One USB device to two software - possible?

[duke]

Next week I am having solar panels installed and plan on using my weather server to log all availability data from the system. However, I would like to use two different pieces of software to record this, the manufacturers and a third party.

The set up is that the cable from the inverter is serial and connects to the PC via an 'opto-isolated' serial to usb converter.

Is it possible to use programs like VSPE or 'com0com' to pair the port to allow access to both pieces of software?

With help from another member here I have been researching this all week and still scratching my head .

[steve]

I think it would be quite tricky to 'split' a USB connection in software, but if you were using usb to serial software on the PC to create a virtual serial port, so the software thinks it's driving a serial device, then I can't think of any reason that you couldn't use one of the existing serial port splitter software solutions.

The problem comes if the device protocol is two-way, rather than 'read only', because then you need some kind of 'intelligent' software (with a knowledge of the protocol) to manage the connections, as with Virtual VP for Davis stations.