Keyspan by Tripp Lite USA-19HS Hi-Speed USB Serial Adapter, PC, MAC, supports Cisco Break Sequence
by KeySpan
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List Price: Our Price: $25.99 You Save: $20.00 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Keyspan by Tripp Lite USA-19HS Hi-Speed USB Serial Adapter, PC, MAC, supports Cisco Break Sequence
Customer Review: Linux compatible, Good Quality
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this cable for work to configure routers and other devices via serial port. Works well in conjunction with the Cisco blue serial cable.
The cable assembly is of good quality and consists of two parts, the USB to serial adapter, and a standard USB A to B cable. This design is quite nice as you can unplug the adapter from the cable for compact storage/transport without having to bend the cable at the adapter to cable interface. In addition, you can replace the USB cable with a longer one if necessary. This two part design is probably why this cable costs a bit more than some of the other cables. The cable also has a non-obtrusive green LED which blinks when it is idle, and is solid when there is communication.
I've used this cable on both Linux and Windows XP (it also comes for drivers for Mac OS X 10.2.8 or greater and MacOS 8.6-9.x). This adapter is plug-and-play support for Linux (Fedora Core 6) without needing to install any drivers! This is a major plus in my book. Once you plug it in, the serial port is available as /dev/ttyUSB0 (type 'dmesg' after you plug it in to see what device file it is associated with).
I also got it working relatively easily with Windows XP by first installing the driver from CD, then plugging the device into the USB port. After installing the driver, Windows XP menus became a bit erratic (transparent when I clicked on the menu and I was unable to see the menu items), so I did a reboot and it worked fine after that. I don't know if this is related to the driver installation but it is the first time I ever saw this behavior. In Hyperterminal, The adapter showed up as COM5. You can figure out the COM port to use by launching the device manager (right click on "My Computer" ->Properties ->Hardware tab -> Device Manager). Go down to Ports (COM & LPT), and Keyspan USB Serial Port should have the com port in parenthesis (COM5 in my case).
This adapter was well worth the price and it shipped for free on Amazon.
Customer Review: Fantastic Mac support
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a cheap USB-serial cable from eBay and used some free PL2303 drivers that I downloaded. Despite the fact that drivers installed okay and detected the hardware, I only got garbage data from it.
So I took a chance and bought this USB-serial cable, since there were so many Mac users extolling its virtues. They are all correct: this cable works great! And it has some of the best Mac support I've seen from a hardware vendor.
The cable ships with a CD that has Windows and Mac (OS 9 *and* OS X) drivers and documentation on it. The documentation is great -- it fully describes the installation process, which is very simple actually but there maybe some issues here and there. It also covers using the cable with various popular devices, like a Palm Pilot and Virtual PC. There's even a small application that gets installed that gives you some status info and lets you install the drivers.
One caveat is that that you can only install one set of drivers for an OS. So if you install the OS X drivers, you can't also install the OS 9 drivers and use it in Classic mode. You also can't install the Windows drivers if you're running Virtual PC, but there are instructions on how to get around that. The documentation even says that Keyspan doesn't officially support Virtual PC, but they include instructions provided by end-users anyway. I wish every vendor provided that kind of documentation.
I know this cable is much more expensive that the cheap-o ones you find elsewhere, but if you're a Mac user, don't waste your time with any other USB-serial cable.
Customer Review: Mac interface for Ham Radio
Summary: 5 Stars
While it is doubtful that many people will use the USB serial adapter as I have, I will nonetheless detail my very favorable experience.
I purchased the adapter to interface my MacBook to a ham radio transceiver (Icom-706 MKllG) that used a serial port for control and communications. Although there are numerous PC programs and interface cables available for this purpose, there is nothing for the Mac world and I love my Mac. Even in the PC world an interface is necessary to talk to the radio via the serial port and there are no USB interface converters available that I could identify.
The interface I had worked well with a PC using one of the COM ports so I reasoned that adding a USB to serial adapter would make it work in the Mac world and I was right. I found software that worked with the radio and worked in both the PC world and in the Mac world. This allowed me to play on the PC side to confirm how the serial port worked and then move to the Mac world where I was on unfamiliar ground.
The drivers for the adapter loaded without a problem and the Mac registered the device with no difficulty. When I went to talk to the radio, via the adapter, I had to work with the interface (read - check the right box stupid) to get a communications link but with no more then 15 minutes effort, the interface worked and I was communicating with the serial port on the radio.
I have used other USB to Serial Port adapters and have never been satisfied. This one is the best I have found so far. You can try the others or buy this one first.
Customer Review: Works perfectly with OS X 10.5 and Windows XP
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this adapter -- snagged it for $10 on eBay -- just to see if I could get my computers to talk to my old LaserJet 4MP through a serial connection. (Despite what Keyspan's FAQ says, some LaserJets do have a regular serial port in addition to a LocalTalk port.) It worked as advertised from both OS X and Windows XP (running under VMware Fusion) with the drivers I downloaded from Keyspan's web site.
In OS X, two serial devices appear which correspond to the adapter. One has a name, like USA19H1a2P1.1, that depends on which USB port you plug the adapter into; the other one is always called KeySerial1. Either will work, but if you use KeySerial1, you don't have to worry about which USB port you plug the adapter into. In XP, the adapter was assigned to COM3, and you just use it like any other COM port.
The only problem I had using the adapter was that I couldn't connect it directly to the printer even though one had a male DB9 connector and the other had a female DB9 connector. Both the printer and the adapter have sockets for securely fastening a cable, and they got in the way of each other. I had to buy a DB9 M/F cable to make the connection. Generally, this won't be a problem because you'll want a cable longer than the included 3-foot USB cable anyway.
Customer Review: Good, working product
Summary: 5 Stars
Installed the configuration software, plugged it in, and it worked immediately. I am using it with WinXP Service Pack 2, and it communicates great with a complex serial interface to an unusual piece of electronics I have, so its very compatible with "real" serial ports, unlike some other adapters I have tried that seem to only work with modems or PDA docks. The adapter as shipped is actually a small 1"x1.5"x3" box connected to your computer with a 3' USB cable that can be unplugged from it. It has a green LED on top to tell you when it is properly configured as well as when a program has opened that serial port and when it is passing data. Very functional and easy to use; the configuration software even includes tests to make sure the device is recognized and is properly communicating with your computer. The configuration software also ensures that the same COM port is assigned to the device, no matter which USB port on your computer you plug it into each time, unlike previous adapters I've had which created a different COM port each time you plugged the device into a different USB port (very annoying); the driver also has an option to behave like those other drivers, but most people will probably want to always have it act like the same COM port, the default.