Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller - Page 279 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

jackbauer · 12-22-2009, 04:57 AM

Have to agree that usb is rubbish. Was at an arizona microchip training course a few years ago when they were first bringing out pics with onboard usb. Took the guys a day to get it to send simple ascii characters. Best bet is to get a pci rs232 card if you have a desktop or pcmcia card for a laptop. I have both and work fine with my own projects and rtd explorer. Trouble with most usb to rs232 adaptors is that they are implemented in software.

squiggles · 12-22-2009, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbauer

Best bet is to get a pcmcia card for a laptop.

Why didn't I think of that! Good idea.

Actually I just did a google search and found that the pcmcia card cost half as much as a new laptop!

regmeister · 12-22-2009, 05:17 PM

check to see if you actually have pcmcia or cardbus.

i've found the usb less fragile. and much cheaper too.

monoprice has some good deals. a top recomend for cables,...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...ord=232 to usb

squiggles · 12-22-2009, 05:24 PM

As far as I can determine it is difficult to use synchronous protocols on a USB-232 converter, due I suspect to what Jack mentioned, software implementation. Also I believe that windows has its own way of using interrupts that is unpredictable.

mrbigh · 12-22-2009, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by regmeister

check to see if you actually have pcmcia or cardbus.

i've found the usb less fragile. and much cheaper too.

monoprice has some good deals. a top recommend for cables,...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...ord=232 to usb

Well, there is not only the price and robustness, is communication speed and collition rate of data being handled by the com port, and how well the port selection software perform with your computer OS.

jackbauer · 12-22-2009, 05:50 PM

that cheap enough for ya

?
PCMCIA to RS-232 RS232 Serial DB9 CardBus Adaptor Card on eBay (end time 20-Jan-10 17:49:28 GMT)

mrbigh · 12-22-2009, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbauer

that cheap enough for ya

?
PCMCIA to RS-232 RS232 Serial DB9 CardBus Adaptor Card on eBay (end time 20-Jan-10 17:49:28 GMT)

.
OMG, all that money?

does it realy work?

regmeister · 12-22-2009, 06:18 PM

mrbigh,

your post comes off as mockery to me. was that your intent?

sorry if my chiming in with my thoughts rubbed you the wrong way.

mrbigh · 12-22-2009, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by regmeister

mrbigh,

your post comes off as mockery to me. was that your intent?

sorry if my chiming in with my thoughts rubbed you the wrong way.

Don't take things so seriously, a quote of humor some times is healthy while I do not end up with a shiner!!

JackBauer did a good research and provided us with a solution to a problem brought up to the board.
As adamj12b previously pointed-up, I also got stuck with a couple of serial/usb dongles, not all of them work smoothly with your computer OS. Finally, I went through 4 of them.
In today's world economics, we do not know what are we buying. This type of merchandise is considered discounted surplus for the throw away society.
If you have to shop for it, make sure of the seller return policies for return/exchanges/refunds and, some times the return shipping is higher than the merchandise.

dcb · 12-22-2009, 07:31 PM

Lol, that's funny

You are allright regs. "I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!!", LOL

Re adapters, the adruino folks have pretty well sorted out usb using the ftdi rs232rl chip, but it is surface mount and needs a driver on windows. There are cables and breakout boards with rs232rl chips on them too.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19312/satu...ve-you-mock-me