[Ham-Mac] USB Serial adapters

[Don Agro]

Hi Chris,

On 23-Jun-05, at 11:35 AM, Chris Smolinski wrote:

> Yes, entirely true. Fortunately there aren't many RS-422 devices  
> around anymore :-)

Actually a lot of people are using old AppleTalk printers with the  
Keyspan Twin Serial Adapters under OS 9.

Here is a list of some of the devices (some of which require  
AppleTalk) ...

<http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA28x/docs/mac/html/ 
homepage23.html#Heading11>

> The microHAM device does look good. I believe it uses the FTDI USB  
> chip. So if you run it under OSX, you need to unplug it when you  
> boot, or OSX won't always recognize it. Or you can make a small mod  
> to your OSX files to fix that, I believe FTDI has details on their  
> website. (I've dealt with this myself since my line of radiation  
> detectors use the FTDI chip as well, and I have helped out a few  
> MultiMode OSX users who have used the microHAM interface)

Yes - FTDI blames Apple for this - which doesn't explain why the  
Keyspan driver does not need the unplug/replug, or the hack. The mod  
FTDI suggests is more suited to a unix guru than a Mac user. microHAM  
has been requesting that FTDI fix this for some time - I suspect they  
(FTDI) just don't know how to.

I don't find it a big problem though, since I rarely reboot my Macs :)

But it has thrown some new users when their serial port doesn't show  
up in the list.

73 Don Agro VE3VRW

D o g   P a r k   S o f t w a r e   L t d .

email: dagro at dogparksoftware.com
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