X220 with Native Serial

crised · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:57 pm

Hello,

Looking for Native Serial RS-232 for my W7x64 X220. Tired of the RS-232 to USB connector.

How this sounds?

http://intrl.startech.com/Cards-Adapter ... RT~EC1S952

dr_st · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:29 pm

How is one converter (ExpressCard-to-RS232) more "native" than another converter (USB-to-RS232)?

$77 for this? :eek:

crised · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:41 pm

because express card has more than 4 pins as USB does...

dr_st · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:10 pm

That is true, but why is it important specifically for RS232 usage? I am seriously asking, as I am not familiar with RS232 intended usage so much.

bill bolton · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:49 pm

crised wrote:

How this sounds?

It has a hardware USART in it, and that is as good as it gets nowadays in terms of provisioning a real serial port :idea:

Cheers,

Bill B.

automobus · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:54 pm

A USB device shares the bus. Going through USB adds latency. Same story with MIDI and audio. Ask the experts who wrote MIDI on Wikipedia: "USB is over 15,000 times faster than MIDI, however, there is more latency introduced". Even USB 1 afforded the throughput for a 7-channel sound card. But even after the introduction of USB 2.0, professional external sound cards most often use IEEE 1394. Another thing to consider is drivers: a driver for serial USB device plus driver for USB host controller, adds potential for one more software failure.

crised · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:28 pm

Why as real as it gets?

It has an UART... device that I have has UART too. so this is real serial, right?

automobus · **Posted:** Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:02 am

I found a person who reports a reason against USB serial adapters: their baud rate is not low enough.
http://www.aa8ia.org/2010/10/07/usb-to-serial-adapters/

bill bolton · **Posted:** Sun Nov 13, 2011 4:46 pm

automobus wrote:

their baud rate is not low enough.

That's only an issue for RTTY purposes nowadays.

Most laptop users who are looking for full RS-232-C capability, need their laptop to look like a hardwired serial terminal to some other device, and will operate at much higher baud rates than RTTY applications.

Cheers,

Bill B.

X220 with Native Serial

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