A USB to serial adaptor cable seems to cost about 20 quid. Is this because there are electronics involved - or just the usual markup? I need one urgently and have plenty spare USB leads and 9 pin D connectors. Plus postage being so unreliable at the moment. (Maplin list one, but not in stock at my local store)
yes, there is intelligence inside, usually standard RS232/USB chips, FTDI being a common one
I've ordered from easysync.co.uk in the past.
Shame about the post as I have one used that could be yours for a fiver
- still is if you're interested. It comes with software on CD so obviously there's some "intelligence" involved.
You can get them far cheaper than that. I've had them for as low as a fiver in the past. Ebuyer have a Belkin one for =A310.23+VAT. Alos, try ebay.
MBQ
Ebay - £1.90 with free P&P on Buy It Now. That do?
Just thought that I'd run the query through dabs.com
Mark
Dave Plowman (News) wibbled on Tuesday 06 October 2009 08:50
Yes - electronics are involved. I usually go with the FTDI chips - they seem pretty reliable with linux.
There are plenty of others with similar prices.
MBQ
99.7% pretty good I would say. You always get a few awkward sods as customers.
MBQ
I didn't pay that much for mine. There seem still to be ones rather cheaper than £20, eg
or
Looks like markup, given the above.
The urgency would be the problem. You could try ordering from both the above suppliers and see if either arrives in time...
What are you hoping to do, in case it could make a difference?
I ask because from my experience these things aren't always created equal.
Cheers, T i m
But as I said it's fairly urgent and stuff from Ebay is taking more than a week to arrive.
I've found some in stock at a different branch of Maplin so will collect later today. 20 quid is reasonable if it's more than just a bit of wire and available today.
Seconded. I have a no-name one based on the Prolific 2303 chipset which barely works under XP (from ebay, v cheap, now in the bin). I also have an Aten one (because my IT department at work swears by theirs) which works absolutely flawlessly under XP. However, under Windows 7 it only works intermittently.
Personally if money was not the limiting factor I would buy from a shop where I know I can return it if it doesn't work.
Matt
I have fitted a MegaSquirt fuel injection and ignition system to the old Rover. The software to configure it demands a serial port. I bought an old laptop which had one - but although the software says anything Win 95 onwards is ok it keeps on locking up. My PC is fine, though. So I've bought a new laptop - and none seem to have serial ports these days.
I generally play that LCD game with much of my kit. Will it work under OSX / XP / Ubuntu / W7 etc. The last example of something that didn't even want to play Ubuntu / XP was an old AGP 3DFx card that would blow you out of X as soon as you tried to soft scroll in any browser (yet it was fine doing the same under XP).
Agreed, or start with something cheap but that has a bit of a positive rep and be happy to keep it in yer bits box to play with later. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Might be worth checking out laptop usb docking stations as well. I bought one from Tesco for £12 a few months ago, and it has serial, parallel, audio and a lot more.
Funnily enough I use a *very* old one of those here to talk to my old Palm Pilot and Garmin GPS V units. 2 x serial, 1 x parallel and 3 USB (1) ports.
I will have to make a point of going to Tesco now. ;-)
Cheers T i m
It also depends what you want to connect it to. I have a Megasquirt engine management system for my kit car and some makes of USB/Serial leads work with it, but others don't.
SteveW
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