Need three serial ports on VIA Epia - OK?

nxt125 · 08-21-2002, 03:34 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, 03:39 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, 03:40 PM

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

Greg

nxt125 · 08-21-2002, 03:55 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, 04:01 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, 04:28 PM

gfoulks: that is exactly what is being discussed already.

MP3DUB · 08-21-2002, 06:27 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, 01:32 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, 08:41 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

veedubya · 08-22-2002, 03:22 PM

http://www.usbserial.com/usb-serial/index.cfm offers a Quad Serial from USB Adaptor. They also carry Signle and Dual Adaptors

hardware_dave · 08-22-2002, 06:17 PM

Don't know if this helps , but my usb>serial adaptor came up as com 5. Com 1+2 are onboard.

I tried a nmea gps module on the adaptor but windows / autoroute 97 did not find it. (in the end I used the adaptor for the ir reciver I built).

VB6 Pro had no problems with the adaptor.

I don't think there are limits on the number of usb serial ports as they are a sort of 'software' port that requires no more irq's than the usb port uses.

(I may be wrong) <GRIN>

pRoFiT · 08-29-2005, 11:01 PM

Doesn't you epia via have a header for com port 2? Because mine does. and mine also has an IR port on it.

Windows xp supports alot of USB Com ports, like 8 or more. not sure about 98 or 2000.

Curiosity · 08-30-2005, 12:50 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by hardware_dave

Don't know if this helps , but my usb>serial adaptor came up as com 5. Com 1+2 are onboard.

I tried a nmea gps module on the adaptor but windows / autoroute 97 did not find it. (in the end I used the adaptor for the ir reciver I built).

VB6 Pro had no problems with the adaptor.

I don't think there are limits on the number of usb serial ports as they are a sort of 'software' port that requires no more irq's than the usb port uses.

(I may be wrong) <GRIN>

That's correct. They will all use the USB IRQ, and the limit is 256 devices under XP. The 4 or 8-port devices would use less resources, but they are usually a bit pricey. The only down side to these is some don't fully emulate a serial port. The data pins work, but the logic signals are non-functional (DTR, RTS, CTS, RING...) so if something needs power or only uses hardware flow control, it won't work.

DarquePervert · 08-30-2005, 07:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by pRoFiT

Doesn't you epia via have a header for com port 2? Because mine does. and mine also has an IR port on it.

Windows xp supports alot of USB Com ports, like 8 or more. not sure about 98 or 2000.

Your information is correct, but why are you resurracting 3 year-old threads to add nothing new?

dug1967 · 11-18-2005, 09:23 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by DarquePervert

Your information is correct, but why are you resurracting 3 year-old threads to add nothing new?

Okay, how about I resurrect a 3 month old post to a 3 year old thread.....

I found this link through a

of the forum and all the links are dead... that is not good, cause the links where solutions to adding more Serial (com ports) to a motherboard.... And that is what I need...

So my question... I alreay have COM1 (the DB9 connection on the back panel) and COM2 (on the mother board) used... I need two more Serial Ports?

Anyway to do this? Do Serial to USB adapter work backwards? I doubt it.....

EDIT....

I don't want anything like this... way to big... and actually I already have 2 of them...
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...oduct_Id=20938