Jan,
The best way to test a USB to serial converter is by substitution with a
known good one, or by substitution of a known good working serial device
connected to the questionable converter cable.
Yes, a power surge or a lightning event can damage serial interfaces as
well as USB interfaces.
Since your USB ports on the computer seem to work, borrow a known good
USB to serial converter and try it out - preferably one with an FTDI
chipset.
If you have any other devices that use a serial COM port interface, see
if they work with your USB to serial adapter - if so, the adapter is
probably OK, but remember that in the event of a power surge, multiple
failures are possible even though in normal troubleshooting we assume
only a single failure.
You can test the USB to serial converter with a 'scope and an RS-232
breakout box, but you have to know the proper RS-232 levels to
understand what is happening. A null modem loopback cable can be
helpful if you have to proper driving software application for that
testing. I did that during my years of PC modem testing, but that was
more than 30 years ago and the software ran under DOS - not helpful now.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 7/18/2016 6:36 PM, Jan Ditzian wrote:
I have a K3 that lost communication with my computer. It uses an
Elecraft serial-to-USB converter and cable. This probably happened
during a known power surge. I also lost communication to my MDS
rotor, which uses a built-in USB cable, which I believe may also be a
serial-to-USB arrangement. I checked things out a bit, and I can tell
that my USB ports all seem to work. I also tried the K3 with another
computer and was unable to communicate with it. However, I also tried
a direct serial-to-serial cable from the K3 to the first computer,
which has a serial port, and was also unable to communicate. I am now
unsure of the location of the problem. I am willing to go with
whatever works.
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