Timy and USB

The TIMY USB port is currently working. ALGE is working on creating an interface for the PC. It will be distributed to the software authors once it is available. I would not expect it for another couple of months.

Remember that most notebooks with WinXp do not support the USB to serial adapters either. That is why I don't throw away any of my old Win95, or 98 notoebooks. At least all this stuff works on them!



Originally posted 1 Feb 2002 by Fred Patton

My advice (all be it that I wish it weren't so) is to stay with an older verson of Windows, and find a notebook that has a serial port. They are certainly out there. Check out Dell, as I know most of there machines have serial ports, and you can still get W98SE (unfortunately my company only supports Win98SE on our netowrk because we have some software that only works with it). I wish I could upgrade to make the platform more stable in general, but for timing it is fine. I just got a Dell Lattitude C610 with W98SE and everything works fine... Jordan


Originally posted 1 Feb 2002 by Jordan Ginsberg

We switched to the Socket pcmcia Quad Card with our windows XP machine. It is the only card we can get to function perfect(With XP), and it gives us a total of 5 ports on the laptop we are using. This enabled us to run our software 2x and the ability to run 4 courses using a "Magic Fred" cable from our S4. No problems to report. We choose to use the pcmcia card over USB becuase of the reliabilty of the Socket card over the USB option. Also, we use an Older FIS program that
does not support USB drivers, but still blows away the other Software competition, like no problem driving the displays with running time/rank and wireless ability to/from displays and timers. Unfortionatly, we are burning up a ton of serial ports and are getting ready to try to switch to a networking solution mentioned below to handle some of our serial port issues. JK


Originally posted 10 Feb 2002 by Jim Karnes
timingguys@aol.com

What I would like to see is for timing equipment to get away from serial connections and go to TCP/IP via Ethernet, which is much more robust and fault-tolerant.
USB has a lot of inherent problems, even if ALGE eventually gets that deployed with the Timy.

I would like to see hardware such as The Timy, various tape printers, and GAZ displays outfitted with network capability so that they could simply become another
device on an Ethernet LAN. FinishLynx, which has some very sophisticated and well-engineered technology, has embraced this concept, and that is part of the
reason they're absolutely killing Swiss Timing, ALGE, and the rest of their competition in the market for digital photo-finish cameras.

FinishLynx makes an ingenious device called The SeriaLynx, which can be attached to any timer, making it an IP device, and your timing software then
communicates with the timer via your network - NO serial cables or devices involved. Just for grins, I implemented this in my "Fred's Fiddleware" software, and it
works like a champ. I've been thinking about - for giggles - possibly using the SeriaLynx to do the timing & results for one of Jim Karnes' ski races in Michigan from
my desk here in Hawaii. I could receive the data from Jim's S4 via the Internet using the SeriaLynx.

Unfortunately, the people at ALGE have not been receptive to this suggestion, and I haven't bothered suggesting it to the people at Heuer because they have never
listened to one bug report or suggestion I've offered them.


Originally posted 6 Feb 2002 by James Broder

Check my posts to this forum back on December 17 (USB - Serial Adapters) I have been running both XP and 2000 this year and have had no problems at all. (using an IO Gear USB-Serial adapter, less than $40) I much prefer the stability of 2000/XP to win98/ME. Like you, I found that when I bought a new laptop, I couldn't find one with a serial port. Seems they have just outlived their usefullness and are being replaced by USB ports. Particularly with laptops.


Originally posted Dirk Gouwens
dirk@dreamscape.com

My 2 Cents

I have a usb to db9 that works just fine with 2000 and xp. I found it out there , drivers come with it!!


Originally posted 2 Feb 2002 by Chase Morsey
chase@vara.org

tease! where did you find it? (the usb > serial adapter that is)

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10258257&loc=14577