Electronics > Electronics

How to connect USB devices to Serial/Parallel Port?

(1/4) > >>

Del:

Hi,

Is there something to connect USB devices to a computer's serial or parallel port?
(For an old laptop without any USB ports.)

Something like the "opposite" of this:

http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28030

Thanks

 :)

rgcustodio:
Buy a PCMCIA card with USB ports. Most laptops that I've used have PCMCIA ports. Most likely your laptop will have one too. Verify that your PCMCIA port can handle Cardbus as most PCMCIA-to-USB card require Cardbus. That is a safe bet, I have one and works like a charm on Windows and in Linux.

If you do find a USB to serial/parallel solution, the concern will be throughput. USB can handle up to 480 megabits per second, while serial can theoritically handle 1megabit only. So it'll be painfully slow.

Del:

Hi rgcustodio, thanks for the reply.  :)

Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't support CardBus.
I have a CardBus USB Card and it didn't work :'( . 

That's why I was hoping to find something I could just plug into the serial or parallel port.

I don't think throughput would be much of an issue,
since I'm just looking to connect a PIC and/or AVR programmer to it.

Are there any other options?  ???

Thanks!  :)

Steve Joblin:
I don't understand... I thought that PIC's and AVR's were programmed serially... the problem was that most new laptops don't have serial ports anymore, hence the need for USB to Serial Converters..  Can't you just connect a serial cable from your computer to the programmer?  You don't even need to deal with USB.  What am I missing?

Robotboy86:
To be honest, I don't think they are compitable in the way you want.

USB is high bandwith and high speed, serial isn't so much so..

I tried to think of a solution for you, but I can't...  Sorry man :( Mini-itx boards are super cheap and overly powerful for a robot controller..   and with expansion ports you can get 6 serial ports per board even.  It also comes with usb ports and a PCI Card slot if more serial is needed, or you want wifi or anything else..


I will keep searching for you though buddy.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page