Just a suggestion about the upgrade kit at the store

**gfocus** · 02-10-2009, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by eangolde

we can work with people on customs charges- in terms of selling a reliable USB to serial cable? Thats a tough call- did anyone actually find one?

Ean, I think you overestimate the failure rate of the usb-rs232 cables. I assume that most of your customers upgraded via adapter because most of them are using notebooks. It's not that hard to find a working adapter. I picked up the cheapest one and had no problems (apart from driver issues). Most of them are based on the same chip anyway.

**Lost_Motion** · 02-14-2009, 02:52 PM

You can get a PCMCIA serial card for the same amount as the usb to serial adapter. It's 100x more reliable. I use one for another application.

For example:
http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cabl...85%2C538%2C464

You can get something similar on eBay for $15-20.

**oquela** · 02-14-2009, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by gfocus

Ean, I think you overestimate the failure rate of the usb-rs232 cables. I assume that most of your customers upgraded via adapter because most of them are using notebooks. It's not that hard to find a working adapter. I picked up the cheapest one and had no problems (apart from driver issues). Most of them are based on the same chip anyway.

Driver issues ARE a problem. One of the most common USB/RS232 chipsets is made by Prolific, and it is hit and miss with this company. They've also had very documented issues with other i/o bridges, like their Firewire, USB boards, drivers, firmware, etc.

If you bundle a 3rd party cable that may or may not work out of the box, you're only asking for trouble in terms of people coming to you for support of this cable/drivers that you didn't make.

**midifidler** · 02-18-2009, 06:29 PM

They are coming.....

**EanGolden** · 02-18-2009, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Lost_Motion

You can get a PCMCIA serial card for the same amount as the usb to serial adapter. It's 100x more reliable. I use one for another application.
.

Almost every problem we have experianced with these are becuase of the USB to serial cables. They introduce 2 variables which can be very hard to nail down:

1) the com port

2) the drivers

I personally had trouble with them as well and had very irregualr luck but with a serial to serial it works perfectly, every single time without a hitch.

That PCMCIA card sounds like a good option as well but the com port might still be a problem.

That being said, finding one USB to serial that works, figuring it out and selling that seems to be a reasonable alternative. We can look into it.