I just built a very small computer to replace the giant workstation
that has been heating my shack for more than a decade. That old
Dell was a workhorse and held a compliment of extra serial boards
for all those old serial connections we once used: packet, transceivers,
etc.
But, the Dell doesn't sound as good as it once did, and both the radio
and the amp have been replaced, so it was time for the computer to go.
I selected a very small case, the 7x7x3 M-350 case you see everywhere
and the Zotac IONITX-A-U that was available used at a great price. I
decided
to use Windows 7 so I didn't have to change that for another ten years, and
I could continue to use DX4WIN to control everything. The Zotac is a
mini-iITX
form-factor and uses very low power. It is quiet and cool and takes up
little space.
This motherboard doesn't have any of the old serial ports, so I was
taking a gamble that all my equipment would interface over USB. Almost
all of it worked, often with workarounds.
The first USB-serial cables that I bought from a seller on eBay were
failures.
They seem to just be wire with connectors on the end, with not real circuit
for adapting the USB bus to a serial port. Well, I didn't risk much on
them.
The second USB-serial cables were interesting. The Windows 7 system
recognized them
immediately and assigned them COM ports, but the system didn't seem to
want to use
both COM5 and COM6 at the same time, so neither my rotor nor my radio
CAT worked
with any stability. Turn off one or the other and it seemed better, but
never use both.
But I stumbled on a workaround. If I connected the USB-Hub in my
monitor and then
connected the USB-serial cable to that, things were more stable. The
COM ports were
higher, but they worked.
In the end, I have the M2 rotor, Tentec Orion II CAT and Keyer working
through USB.
There is an occasional delay in first-character keying, but I think that
might be
Windows and not USB. I'll keep testing that to see how to improve it.
One thing I haven't worked out is the USB-USB connection for the Alpha
9500. The
Alpha Windows software is pretty sad and I didn't have time to try
something useful,
but in the end I really doubted I cared about talking computer-to-amp
for something
that was sitting on my desk.
I know there are other solutions, like external keyers, hubs, etc, but
this seems like a great first step.
I'd also comment that the new look of DX4WIN 8 frames is nice. I
don't see much different in
the software yet, but things were familiar enough for me to work 4A4A
pretty quickly tonight.
73, Byron
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