No Longer required: Serial DB9 PCMCIA Card

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

As title says,

I need a PCMCIA Card for my laptop which has a DB9 serial connection in it or RS-232 for those in the know.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Suggest a search on Ebay A1, there are heaps for sale starting under $20. Found this note on USB converters as well

SkyWalker and Client software will reliably communicate with PC serial ports provided by USB-to-RS232 converters. We have tested and recommend the following converter models:

• Belkin F5U109
• Keyspan USA-19HS

We have experienced problems with some other brands of converters with some PCs. While other converters have been shown to work with most PCs we have found PC/converter combinations that will not reliably communicate over extended "up time" periods or will fail during SkyWalker's firmware upgrade (which is particularly challenging to the communications hardware because of the large data packets transferred). We have never encountered any problems with the converters listed above.

and from the LX90 users group

Keyspan is the only 'brand' i can safely say -will- work,
> but many of the "white box generic" USB adapters also work well.
> Meade sells one based upon Prolific's model,
> and the Prolific and Keyspan use the same TI chipset internally.
>

and this may also be of relevance

IRQ necessary for communications port. In order to work properly, SkyGuide and SkyWalker must be connected via a RS232 port that has interrupt support AND the RS232 port must be assigned a unique IRQ number. This is because SkyGuide must receive an "interrupt" from SkyWalker with low latency for SkyGuide's device driver to "service" SkyWalker fast enough. PC COM1 and COM2 ports almost always meet this criteria however there are several "add on" serial port adapters based on PCMCIA/PC-Card/USB that do not provide a unique IRQ for the associated communications ports. If you need to add a serial port to your machine consider one of the ports list on our serial port vendors web page.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Thanks Phil, will look into it, would love just to borrow one to find out, but know no one with one.

[Dennis]

Juts for info', I've got the Socket Serial IO card for my Notebook and it works fine for controlling a Vixen GPDX and a Tak EM200 via the RS232 Serial Port, as my Notebook does not have a 9 Pin RS232 connector, only USB2.

I have also used the same card to program the Socket Cordless Serial Adapter (Bluetooth) so that I can control my mounts wireless, via Bluetooth.

The Socket gear seems very good and never misses a heartbeat, although it is a little expensive.

Cheers

Dennis

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

No longer required..