CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller installation not working

Question

I have been working with Silicon Labs and Davis Instruments to try to get this driver installed on my iMac without any success. The driver was working on 10.4.11, but after I upgraded to 10.6.2 it is no longer recognized and does not show up in /dev, i.e. no cu.CP2102... or tty.CP2102... . I went to the Silicon Labs web site and downloaded the VCP driver kit that is used to talk to the Davis device (https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/MacOSX_VCPDriver.zip), performed the installation, and restarted.
I looked at System Preferences, then at Network Preferences. The <CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller> shows up as a grayed out Modem with Inactive Status. Clicking on the Advanced button, it shows the CP2102 as an Apple Modem. Under the WINS tab, it lists the CP2102's NetBIOS Name as IMAC-C7DFF1 and indicates that name is currently being used (possibly by another USB to UART adaptor I use to talk to an old Garmin, i.e. usbserial-FTCUSRHZ, and showing the same NetBIOS Name). Not sure if this is the reason that the CP2102 is not being seen.
I searched Console, Kernel, Install, and System logs for CP2102, among other things. I did not see any problems in those logs over the installation timeframe. I did notice that the CP2102 gets turned off after 10 seconds of no activity several times in the past in Kernel log, but not as a result of this set of installs. I scanned the various logs over the half hour of the install process, but did not see anything else of interest.
I opened System Profile and clicked on the USB selection. I expanded each of the USB entries and found the one that shows the CP2102. It shows
CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller:
Product ID: 0xea61
Vendor ID: 0x10c4 (Silicon Laboratories, Inc.)
Version: 1.00
Serial Number: 1205096541
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Silicon Labs
Location ID: 0xfd110000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100
So, the CP2102 is being recognized, but the driver (cu. and tty.) cannot be found (or possibly is not installed).
I tied more things:
1. Performed a Mac reset of SMC and PRAM, with no joy.
2. Reinstalled Snow Leopard. Reinstalled the Si Labs driver package, and restarted. The CP2102 driver still does not show in the /dev directory (either as cu.CP2102... or tty.CP2102...).
3. I looked in /System/Library/Extensions and found the SI Labs kernel extension SiLabsUSBDriver.kext. I decided I should perform an operation I read about, i.e. touch /System/Library/Extensions, and reboot. Still no joy.
4. The System Profile still shows the same CP2102 entry.
Silicon Labs indicated that some how, based on System Profile information, the Product ID was changed from 0xEA60 to 0xEA61, thus pointing to the USBXpress driver and not the VCP driver. Silicon Labs only has Windows PC tools to fix the Product ID problem, so they cannot help.
Finally, I did some additional investigation to try to obtain more information. I moved my USB items around and looked in /dev. Here is what I observed (last boot of my Mac was 12:31 PM on 12/22 and the moving things around occurred at about 10:00 AM on 12/27):
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 3 Dec 22 12:31 cu.Bluetooth-Modem
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 1 Dec 22 12:31 cu.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 17 Dec 27 10:00 cu.usbserial-FTCUSRHZ
crw-rw-rw- 1 tty 15, 1 Dec 27 10:04 ptmx
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 9, 0 Dec 27 10:04 random
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 2 Dec 22 12:31 tty.Bluetooth-Modem
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 0 Dec 22 12:31 tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
crw-rw-rw- 1 wheel 18, 16 Dec 27 10:00 tty.usbserial-FTCUSRHZ
crw--w---- 1 tty 16, 0 Dec 27 10:04 ttys000
There are a couple of devices that I cannot identify: ptmx, random, and ttys000. ttys000 is certainly out of place and I am wondering if it is the CP 2102 device. Its permissions certainly seem strange too (i.e. crw--w----) as well as its owner and group (tty and 16). In addition, the ptmx owner and group seem strange (tty and 15) as well. Just about everything else is owned by wheel or operator.
Looking at /etc/group, there is no group = 15 and the group name for 16 is "group." Looking at /etc/passwd, the owner tty (whose owner number is 4) really points to _uucp (Unix to Unix copy protocol). All of this information seems a little strange.
I would certainly like to get this driver installed properly, so I can talk to Davis device. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I have been told by Davis that the Product ID (PID) for the Mac is 0xEA60 and the PID for Windows is 0xEA61. To solve the problem on the Mac only, you apparently have to get a PC and connect to the Vantage Pro console with the PC. Then you have to perform the following steps to reprogram the PID using the PC using Windows:
1. Install the USBXpress driver on the PC running Windows.
2. Then run AN144SW "CP210xSetIDs.exe" with "CP210xManufacturing.dll" and change the PID from 0xEA61 to 0xEA60.
3. Install the VCP driver on the Mac
4. Now, the CP210x device is ready to be used on your Mac with the VCP driver.
USBXpress: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBXpress.aspx
AN144SW: AN144SW
http://www.silabs.com/Support Documents/Software/an144sw.zip
The VCP driver is available for Mac OSX here:
http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx
If you run Parallels or VMware or another virtual system to run WeatherLink on Windows, in addition to running WeatherLink on the Mac, you need to perform the following additional step after Step 1 above (note that you do not need a PC, just use the Windows on the virtual machine for Steps 1-4 above and Step 1a below):
1a. Install the VCP driver on the virtual machine for Windows.
The VCP driver is available for Windows here:
http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx
Now, the CP2102 will re-enumerate on Windows under the virtual machine. You will see that Windows is now recognizing it as a Virtual COM port device instead of a USBXpress device. In addition, you should see the CP2102 (with PID = 0xEA60) on your Mac.
Hope this information helps and solves the problem for all of us.