[Ham-Mac] radio programming from Parallels

[Hal Mueller]

Last night I successfully used BuTel's ARC396 (for Uniden scanner),  
FTB1050 (for Yaesu VX-150), and VX-7 Commander (for Yaesu VX-7) from  
Parallels (running XP Pro) on a MacBook Pro with a Belkin F5U103  
serial-USB converter.

First, I tried to use a Keyspan USA-19HS.  The problem is that  
Keyspan Mac drivers take over all Keyspan USB-serial converters  
attached to the machine.  There's no way to tell the Mac driver to be  
quiet and let Parallels take over.  Now you could uninstall the  
Keyspan Mac driver, reboot, install the Keyspan Windows driver on  
Parallels, program the radios, reinstall Keyspan Mac driver, reboot-- 
but that sort of defeats the point of using Parallels instead of Boot  
Camp.  It would be easier to just use Boot Camp to boot into  
Windows.  Jim Mitchell (VX-7 Commander author) reports buffer  
problems with the Keyspan adapters, and I see no reason to think  
anything would be different under Boot Camp.  If you never need USB- 
serial conversion under MacOS X, then just don't install the Mac  
drivers, and you should be able to use the Keyspan USA-19HS with the  
Windows driver.

I did use Eudyptes's SerialClient with mixed results.  This software  
establishes a socket on the Mac side that Parallels can then connect  
to.  This technique worked for a while, then inexplicably stopped  
working.  If I do manage to get this method to go I'll report back;  
I'm hoping to hear from the SerialClient developer soon.  To use this  
technique, you need to know that both FTB1050 and VX-7 Commander use  
9600/n/8/1 to talk to the level converter on the other side of the  
serial port.  SerialClient does not support programmatic parameter  
changes; they must be made with the SerialClient control panel.

Finally I remembered the old Belkin F5U103 serial converter on my  
shelf, which was bought for a Windows laptop a long time back.  The  
advantage of this device is that I don't use it for anything else, so  
I don't mind omitting the Belkin Mac drivers.  This is working  
reasonably well.  I had to go into the Device Properties setting and  
move the FIFO controls all the way to the left, and I still see  
occasional timing hiccups.

Thanks to G4HFQ Bob and KC8UNJ Jim for their help with the comm  
parameters.

Hal
KE7BYN/AE