Well said. There's no good reason for desktop Ham Radio computers to NOT have serial ports. The four port PCI serial card I bought for my new home brew machine cost $20. It works with all my operating systems, three at last count, and I don't have to do any sort of configuration. Shut the computer off, install the board, reboot.
USB has NO advantage over RS-232 at the data speeds we're talking about and it brings a laundry list of potential problems that RS-232 just doesn't have. The reported "obsolescence" of RS-232 is highly exaggerated and premature. For the most part caused by folks who use compromise computers designed for portable use. On 3/13/2010 7:10 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote: > > That is completely uninformed and demonstrates a dangerous lack > of knowledge about the way USB operates. > > Placing a USB port in the K3 would simply move the USB UART > currently found in the USB to serial converter onto the KIO3 > board. If Elecraft were to use the prolific chipset currently > in the KUSB, they would also be stuck with the Prolific drivers > that are notoriously problematic with VB 6 software and would > render the K3 unusable with several popular software packages. > > USB *** HAS NO ADVANTAGE *** over standard RS-232 ports and it > *** NEVER WILL ***. Going to USB requires a substantial added > investment by the manufacturer and a major ongoing support > cost. > > In addition to the software support cost, USB is a multiplexed > (shared) system level bus. Because of the system architecture > data rates on the bus are much higher than the serial equivalent > through put. That makes USB much more susceptible to both > radiated and conducted noise problems. Computer motherboards > (and laptop/netbooks) that fail to properly ground the USB > shield to the board's ground plane are almost guaranteed to > become wideband noise generators (something that is very rare > with the 8250 compatible UART). > > 73, > > ... Joe, W4TV > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net >> [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of eric manning >> Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:08 PM >> To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net >> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] USB to serial angst >> >> >> All in favour of a USB port on the K3? >> >> Then we could forget about un-necessary, expensive , flaky and >> crash-prone USB to serial adapters. >> THe serial port with its RS-232 interface is obsolete. It >> dates back to >> the 70's if not earlier and was superseded by USB. >> >> eric >> >> VA7DZ >> >> S/N 3640 > -- R. Kevin Stover ACØH ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
