Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port as
I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with USB
to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell and
some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N

A lot depends on your software compatibility. Vista or XP? Few new LT's
have integrated serial ports. In the business line of most manufacturers,
you can still source XP as the o/s. Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc. depends on what
service/support you have available locally. HP probably has more laptop
service available at a local repair center than others. Toshiba may be
comparable, I'd have to check. If you have a good relationship with a local
establishment, check with them.
Respectfully,
Ron Moore

"RogerN" wrote in message
news
Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port
as I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with
USB to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell
and some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N

David R. Birch wrote:

RogerN wrote:

Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives,
module configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in
serial COM port as I have heard some of the software could be
difficult to make work with USB to Serial adapters. I know these
are available on some models of Dell and some Toshiba laptops. Any
recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N


My company just bought used Dell Latitude C610 laptops for hooking up
to CNC controls through null modem cables. They came with 1gHz PIV, 20
gig hard drives, 256meg of RAM and Win2K installed and a DB9M real
serial port. We found them on ebay for about $800 for 3.

David


I just bought a new IBM Thinkpad Clone (Lenovo) from CompUSA.

They had these in the back room because they still had XP pro
on them (which was a major requirement for me).

With 2 Gig RAM and all the toys (wireless, CD/DVD burner, etc)
it was just over $700.

Vista has some serious software compatability issues.
Keep that in mind if you are going to need to use older stuff.


Richard
--
(remove the X to email)

Now just why the HELL do I have to press 1 for English?
John Wayne

On Jun 1, 9:25*pm, "David R. Birch" wrote:
RogerN wrote:
Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives,
module configuration, etc.). *I'm preferring one with a built in
serial COM port as I have heard some of the software could be
difficult to make work with USB to Serial adapters. *I know these
are available on some models of Dell and some Toshiba laptops. *Any
recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N

My company just bought used Dell Latitude C610 laptops for hooking up
to CNC controls through null modem cables. They came with 1gHz PIV, 20
gig hard drives, 256meg of RAM and Win2K installed and a DB9M real
serial port. We found them on ebay for about $800 for 3.

David

This patch gives Win2K compressed folders and the ability to open .zip
files.
http://www.petri.co.il/enable_compre...der_in_w2k.htm

Jim Wilkins

"RogerN" wrote in message
news
Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port
as I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with
USB to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell
and some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N



Roger,
I am a huge IBM ThinkPad guy. I use them for everything under the sun
daily. However, they take quite a thrashing in the shop so I sprung for a
Panasonic Toughbook, used off E-bay and put a fresh load of XP Pro and all
my CAD/CAM and other software on it. You are 100% correct in the USB
concern and the adapters are hit and miss. Some work fine with one app and
leave a error in the event viewer on another. The Toughbook I have has both.
I paid just under $600.00 USC for it and I buy my ThinkPad's in pairs as
with laptops it's not "if" they break it's "when" they break and it's always
at the worst possible time. Just my 2 cent opinion but the rest of my shop
and home are on Sun gear as I prefer Solaris over Winblows but such is
life..... There are a LOT of tech guys here so expect some well educated
feedback on this one.

Respects,

Rob Fraser

Fraser Competition Engines
Chicago, IL.

The disk structure and such was altered - creating issues -
only my son has one and it is his computer.

I think that was one of their efforts to take business away from others -
ours work their old stuff won't...

Jack around Sun Soft after Sun won the JAVA suit against MS.

And obsolete older software that isn't compatible. Making more money.

Remember they invented the problem of virus attacks by teaching the
techniques in their scrip languages and providing the hooks for attacks.

What does one expect.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


cavelamb himself wrote:
David R. Birch wrote:

RogerN wrote:

Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives,
module configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in
serial COM port as I have heard some of the software could be
difficult to make work with USB to Serial adapters. I know these
are available on some models of Dell and some Toshiba laptops. Any
recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N


My company just bought used Dell Latitude C610 laptops for hooking up
to CNC controls through null modem cables. They came with 1gHz PIV, 20
gig hard drives, 256meg of RAM and Win2K installed and a DB9M real
serial port. We found them on ebay for about $800 for 3.

David


I just bought a new IBM Thinkpad Clone (Lenovo) from CompUSA.

They had these in the back room because they still had XP pro
on them (which was a major requirement for me).

With 2 Gig RAM and all the toys (wireless, CD/DVD burner, etc)
it was just over $700.

Vista has some serious software compatability issues.
Keep that in mind if you are going to need to use older stuff.


Richard


----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

RogerN wrote:
Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port as
I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with USB
to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell and
some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

I'm looking too. My T30's harddrive crapped out while I was in the
dyno cell hooked up to the bike. *&^%^@3 ! But it has given good enough
service that I put a new drive in it. (about $250 with XP and all IBM
drivers reinstalled) I had been looking at Durabook (also called
Twinhead) as a replacement. It's about 1/2 the price of a Toughbook with
about the same specs. But they seem to have stopped offering the 9 pin
serial port as well. I'm curious to see what the recommendations are.
Loved the quote I got while looking around last week. 'all laptops are
pretty tough now' From the 18 yr old behind the counter. Obviously, we
were thinking very different things about what a rough environment is.
The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type adapters
don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.

