Re: USB to serial converter working ? and USB hubs attached to usb-serial converter

From: Jack Erbes (jackerbes_at_adelphia.net)
Date: 03/15/05 

Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:22:17 -0500

Newbie wrote:

<snip>
> Can any of you
> share his/her experience with a particularly bad piece of hardware and
> the type of the sensors it did not work with ? <snip>

I have used a number of serial to USB converters that ranged from
generic unbranded ones to ones sold by Palm and Belkin. The Palm one
has not worked reliably with anything but Palm devices. The Belkin has
been very stable and I have not found a serial device (mostly with GPS
receivers on PDAs) that I could not get to work with it.

One warning, don't plug in any serial/USB converter until you read the
setup instructions. Generally, you are required to run the driver
install before you plug the converter in and that seems to contribute to
success in setting it up and getting it working. With the driver
installed, the converter should plug and play the first time it is
plugged in and found listed in the Port (COM & LPT) listing.

To see the range of types of and prices for serial to USB converters,
browse them in an eBay search. You can see the variety without buying
anything.

I've not used any USB hubs yet, but I would proceed carefully on how
much load I put on a USB port. I would probably look for a hub that had
a jack for a external 5V power source to let me take the load off of the
USB bus when connecting many devices or a single device with a heavy
draw. The USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 protocols limit bus supplied power to 2.5
Watts (0.5A @ +5V) per port so when you use a hub that 0.5A limit would
have to cover all the devices on the hub. That is not much power if you
add things like printers or external drives.

Jack 

-- 
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

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