[Elecraft] RE: K2 with USB anytime soon??

[Francis Belliveau]

I think that those asking the question do not fully understand all the
facts.

Admittedly, all computing hardware that comes with USB and RS-232 hardware
comes with drivers for this hardware.  However, USB is treated as another
bus, like PCI, and drivers must be installed for each kind of hardware
installed there.  Since there is no way that a K2 will be of much use if it
emulater a hard drvie, keyboard or mouse, Elecraft would need to provide a
K2 driver for each operating system that they intend to support.  Remember
that Elecraft is in the Ham Radio business, not the computer hardware
business.

Furthermore, I have experience with these things in that I have fielded an
application that simultaneously interfaces with 6 serial ports and 3 USB
devices.  The serial devices are much more reliable and much easier to
troibleshoot.

So until there is a better generic communications standard, I say that the
serial port is still the best choice for a small non-computer company like
Elecraft.  Users only need to know which port they have attached their
equipment to, and if your machine doesn't have any then you can but one that
attaches to your USB port.

Fran, KA4FRH