[Ham-Mac] Sabrent USB to Serial (9-pin) DB-9 RS-232 Adapter Cable

[Chris Smolinski]

>Has anyone tried the Sabrent (less than $10) USB to Serial (9-pin) DB-9
>RS-232 Adapter Cable on a Mac to interface with a radio?  The adapter is
>described at
>
>http://www.sabrent.com/products/specs/SBT-USC1M.htm
>
>The reason for asking is the web page blurb says "... Plug-n-Play connection
>for use with computers, notebooks, and hand held computing devices that
>support USB" and I question if Kenwood or other radios support USB as
>mentioned in the blurb.

Drivers for this device are here: http://www.sabrent.com/products/drivers.htm

I downloaded them, and there is an extension for Mac OS 8/9 and a 
disk image for OS X. The bad news is that this device uses the 
Prolific chipset. Others have reported that this chipset works OK on 
their system, but in the past I have found that USB/serial adapters 
using this chipset work ok on some Macs, and causes kernel panics on 
others. I've tried them on about half a dozen Macs here, it's really 
hit or miss. I personally avoid the Prolific chipset now, but it's a 
really cheap price, so if you like to gamble you might want to give 
it a try.  Or spend a few dollars more and get something that will 
work well. (You spent how many dollars on your Mac, and how many 
dollars on your radio? ;-)

Note that the OS X drive seems to be PPC only, not UB. You may be 
able to use a driver from another Prolific based adapter instead, if 
you need to run on an Intel Mac.

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Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com