At last, a solution to serial port dramas

[marki]

Hi all

In my pursuit of getting my gear up and running reliably I came across this little device. It converts a single USB port into 4 DB9 serial ports. I was sick of stuffing around with usb to serial adapters as I had to have a different brand adapter for each bit to make it all work and it was not always reliable. Initial tests (ie plug in scope, focuser and filterwheel) all went well with only minor changes in device manager to com port numbers (vista 32). The device was detected and installed automatically (even though the supplied disk only had XP drivers) as vista had the drivers pre-installed. This could be a winner if you too are sick of serial port woes or just want to expand the number you have. Please beware that it does come with a US power pack so you will either have to get and oz version (6V, 0.3A output) or if you have one lying around at home as I did (6V, 0.1A works ok). The item was purchased from OPT.

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=105-243-470-8594

Mark

[Kal]

Nice, good to know from direct experience that it performs well :thumbsup:

I did some research on the product, and it looks like it is made by a German company called VSCom (http://www.vscom.de). They don't have any distributors in Australia, but if you want to shop around for the product try googling it's original product name, VScom USB-4COM (http://www.vscom.de/616.htm)

They also make an industrial line, and an industrial line pro of usb to serial converters, some nice hardware.

[marki]

Andrew you can also get them from easysync (www.easysync.co.uk (http://www.easysync.co.uk)) in the UK. They are made in TW (like most things these days :)).

Mark

[Kal]

I was trying to find a nice taiwan/hong kong/china retailer, but I couldn't hehehe maybe someone will be better at finding it than me ;)

The UK price is better than the OPT price, 63.75 pounds = AU$112.50 approx.

[marki]

I didn't find out about the UK mob until I got the thing. Optec did not even try to repack it as it is still in its easysync box :D. I found several other promising manufactures of these types of devices in my search but the one I really liked (8 ports) did not have an option to ship to oz :shrug:. In any case this leaves those usb to serial adaptors for dead as only one usb port is tied up and it assigns itself comports at the higher end (e.g. com 14 -17) thus does not prevent other things running like my mouse which would stop working everytime I plugged one of the serial adaptors in. I only had to reconfigure one port (com 15 --> com 2) as my ascom driver for the moonlite focuser controller only goes to com 8. The LX200 and filter wheel drivers go to com 16 but I run the FW through the QHY9 directly in anycase so I now have a spare usb port when I am all set up :D.

Mark

[TrevorW]

mark

is this the same thing

http://www.pcgamer.net.au/product_info.php?cPath=1_4&products_id=920

[marki]

Not exactly the same but similar Trevor. Even better it is cheaper again so if it works as well...... When I was looking for these things I could not find very much, now I have one they are all over the place :P. Certainly worth the money.

Mark

[multiweb]

Clever but pricy :eyepop:

[marki]

Yes they are Marc but I plugged it in and it worked ...... didn't even have to install drivers. That does not happen often with usb to serial stuff. That one Trevor dug up is pretty cheap, remember there are 4 ports.

Mark

[MrB]

Thats because no-one at OPT has ever laid a finger on it.
You send OPT the money, the manufacturer sends you the item.

[mswhin63]

Called dropshipping

[marki]

Yes I know it was dropship Simon but the product is advertised as an OPTEC product. They make reducers and the like,

http://www.optecinc.com/

Do not confuse them with OPT (oceanside photo and telescope) :P.

Mark

[MrB]

Oops, I did exactly that :lol: