New IBM Thinkpad no serial port !!

[tlynyrd]

New IBM Thinkpad T60, 1gig RAM, WinXP Pro.
Trying to get a PCMCIA to Serial Converter to work with S5 but so far no luck! Converter is good, tried with old serial mouse, works fine. Anyone Ideas?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Pierre]

New IBM Thinkpad T60, 1gig RAM, WinXP Pro.
Trying to get a PCMCIA to Serial Converter to work with S5 but so far no luck! Converter is good, tried with old serial mouse, works fine. Anyone Ideas?

Thanks for your help!

Join the Club tlynyrd Who are the newest member of the serial converters junkyard association!

This is a very common problem.

If you are to use a converter, you first have to get the one that is recommended by your software manufacturer although many don't dare to give out such specifications. It more than often has become a trial and error task.

One of my buddy has even brougth a full PLC rack to his electronics store and has tested 5 different brands before he got one to work. He was lucky they had 5 different in stock.

Your best bet I for somebody to post the model number of one brand that is working on his same OS.

I personnaly use B&B Electronic brand and have never had a problem although not tested on S5.

OT: S5, I weep when I thinck of the old days when I was programming with what we called there "German DOS" software.

 

[MarkTTU]

I've had very good luck with the Aten USB-RS232 adapter, but I've never tried it with S5.

 

[LadderLogic]

However you will get much better result with this: http://www.socketcom.com/product/SL0700-004.asp USB-to-serial converters may or may not work with some brands. Seral PC cards work with everything. At least I am not aware of anything they would not work with.

 

[RSL]

+1 on the socket serial pc cards! I have used them with great success on AB products. My laptop is an IBM thinkpad T40.

I have even made the dreaded PIC driver run through it!

RSL

 

[DFJ]

usb to serial

One way to deal with no serial port is to get a USB to serial adapter. The thing you need to do is make certain is that it has handshaking capabilities. They have $15 ones and $50 ones, guess what ones work more often? Office Max will exchange, no questions asked. Guess where you need to go. Also look at Virtual Machine software. Good luck and sweat the small stuff...

DFJ

 

[tlynyrd]

Hi All, me again.
Just wanted to add that is is a pcmcia converter made by BBL (see 1st pic).

Maybe someone of you had some experience with this kind. It came with the driver software and there are "500thousand" tabs buttons and adjustments. Since we have S7 as well as S5 (the good' old stuff), I have no other choice, than to find a solution. I tried some usb to serial converters expecially made for S5, A company in Germany called: http://www.process-informatik.de/ (see 2nd pic)

This cable works, but once I installed the driver, I could not use any of my USB connectors for anything else than S5. Also I need the serial connection for some other older software, like: Bosch, Telesis, Maxon-Motors, IDC Controls etc.
Thanks all of you for your great help!!

 

[elevmike]

Dell still sells laptops with "real" serial ports..