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USB/Serial Question

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Chuck Teeter KE9CE

USB/Serial Question

Hello:

My computer is an iMac, so I¹m wondering if a serial/USB cable from BestBuy,
WalMart, or wherever will work, or if I should spend the extra money and buy
the one from Elecraft? I¹m hoping down the road to use the Mac also for
logging and possibly even controlling the K3. I haven¹t ordered the K3 yet
because I want to do only one order. I¹ve read most of the current threat
on USB, but I still wanted to ask this specific question. Thanks.

73,

Chuck KE9CE
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Chuck Teeter KE9CE

Re: USB/Serial Question

Oops....I meant thread....not threat.

chuck

On 3/10/10 4:33 PM, "Charles Teeter" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello:
>
> My computer is an iMac, so I¹m wondering if a serial/USB cable from BestBuy,
> WalMart, or wherever will work, or if I should spend the extra money and buy
> the one from Elecraft? I¹m hoping down the road to use the Mac also for
> logging and possibly even controlling the K3. I haven¹t ordered the K3 yet
> because I want to do only one order. I¹ve read most of the current threat
> on USB, but I still wanted to ask this specific question. Thanks.
>
> 73,
>
> Chuck KE9CE
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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Re: USB/Serial Question

In reply to this post by Chuck Teeter KE9CE

It doesn't matter Chuck. Elecraft does not make the converter either. I bought Elecraft and it works great with the Elecraft software buy not with N1MM or XMlog. There is nothing you can do except get the latest best driver that you can and try it.
Willis 'Cookie' Cooke
K5EWJ

________________________________
From: Charles Teeter <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wed, March 10, 2010 4:33:40 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] USB/Serial Question

Hello:

My computer is an iMac, so I¹m wondering if a serial/USB cable from BestBuy,
WalMart, or wherever will work, or if I should spend the extra money and buy
the one from Elecraft? I¹m hoping down the road to use the Mac also for
logging and possibly even controlling the K3. I haven¹t ordered the K3 yet
because I want to do only one order. I¹ve read most of the current threat
on USB, but I still wanted to ask this specific question. Thanks.

73,

Chuck KE9CE
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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Jack Brindle

Re: USB/Serial Question

In reply to this post by Chuck Teeter KE9CE

I would answer that with a pair of questions. What kind of iMac is it,
and OS are you running?

The Elecraft USB serial adapter uses the Prolific chip set. This
manufacturer has not updated the driver for this chip set to run under
Mac OS X 10.6 with the 64 bit kernel enabled. So, if you are running
an Intel-based Mac with Snow Leopard, you may not want the Elecraft
device.

I use FTDI-based USB-Serial adapters from FTDI themselves. They are
available from Mouser Electronics for $18.50 each. The current FTDI
drivers are known good under all versions of Mac OS X, with both 32
and 64-bit kernels enabled. If anyone is interested, the Mouser part
number is 895-UC232R-10.

Now, having said this, there are many users who have been happy with
the Elecraft adapter with the Mac using older versions of Mac OS X.

No matter which USB serial adapter you get, though, be ready to update
the driver directly from the chip provider. Every new version of an OS
sees changes, and USB is an area that is prominent for change. That
almost always requires new drivers...

Jack Brindle, W6FB

On Mar 10, 2010, at 2:33 PM, Charles Teeter wrote:

> Hello:
>
> My computer is an iMac, so I’m wondering if a serial/USB cable from
> BestBuy,
> WalMart, or wherever will work, or if I should spend the extra money
> and buy
> the one from Elecraft? I’m hoping down the road to use the Mac also
> for
> logging and possibly even controlling the K3. I haven’t ordered the
> K3 yet
> because I want to do only one order. I’ve read most of the current
> threat
> on USB, but I still wanted to ask this specific question. Thanks.
>
> 73,
>
> Chuck KE9CE
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

Chuck Teeter KE9CE

USB/Serial Question

In reply to this post by Chuck Teeter KE9CE

Jack,

My iMac is from late 2006, but it has all the upgrades, including that to
Snow Leopard. Steve WB6RSE mentioned also that now the Elecraft one works
FB with 10.6. I¹ll look at that as well as the one from Mouser Electronics.
Thanks, guys.

73,
Chuck KE9CE
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K6LMP

Re: USB/Serial Question

I'm also a Mac user. Some months ago, I specifically asked the folks at Elecraft if there is any reason to prefer their USB-Serial dongle over others that are commercially available. They said no, there's nothing that special about their device.

The real issue, especially for Mac users, is whether the manufacturer of the chipset used in the device provides good support to the Mac community in terms of updating drivers. The chipset maker who seem to have the best history with this is FTDI. It's not just a question of whether there is a driver currently available for OS X 10.6, but whether the chipset maker is known to be able to bring out updated drivers that function whenever Apple updates its OS. It seems as if every update requires updated drivers. Keyspan has been good about Mac support in the past, but when I upgraded to 10.6, my Keyspan dongle lost functionality, so I quit using it and switched to a product that uses FTDI chips.

I would NOT buy a cheap USB -serial dongle from Walmart or elsewhere unless you can confirm that it's got an FTDI chipset.

Lew K6LMP

On Mar 10, 2010, at 5:11 PM, Charles Teeter wrote:

> Jack,
>
> My iMac is from late 2006, but it has all the upgrades, including that to
> Snow Leopard. Steve WB6RSE mentioned also that now the Elecraft one works
> FB with 10.6. I’ll look at that as well as the one from Mouser Electronics.
> Thanks, guys.
>
> 73,
> Chuck KE9CE
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

David Herring-2

Re: USB/Serial Question

In reply to this post by Chuck Teeter KE9CE

Chuck,

I have an iMac with Snow Leopard and I use a Keyspan USB/serial
device. It is about a year old and has performed flawlessly with my K3
and every different program I've tinkered with, which includes fldigi,
mac logger dx, the elecraft utility, HRD running in vmware/windows xp,
and a few others.

As with everything, ymmv.

73,
Dave K6DCH

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 10, 2010, at 1:11 PM, Charles Teeter <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Jack,
>
> My iMac is from late 2006, but it has all the upgrades, including
> that to
> Snow Leopard. Steve WB6RSE mentioned also that now the Elecraft one
> works
> FB with 10.6. I’ll look at that as well as the one from Mouser Elec
> tronics.
> Thanks, guys.
>
> 73,
> Chuck KE9CE
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html