Nate suggested shopping for an old laptop at used computer stores. Another
place to check is Thrift Stores. A few years ago I bought a CPU (mini-tower
with Win98), keyboard, mouse, and speakers for $7 at a Salvation Army Thrift
Store. It worked just fine. Okay, I'll admit that I did have to replace the
real-time clock battery. <grin> It's still being used as a packet terminal at
one of our remote ECCs.
73 and aloha, Eric KH6CQ
--- On Sat, 1/17/09, Nate Duehr <n...@natetech.com> wrote:
From: Nate Duehr <n...@natetech.com>
Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Off Topic
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009, 8:29 PM
On Jan 17, 2009, at 11:17 PM, kh6...@netscape. net wrote:
> Thanks for this Off Topic.
> In the days of 386's, 486's, etc. desktops & notebooks had RS-232c
> ports.
You can still get motherboards with serial and parallel ports, but
most mass market machines don't have them anymore.
> What can be done with the XP notebooks, like mine, with no Db-9,
> RS-232c
> ports, all that is available is USB ports?
USB to serial converters for programs that understand them. Late-
model radios from today's manufacturers program just fine with that.
But most of us here are using older stuff, built in a time when the
programming software needed raw hardware access to the serial ports.
> I am hoping to get an old dest top with Db-9, RS-232c working with
> my old
> Windows 3.1 software.
> This will mean taking this desk top to the repeater site, to program
> the repeater
> controller.
Get an old laptop instead. Even if you can't keep the battery alive,
it's a lot more convenient to lug an older heavy laptop around, and
then it comes with its own keyboard & monitor as a bonus. Old laptops
that will run DOS/Win 3.11 can often be found for far under $100 at
used computer shops. They're ancient and the shop doesn't want them.
Often it will cost the shop more to pay to recycle/dispose of them
properly, than to give them away to you, if you find the right junk
dealers.
> I have a USB to Db-9, RS-232c adapter w/ a cd software. If I could
> get a
> Windows AT program to work with XP.
It probably won't work. If the program knows how to access high COM
ports (unlikely) and was not talking directly to the serial hardware
(also unlikely), then maybe.
> I await your solutions.
A cheap old laptop loaded with DOS/Win 3.11/Win 98/whatever you
need... multiple boot it with multiple partitions if you like even,
that you set aside JUST for programming old radios. A bonus would be
to find a "twin" for it and image the hard drive, and have a spare.
--
Nate Duehr, WY0X
n...@natetech. com
