCTS	3	Change in Clear To Send line.
comEvDSR	4	Change in Data Set Ready line. This event is only fired when DSR changes from 1 to 0.
comEvCD	5	Change in Carrier Detect line.
comEvRing	6	Ring detected. Some UARTs (universal asynchronous receiver-transmitters) may not support this event.
comEvEOF	7	End Of File (ASCII character 26) character received.

Data Type
Integer

Output Property

Writes a stream of data to the transmit buffer. This property is not available at design time and is write-only at run time.
Syntax
object.Output [ = value ]
The Output property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
object	An object expression that evaluates to an object in the Applies To list.
value	A string of characters to write to the transmit buffer.

Remarks
The Output property can transmit text data or binary data. To send text data using the Output property, you must specify a Variant that contains a string. To send binary data, you must pass a Variant which contains a byte array to the Output property.
Normally, if you are sending an ANSI string to an application, you can send it as text data. If you have data that contains embedded control characters, Null characters, etc., then you will want to pass it as binary data.
Data Type
Variant