Need three serial ports on VIA Epia - OK?

**nxt125** · 08-21-2002, 04:34 PM

I need serial ports for: GPS (Rand McNally), Microtouch controller and infrared receiver.

The Via Epia has only one. I currently have a USB to serial converter operating the GPS just fine.

Can I add another USB to serial? Do I run into special conflicts problems using three serial ports? thanks.

**Skippman** · 08-21-2002, 04:39 PM

Depends on how the USB port addresses the Serial ports. Technically a computer can support 4 Comm ports at a time. 3F8, 3E8, 2F8, 2E8. If you can address the ports then you should have no problem. If you can do some form of I/O port sharring you could also get away with it. What does the vendor say?

**gfoulks** · 08-21-2002, 04:40 PM

Don't you have 4 USB ports on that board?

Greg

**nxt125** · 08-21-2002, 04:55 PM

2 usb and a header for 2 more. I guess I was more concerned about how it emulated a serial port - if it looked like a serial port to the computer and, if so, what limitations are in place. Looks like I will just try it out.
Thanks

**gfoulks** · 08-21-2002, 05:01 PM

I am not an expert and knowing how some respond on this board I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong.

Buy some serial to USB adaptors and use the USB ports instead of trying to use the serial ports. (You might need USB drivers for the devices though?)

Greg

**ShinkunoNamida** · 08-21-2002, 05:28 PM

gfoulks: that is exactly what is being discussed already.

**MP3DUB** · 08-21-2002, 07:27 PM

I've never used a serial to usb adapter, but i've read the description on them as well as heard people talk about them, and it seems that on a lot of them (i dont know about _all_) you can only use one per machine. And thoughts of using a right angle pci adapter and then a 2 port serial pci card?

**cproaudio** · 08-22-2002, 02:32 AM

When I was designing my car computer, I had to account for all the possibilities and features. I wanted my car computer to do everything I could think of. I wanted GPS nav, PC dashboard via OBD-II, Xenarc 7" WVGA touch screen, IRman remote control, CliffNet Wizard to control my car alarm, relay control module to control vehicle electricals (Remote start, window and DL control.) As you can see, I had 6 serial devices. My FV24 motherboard has only 1 serial port. I don't wanna buy a 4 port USB hub and 5 USB to serial adapters. It's a waste of money. I did a search for USB to serial hub. And I found one. Actually, I found several. The most affordable one is a new product from keyspan. Its a USB to 4 port serial hub. The place I got mine is https://www.thenerds.net/productpage...=&d=&m=KEYSPAN I've found others at but are expensive.
http://www.techarts.com/products/usbserialhub/
http://www.ionetworks.com/products/edgeport.html
I have to give up one serial device. I not much of an IRman fan and besides, I'm going to program all the IR functions into the Gyration Ultra Cordless optical suite from Gyration. So, I gave up on the whole IRman remote idea. Besides, Gyration system is RF not IR. BTW, I plugged the Xenarc touch screen to the 4th port of the serial hub and win XP detected the touch screen as com port # 6. It works perfectly. so I think you can have more than 4 serial ports. Anyway, I hope this helps.

**vash** · 08-22-2002, 09:41 AM

NXT125 what infrarared reciever are you using .... I am trying to use the IR2PC module with my setup and cannot get it to work.... also what usb to serial converter did you use... i would like to hard wire a serial connector to the usb connector that is on the board not the back I/o connector