[Elecraft] USB to serial angst

[R. Kevin Stover]

Well said.

There's no good reason for desktop Ham Radio computers to NOT have 
serial ports.
The four port PCI serial card I bought for my new home brew  machine 
cost $20.
It works with all my operating systems, three at last count, and I don't 
have to do any sort of configuration. Shut the computer off, install the 
board, reboot.

USB has NO advantage over RS-232 at the data speeds we're talking about 
and it brings a laundry list of potential problems that RS-232 just 
doesn't have.

The reported "obsolescence" of RS-232 is highly exaggerated and 
premature. For the most part caused by folks who use compromise 
computers designed for portable use.

On 3/13/2010 7:10 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
>
> That is completely uninformed and demonstrates a dangerous lack
> of knowledge about the way USB operates.
>
> Placing a USB port in the K3 would simply move the USB UART
> currently found in the USB to serial converter onto the KIO3
> board.  If Elecraft were to use the prolific chipset currently
> in the KUSB, they would also be stuck with the Prolific drivers
> that are notoriously problematic with VB 6 software and would
> render the K3 unusable with several popular software packages.
>
> USB *** HAS NO ADVANTAGE *** over standard RS-232 ports and it
> *** NEVER WILL ***.  Going to USB requires a substantial added
> investment by the manufacturer and a major ongoing support
> cost.
>
> In addition to the software support cost, USB is a multiplexed
> (shared) system level bus.  Because of the system architecture
> data rates on the bus are much higher than the serial equivalent
> through put.  That makes USB much more susceptible to both
> radiated and conducted noise problems.  Computer motherboards
> (and laptop/netbooks) that fail to properly ground the USB
> shield to the board's ground plane are almost guaranteed to
> become wideband noise generators (something that is very rare
> with the 8250 compatible UART).
>
> 73,
>
>     ... Joe, W4TV
>
>
>    
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of eric manning
>> Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:08 PM
>> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] USB to serial angst
>>
>>
>> All in favour of a USB port on the K3?
>>
>> Then we could forget about un-necessary, expensive , flaky  and
>> crash-prone USB to serial adapters.
>> THe serial port  with its RS-232 interface is obsolete. It
>> dates back to
>> the 70's if not earlier and was superseded  by USB.
>>
>> eric
>>
>> VA7DZ
>>
>> S/N 3640
>

-- 
R. Kevin Stover

ACØH