USB Drivers for the Actiheart and Actiwave Readers

The Actiheart, Actiwave, PRO-Diary, and Actiwatches all use a USB reader, for which drivers must be installed. Those drivers are included on your software CD. This page is available in case you experience problems and need up-to-date guidance, or have mislaid your CD.

The Actiheart drivers will normally install correctly using only the windows automatic search function to get the drivers from the Windows Update service. In the Actiheart software, you will then need to follow Utilities -> Communications Settings -> Search to configure the Actiheart software for a newly installed reader.

Self-installing Driver Package

You can install all of the CamNtech drivers from a single package. Depending on your version of windows and its settings, you may only need to run this once, or you may need to run it each time you connect a new type of device. If in doubt, plug something in; if windows gives an error message or opens an 'Hardware Update Wizard' or similar, close it and re-run our driver package.

To use the driver package:

Plug in your USB device. If the windows ‘Hardware Update Wizard’ or similar window opens, select the Cancel or Close button to remove it. Now run the driver package, and the window below should appear:

Click on the ‘Next’ button. The computer will now search for connected devices and install the required drivers. During this process, Windows may ask for confirmation that you wish to install drivers which are not certified by Microsoft, or that you wish to replace the current drivers. You should approve these. The underlying drivers are in fact tested and approved by Microsoft, but the certification is invalidated when they are configured to match the names of our devices.

It may appear that some of the windows confirmation questions repeat themselves. The driver package in fact contains the drivers in two parts - you will be asked separately for each of the two. This is normal.

At the end of the installation, the window below will appear. Your drivers are now installed correctly.

In the case of the Actiheart, you will now need to follow Utilities -> Communications Settings -> Search from the Actiheart software to configure the software for the newly installed reader.

Manual Installation

Sometimes the automatic installation of drivers will not work, often because your computer has previously had similar, but different, drivers installed on it before. Sometimes just because windows is like that. To install drivers manually, follow the procedure below. The screenshots and procedure were written for the Actiheart reader drivers, but apply to the other CamNtech USB drivers also.

The USB drivers are available for download here. All the files should be extracted from the .zip archive onto your hard disk somewhere convenient, such as your desktop. At the point in the procedure below where you are asked to find the ‘USB drivers’ folder on the CD, select the folder from the extracted .zip file instead.

To begin installing drivers:

Plug the device into a USB port. Something similar to the window shown below should appear. If it does not, then open it manually like this:

• Click on the Start menu, and open the Control Panel.
• Open ‘System’. If you can’t see this, choose ‘Performance and Maintenance’, then ‘System’.
• Select the ‘Hardware’ tab, and click the ‘Device Manager’ button.
• Scroll down and open up the section called ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’. The device you are trying to install should be listed here. It may have a yellow question mark next to it.
• Right-click on the device name and select ‘Update Driver…’. The window below should then appear.

Select ‘No, not this time’ and click ‘Next’.

Select ‘Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)’ and click ‘Next’.

Select ‘Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.’ and click ‘Next’.

The window below should appear. Sometimes, windows will decide to display some other windows first, possibly appearing to lock up for a minute or two at one point. If it does this, you may be forced to choose a device category. Choose any, and look out for the ‘Have Disk..’ button next, which you must find in order to proceed.

Ignore the items in the list, and click ‘Have Disk…’ instead.

Click on ‘Browse…’ and then use the standard file window to find the ‘USB drivers’ folder on the CD. Select ‘ftdibus.inf’ from this folder and click on ‘Open’. The window above will re-appear with a filename at the bottom. Then click ‘OK’.

You can now select the correct driver in the list and click ‘Next’. Depending on your system settings, the window below may appear.

If this window appears, click ‘Continue Anyway’. The underlying drivers are in fact tested and approved by Microsoft, but the certification is invalidated when they are configured to match our reader devices.

When this window appears your drivers are installed.

The Actiheart reader requires two sets of drivers which work together, so it may appear to begin the whole procedure again after you click ‘Finish’ here. You should follow through in exactly the same way again. It will not happen a third time – there are simply two sets of drivers.

Still Not Working

If you still have problems, it may be worth checking the procedure below:

• Click on the Start menu, and open the Control Panel.
• Open ‘Add or Remove Programs’.
• When the list of programs appears, look down it for anything beginning with ‘FTDI’.
• If there is any entry beginning with FTDI, select ‘Remove’ for it.

The FTDI entry in this list is a general purpose set of drivers for FTDI USB chips. Unfortunately, windows will attempt to use these drivers instead of the ones you select. Even if you follow the manual procedure above, windows may ignore you and choose these instead, so it is best to remove the entry entirely.

After removing this entry, try to install the drivers again, as described above.

Still Won't Work

If you are still having difficulty installing the USB drivers, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone us during UK office hours on +44 (0)1480 831223. Please try the procedure above first, and be ready to describe exactly what happened as you followed it; this will help us to solve the problem faster.