There is a new generation of tiny laptops with solid state memory (no
hard drives) that look interesting. But USB only for connections (other
than mouse and monitor connections).

Pete


--
Pete Snell
Department of Physics
Royal Military College
Kingston, Ontario,
Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

RogerN wrote:
Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port as
I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with USB
to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell and
some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N



I do some software development for a company that produces
tensile/compression and torque test stands that use serial comms and
laptops and PCs without serial ports were a problem. The company has
settled on USB serial adapters from FTDI which seem to work well but
they do have to be set-up correctly. The comms are at 115k baud and in
order for the software system to keep up it is necessary to goto the
driver settings in control panel and set the advanced port settings (BM
options) latency to the minimum, 1msec or data is lost.

Another bit of software I maintain, legacy 16 bit, was fine until recent
Windows versions where data transmitted to the instrument would be lost
occasionally. Turned out to be changes in the Windows system which broke
the operation of the 16 bit software. Luckily once I realised what the
root problem was it was easy to fix as the 16 bit software was still
maintained.

Pete Snell wrote:

The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type adapters
don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.
(...)

Pete, I wonder if a PCMCIA serial card would help:

http://www.pcmciagear.com/

--Winston

Winston wrote:

Pete Snell wrote:

The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type adapters
don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.

(...)

Pete, I wonder if a PCMCIA serial card would help:

http://www.pcmciagear.com/

--Winston


http://www.usbgear.com/

For $20

--
(remove the X to email)

Now just why the HELL do I have to press 1 for English?
John Wayne

Thanks for the replies.

At work yesterday we ordered Dell Latitude ATG D630's, they came out to
$2138 each with an extra gig of ram and a carrying case. The Dell D630's ,
not ATG, were only ~$800 -$900. We figured since these were going to be
taken to machines by whatever tech on whatever shift, the toughened case
could be a good investment. The down time caused by a broken laptop would
make a thousand dollars seem small, hoping the ATG's.

Here's info I found out looking for laptops with serial ports.
Some of the Toshiba Tecra laptops have serial ports, the A9 series does
IIRC.
Our programmers at work are using Dell 820's Another programmer is using a
Fujitsu Siemens (He's from Siemens Germany).
Dell D610's are available on eBay for ~$300-~400 range. The "Buy it now"
price on some D610's were not to far away (within ~$150) from the price of a
New Dell D630 with warranty and twice the memory.

RogerN

On Sun, 1 Jun 2008 18:46:37 -0500, "RogerN" wrote:

Looking for a laptop for controls programming (PLC's, Drives, module
configuration, etc.). I'm preferring one with a built in serial COM port as
I have heard some of the software could be difficult to make work with USB
to Serial adapters. I know these are available on some models of Dell and
some Toshiba laptops. Any recommendations for Dell Toshiba or other?

Thanks

Roger N

I use an elderly Compaq Amada.

Running Win98 SE, 200 MHZ with 128 megs ram and a big big big 4 gig
hard drive.

Has a nice DB 9 serial port and works just dandy down/up loading to
machine tools, PLCs and so forth.

It was $50 at the local computer surplus place

Actually..I have two, but for the first time in a couple years,
plugged in the other one..and I think something got toasted, as it was
likely the battery was ****.

Gunner

Winston wrote:
Pete Snell wrote:

The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type adapters
don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.
(...)

Pete, I wonder if a PCMCIA serial card would help:

http://www.pcmciagear.com/


Thanks Winston, it is an option I was checking out. Hopefully it
would be more stable than the USB-9pin converters. Anyone actually try one?

Pete

--
Pete Snell
Department of Physics
Royal Military College
Kingston, Ontario,
Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In a car everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer
and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is
completely gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the
scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is
overwhelming.

Robert Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. (1974)

cavelamb himself wrote:



http://www.usbgear.com/

For $20


Well, maybe. If any of the USB-9 pin connectors I had tried before
(or seen other people try) had been as solid data transfer-wise as the
straight 9 pin, I'd try it. But most have been pretty flaky in any
environment I need to use it in. Nice site though. (crap music excepted.
Why do those web designers always figure playing some horrid music is
gong to make me more likely to buy something?)

Pete

--
Pete Snell
Department of Physics
Royal Military College
Kingston, Ontario,
Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
it's spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee

eecummings (1894-1962) Chansons Innocentes: I

Pete Snell wrote:
Winston wrote:
Pete Snell wrote:

The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type
adapters don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.
(...)

Pete, I wonder if a PCMCIA serial card would help:

http://www.pcmciagear.com/


Thanks Winston, it is an option I was checking out. Hopefully it
would be more stable than the USB-9pin converters. Anyone actually
try one?

Couldn't get it to work so I just had bought one of those laptop cooling
pads and Dell fix my old 850 Inspiron.



--

John R. Carroll
www.machiningsolution.com

Pete Snell wrote:
Winston wrote:

Pete Snell wrote:

The 9 pin port is a priority for me as well, as the USB type adapters
don't seem to do well in an electrically noisy environment.

(...)

Pete, I wonder if a PCMCIA serial card would help:

http://www.pcmciagear.com/


Thanks Winston, it is an option I was checking out. Hopefully it
would be more stable than the USB-9pin converters. Anyone actually try one?

I haven't, but there's a way to *make* one from an old modem!

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/diyserial.html

--Winston