PC serial hub for S4 & peripherals

Margaret:

I have three different serial port devices I use with various flavors of Skunkware. I have the Entrega USB that Fred mentions, I have the Xircom USB Portstation, and I have a Socket Dual I/O card.

The Portstation is the most expensive. It is a great idea, it looks cool, and it is non-powered - which is another great idea. However, it is new to the market and I have had trouble with the drivers Xircom supplies. I have standardized on IBM Thinkpads, and the Thinkpads DO NOT like the Xircom USB Drivers. The Xircom does work pretty well with my H-P Omnibook.

The Enrega seems a bit more compatible than the Xircom, however it requires AC power and if it loses power, even momentarily, all hell breaks loose. The power requirement, to me, is a significant drawback.

The Socket Dual I/O card is rock-solid. It can be difficult to configure initially, because many of the laptops out there do not have a spare interrupt. If you have both onboard infrared and modem (as most Thinkpads do), you may have to disable one or both before the Socket card will configure properly. However, once you get it configured it works like a charm, even under NT. ESPECIALLY under NT, which is way, way more stable than Windows 9x.

For my mission-critical Goodwill Games TV graphics setup, I am using the Socket Dual card running under NT, and I am also going to set up my H-P with the Xircom Portstation as an offline test to see how it does.

Best of luck with your decision,

James Broder
james@skunkware.tv

We have have very good luck with USB/serial multifunction hubs from Entrega hub 2U4S. This unit has 2USB ports and 4 serial ports. This unit needs to be plugged in to 110v power so it needs to be on a UPS.

We buy them from Microwarehouse for $ 140.00, part # DEH4272 1-800-367-7080 (www.warehouse.com).
We buy our dual port PCMCIA cards from Mobile Planet 1-800-675-2638 (www.mobileplanet.com). Cards made by SOCKET work well and go by the part # MP540100 for $ 240.00

NOTE! Always decide which type of serial port system you want to use. Adding a USB hub after a Dual Socket card will work, but may be clumsy. The USB software creates "virtual" serial ports and assigns them based on what is already there. If there is a dual card present, the USB software will assign ports 5-8. You will then lose the usefulness of a couple of ports due to not being able to assign higher than Com 7 in Nastar*ware.

Fred Patton
fpatton@phoenix-sports.com

We use a pcmcia slot card with 2 serial ports in our laptops. Works good with Windows 95. They are expensive, around $233.00. They are a card about the size of a credit card with 2 pigtails with 9pin connectors. We get them from Syncrotech 213.368.3760 and the part # is pcm-sio-s05.

If you have a computer with Windows 98 and a USB port, I would recommend a USB serial hub. Don't have the info on that, but Fred Patton will probably post the info if you would like to go in that direction. It's price is around $140.00.

Jim Karnes
timingguys@aol.com