USB to Serial Adapter Reviews.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I have searched far and wide for a simple resource to compare products that work well for programming Motorola radios with laptops & PCs with no serial port.

We have purchased 2 USB to Serial adapters. This is what we found:

Belkin F5U409-CU. installed fine on XP, but will not work with Motorola windows programming software. Vista drivers are available on-line only and need to be installed manually. Will not work with 64 bit systems. (Purchased at Staples)

Gigaware 26-949 Installed fine on XP and Vista. Will not work with Motorola windows programming software. (Purchased at Radio Shack)

If you have had any successes or failures, please let me know here and hopefully this can be a resource for others in the future.

[tvsjr]

The best answer is one of the Socket serial PC cards. These are "real" serial ports, with UARTS and everything.

That said, I have had no issues with the IOGEAR USB-serial adapter. I want to say I've seen an official Moto document recommending this model? http://www.altex.com/IOGEAR-USB-to-Seri ... 39331.aspx
32-bit or 64-bit, under XP and Vista, no issues.

[kd5wyu]

I will also wholeheartedly second the Iogear GUC232As. They work perfectly under both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows and Linux, and are the only device I've seen where "Plug and Pray" actually is Plug and Play.

-b-

[Pj]

I have been using a dual port socket i/o card for some time now, and also highly recommend it as well. These are (or were) on ebay quite often.

[escomm]

Been using an airlink for years, only radios it won't do are BPR40 and DTR550/650. Never bricked a radio, never had a failed read or write, never had a complaint about it.

[kf4sqb]

Along the same theme, what about Express Card - Serial adapters? I know that PCMCIA - Serial adapters are "true" serial ports, not emulated ports like a USB - Serial are, but what about Express Card? Are they also "true" ports, and usable under DOS?

[tvsjr]

ExpressCard is to PCIe what Cardbus PCMCIA is to PCI... essentially an extension of the PCIe bus outside the case. I would expect an ExpressCard serial port to be a "real" port.

http://www.synchrotech.com/products-exp ... er_01.html
http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=JJ-EC1012-S1
Not endorsing these products, but they do claim to have 16550 UARTs, the mark of a "real" port.

[kf4sqb]

Tvsjr, that's kinda what I expected, but I wanted to hear it from someone more experienced on the subject than I have. Thanks!

[wavetar]

Don't expect those cards to be useable in DOS though...drivers generally aren't available for newer cards. Quatech makes the SSP100 which had DOS support at one time, but no longer. I believe they still supply the drivers and instructions for DOS, but basically state you're on your own.

On a side note, if you use DOSbox under Windows XP to do programming, most serial cards should work.

[kf4sqb]

....if you use DOSbox under Windows XP to do programming....

I like my radios non-bricked, thanks....(I do hope you were kidding)

[wavetar]

....if you use DOSbox under Windows XP to do programming....

I like my radios non-bricked, thanks....(I do hope you were kidding)

Nope, not kidding at all. Now, I have the luxury of working at an MSS, and can fix what ever I may happen to hose up, so I like to experiment & report findings for the good of our community. That said, I've never bricked a radio yet, and have programmed somewhere in the 10's of thousands of them. The modified version of DOSbox 0.65 which several people have posted about here works extremely well for any of the 'single wire' radios such as Mactrac/GM300/LCS/GTX/GP300/P110/SP50/SM50/120, etc. We rarely need to reboot between DOS & Windows at the shop anymore!

Anyway, getting a bit off topic. I have seen several different USB to Serial adaptors recommended in various different CPS 'readme' files.

[dagwag77]

IoGear USB/Serial adapter (both one serial and two serial port to one usb adapters) work great with XP and Vista for CPS, once I got the drivers on the CD/website downloadable installed...

Dave

[dsheli]

I hate to bring up such an old form but I am sure this topic is searched often. For a "true" serial port you need the card, whether express or PCIMCA to be PCI-e based (OXFORD OXPCIe952) not USB based solution (Prolific PL2303 chip).
David