my com1 port quit on an older computer. we have a newer computer that doesn't have the standard 9 pin com port but it has 2 USB ports. The new computer op sys is Windows XP. I Called AB tech but the haven't tested this conversion on XP but have done so on 2000 and 98. There are some USB to serial conversion downloads but win xp won;'t let me load them. A couple to times they have loaded but win xp overwrites drivers and the Compaq conversion locks up when i run linx lite auto configure. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks
Steve Merritt
Instrument/Controls Specialist
Morningstar Foods

Just go to any computer or electronic store (Radio Shack, Best Buy...)
and ask for USB to RS232 converter. The one with single COM output is ca $30.
You can see the one I use on link bellow

http://datataker.com/products/uc_232a.html

panic mode

I have the exact same device, worked great. RSLinx didn't even complain.

Hmm. I have one of those UC232 devices, from ATEN Technologies and it doesn't work as well as I'd like. The drivers have given me a runaround in Windows 2000, in which Windows won't take the driver provided for the device and tries to substitute something called "OEM6.inf".

When I have convinced it to accept the driver, I get the device by default set up for COM8, which many of my applications don't support.

Once I figured out how to change that, I found that RSLinx DF1 Autoconfigure doesn't work with this device.

But it's one of those "your mileage may vary" things; obviously i_canoe didn't have any problems.

I have used the Belkin model that A-B recommends, and everything worked OK except Autoconfig. I got another cheap unit off EBay for fifteen bucks that had a ten-foot USB cable; it even worked with Autoconfig, as long as I had it connected when I booted the PC. I ended up giving that one away to a customer who bought a PC without a serial port.

So, buy whichever USB/RS232 converter you want, and give it a try. Just don't try to run the 1747-PIC driver on it; I know from extensive experience that will never work.

It is true that in some cases USB>COM converters might
not perform as expected. Only related problems I have seen
so far are that some applications don't support COM ports higher
than COM4 and if you use it for data collection on your industrial PC
it happens that very first character gets lost. If the application is
handscanner this is not so bad but it can casue problems if
instead of operator you have an anutomated system.
Autoconfigure in RSLinx did work for me (XP).
Some colegues who did have issues reported that
switching to RocketPort models fixed problem. I'm not sure
if this is universal solution as there are no two systems alike
and your experience might be different.


panic mode

I stand corrected: DF1 comm worked fine, as soon as I tried my PIC module I had problems. The adapter was set to comm port 7 and RSLinx would only go to port 4. Gee I think I read that somewhere