> Perhaps it's better to use an USB to serial converter?
I should have anticipated that question. Shame on me!!
Of course!, it would be better if the converter worked correctly, but it
doesn't.
I have one here and have tried many times to get it function correctly. Its
a BAFO BF-810, a really cute little dongle on the end of an A-B cable.
The thing will work well so long as you are doing nothing but passing
straight ASCII characters over the interface. But as soon as you begin
"pushing the envelope of serial port functions" such as depending on serial
"Break" sequences to work correctly, forget it. That limitation coupled
with Bill Gate'$ stupid W2K drivers cause the USB-serial converter to a)
lock up the serial port when breaks are sent, and b) if you finally write
enough software modifications to clear the error status and flush the
buffers before proceeding you discover that the converter mangles the
characters that follow the break sequence.
Unfortunately, I have to work for a living and time spent fixing defective
hardware and Micro-crap $oftware is money out of my pocket. Surely, you
don't think I would be dumb enough to waste my one remaining PCI slot plus
the time and expense of buying and installing a "real" serial port unless it
was my last resort???
I would love to hear from someone who knows of a "real" USB to serial
converter that "really" works. I will even tell them where to get the
software to test it with.
Bob Smith
--- Avoid computer viruses, Practice safe hex ---
-- Specializing in small, cost effective
embedded control systems --
Robert L. (Bob) Smith
Smith Machine Works, Inc.
9900 Lumlay Road
Richmond, VA 23236 804/745-1065
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list CHIPDIR-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 11:50 AM
> At 2003-01-31 06:34 -0800, Robert Smith wrote:
> >I may be the only person on these lists that was unaware of the alternate
> >form factors for PCI cards known as LPPCI (Low Profile PCI), but I doubt
it.
> >
> >LPPCI is a low height variation of the standard form factor PCI cards.
The
> >basic mechanical distinction can be seen at --
> >
> > http://www.spinserver.com/lppci.html
> >
> >I recently purchased a PCI serial card for my cute little Gateway
Essential
> >PC (which came complete without serial ports). Not even Gateway's
support
> >site makes a clear distinction. They only describe the expansion slots
as
> >PCI 2.2 compatible. Hiss, Boo!
> >
> >I share this information in hopes that someone can avoid a nasty surprise
> >when purchasing PCI components.
>
> Perhaps it's better to use an USB to serial converter?
>
> As far as I can tell, the philosophy is that all
> external I/O should be done over USB as much as
> possible. Of course USB 1.x wasn't fast enough
> to handle digital video and connections to
> external harddisks and professional scanners
> and camer's, so you would have to use Firewire
> for that, but now there is faster standard of
> USB 2.0 (?).
>
> I'm not an expert, and I think it took way too
> long before external USB devices were actually
> introduced, but wouldn't it be nice if the
> following mess of connections could all be
> replaced by USB:
>
> - serial
> - parallel
> - keyboard
> - PS/2 mouse
> - MIDI
> - joystick
> - output to speakers (with the DAC in the speakers)
> - input from micro phone (with the ADC in the micro phone)
>
> And whenever you need to connect an old device you
> use a converter.
>
> Greetings,
> Jaap
>
> --
> Author: Jaap van Ganswijk
> INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
> to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L
> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>
>
--
Author: Robert Smith
INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
