Phidget help sought

Prefacing this with the fact that I am EXTREMELY non-technical, so any answer or solution involving technical expertise will get me in over my head very quickly.

I currently use a 0/0/4 phidget to control power to my track (3 lane 124 Scalextric, DS300 with dead strips talking to PC Lapcounter). It is connected via USB to my laptop, which runs PC Lapcounter.

Everything works fine. Even I figured out how to get it going, which is saying something.

My problem is that I've purchased a couple of brand new phidgets identical to the 0/0/4 I have for the purpose of swapping out if there is a failure during a race. Race day might have 16 guys, and as you know a failure of the race management system can create real issues.

The problem is that neither of my brand new, identical to the one that is installed and working, actually 'works.' I plug in the USB cable...the same used on the unit that works, plugged into the same USB port that sends the working signal. When I manually turn the power on/off through the software, the original works just fine. Neither of the other two work at all, even though the software sends a message that it has detected each of the new phidgets.

Any idea why identical, brand new phidgets won't work when swapped out for an identical working one?

BTW I've posted the same question on the Phidget forum. Feel free to contact me directly with thoughts/ideas/questions
tlbrace2008@yahoo.com

Todd

I got a response from Phidget support on their forum, and the gentleman said the only thing he can think of is that the software (PC Lapcounter) is looking for the serial number for the original phidget, and when plugged into the new ones, it doesn't recognize them by serial number.

Again, I do see a small message in the software that each of the new phidgets is detected, but I don't know if that means they are recognized.

How DOES PC Lapcounter handle it if the power control: a new phidget or arduino board or something else, is changed for whatever reason (failure, upgrade, expansion, etc.)

Each phidget interface have a different S/N and Pc Lap Counter use it so you can use multiple Phidget interface of the same type at the same time for different purpose.
For example in Pc lap Counter you can use a phidget interface 0/0/4 for the starting lights and another phidget interface 0/0/4 for the power control.
Another example: for a 8 lanes track , you can use a Phidget interface 0/0/4 to control the power on lane 1 to 4 and another phidget 0/0/4 to control the power on lane 5 to 8....
So , when you plug a new Phidget interface you have to update your Phidget settings in Pc Lap Counter: in your case, in the phidget settings screen go in the tab page "Lane power" and select the different output of the new Phidget interface to use (you can do this during the race).

Merci, Guy!

That did the trick, thanks!