Using USB rather than Serial to connect to timers

plotmanMember

Maybe I'm missing this in a different forum, but I am wondering what the status is of using USB ports rather than serial ports to connect our Alge S4s to the pc.

We have some refurbished laptops that have native serial ports that we have been using for the past couple years, but it is clear we won't be able to keep them alive much longer.

What are the best solutions for using USB as the interface? Products that work well or to avoid? How reliable are they?

Thanks

David

1/27/154:39 PM

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mhowardMember

There are numerous posts under the heading Data Communications. USB to serial converters are widely used, easy to come by and pretty cheap. For laptops, PCMCIA to serial cards are another option that offer multiple outputs for the timer and scoreboard.

1/28/155:38 AM

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fieldeventsMember

PCMCIA cards slots and the newer version are almost as hard to find on notebooks now as the native serial port, when using the USB to serial be careful with power management to the port. Lost connect to a display clock when port went to sleep.

1/28/159:33 AM

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