[Elecraft] Give us a network interface

Tue Aug 31 14:03:57 EDT 2010

I have noticed that most motherboards still have a serial port if the 
user provides the jack.

Dick WO1I #911

At 01:53 PM 8/31/2010, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:
>There are PCI-X multiserial cards available that plug into the forward
>section of PCIx16 video slots.  These are readily available and PCIx16
>is not going away anytime soon being a very popular video format.  The
>demise of serial ports is overstated. Thankfully the serial port is
>not being pushed by new game designers, extending speed and changing
>behavior to suit a new game every other week like USB.   Worry about
>this interface when video card people give up on PCIXnn slots.
>Industrial users are interested in spending money on new equipment and
>then using it for free for twenty or thirty years.  It is the
>extremely expensive industrial peripheral equipment that will keep
>serial ports in use for another decade or two.  If it costs them
>money, industrial users would just as soon Microsoft walked off a
>cliff.  Their engineers are really nasty about spending money based on
>someone else's consumer-grade eye-candy.  There's
>hope-you-will-buy-my-new-gizmo salesmen TRYING to drive a market, and
>there's financial reality.
>
>There is a REASON why TV graphics are confined to a 4x3 box on a high
>def 16x9 presentation of a sports game.  MOST people are watching on a
>converter ahead of a 4x3 box.  My wife has our 16x9 TV in the game
>room on the PS3.  According to her, I have to wait for the big 31 inch
>4x3 to fail before putting up a 50 inch in the living room.  The set
>has a super-video input fed with a digital converter that has S-video
>out, and it is actually very sharp.  The marketeers don't want you to
>know what you can so with S-video and a converter box.  They don't
>want you to know about serial ports either.  No volume in it. No
>money.
>
>Wierdness with my K3 connected to my computer went away when I quit
>using USB in favor of a PCIX serial card.  I picked serial 1 and 2
>which are assigned by the OS at bootup, not juggled in the air,
>depending on whatever in the USB way.  A whole bunch of now and then
>weirdness that would never trouble-shoot just went away and the serial
>ports just run.  No wheezes, no dropouts, no weirdness, no drop
>connects, no freezeups, no nuthin.  Just run.  What a concept.
>
>These are cheap cards.  Do a google search on "PCIX serial card".
>Over 1.8 million hits.  Many manufacturers.
>
>73, Guy.
>
>On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:08 PM, G. Beat <gregory.beat at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > There are Ethernet (TCP/IP) terminal servers supporting at least 
> one RS-232 port
> >
> > as well as additional A/D lines readily available on market for 
> less then $100 (proper qty).
> >
> > Some even support two RS-232 ports.
> >
> >
> >
> > Just need to look at inside cover of Circuit Cellar monthly magazine or
> >
> > a recent issue of Elector magazine (now available in the USA)
> >
> >
> >
> > The chips are inexpensive -- typical radio amateur knowledge to 
> use them -- rare !
> >
> >
> >
> > Greg
> >
> > w9gb
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: elecraft-request at mailman.qth.net
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 11:00:05 AM
> > Subject: Give us a network interface (Wayne Burdick)
> >
> >
> >
> > As long as PCs have USB ports, and as long as there are USB to RS232
> > adapters available, then the K2, K3, and other rigs having RS232
> > control will be 100% supported. No one need worry about installing an
> > RS232 card in their computer.
> >
> > Future Elecraft products will have additional I/O options, possibly
> > including USB and/or Ethernet, but I can't make predictions beyond that.
> >
> > It is also possible for the K3's present digital daughter board to be
> > replaced with one having USB, Ethernet, or a combination of I/O ports.
> > We might look at this. Of course we would continue to offer the
> > existing unit, with RS232, as long as there is a need for it.
> >
> > Thanks for all your thoughts on the matter.
> >
> > 73,
> > Wayne
> > N6KR
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