Serial to USB

My secondary laptop that I carry around with an integrated serial port is almost dead.  I know there are USB to Serial adapters out there, and I know some work better than others.   I'd much prefer to use my HP (XP) machine exclusively, which doesn't have a serial port...as opposed to replacing or repairing the other one.

Any recommendations? Thoughts? Opinions?

Here's the one I am looking at...

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtSeriesID=518&txtModelID=3914

Thanks in advance!

Abby

 

-Abby Tutorow

For what do you need the serial port?  Unfortunately, I have never had much success with any USB-RS232 adapter, which is why I keep a ten-year old laptop, with a integrated serial port (and a 3.5"FDD), around.

Hi Derek! Two reasons, off the top of my head... SLTA for Sensor CEM's and Hyperterminal via serial to talk to a Linksys POE switch that won't communicate over the network or even let me into its browser. Unfortunately, neither of those instances will allow me to transfer info via FDD. Thanks, Abby -Abby Tutorow

Hi Abby,

I bought one from Radio Shack of all places that I use with my MacBook running bootcamp Windows and I have not had any problems with it.

I have tested it with CEM, Unison Live control, USAP and other non-ETC windows programs. 

I have not tested it for configuring switches yet.   I did have to make a couple of com port adjustments (can't remember which ones) to make it work but it has been rock solid since.  

Howdy, Matt.  I never would have considered Radio Shack...it never even crossed my mind.  Thanks for the recommendation!

Abby

The main adjustment we had to make with Matt's (marmenda) usb to RS232 device was changing settings in device manager to map it to Com 1.  If we did that on a pc platform, you might need to disable any onboard devices allocated to Com 1.  I've seen a number of PCs lately that have default bios settings that allocate the irqs/addresses for ports they don't even have!

Thanks for the extra info, Tracy!  I appreciate knowing about the possible issues beforehand.

 

-Abby

I've been using a USB-to-RS232 adapter for several years now with Windows XP Pro.  I've only had a few issues.

Keep track of which USB port that you plug in the adapter.  The COM port changes when you change ports.  Of course, you can always go into the hardware settings and change the COM port to the one you want.

Occasionally, I have to reboot my laptop with the USB adapter plugged in.  Sometimes the adapter appears to function properly, but the SLTA just won't talk to it until I reboot.

I also have VMWare Workstation on my laptop.  (It's and old version, v4.5.3, that I installed several years ago. I assume new versions will work just as well.)  This has allowed me to install virtual operating systems within XP.  I have Windows 98SE and MS-DOS installed.  I have Light Manager v1.3 installed in the Win98 environment.  VMWare does the driver translations, so I am able to connect to UPSAC units via the old-style RS-232 computer ports and send/receive config files.

-Aaron