[Elecraft] USB to serial angst

[Don Wilhelm]

Those looking for a computer with a real serial port may want to 
consider the IBM (Leveno) off-lease computers that are often offered by 
TigerDirect www.tigerdirect.com.  Many (even most) come with 2 serial 
ports and are usually loaded with WinXP Pro.  There are likely other 
vendors of these off-lease machines, but I know TigerDirect frequently 
has them available.  Search the website for IBM off lease.  Most are in 
the 2 to 3 GHz range and usually with a Pentium 4 CPU.  They are 
inexpensive enough that you may want to consider one for a dedicated 
computer for the hamshack.

73,
Don W3FPR

Alan Bloom wrote:
> A lot of PCs that "don't have a serial port" actually do have the
> electronics on the motherboard.  If so, you can mount your own DB-9
> connector on the rear panel and wire it to the motherboard.
>
> The motherboard connector is often a 10-pin (two rows of 5 pins) header
> with one pin removed to give a one-for-one correspondence to a 9-pin
> RS-232 connector.  If you can't find the COM ports in Windows, you might
> have to check the "integrated peripherals" section of the BIOS to see if
> the manufacturer has disabled serial ports in the BIOS.
>
> It might be worth a look before going out and buying a serial PCI card
> (or a new computer).
>
> Al N1AL
>
>
> On Fri, 2010-03-12 at 20:31 -0500, Mike wrote:
>   
>> For those suffering from lack of a real serial port, something I found 
>> today may interest you. PC's with a real serial port, and a parallel 
>> port to boot (no pun intended). There are a couple of differently 
>> equipped ones on the page. It has no OS installed, so you'll need one.
>>
>> I ordered one. If you have a local store, call and they'll order it for 
>> you. I have no connection to CompUSA.
>>
>> http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5742468&CatId=2629
>>
>> 73, Mike NF4L
>>
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>
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