[Elecraft] USB to serial angst - move beyond emulation

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

> When you plug in a high speed USB disk you wouldn't expect 
> the data to be handled via rs232 emulation would you? 

High speed USB disks use serial protocol - the transport is 
the same as RS-232 but does not include the +/- 10-12V drivers. 
Support for high speed serial data transfer (e.g., USB hard 
drives, cameras, etc.) is the primary reason that "modern" 
USB adapters no longer support 45.45 baud 5 bit codes!  

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV 
 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jeff Herr
> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 11:10 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] USB to serial angst - move beyond emulation
> 
> 
> Why use rs232 emulation at all?
> 
> Emulation = not necessarily a good thing
> 
> When you plug in a high speed USB disk you wouldn't expect 
> the data to be handled via rs232 emulation would you? 
> When you plug in a Ethernet device you wouldn't expect the 
> data to be handled via rs232 emulation would you?
> 
> Why use emulation at all?  I know, I know, HRD....
> 
> 
> 
> A "telnet" interface on the Elecraft side via Ethernet, all 
> native, would require no drivers on the pc side. A native USB 
> interface could be done the same way.
> 
> Both would require a supporting application and/or library on 
> the pc side, but would work well and be very high performance 
> and stability. Both would require firmware support on the 
> Elecraft side......as does the existing rs232 methodology.
> 
> But the result ...  No drivers to load, no silly 
> configuration, no conflicts with other serial devices, no 
> baud rates to set.
> 
> Let's face it, 232 emulation over USB is "messy" and it's a 
> remnant of the past. Just the fact that all of us have been 
> exposed to so much trouble is a bad indicator.
> 
> My bet is the chipset isn't the problem it's the interface on 
> the pc side. I think that lack of standards in this niche 
> have resulted in a lot of sloppy code that "sort of works" 
> but does not tolerate change. i.e. using a diff USB port.
> 
> 
> 
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