Running out of serial ports

Tred · 12-30-2004, 12:11 AM

Is there a way to increase the number of serial ports? I have the M10000 motherboard. I want to run my IR reciever, temp sensor, and OBD. To my knowledge, I dont think I can convert any of these to USB. What can I do to get around this problem?

antimatter · 12-30-2004, 12:24 AM

Well you got out of three devices covered since the m10000 comes with 2 onboard serial ports, are you sure that you can't use a serial-->usb convertor for any of those. Another option is to use you 1 pci slot for a serial port card. You can get one with 4 serial ports

Curiosity · 12-30-2004, 12:59 AM

I have 3 or 4 of those USB converters already. They work great and are less than $10.

Tred · 12-30-2004, 01:01 AM

ohh yeah, I forgot about the extra onboard serial.
PCI is out of picture, im using that for wifi.
I just remembered I have 2 Infrared ports on the motherboard. They are called Fast IrDa and Consumer IR(CIR). Does anyone know the difference? and how I could implement one of these ports to use with a serial IR receiver, which runs on Girder?

Tred · 12-30-2004, 01:03 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Curiosity

I have 3 or 4 of those USB converters already. They work great and are less than $10.

what are hardware are you converting? OBD?

Curiosity · 12-30-2004, 09:00 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Tred

what are hardware are you converting? OBD?

Creative media remote, radioman and something else. The OBD is on COM1 but works on a USB converter too. They work exactly like a regular COM port.

Curiosity · 01-02-2005, 01:55 AM

I lied! Don't get one that looks like this transparent blue one. The serial part works but the DTR/DSR/RTS/CTS/RING pins do nothing. Not all USB serial adapters are created equal?

Tred · 01-02-2005, 04:36 PM

ok thanks. so which one should I get?

Curiosity · 01-02-2005, 05:28 PM

The funny thing is I bought the good one there, but I guess they found something cheaper to sell for the same price. It looked like this one before I cut all the black plastic and DB9 off.

Edit: Just ordered this along with some other toys. I prefer the size so I can chop it up, cut the serial cable off the other thing, and make it all one small USB device.

aultl · 01-02-2005, 06:17 PM

Why don't you buy one of these? Edgeport/4 USB. Here is one on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW for cheap..

The last company I worked for uses these in all the convienent (sp?) stores, the POS systems run Win2K

hd54321 · 01-06-2005, 01:20 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Tred

ohh yeah, I forgot about the extra onboard serial.
PCI is out of picture, im using that for wifi.
I just remembered I have 2 Infrared ports on the motherboard. They are called Fast IrDa and Consumer IR(CIR). Does anyone know the difference? and how I could implement one of these ports to use with a serial IR receiver, which runs on Girder?

IrDa is for data transfer (i.e. one of those cheapo USB->IrDa converters could do the same job)
Consumer IR is the same IR used in remote controls. I would think all you need to do is hookup an IR LED with maybe an inline transistor/resistor directly to this port.

Someone else may have better knowledge but you should find some info about onboard IR ports on motherboards. Google is your friend.

-HD