+bikehikecache Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 I have an eTrex legend that i am giving to a friend, and his computer does not have the 9-pin serial port that the Legend(old b&w one)comes with. It looks like I can buy an $8 adapter to parallel port at radioshack: Serial to Parallel I seems like this wouild have no problem...but i was just wondering, because some hardware will not be recognised unless only provided cable is used (that is...nothing extra..i still have the (and am using) the real cable). thanks...I thought this had been questioned before, but my search did not provide. If you have a link to a previous topic just put it here. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment
+PDOP's Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 Unless your friend has a very old computer it's likely that it has a USB port and the port adapter you've shown (from 9 pin to 25 pin) will not work. Instead you should be looking for a serial/USB convertor. Quote Link to comment
+bikehikecache Posted May 21, 2005 Author Share Posted May 21, 2005 so the USB one would work but the parallel one would not...ok then. i was just looking for a something a little cheaper...every dollar counts in my world. -bikehikecache Quote Link to comment
peter Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 so the USB one would work but the parallel one would not...ok then. The RadioShack part you showed before was just a converter between the 9-pin and 25-pin versions of the RS-232 serial format, it was *not* for connecting to a parallel port of any kind. If your friend's computer actually has an RS-232 serial interface (with either the 9-pin or 25-pin connector) then you wouldn't need the USB-RS232 adapter. But it's pretty likely that the only serial interface port on his computer is USB. In that case you do need the adapter to convert the RS-232 signals from the Legend into the USB protocol used by the PC. Quote Link to comment
+NightPilot Posted May 22, 2005 Share Posted May 22, 2005 The RS adapter will physically connect to the parallel port, but that will do you no good. Serial ports and parallel ports aren't the same thing, and you cannot connect a serial device to a parallel port and have it work. As others have said, get a serial-USB adapter. But note that not all of them will work with a Garmin. Pfranc has adapters guaranteed to work with Garmins, and the Belkin F5U109 works for me, on an HP laptop. Quote Link to comment
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