USB-Serial

Here is something every ham shack should have. As you all know there are many rigs which needs a connection to the computer's serial port for software control. And these days the number of serial ports available on most of the main board is limited to just one. This is simply not enough for the needs of an amateur or any electronics enthusiast. Yes there are several el cheapo USB/RS232 adapters available. But I have always wanted an industrial quality serial port adapter to go with my shack. Here is something I came across recently and found it does the job very nicely in controlling my rigs / id-o-matic and a PIC burner. I don't have to fiddle around the cables anymore.

Check out their line of products.
http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Serial.html

Or, If you wanna do it like an average electronics - computers geek, here is what you need.

Four USB to serial Adapters, they cost you like $5 USD a piece.
One 4 port USB Hub - $3
Some high quality ribbon cables (Cables from your old IDE hard drive cables is great).
An enclosure where you can fix all these stuff. Make proper holes on the front panel for RS232 connectors and a single USB port connector on the back of the enclosure.

1. Remove the casing of these adapters and remove the USB connectors from each of those adapters, and wire a 4 wire ribbon cable to where the connectors of socket were.

2. Remove the female sockets from the hub after taking off its cover and solder the 4 wire cable to the socket connections directly. Make sure the connections are correctly done as we are dealing with built in power supply.

3. Do the above 2 steps for each of the other 3 USB serial adapters.

4. Now , connect all these adapters to the back of the front panel, and tighten the screws on the RS232 connector in the adapter so that they don't move.

5. Fix the USB hub board on the base of the enclosure using a couple of spacers.

Connect a USB cable to the hub and see if everything is working properly. In some hubs with LEDs on each of the USB connectors, you can extend them using a simple 2 wire cable to the front panel, or you can extend the LED on the adapter itself to the front panel.

6. You don't need to provide additional power source for these ports, USB cable supplies enough voltage to drive these 4 ports.

Pack everything and enjoy. Total cost of this project will be lesser than $25.

Cheers!!

Labels: cable, computers, electronics, hardware, RS232, serial, USB