PLC comms through USB port

[francevendee]

My laptop was dropped and is now useless.

I have bought a new one, but it only has a usb port.
I need to communicate with PLC's using the following:

Medoc
GX Developer
RSLogix500
Syswin

Is it possible?
If so what do I need to purchase.
Before I used my serial port with the relevant cables, PIC, SC09 etc

Laptop has XP installed.

[stasis]

yep...sure is possible. There are a ton of USB to serial converters on the market. I use a Belkin without problems. I also swapped to an Allen-Bradley 1747-UIC, for use with my RSLogix 500.

[Steve Bailey]

The most frequently overlooked detail I've encountered with people using a USB/serial converter is that Windows will assign the USB converter to some higher COM port number than COM1 or COM2. If you already have your PLC programming software set up for serial communications over COM1 or COM2, you'll get a failure to connect to the PLC when you try to go online.

[stasis]

you can re-assign the comm port of the device by using device manager...

In WinXP, right-click My Computer, choose Properties, choose the Hardware tab, and click the Device Manager button. This will take you to an Explorer type window & the last installed device will be open in the tree. From there, double-click the device to adjust properties.

[francevendee]

Many thanks all!