[PCR-1000] USB/Serial and dongles

[Tim Thornton]

USB/Serial adaptors
===================
The problem is that there can be a significant and variable latency with USB
serial adaptors. Some, like the Quatech ones, allow you to adjust this,
though reducing the sampling period obviously puts more load on your system,
and generally some USB/RS232 devices work a lot better than others.
With the Bonito software it talks to their switchbox at startup and expects
a reply within a given time - if this is not delivered, you get a receiver
not found message and the program doesn't run. Bonito have addressed this in
Board Terminal, and possibly in Radiocom 5.2 as well, but only by increasing
their time-out so we do still get some problems.
If possible use a PCMCIA serial card, as we have found no problems with
these at all, with Bonito or with other software packages.

Dongles
=======
First, remember that most software licences allow you to run the software on
just one PC, so if you want to run on a different PC yuo should uninstall
from the first one.
We have products that use both hardware and software copy protection, and
each has their advantages.
Software solutions keep the cost down and (obviously) require no hardware.
Some are transferable to other machines, and others are not. And there is
always the problem of the guy who replaces his hard disk or upgrades his
operating system.
Hardware devices allow you to install the software on as many machines as
you want, and just move the dongle around. They are impervious to changes in
the computer configuration, and a lot more flexible, but do add to the cost.
And why do it? Wel originally we didn't on our own software, but when we got
people phoning up and saying that they decided to buy a software package (in
this case Radiocom) just because it had copy protection and they therefore
couldn't just copy it from their friend who had shown it to them. This
attiude just makes software more expensive for those who are honest enough
to pay for their software, as the development costs need to be recovered
somehow.

Tim Thornton

Marine Computing International Ltd
www.marinecomputing.com
Tel +44 (0)23 8045 8047
FAX +44 (0)23 8045 8057