Posted by: tonyc
USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 24/08/2005 22:03
I bought a GWC UC320 USB->serial dongle, having seen some sketchy evidence that it was supported on the Mac. Well, turns out it's not, and doesn't work. Does anyone know of a USB->Serial dongle that does work on OS X? The only laptop I have is my Mac, and I need to occasionally view my empeg's serial output in the car.
Posted by: mlord
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 24/08/2005 22:27
On a related note, I also recently purchased a USB-serial dongle.
The bluetooth ones I got earlier appear to have tiny buffers, and drop characters at 115200, though they are good enough for the empeg connection regardless.
So I tried a couple of the $10 adapters, and neither of those could manage even as well as the bluetooth dongles at 115200, let alone at higher speeds --> tiny buffers that pretty much need h/w flow control for anything above 56K. And the empegs, and most embedded platforms I work with, do not implement RTS/CTS h/w flow control.
So, I eventually plunked down CAD$30 for one from "The Source by Circuit City" (the company formerly known as Radio Shack Canada). Bigger, bulkier than the $10 ones, and with a longer cable (I keep it permanently coiled up, don't need the length), and.. it manages 460800 bits/sec without any flow control, and without dropping characters.
Cool!
So the point is.. YMMV.
Posted by: jimhogan
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 25/08/2005 00:58
Keyspan, my son,
Keyspan.
For all I know these are the same as what Mark pointed to rebranded, but they seem intent on supporting Macs, and the fact that they sucked ass under VirtualPC is probably *not* their fault.
If I got off my ass and dug around, I could probably find one to send you.
Posted by: mlord
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 25/08/2005 03:15
My kernel reports the dongle as a Prolific PL2303 USB to serial adaptor.
Impossible to know that without purchasing / installing one, though.
Cheers
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 25/08/2005 10:48
I'll check tonight to see if the one I have works on my Mini.
Posted by: shadow45
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 25/08/2005 12:59
is that the lossy one with the small buffers? or the good one
I have one and it works OK for my GPS testing @ home. I only run 9600 though.
pl2303 has reverse engineerd open-source drivers, should be somewhat portable to MacOSX..
I bought mine from NewEgg.
Posted by: tman
Re: USB -> Serial dongle for Mac? - 25/08/2005 13:12
I've never had any problems with the PL2303 based cables I've got.
Prolific already give you a Mac OS X driver...