USB to serial converters for win7?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BobG
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BobG

If I search this forum for 'USB to serial', I get a lot of several
year old threads that don't give much info other than 'get the win7
drivers' and 'some USB to serial ports are crap'. So I just got an HP
Pavilion winth win7 and its got 4 USB ports and no serial ports, so I
got a Prolific, and it doesn't seem to work. So I guess I'd like to
know the Brand Name of Any serial to USB dongle that works on Win7.
Orlando has Two! (2!) CompUSAs to wates one's money in. Thanks folks.
 
From: "BobG" <[email protected]>

| If I search this forum for 'USB to serial', I get a lot of several
| year old threads that don't give much info other than 'get the win7
| drivers' and 'some USB to serial ports are crap'. So I just got an HP
| Pavilion winth win7 and its got 4 USB ports and no serial ports, so I
| got a Prolific, and it doesn't seem to work. So I guess I'd like to
| know the Brand Name of Any serial to USB dongle that works on Win7.
| Orlando has Two! (2!) CompUSAs to wates one's money in. Thanks folks.

You need to get a PCI card with serial.

I run into this problem often. When you convert USB to serial you get virtual COM ports.
It isn't Windows 7 its a vitula port vs. physical port issue.
Often the software wants physical COM ports such as; IRQ4 I/O port 3F8 as COM1 or IRQ3
I/O port 2F8 as COM2.

These are standard hardware settings that *any* OS will work with so there isn't a need
for a Win7 driver. It is built into the core of the OS.

http://www.usbgear.com/1x-Serial-PCI.html
 
I bet its gonna be hard to stick that pci card into this HP pavilion
notebook.
Click to expand...

Come on, Bob, if anybody can do it, you can!

One possibility is running an earlier version of Windows in a virtual
machine, where the old drivers might work.

I have a couple of USB devices that don't work in Win 7 but work fine in
XP on VMware Player. The Player is free, but the XP isn't, unless like
me you have an unused(or retired) CD lying around. My experience doesn't
prove that the USB->Serial will be OK, but it's encouraging.

Maybe you'll be lucky and find a converter with a Win 7 driver - or
maybe someone else in this NG will have a solid recommendation.
 
From: "Zaphod Beeblebrox" <[email protected]>





| There are also Ethernet to Serial adapters, I've had good luck with
| Digi (http://www.digi.com/products/serialservers/digionesp.jsp),
| though I must say I've not used them under Windows 7 to know if their
| drivers are compatible. They also make USB to Serial devices, but I
| have no direct experience with those.

As I wrote...

When you convert USB to serial you get virtual COM ports.
Often the software wants physical COM ports such as; IRQ4 I/O port 3F8 as COM1 or IRQ3
I/O port 2F8 as COM2.

Which may also be true for Ethernet to Serial adapters.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't agree with that. That's what the drivers are supposed to
solve.
 
From: "Gene E. Bloch" <[email protected]>


| Sorry, I don't agree with that. That's what the drivers are supposed to
| solve.

Drivers are middleware. They provide the information to make the hardware work with the
opertaing system.

Like I wrote, they generate virtual ports such as COM7. OK so there is a port called COM7
like thre there is PRN, AUX etc. However Serial ports have been standardized as COM1 ~
COM4 using I/O ports 3F8, 3E8, 3E8 and 2E8 couple with Interrupt Request Lines.

I ran into this problem years ago and examined it thoroughly. My fielding engineers were
given notevooks that had no serial ports. They needed a serial port to communicate and
program with with radios they were deploying. The notebooks were Latitude D410.
Providing them with various USB to serial adapters didn't work. Absolutely none. You can
see the virual ports in Device Manager and you certainly ddidn't see a COM1 as IRQ4 I/O
port 3F8 or COM2 as IRQ3 I/O port 2F8. However if the D410 was monunted in a Media Bay
which provided a serial port device manager didn't show a physicial COM1 as IRQ4 I/O port
3F8 using a 16550 UART. The radios worked with the Media Bay.
 
David H. Lipman said:
From: "Zaphod Beeblebrox" <[email protected]>





| There are also Ethernet to Serial adapters, I've had good luck
with
| Digi (http://www.digi.com/products/serialservers/digionesp.jsp),
| though I must say I've not used them under Windows 7 to know if
their
| drivers are compatible. They also make USB to Serial devices, but
I
| have no direct experience with those.

As I wrote...

When you convert USB to serial you get virtual COM ports.
Often the software wants physical COM ports such as; IRQ4 I/O port
3F8 as COM1 or IRQ3
I/O port 2F8 as COM2.
Click to expand...

To which the OP has yet to comment, much less agree that this is a
problem for this situation.

Also, I'd not characterise it as "often" - poorly written or legacy
software might, but properly written, modern Windows based software
(say, from the past decade or so) should be able to handle most any
Windows port number and let Windows and the driver handle the details,
as it should.
Which may also be true for Ethernet to Serial adapters.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it could, and for the Digi at least appears to be true. That
is, I saw no way to assign legacy I/O Addresses or IRQs for the ports
that were created on the model I have.
 
If I search this forum for 'USB to serial', I get a lot of several
year old threads that don't give much info other than 'get the win7
drivers' and 'some USB to serial ports are crap'. So I just got an HP
Pavilion winth win7 and its got 4 USB ports and no serial ports, so I
got a Prolific, and it doesn't seem to work. So I guess I'd like to
know the Brand Name of Any serial to USB dongle that works on Win7.
Orlando has Two! (2!) CompUSAs to wates one's money in. Thanks folks.
Click to expand...

I've had good results with Prolific chipset USB - serial adaptors and Win7.


G
 
From: "BobG" <[email protected]>

| If I search this forum for 'USB to serial', I get a lot of several
| year old threads that don't give much info other than 'get the win7
| drivers' and 'some USB to serial ports are crap'. So I just got an HP
| Pavilion winth win7 and its got 4 USB ports and no serial ports, so I
| got a Prolific, and it doesn't seem to work. So I guess I'd like to
| know the Brand Name of Any serial to USB dongle that works on Win7.
| Orlando has Two! (2!) CompUSAs to wates one's money in. Thanks folks.

You need to get a PCI card with serial.

I run into this problem often.  When you convert USB to serial you get virtual COM ports.
It isn't Windows 7 its a vitula port vs. physical port issue.
Often the software wants physical COM ports such as; IRQ4 I/O port 3F8 asCOM1  or IRQ3
I/O port 2F8 as COM2.

These are standard hardware settings that *any* OS will work with so there isn't a need
for a Win7 driver.  It is built into the core of the OS.

http://www.usbgear.com/1x-Serial-PCI.html
Click to expand...

Thanks that's useful. I am intending to program some instruments that
read serial ports, and I was going to use a USB to Serial converter,
but after reading this post maybe I will get a PCI Serial card.

RL
 
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