usb/serial LCD Backpack KIT- Driver for Windows 7

[newmexelectron]

I have soldered up the LCD and USB backpack and hooked up the usb for power and communication, I have been trying to get windows 7 to recognize the LCD backpack as a COM port as described in the Tutorial.
No luck yet.
There are downloads made available by Adafruit here: http://ladyada.net/products/usbseriallcdbackpack/
but THE INF driver file for Windows just opens as a text file... and it mentions Windows 2000/XP/Vista... but not Windows 7.
I am such a novice that I don't even know how to install this if this INF file is an actual driver.
Can anybody send some advice my way? I am excited to get this up and running and I have been trying to sort out the driver issue for the last hour or more.
The good news is that the LCD is hooked up seems to be receiving power through the Backpack correctly. I think this is just a driver issue.
Thanks for any advice you may have.

[pburgess]

Hey there,

The INF file should be OK with Windows 7, it just requires some shenanigans to download and install...

Well first, actually, you might not need the INF file. Plug in the LCD/backpack and see if it goes through the "installing driver..." process automatically (it does this on my Win7 box, but that might be an artifact of having previously installed the Arduino software/driver, which may be sufficiently similar).

If it doesn't automatically install, try this:

First, on the LCD backpack tutorial page, in the "Download" section at the bottom...right click on the link for "INF driver file for Windows" and select "Save target as..." or "Download link as..." or whatever your browser of choice calls it (basically, some form of "save as" option). You'll be prompted for a destination (e.g. "Downloads" folder).

Plug the LCD/backpack into a USB port. You may be prompted at that point to locate a driver. If so, select the "Browse my computer..." option and select the folder where you previously downloaded the INF file (e.g. "Downloads"). It should locate and install at that point and be on its merry way.

If not, go to the Windows Menu and select "Devices and Printers." You'll see a generic icon in the "Unspecified" section. Right click on that, select "Properties," then the "Hardware" tab, then the "Properties" button, "Change Settings," the "Driver" tab, "Update driver...", and finally "Browse my computer for driver software" (who designs this stuff?) Select the folder containing the INF and it should proceed with the installation. After that, you should have a COM port (e.g. "COM10" or such) that you can connect to via terminal program at 9600 baud, or use the Arduino serial monitor.

[newmexelectron]

First off,
Thanks for the quick support... and very detailed explanation of what should ideally work. Your directions couldn't have been more clear and to the point..
Unfortunately I am still not having any luck with installing the Driver.

For some reason Windows7 isn't recognizing the Driver even when I point it to the correct folder. I have tried placing the Driver folder in several different locations(downloads, desktop, Program Files, Program Files(x86), Drivers...)

but I am really just guessing at this point.

Here is a screen grab of what I am seeing when I try to install the Driver as you outline above.

Any other ideas... I noticed this post about Windows 7 Driver issues for another product here... viewtopic.php?f=47&t=28299
I don't know if they are related problems.

Thanks again for any and all help.

USB display driver problems-windows7.JPG (71.31 KiB) Viewed 680 times

[newmexelectron]

I just got the driver to install... by searching the forum back further (I feel dumb for not doing this first) I found this post
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=27927&p=142746&hilit=windows+7+driver#p142746
Which contained a Zip file from Adafruit support with a different Driver...

Like another user,

It gave me the usual "this is not a signed driver" warning message but let me install it.

So things seem to be good now on my end.
Thanks Adafruit!