[Elecraft] USB/Serial Question

[Lew Phelps K6LMP]

I'm also a Mac user. Some months ago, I specifically asked the folks at Elecraft if there is any reason to prefer their USB-Serial dongle over others that are commercially available. They said no, there's nothing that special about their device. 

The real issue, especially for Mac users, is whether the manufacturer of the chipset used in the device provides good support to the Mac community in terms of updating drivers.  The chipset maker who seem to have the best history with this is FTDI. It's not just a question of whether there is a driver currently available for OS X 10.6, but whether the chipset maker is known to be able to bring out updated drivers that function whenever Apple updates its OS.  It seems as if every update requires updated drivers. Keyspan has been good about Mac support in the past, but when I upgraded to 10.6, my Keyspan dongle lost functionality, so I quit using it and switched to a product that uses FTDI chips. 

I would NOT buy a cheap USB -serial dongle from Walmart or elsewhere unless you can confirm that it's got an FTDI chipset. 


Lew K6LMP



 
On Mar 10, 2010, at 5:11 PM, Charles Teeter wrote:

> Jack,
> 
> My iMac is from late 2006, but it has all the upgrades, including that to
> Snow Leopard.  Steve WB6RSE mentioned also that now the Elecraft one works
> FB with 10.6.  I’ll look at that as well as the one from Mouser Electronics.
> Thanks, guys.
> 
> 73,
> Chuck KE9CE
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