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Re: suggestions

John Stoffel john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com
Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:19:56 -0700 (PDT)


Christopher> On Tue, 2005-09-27 at 13:54 -0400, John Stoffel wrote:
>> 
>> I've tried getting a USB-to-serial convertor to work with a RH FC3 box
>> to talk to a Palm IIIx serial hotsync cradle, but I couldn't make it
>> work at all.  Very frustrating.  

Christopher> I've got about 5 different models of USB->Serial adapters
Christopher> and have had numerous problems.  Some _only_ do
Christopher> 9600,N,8,1 some seem to take forever to respond and
Christopher> transfers are slow.  Some don't transfer at all.  I don't
Christopher> think anyone produces a real single adapter with a real
Christopher> UART.

That's been my experience as well, though admittedly limited.

Christopher> I think that this 8 port thing might actually work.  It
Christopher> does not seem designed for the Winbloze crowd.

If it uses the FTDI chipset, it might work just fine.  I wouldn't
trust a Prolific chipset.  I have a USB/Firewire external enclosre
which just sucked until I got the firmware upgrade.  Months and months
later. 

Christopher> Nothing ever will beat a real serial port.  eBay is a
Christopher> great place to get some of these used boards even PCI
Christopher> ones and they typically last a very long time.  I
Christopher> originally bought a Comtrol 8RJ PCI for $30.

Great idea, I see several for sale for around $30 with cables.  I'm
tempted just because I'm not going to have an ISA port on my next
computer.

John