NO Serial Port

Hello guys.I am trying to interface my laptop to serial devices with out a serial port.I only have USB ports,parallel port,and a 2 wire modem.What can i use that wont cost and arm and a leg to communicate over a rs-232 connection using any of these ports/devices.All ideas much appreciated.

Get a USB - > Serial adapter. Works with most RS232 devices and will appear as a regular COM port on your PC. Another suggestion is to use a docking station. They sometimes have a serial port or a PCI slot that you could install a serial IO card in.

Jemac

http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Serial.html

try here for some ideas

http://www.bb-elec.com/product.asp?SKU=232SPS2

also an option if all your usb ports are already used

*no personal usage of product above

Thanks for all the input.I will give it a whirl.

A-B perspective

I very strongly recommend the Keyspan HS-19 USB/RS232 converter for most general-purpose RS-232 applications.

I've used it for Modbus, ASCII, DF1 Full and Half-Duplex, serial sniffing, Cisco console, and other applications. It works very reliably with the DF1 Autoconfigure feature.

It also enumerates as the same COM port no matter what USB port you plug it into; many cheaper devices could use a different COMx number depending on what port you plug it into.

The only protocol I know it won't support is A-B DH485 protocol (nothing but the A-B 1747-UIC supports that).

I second Ken's recommendation of the Keyspan. It is reasonably priced and works well with everything I have tried it on.

John M said:

I second Ken's recommendation of the Keyspan. It is reasonably priced and works well with everything I have tried it on.

Click to expand...

I agree. The Keyspan comes with configuration software that lets you customize a number of settings for the device. I've been able to use it in a couple of applications where other USB/Serial devices wouldn't work.

I have the Keyspan and it works very well. My co-workers also have them, but they have the newer Lenovo Thinkpad T61P and have no end of problems - blue screen city whenever the keyspan is plugged in. So your milage may vary.