Laptop with serial port.

[ukracer]

I am trying to work out where the best place would be to locate a cheap laptop with a serial port.

I am betting @MattH has one i could borrow if i asked...lol but fuel is expensive and i thought i maybe able to get one cheap.

I need it to run megaload
http://www.microsyl.com/index.php/2010/03/30/megaload/
to install some codes to an automatic oyster vision II satellite system . Serial to RJ45.
I managed to get a cable sent for a fiver and was hoping to grab a cheap laptop for about 20 quid.

The criterion just says windows so my guess is an old xp laptop would do as long as its got a serial port.
The annoying thing is i have 2 at home but need one here...Burnham on Sea.

 

[drjim]

Can you not use a usb-serial adaptor?

 

[Hood]

Why not just get a USB to serial adapter? I use them all the time when connecting to my PLC's and Servo drives.

 

[gaz1]

for pc id go for this

https://www.startech.com/uk/Cards-A...dapters/1-Port-16550-Serial-PCI-Card~PCI1S550

 

[drjim]

or laptop get a pcmcia/express card one depending what laptop supports.

 

[ukracer]

or laptop get a pcmcia/express card one depending what laptop supports.

Mine does neither.....lol

I have LOTS of serial converters at home from when i used to sell the vinyl cutters but to be honest they were always hit and miss. Digitus was the best and i guess thats my cheapest way if it works.
Just a bit concerned they did say they had to get a dedicated laptop at Oyster.......

 

[MattH]

I don’t have anything. I use either older desktops to run my serial conn3cted Cnc’s or a USB adapter to talk to switches etc.

 

[jsf55]

Look at any of the Dell laptops, all the older ones come with serial ports and cheap as chips now of evilbay

 

[Olderisbetter]

I have an old Panasonic CF52 tough book that cost £120 used and i put 8gb of memory and a 120gb SSD, I use it for the garage as it really is tough and it has all the old ports for my old stuff.

 

[ukracer]

I don’t have anything. I use either older desktops to run my serial conn3cted Cnc’s or a USB adapter to talk to switches etc.

Cheers Matt i have just purchased a Digitus Db9 for 12 quid so that should do the trick then......at least i have something you dont have...even if its at home. Lol

 

[zx9]

I use USB to serial converters based on Prolific chips which seem to be quite reliable with the various bits of AV kit I have to work with.

 

[ukracer]

I use USB to serial converters based on Prolific chips which seem to be quite reliable with the various bits of AV kit I have to work with.

That's intruiging . I found the opposite when i was working with the cutters. LIYU even went so far as to drop prolific serial emulation in favour of FTDI in their SC range.

Just shows how different things can be.

 

[daleyd]

I use an Ftdi us232r-100 almost daily and it works with everything I’ve thrown at it including some proper old stuff that only ran on windows2000 from a VM.

I like it because it’s got leds which flash on activity so you can see if it’s working or not.

 

[zx9]

I like it because it’s got leds which flash on activity so you can see if it’s working or not.

Activity LEDs only tell you that something is happening, we had a spate of old installed room controllers that would flash the comms port activity LEDS when an appropriate button was pressed on the control panel but if you read what it was sending it was complete garbage. (Early AMX NI series processors, a known fault which the manufacturer would fix long after the box was out of warranty. )

 

[daleyd]

Activity LEDs only tell you that something is happening, we had a spate of old installed room controllers that would flash the comms port activity LEDS when an appropriate button was pressed on the control panel but if you read what it was sending it was complete garbage. (Early AMX NI series processors, a known fault which the manufacturer would fix long after the box was out of warranty. )

Yes, "working" was perhaps the wrong word to use but generally if they are not flashing then it means there’s something fundamentally wrong with the setup - compared to ones without the led where you have no idea if there's anything happening at all...

 

[ukracer]

Any one else just had notification on this thread??
Matt posted last night . But the forum has only just sent this.. lol

 

[zx9]

Any one else just had notification on this thread??

Yes several including the one relating to your post above.

 

[HughF]

any modern dell docking station will give you a hardware serial port, I have a fairly recent port-less ultrabook - stuff it on a latitude dock and you get 2 serial, parallel and a bunch of dvi

Something worth mentioning, most onboard serial ports won't support more than 230400 - ftdi chips will support up to 1mbaud

 

[ukracer]

Just been offered this.
Hi,

I have a Dell D830 here with a wiped 160GB HDD 2GB RAM and an XP licence key fully working for £40? We're back open on Monday if that's any good to you?

 

[HughF]

great machines - I have many D630's (smaller screen) in use on various bits of kit.