[Elecraft] Elecraft Digest, Vol 71, Issue 15

[Randy Cook]

Jack-

I am using an iMac running OS 10.6.  I connect to the K3 with a generic/cheap USB to Serial cable I bought on eBay for US$7, which utilize the Prolific drivers.   Several vendors sell them. The ad  will say in the text the cable works with Windoze, Mac, and Linux. My vendor had a link to Prolific for driver downloading on the eBay ad. 

It uses the Prolific drivers, and has worked through three 'dot' revs of MacOS.

BTW, I bought two cables, a spare seemed like a good idea. 

Randy
K6CRC
K3 #2051
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The Elecraft USB serial adapter uses the Prolific chip set. This  
manufacturer has not updated the driver for this chip set to run under  
Mac OS X 10.6 with the 64 bit kernel enabled. So, if you are running  
an Intel-based Mac with Snow Leopard, you may not want the Elecraft  
device.

I use FTDI-based USB-Serial adapters from FTDI themselves. They are  
available from Mouser Electronics for $18.50 each. The current FTDI  
drivers are known good under all versions of Mac OS X, with both 32  
and 64-bit kernels enabled. If anyone is interested, the Mouser part  
number is 895-UC232R-10.

Now, having said this, there are many users who have been happy with  
the Elecraft adapter with the Mac using older versions of Mac OS X.

No matter which USB serial adapter you get, though, be ready to update  
the driver directly from the chip provider. Every new version of an OS  
sees changes, and USB is an area that is prominent for change. That  
almost always requires new drivers...

Jack Brindle, W6FB
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