On May 23, 2008, at 6:59 PM, James C. Hall, MD wrote:
Hello:
Well it appears I discovered that not all serial cables are built
the same.
I took the Keyspan adapter and my laptop to my trusty K2, and sure
enough,
it polled just fine. That left me wondering 'what's the difference
between
the K2 and the K3?' Except for anything internal which I felt highly
unlikely, the answer was the cable itself. I called myself
substituting a
cable earlier but later discovered that this cable was formerly used
to
relay status information from a UPS. They are not true serial cables
apparently.
When I hooked up with what I KNEW to be a true serial cable to the
K3, it
worked perfectly !
As for Vista - who knows ?!! It looks like it will require a
purchase of an
up-to-date device and drivers. Jeez, I wish ham radios had USB ports !
Actually, you don't. Here is why.
Every company who wants to make their device "USB Capable" picks some
off-the-wall USB-to-Serial adaptor (or worse). Now the one good thing
about someone still using serial is that I only need one make/model of
USB-to-Serial adaptor for ALL my RS-232 devices. That means one device
and one driver. Now contrast that with 5 different radios with 5
different USB interface chips from 5 different vendors. Can you say,
"5 different drivers, at least one chock full of bugs?" I knew you
could.
I have standardized on USB-to-serial adaptors based on the FTDI
FT232RL chip. The ones I am using I got from Parallax and they work
flawlessly. They are even serialized (serial number) and *always* come
up as the same device regardless of where they get plugged into the USB.
So, pick one reliable USB-to-serial device and use it for everything
and only have to install one driver. Think about it.
73, Jamie
WB4YDL
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--
Brian Lloyd Granite Bay Montessori
brian AT gbmontessori DOT com 9330 Sierra College Blvd.
+1.916.367.2131 (voice) Roseville, CA 95661, USA
http://www.gbmontessori.com
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— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com
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