Larry's USB to COM port Converter |
My True Story!
A couple of weeks ago Ardel purchased a stamps.com package which includes software and a digital weight scale that connects to a PC. She's worked on it for over a week, about 4 to 5 hours she said, trying to get the scale to work. It attaches to any COM port. So finally she asks me today to look at it. We discover the following: Her computer has 2 physical DB9 COM port connectors in the back (why are they always in a place you cannot reach or see?), an internal modem plugged into a slot, the modem, for some strange reason I don't know, is configured and connected to COM-4, and the physical COM1 is not working or is turned off, probably in system board setup configuration thing, and when she plugs the scale into COM2 --- it just doesn't work. Probably an IRQ conflict! Just figuring out all this took me at least 20 minutes! So armed with this great knowledge. What to do? My first thought was to try and fix the COM4 modem thing, then try to figure out why the other COM port is not working and all I could imagine was hours of re-configuring and re-testing a system that up until now is working OK. Not a fun thought. But wait! Ha!!! Hey, lets try our brand- new USB-DB9M product! You know, the one we just got yesterday FedEx from Taiwan! The one I'm trying to sell to people, telling them how great it is! I actually stopped and thought to myself, even though I figured it wouldn't actually work and when it doesn't then do I spend the rest of the day trying to make it work and then feeling guilty that I'm selling it to other people? It's just a sales pitch. It won't fix real world screwed up computer problems like I've got here. What the hay, lets give it a shot. I don't expect it to work fast and easy so I should not feel guilty when it doesn't or need to kill my own new product introduction. Ardel, who has never told a lie on purpose in her life will testify, on this anyway, -- IT WORKED! In 2 1/2 minutes it worked.
Wow! Could it be true? Yes! In less than 3 minutes we had a new COM port, COM3! And when Ardel plugged the STAMPS.COM scale into it - get this - the Rx LED started blinking! Yes, we have LED's on the new COM port! It blinked because, as I suspected, the scale transmits data all the time! Hey, this is really a good sign! And on top of all that, STAMPS.COM software actually worked too! Ardel clicked on some icon to read the scale and like magic it did! And, as if that wasn't enough, I think I can extend the 2 or 3 wire STAMPS.COM serial cable hundreds of feet! Which means I can locate it in the back room. Thats because its RS232 - up until our converter converts it to USB. RS232 is good for hundreds of feet. USB maybe 12 feet.
---- Is this cool or what?
Use USB to get the good behaving COM ports you've always wanted?
You say, ha, well someday stamps.com will add a USB port. True, but,
you will not be able to relocate it 100 feet away! No... this is just
good stuff. No two ways around it. I'm sold. Would you like 200 simple
easy-to-understand and use good old COM ports on your PC? Some located
far away? No problem. We can do that.