Batboard

Hi all.. time to upgrade this laptop that I've held onto cus it still has a DB9 for my RIB.... has anyone had any success using a USB to DB9 adapter on the new laptops like the Dell 9300 etc....

Most of the newer laptops don't have DB9's any longer...

Jennifer

i have one i use on my laptop, sadly i cant remember who the hell makes it.. it works good on everything ive thrown at it... i got it off ebay awhile back, its clear blue with a silver cable and has red and green activity leds on it

Radio shack, works good for me except the minitor programmer but havn't really had the patients to experiment with that yet.

Quatech makes several of them, I have the PCMCIA to Serial adapter and it works fine.

http://www.quatech.com/products/usb.php

or

http://www.quatech.com/products/pcmcia.php

You can use a USB-to-Serial adaptor and haev something that might work sometimes. Or you can use a PCMCIA serial card and have a real serial port again that will always work.

Socket brand PCMCIA serial cards work well.

mr.syntrx wrote:Socket brand PCMCIA serial cards work well.

Except for Toshiba laptops running Win2k and below.

I need one of these myself, so I looked on eBay. Seems that everyone wants to sell you one for $4.00 then charge you $10 for shipping. I think I'll look in the computer store, get it for a fair price, pay the sales tax, and have a place to return it if I need to do that.

None of these work in true DOS correct? Only in Windows... so if I'm using RSS for DOS I need to use a computer with a true DB9?

Jennifer

That's correct. USB is not supported in DOS. You MAY be able to find an obscure PCMCIA controller that is supported in DOS, but I highly doubt it.

If you're shopping for a new laptop now, consider bypassing the consumer-grade models and look at the business-grade models. Many of those models still have serial ports. Many of the manufacturers recognize the need for serial ports on business-grade laptops for doing data transfer, PLC programming, and things of the like.

Bob wrote:That's correct. USB is not supported in DOS. You MAY be able to find an obscure PCMCIA controller that is supported in DOS, but I highly doubt it.

Quatech still produces a PCMCIA serial card that works in both Windows & DOS, the SSP-100. We installed 4 of them into some new Compaq laptops about 6 months ago & they work great! It takes a little DOS 'know how' to get them to 'auto-register' upon power up in DOS, but once that was done, never a problem since. Works great in Windows too.

Bob wrote: If you're shopping for a new laptop now, consider bypassing the consumer-grade models and look at the business-grade models. Many of those models still have serial ports. Many of the manufacturers recognize the need for serial ports on business-grade laptops for doing data transfer, PLC programming, and things of the like.

This is correct, but be prepared to pay quite a bit more just to get that DB9 port!

Todd