Here is a good reference page for USB to serial adapters.
Luckily,
I have 4 serial ports in my pc. 2 actually came with the board,
and
I have a ByteRunner 2 port card I bought several years ago. But,
the day is coming, I may need one of these devices myself. This
is
a collection of other hams experiences with these devices.
http://www.aa5au.com/usb.html
73, Mike K9MI
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric F. Richards" <efricha@dimensional.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 13:53 PM
Subject: RE: [TenTec] IC 7800/FT2000D/TenTec-?
> At 08:16 AM 3/17/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> >Most any USB - serial adapter should work with the Orion.
They emulate
> >the old-fashioned serial port pretty well. From what I hear,
you only run
> >into problems if you are using the serial line in exotic
timing-dependent ways.
>
> I had different experience with mine, but they may have
improved the
> quality since I bought mine.
>
> >For a radio manufacturer, USB seems like a no-brainer. It's
probably as
> >cheap as serial, and what percent of user PCs don't have USB
in the Orion
> >/ IC-7800 market? Even better, I would like Ethernet (or
WiFi??) as an
> >easy way to work the radio over longer distances and from
multiple
> >computers. (That's the jack to watch on the '7800.)
>
> Well, I'm a Linux device driver writer. At the moment I'm
writing one
> for the USB488 subclass -- an implementation of IEEE488 over
USB.
>
> It isn't easy. USB is extremely complex for the driver
writer. Unlike
> other protocol stacks, USB almost always requires a device
driver for a
> new class of devices to be attached to a computer.
>
> So for radio developers, there are two choices: Imitate an
existing
> class, such as Serial or HID (Human Interface Device) and use
the
> existing drivers, or develop a class specifically for radios
and then
> wait for the drivers to be available on your platform.
>
> So, for a while, Linux users and Mac users will be out in the
cold, then
> they will have to deal with substandard interfaces.
>
> The point of all this is that, for serial devices, no
kernel-level code
> has to be written and the code can be ported (depending on how
it was
> written) between operating systems. USB *seems* easy to the
end user,
> but it puts a great deal of pain and suffering on the
developer.
>
> Having seen the innards of the protocol, I can't say I have a
great
> deal of respect for USB.
>
> 73,
>
> Eric, KB0YDN
>
>
> --
> Eric F. Richards
> efricha@dimensional.com
> "The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm
doomed."
> - Dilbert
>
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