[Elecraft] USB Support - K3, K2?

[Paul at N4LCD.com]

>I believe the incentive for advocating USB in the K3 (or any other 
>radio) is grounded in the fact that serial ports are disappearing 
>from laptop (and some desktop) computers.

Yep.


>Serial ports make more sense to me - the means to communicate with 
>the port is native in every operating system in current use (and is 
>likely to continue to be), and it is the duty of the application to 
>make the communications happen.  So you choose an application that 
>supports the radio and runs on your chosen OS.  That is much 
>different than depending on the radio manufacturer to provide 
>support for a myriad of USB drivers   whose requirements will likely 
>change with the next version of the operating system.

Very true, although this doesn't need to be the case. FireWire and 
video cameras proves that. No special drivers necessary.


>Serial will drive a long distance, so if you want to control the 
>radio in a far corner of the home, all you need do is run a long 
>serial cable - with USB, the distance is limited.

There's definitely an argument for serial ports here, but 
unfortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it), Ethernet 
solves this problem and offers a potentially unlimited control 
distance over the Internet. No drivers necessary, just a telnet program.


>Serial ports may be disappearing from laptops, but the technology is 
>uncomplicated and well proven and has fewer roadblocks and 
>dependencies than solutions like USB.

I completely agree.


>Yes, Ethernet would be a better choice for those who have computer 
>networks installed already, but a small inexpensive computer (with a 
>serial port) dedicated to the radio installation can easily provide 
>that level of connectivity - Simon Brown's HRD does provide for such 
>remote operation.

A dumb terminal could theoretically work.


>I have seem several refurbished 2 GHz/512k/40GB IBM computers with 
>*2* serial ports advertised recently in the $200 range. A computer 
>like that would provide more power than needed for most situations, 
>but then I already have more computers than I need.

Yep. And you can buy serial port PCI cards.

I like the USB interface because it lacks any issues with IRQs. 
That's a huge advantage over running 3 or 4 serial ports.