>>>Hi,
>>>>Maybe in this is my answer. My connection is via a third party product and not using the .NET SerialPort object. I suppose I could pre test the port by trying a SerialPort.Open().
>>>
>>>Don't think that would help. As mentioned the SerialPort.Open() should succeed whether or not the device in question is connected.
>>>You'd probably need to use the .NET serial port to do a bit more probing to determine if the device was available but, not knowing the device, I've no suggestions as to what might be appropriate. What's the device in question?
>>
>>In this case it is an Rfid reader. We have been using these and other serial devices (gps, rfid, scales, cameras) but with this reader and this API I am getting this result. Part of the problem is I don't know exactly what is going on in the API where I am calling the connect into. It would be nice if it would return a fail on its own.
>
>Is the API specific to the hardware?
Yes it is created by the manufacturer to use for interfacing with their device.

>Do you have any information on accessing the device other than via the API?
Yes, but it gets real complicated. I had previously started creating a generic api of my own so we could use mulitple different maufacturers of devices. I have successfully connected to this device many times and have no problem if it is fully booted up and ready to be connected to.

>Maybe the API provides some other method/property which would help determine the device status?
I just looked through the sample application they provided and the documentation and there doesn't appear to be any properties to check. It is supposed to throw a BasicReaderException but it doesn't seem to do this in all cases. I am catching this but it doesn't always seem to catch the problem.
>
>>Is there a way to put some kind of timeout on execution of a command?
>
>Don't think so - except perhaps using a seperate thread (which you seem to be considering). The problem there might be that a Thread.Abort wouldn't actually abort the thread if the wait is occurring in unmanaged code in the API :-{
I am going to use threading, but need to use it in the wrapper class and not in the application. I don't see how it would help this problem however as you state, I can't really abort this single line of code that calls out to the reader. My code looks like this where it hangs.

/// <summary>
/// Open Reader Connection
/// </summary>
/// <param name="connection">connection</param>
/// <returns>True if successfull</returns>
private bool OpenReaderConnection(string connection)
{
     bool llSuccess = false;
     string lcMessage = null;
     BRIReader.LoggerOptionsAdv LogOption = null;
     bool idlLogging = RfidSettings.Instance.EnableIDLLogging;

     if (idlLogging)
     {
	//optionally create the Logger Options *****************************
	LogOption = new BRIReader.LoggerOptionsAdv();
	LogOption.LogFilePath = ".\\IDLReaderDebugLog.txt";
	LogOption.ShowNonPrintableChars = true;
	//******************************************************************
     }

     try
     {
	if (RfidSettings.Instance.UseDefaultBuffers)
	{
	     if (idlLogging && LogOption != null)
		reader = new BRIReader(null, connection, LogOption);
	     else
	                     reader = new BRIReader(null, connection);  // line of code that hangs - 
	}
	else
                                          Blah, blah, blah

Tim