Direct Com Port card?...

[ilovewilly]

I think thats what I need.

Basically I have a vinyl plotter which uses a serial port for connectivity.

Currently an RS232 to USB cable connects it to my PC.

This is very unreliable and ideally I want to cut the middleman and have basically a card with a male serial port on my computer.

So what exactly is the thing called that I am after, and is it likely to work for what I want?

 

[jenic]

This what your after?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RS-232-2-Port...erfaceCards&hash=item3f034db75d#ht_2707wt_907

So much industry still uses 232 but so few computers still come with the ports

 

[ilovewilly]

That looks like the kiddy!

Cheers.

I have a few old PCs somewhere, they may have an old card possibly then.

 

[jenic]

Possible, but back in't day it was usually part of the mb iirc

 

[Darren S]

This what your after?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RS-232-2-Port...erfaceCards&hash=item3f034db75d#ht_2707wt_907

So much industry still uses 232 but so few computers still come with the ports

That card should work fine, but if you find any compatibility issues or driver problems, I'd recommend StarTech as a brand, with something like the below:-

http://uk.startech.com/product/PCI2S550-2-Port-16550-Serial-PCI-Card

We've used a couple of their CardBus serial cards for laptops and they have worked brilliantly.

And as Jenic says, the chances of one of your old PCs having a seperate serial card onboard are very remote indeed, unfortunately. At best, it might have an ISA serial card in it, which will be totally useless within any PC of perhaps the last ten years. A bit like getting a Betamax video player to work with your spanking new 3D TV.

D.