Thread: Help; USB to DB9 adapter

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The laptop I use to run one of my VSA programs is about to die. I have to flex it in opposite corners for it to power on. Probably a cracked solder joint or maybe a cracked motherboard. Anyway, I have a couple more laptops that do not have the serial DB9 com port. Only USB. I have a Parallax USB to DB9 adapter but it doesn't appear to work. I just found out that I'll probably need to install the correct driver and I will as soon as I get home, but here's my question. Is there a more robust adapter out there that is somewhat bulletproof for this application? Over the last couple years, I've read in several forums that most adapters are tempermental at best and some do not work at all. Anyone here have knowledge that would help me? I would appreciate it tremendously!

I only use a usb serial adapter on my setup and have not had any problems at all. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head but it is very important that you get the driver installed correctly and you shouldn't have any issue.

-CZ

The adapter that I have is from Parallax and it does require the FTDI driver. But after I installed it I still get no response. It shows up on com port 5 and VSA recognizes that port. So I switched the com settings in vsa to com 5 for all 4 servos but I still get nothing. Is anyone using the Parallax adapter with any luck?

I'm using the lynxmotion board, but you should re-check your baudrate on the pc driver and your board. Just a thought...

Also, I have a USB to Serial adapter I got from BestBuy. It works just fine, but I have heard that some brands of adapters don't always work out with certain logic boards....

Belkin makes a good one.
http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPa...duct_Id=459431

I use these for GPS.
Pete

Randy , I use the same one and haven't had any problems with it. What board are you using?Tne only thing I can think of is try uninstalling thedriver and adapter ,then reinstalling it. Have you contacted Parallax, they're usually pretty good with help . I also use one from Radio Shack that I have had sucess with and one from Keyspan. Have you looked in device manager to see which ports are being used, there may be a conflict with that I wound up adding a 4 usb port card and a 4 port hub to my desk top and used 2 4port hubs on my laptop. I did have to go through and manually check for conflicts. Have you thought of a USB board ? Parallax has one that can be daisy chained to run 32 channels, that is what I've been using. Hope this helps.

I recently encountered this issue when setting up a backup system for our main computer. VSA saw it but still didn't work. I finally fixed it by going to the port settings in VSA and changing the baud rate to 115200. It all worked fine after that.

Thanks to those who offered help. I have tried everything that was suggested to no avail. It's getting close enough to the big day that I have to worry about getting a new servo controller board so I have time to tweak and adjust. The controller I have is a Pololu Serial 8, and the one I just ordered is the Micro Maestro 6 channel USB controller. I'm hoping that it will be fairly plug and play once I download the correct driver. Hey, for $19.95 + $5.00 shipping, This will hopefully fix my issues. Thanks again everyone. I'll let you know how it goes.