+Lil Devil Posted June 24, 2002 Share Posted June 24, 2002 I posted a response somewhere here a couple days ago and mentioned that I use a USB-Serial adapter on my laptop. Since then I have received 4 emails asking for more info, and I just noticed another post asking about the same issue. I'm posting here to help everyone else, and to reduce the emails I receive. I have a Toshiba laptop that has no serial ports, but it does have 3 USB ports. I'm running Windows XP. I purchased an IOGear model UC232A. I have a friend who bought a USBgear adapter and never got it to work on his WinXP box. He ended up buying an IOGear one. When I got the adapter from my local computer store, IOGear didn't have an 'XP-compatible' driver, but after emailing them, they said the Win200 driver can be used on WinXP - the only 'issue' with it is that Micro$oft hasn't tested it themselves I have had no problems with the driver. I've used this adapter on a Magellan ColorTrak, Garmin GPS III+ and a GPS V with only one problem. Older versions of MapSource only supported serial ports up to COM4. When plugging in the USB-Serial adapter, I was getting COM6. A little research found that the COM port you get is dependent on which USB port is used. My 3 USB ports yielded COM4, COM5 or COM6, so using the right USB port fixed the problem. The most recent version of MapSource supports up to COM8. I hope all this helps someone out there. Happy Geocaching. Lil Devil Quote Link to comment
+submanager Posted June 24, 2002 Share Posted June 24, 2002 I use the IOGear USB Serial Adapter (GUC232A) and have had equally good results. I have used it on a laptop running WIN98SE, a laptop running WIN2000, and a desktop running WIN XP. In all cases I was running Mapsource and NG Topo! software. The GPS is a Garmin Etrex Legend. No problems and I've been running it since April. Quote Link to comment
+apersson850 Posted June 24, 2002 Share Posted June 24, 2002 I've been using two different PortGear units from Xircom (they aren't in business any longer, since they were bought by whoeveritwas). One is a USB to 9-pole D-sub, that runs on my Sony Vaio with Windows 2000. Works without any problem. The other is a USB to 25-pole (!) D-sub, which after conversion to 9-pole also works perfectly with the Vista. That unit runs on a Dell Dimension with Windows ME. Anders Quote Link to comment
9mmCaching Posted June 25, 2002 Share Posted June 25, 2002 Dear Devil, Thanks for your earlier reply to me and for addressing this issue. I have a Toshiba Satellite with 2 USB ports. Can you or someone tell me how I can determine what COM ports my USB's use? I appreciate it... 9mm Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted June 25, 2002 Author Share Posted June 25, 2002 > tell me how I can determine what COM ports my USB's use? The only way I know of is to actually try them all. (The following instructions are for Windows XP. Other Windows versions should be similar. YMMV) 1. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. 2. Click on Device Manager. 3. Click on the '+' icon next to Ports (COM & LPT). 4. Plug in the adapter and observe which port appears. 5. Unplug the adapter. 6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for all USB ports. I hope this works for you. Lil Devil Quote Link to comment
+ApK Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 The COM port number is totally determined by the adapter's driver, not the physical USB port it's plugged into. On every driver I've seen, you can go to it's properties in device manager and set the port number you want it to use. LilDevil, have you been able to use Garmin's Updater software (the firmware flasher, not MapSource) to work using your adapter? quote:Originally posted by LilDevil: > tell me how I can determine what COM ports my USB's use? The only way I know of is to actually try them all. (The following instructions are for Windows XP. Other Windows versions should be similar. YMMV) 1. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. 2. Click on Device Manager. 3. Click on the '+' icon next to Ports (COM & LPT). 4. Plug in the adapter and observe which port appears. 5. Unplug the adapter. 6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for all USB ports. I hope this works for you. Lil Devil http://www.trailbikesportsmen.org/images/lildevil.gif Quote Link to comment
+Marky Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 It showed up as COM3 when I did MapSend's autodetect. Works great on my iMac. Haven't tried it on my iBook yet. --Marky Quote Link to comment
+Strix Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 I have the same IOGEAR adapter. Works great on my Mac G4 and iBook. Wish I could have said the same for the Keyspan adapter I had! "When the chips are down, the buffalo are empty." Quote Link to comment
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