USB/serial adapters (was: cctalk Digest, Vol 70, Issue 3)

[Dave McGuire]

On Jun 2, 2009, at 10:53 PM, Richard wrote:
>> I think there has been other threads here regardng the hit-or-miss
>> nature of these USB-to-serial adapters.  I know when I needed one
>> to sync a Palm, I couldn't find one that did it right.  I think
>> I hit my head against three $30 adapters to no avail, but this
>> was four-five years ago.
>
> I've used them to talk to terminals and had no problems.

   Yep.  I use them all day, every day, and have never had the  
problems I've heard people complain about here.  Right now on my main  
desktop machine, I have a USB<->serial adapter connected to an ARM9  
development board, another connected to a homebrew Z80 SBC, another  
connected to a PDP-11/83, and yet another connected to a PDP-11/70.   
They all work wonderfully.  I use Keyspan adapters.

   Admittedly, though, I've not tried my old A-J acoustic modem.

   Some people whine about they Keyspan adapters being too  
expensive...they may be having problems because they bought some  
cheap $5 adapters.  The last Keyspan unit I purchased cost me (I  
think) about $30.00, and I bought it about six years ago.   
Complaining about $30.00 over six years is being too damn cheap, even  
for the cheapskates around here.

   On my Sun Ray thin clients, I use Edgeport quad-port adapters.   
They exhibit some latency (that may be due to the Sun Ray USB  
encapsulation though), but they work pretty well otherwise.  The  
serial ports show up as devices on the Sun Ray host system.

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL