[Elecraft] USB "adapter" for K3...

[Edward Cole]

I bought the K3 USB adapter with my K3/10 and had to download a 
driver from Prolific.  I am using Vista on a Dell Inspiron 1510 
laptop that was bought a year ago.  The Elecraft program asks for the 
comm port number and that is assigned after connecting with the 
K3.  In my case it was comm-4.  I had a little trouble with Vista 
getting it to accept the driver at first.  I do not like Vista at 
all, and may decide to upgrade to seven.  We were too late to have 
the option of ordering XP on the laptop.

I am using the laptop only temporarily, and will run K3 from my Dell 
P4 desktop after it is re-built.  I run XP on it.

73, Ed - KL7UW
------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:24:58 -0400
From: Guy Olinger K2AV <olinger at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] USB "adapter" for K3...
To: tpcj1r03 at crocker.com
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID:
         <46f338981003290924w8a0f52re32e4c4201adcb6a at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

A look in the archives will bring up a long long series of posts about
USB/RS232 that does not need repeating from beginning.

The adapter sold by Elecraft is Prolific chip based.

Issues with USB are mostly in the drivers, but not always.  The
Prolific chip had problems with Windows 7, particularly 64 bit, and
only the very latest Prolific drivers, with build date middle
December, address those issues.  That the drivers are written by
manufacturers that cannot possibly test the millions of unique
combinations of apps, and then "certified" by a process that cannot
test them all either, dooms us to a cycle where drivers come out and
get first tested in small volume situations by customers who are
expecting working apps.  Some of this blame is always hosed over
commercial USERS of such devices, such as Elecraft, who have zero
point zero percent chance of solving them.

Other issues include trying to connect to the radio over a heavily
used USB hub, or an underpowered hub.  These are issues that have
nothing to do with RS232, but can cloud progress due to the confusion
of some apps working and others not.

Your operating system sets the comm port number behavior.  Windows XP,
Vista, and Windows 7 seem to vary.  Some system bios will make it
easier to set, others not.  Actual hardware comm ports can usually be
set to a permanent comm port.  Some laptop manufacturers assign comm
ports only in the order they grab the system, making setting comm port
numbers in apps a boot up task, every boot. This is what I MUST do if
I use my laptop for MM to drive my K3 directly in portable situations.
  The apps themselves document how many comm port numbers they will
look for.  N1MM, though many times requested otherwise, remains at 8
for the maximum useable comm port number.

There is no universal answer to USB com port issues.  Two people with
identical setups, one will have problems, the other not, probably only
differing in the order that applications were installed on the hard
drive.

In full size PCs, new motherboards can have three or four PCIX slots
(only used by firewalled pedal to the metal gamers).  My Asus P6T has
four. I am driving a 32 inch monitor with ONE video card, which has
never seemed slow on any thing I do. I have three extra PCIX slots
that will never be used for video.  One can buy inexpensive serial
cards for PCIX which never have a problem, because the only task on
the card is a serial port, and it's a real serial port UART, not a
simulated one. I finally got tired of USB issues and got one of those.
It's in a space that will never get used otherwise, and because the
mobo itself has no on board serial ports, I set it in Windows Device
manager to use COMM 1 and COMM 2.  A whole boatload of wierdness, some
hard to figure, just went away.  Drivers for hardware comm ports are
in the OS, long perfected and very stable code.

Part of hams' problems with USB is that we are a tiny, microscopic
niche in the list of all things USB-able.  The BIG stuff, printers,
portable devices, etc, garner the lions share of attention.  Ipod
users started having Ipod sync problems with Vista, and quite more so
with Win 7, and how big a market is that to be having problems, and us
looking for attention on ham radio logging problems has what chance of
attracting resources?

Read the archives on why RS232.  We just got done with a huge, monster
thread on it.  It needs to cool off for several months before we start
it over again.

73, and absolutely best of luck on your adventure,
Guy.