ML1500 serial comms to FTView Studio

Hi all,

I'm having a very hard time with my serial comms. Using FTView ME v9 to design an HMI. The PLC is a ML1500. At one point, I had comms working. Now nothing I do seems to work. Serial comms has to be the most fickle thing I've ever dealt with. I am using a Keyspan USB to serial converter with a 1761-CBL-PM02 cable. I am testing the HMI on my laptop. Serial DF-1 driver using COM1 with autoconfig checked. Keeps telling me DF1 failed to open COM1.

I know the runtime needs to be COM1 but the RSLinx classic com port uses COM11

Can anyone help me please? Been dealing with this for 2 days now....

Update...

Using the stand alone ME Station, I was able to communicate with the PLC. However, when I use "Test Application" it doesn't communicate. I am using the same comms between design/runtime....

Can anyone shed some light on this? Very annoying to have to create and load a runtime just to test.