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PCMCIA to DB9(serial)
Thorleifur
Posts: 58
Does anyone use a PCMCIA to Serial for communication? I am in the transition of crossing between XP and WIN7 and getting a Dell Precision laptop which turns out, does not have a DB9 plug.
According to technote something from 2004, they recommend using PCMCIA cards instead of USB. I don´t want to use USB to Serial because of it´s "unreliablity" ( can´t afford a unstable serial connection ), and I have tried a couple of brands now, I got them all to crash and burn.
A post from 2004 also says that cards from Digi and Quatech are reliable. Does anyone second that? What are you using? Or should I be just getting this: Heavy Load and get really big arms in the process
?
According to technote something from 2004, they recommend using PCMCIA cards instead of USB. I don´t want to use USB to Serial because of it´s "unreliablity" ( can´t afford a unstable serial connection ), and I have tried a couple of brands now, I got them all to crash and burn.
A post from 2004 also says that cards from Digi and Quatech are reliable. Does anyone second that? What are you using? Or should I be just getting this: Heavy Load and get really big arms in the process
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http://www.qualitycables.com/productdetails1.cfm?sku=SS-232-2P9%20&cats=
It works flawlessly with every AMX box and the IRIS and also with every Cre$tron box and their IR capture box. It also has two RS232 ports, which is handy sometimes.
I have used a USB/RS232 adapter with ok results. It wouldn't work with either the IRIS or the Cre$tron IR capture box and wouldn't work when the PC was on battery power -- that, I assume, was a PC hardware problem.
I'd guess that most any PCMCIA card would work fine as there's probably not much difference in technology among them, I'd guess. But, be careful that you get an appropriate card for your computer. I think that PCMCIA is obsolescent; replaced by narrower cards. Express card, or something.
I just bought a Dell Latitude 5510 which is, I think, just about the only laptop that still has the DB9 rs232 port. It has W7 and so far I've not had any problems except getting IREdit to install. Had to use the XP virtual machine (which is not available with all versions of W7) to install IREdit. If the Precision model had an RS232 port, I'd probably have bought that though they are more expensive than the Latitude and since I use this computer for nothing other than AMX and Cre$tron, it probably wouldn't have been worth the extra.
http://www.quatech.com/catalog/socketserial.php
--D
Hedberg:
I also looked at the Latitude 5510, but I decided on the Precision because of the Quad Core and the graphics card( I use CAD, vidCAD and other heavy programs ). The only downside was the DB9 port but there are solutions out there for that problem. The Precision also has the Express Card slot so that is not an issue.
Thanks again.
I also went through a bunch of USB?serial adapters. I have been successfully using a belkin adapter with 0 problems on all AMX units (NI and Axcent), so the options are still there. Part # is Belkin F5U109.
What brand of a computer are you using? XP, Vista or Win7? 64 bit?
I am still not sure about USB. It´s ok for many things, but I need my serial port to be 100%.
Prior to the KeySpan adaptor I used a "Ruggedized" PCMCIA card by Socket (now Syncrotech) on a Toshiba laptop and it worked well. I'm not a fan of the tethered cable though - it can get knocked about a bit.
Roger McLean
Swinburne University
Must be the Keyspan unit that Vantage Controls recommends
As I said in my post, the KeySpan adaptor has worked fine for me. The issue I had was with Parallels, not the KeySpan adaptor. What OS environment were you using the KeySpan adaptor with when you had your troubles? OSX vs Win32, and was it native or VM?
As for Vantage Controls, I've never seen or used their equipment.
Roger McLean
Swinburne University
Where is the "like" button?