laptop usb connections

Birdseye

Birdseye

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Have found a source of pcmcia cards with 2 serial connectors for modern laptops with only usb ports. if anyone is interested try <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.netshop.co.uk/>pcmcia card</A> PM-010 x 1 @ £89.95 ea nett + special post @
£5.95 ea nett.

havent yet tried them myself but intend to do so to connect my gps to a new laptop running chart software.

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Is anyone using a USB to Serial convertor like <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19W/>this</A>? 38quid or so, it seems.

I've not jumped yet 'cos of the woeful support of MacOS-X by the GPS folks - but am tempted to try and run something under 'virtual PC' with the doodah above.

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I have a USB to serial converter. It works very well for everything except modem connection (e.g. modifying the address book in the mobile via the PC). As I bought it to get my laptop connected to the net via my mobile this was a bit of a problem. The trouble is that (in XP) windoz assigns a com port value above 10 to the USB serial device, and the modem connections are looking for a port value of 1-4. I even tried some software designed to reassign com port values, but no success. Gave up in the end and bought TDK bluetooth PCMCIA card and connected through that.

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i sell em for £20 + vat
work ok except in xp you have to boot pooter first and then plug em in
stu

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I regularly use the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=1999&pcount=&Product_Id=20938>Belkin</A> device. Works fine all the time, and can be left plugged in all the time.

What I'm really after is a bluetooth thingy, so I dont even need to plug the NMEA feed into the computer.

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I use a fleet of cheap (equivalent of around GBP12) no-name brand USB=> serial convertors (guess there may be names inside somewhere, but am not pulling one apart). Uses are for nav (NMEA & RS232), GPRS, data & SMS (on a fixed cellular terminal), link to organizer, various digital radio applications using multimode controllers (eg teletype, PacTor), transmit receive switching of transmitters, etc, etc on several different computers, and I have to say that I have never yet had a problem of any sort whatsoever.

I suspect that most problems in all but the early ones are due to things outside their own control eg computer operating system, client application, finger problems.

John

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I'd generally agree with the above however note that some Belkin USB serial ports have a speed limitation of about 50k baud which won't afffect your GPS signal at 4.8 or 9.6k but will fall over on higher speed internet connections.

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for the benefit of anyone contemplating this problem area, I have just used an AA1657 usb to serial pin converter (slightly below £20) from revealcable.co.uk together with a download of the driver from their website to connect a garmin 76 into XP.

only problem was that I needed to boot the computer with the gps live and connected to get a result.

sounds like mainly steam has fair experience of this area so maybe he would post some further details particularly of drivers - I would have thought the physical wiring would be the same from everyone.

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Hi Birdseye

They are no name store labelled ones (do not exist under those names in UK) and come with their drivers. Have had a look to see if I can open one to see if any makers name inside but they all appear to be glued shut, not screwed. Like all of these things they are made in Taiwan. http://www.ftdichip.com/index.html so is easy for you to contact over there. They only list devices they design plus the data sheets for them - you will find the chipset I mention covered there. Someone (Tome where are you?) may know convertors having the same chipset.

Following Chris's comment regarding speed I have used them for V90 and, of course, GPRS is much faster than 9.6 k (well it is here) and they seem to run up around those speeds by subjective observation (I download Mbytes worth of files on the boat when working on board). They are claimed to run to 360k I think it is from memory. I have always used them with Windows XP and XP is regularly updated from Microsoft site on our computers.

One thing I have found with them is that if two or more were put onto a remote unpowered USB hub (powered might be different) the computer could not allocate them to the same or one not to any COM port reliably from session to session. However, that may not be the convertors fault and is not a common configuration for most people.

I have heard all sorts of stories about converters not working but think it is a bit like such things as how Windows XP was always blamed for everything from CD's not burning properly to quirks of various types when running various applications - people never seemed to think that it may be their software did not conform to the Windows standard, for example, or plain old finger trouble (no one has that!). Maybe I struck a good chip set by chance.

Sorry I cannot be specific on makes. My general approach is, as you have done, to buy a cheap one and see if it works - if it doesn't, make sure that it is the convertors fault and not anything else, but if the convertor is at fault (not happened) then one has not lost much. The chipset I mention seems to work well for anything I do.

Keeping it boaty, they appear to work fine with NMEA (EIA422 which is 5v) even though the RS232 standard treats voltages between -3v and 3v as being indeterminate.

John


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There have been issues with XP without a doubt.

Some of then USB related, some Firewire related etc.
They tightened up the standards being used, so some older equipment not longer would work, as DV camera users around the world found out the hard way - I've been bitten, and regret upgrading to XP, as my rather expensive 3CCD digital video camera can no longer talk via firewire to my rather fancy new PC bought explicitly for the reason of digital editing. An expensive waste of time, though the other benefits do somewhat make up for the upgrade.

<hr width=100% size=1> I asked an economist for her phone number....and she gave me an estimate
 
Hi Brendan

It is a bit soon to be up this late waiting for Father Xmas to come down your chimney.

At the risk of getting zapped I think it was your trigger finger trouble that caused your firewire problems /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Yes, I agree there were (and are, and always will be) XP problems - a careful read of my post does not deny that (just said was "always blamed" ie rightly or wrongly). Problem is, as you infer, knowing that before one commits to expensive bits of stuff.

Regards and very best Seasons wishes from here

John

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Sort out my firewire problems, and I'll forgive you

There have been problems with USB and NMEA that go beyond finger trouble. I'm experienced enough to know the difference, though it seems localised to certain makes and models of both USB, Computer and software. Many will get away with no problems, others will have no end of problems.

A very non PC Merry Xmas

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