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Reply to: Notebook required

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Previously on "Notebook required"

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  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: ComPort consolidator via USB2

    Ive just bought this beauty for £900, and i can say its an absolute bargain:-

    www.tchibo.co.uk/is-bin/I...KU=0001970

    Spec

    The family entertainer
    Forget the flicks. Forget the stereo system and DVD player. Forget your old PC. This laptop takes you into a new dimension of entertainment! Write and rewrite DVD´s or CD-ROM´s, turn your living room into a home cinema, surf the net with Wireless LAN - in any room and at any time! Are you ready for this new dimension?

    Software (OEM versions):


    Mobile AMD Athlon™ XP-M processor 2600+
    512 MB DDR RAM
    60 GB hard drive
    Multi Standard DVD /CD Burner (DVD-RW/-R/+RW/+R & DVD-ROM & CD-RW / -R)
    15.4" TFT Widescreen Display (15:10)
    ATI™ Mobility® Radeon® graphics with up to 128 MB shared memory
    Internal 56K V.90 modem
    10/100 MBit/s. Fast Ethernet network card
    Software (OEM versions):

    Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition, pre-installed
    Microsoft® Works 7.0 & Entertainment Pack, containing:
    Microsoft® Encarta
    Microsoft® Picture IT Photo
    Microsoft® Flight Simulator 2004
    Cyberlink Home Cinema
    Ahead Nero Burning ROM 6
    Pinnacle InstantCopy
    Power Director
    Music Match
    Power DVD
    Internet access software:

    AOL
    Accessories:

    Laptop bag
    Li-ion battery
    "Ice Age" DVD
    Weight: approx. 2.9 kg

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    ComPort consolidator via USB2

    I know extra devices, are a pain to drag around, but we just implemented a 8 Serial device solution for a POS system.

    We used 2 Comtrol RocketPort USB II devices without much hassle. They are nice and small too, about the size of a spare battery.

    Contact Tony Elveridge @ Control Europe

    Contact Information-
    Comtrol Europe Limited
    Unit 2
    Avonbury Business Park
    Howes Lane
    Bicester
    Oxfordshire
    OX26 2UA
    Great Britain

    Tel +44 (0) 1869 323220
    Fax +44 (0) 1869 323211


    Tell him I sent you, and he will charge you double! No seriously they are good devices, and each unit can present upto 4 Com ports via USB. The host machine sees them as separate Com ports.

    Let me know what price he offers them at, I may be able to get a discount. We just bought hundreds!

    Cheers

    JM

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Notebook required

    How does it sounds? Only one serial but it has 3 USB ports, you can connect a usb to give you a serial connector.

    Intel Pentium Mobile 4 3.0GHz Processor
    512 DDR RAM Memory
    60Gb Ultra DMA-100 Hard Drive
    15 SXGA TFT Screen (1400 x 1050 x 16m)
    64Mb ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 Graphics
    Built-In Video Camera
    DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
    Internal Floppy Disk Drive
    Firewire, 3x USB 2.0 Ports
    56k Modem, 10/100Mbps LAN
    Microsoft Windows XP Pro
    Ability Office 2002
    Antivirus Software

    Model: Iridium starbook 865
    Price: £1,430.00 including vat
    much cheaper than this website www.atv-computers.co.uk/s...cts_id=118

    One year Warranty, let me know.

    Giannis

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: And the answer is

    I've had no problem with mine, talked to loads of things with it. Not tried programming against it using anything clever, so that may be the problem.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    And the answer is

    Dell 8600 with parallel and serial port. Pentium M 1.7, 1 x 512mb, I'll get another 512 for 95 quid. 15.4 1920 x 1200 screen.

    A 2 port PCMCIA card can be got for 90 quid I might try a USB/Serial hub since if it doesn't work propertly it is no great loss.

    Thanks for all your help.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    usb/serial

    Vetran - I know several people who have tried these and had problems.

    I think that the mini-docking station is the best bet.

    ASB

    how easy is it for you to create a mini app that tests the serial port for your needs ? Would you need to have your hardware physically present ? No chance of just putting some software on a cd and taking it round the shops ?

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: Real antique.

    USB / Serial adapter £20 (Maplin), multiport pcmcia card ~ £200 Grey matter.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: Real antique.

    Don't think they are quite that rare, AtW.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: Real antique.

    details information on all ports should be on sites of company-manufacturer.

    all fails I can sell you my old laptop with rare COM ports for bargain £5k

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Real antique.

    Yes, the app I do quite a lot of work on was spawned from one I produced in Aus in 95 - on a completely different HW platform (completely bespoke). That in turn had been spawned from one I wrote in the UK in '87 - on a different completely bespoke HW platform.

    If the port to .net is working well then maybe I'll be able to string it out for another 15 years.

    Simon.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: trying to find out

    I was reading a thread on Tek-Tips the other day from someone who was trying to run an ap in a "dos" box on XP and communicate with a USB serial port because his laptop didn't have a serial port.

    The ap was an antique (like most of mine) and he got as far as having it sort of recognize that a port was there but that was it.

    Funny how essential some of these "legacy" items can be....

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    trying to find out

    That is one of the issues. Trying to get an accurate answer. Whoever I try (high street and dell so far) I have the following conversation:-

    Me: "And so that serial port on the card is exactly the same as a serial port on the mainboard"
    Salesman: "Yes"

    M: "So to labour the point all my software which uses it will continue to function without problems"
    S: "Yes"

    M: "So I will make it a condition of the sale"
    D "Oh no we can't do that"

    M: "So you'll lend me one for a couple of days first"
    D: "No"

    The problem is that they wan't me to shell out a considerable sum on the say so of some herbert who can say no more than "it will probably work, but if it doesn't tough". Still 'twas ever thus I suppose.


    Simon

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: Ports

    COMs should still be there, though I'd be careful to check

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Ports

    Mark,

    Yep, I know it's difficult.....

    The reasons for the ports are:-

    1) The parallel port. Some of the development I do is Micro Focus Cobol, an old version 3.4. This requires a dongle on the parallel port. The rainbow driver is not available beyond NT but there is a hack available that gets it running on XP.

    The actual code produced is 16 bit OS/2 which runs in NT-OS/2. Obviously XP won't run this code but having recently done some experimentation I think I can achieve my goals with a host NT partition and MS Virtual PC.

    Since I travel with it the parallel port must be on the notebook.

    2) The serial port. Quite a lot of the development I do involves certain specialised peripherals, ultimately the requirement is to be able to access "COMn".

    In an ideal world I would have about 5 com ports (the card I use in my desktop provides an additional 8) . So if a mini docking station (or PCMCIA card) provides ports that are acessible as COMn it should work fine.

    Cheers.

    Simon.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    laptop

    Simon,

    I think you will find it difficult to get that sort of spec.

    What do you need the serial and parallel ports for ? Those 'legacy' items are getting rare. Are you doing device driver stuff ?

    Would a mini docking station be acceptable ? or a pcmcia card with two serial ports ?

    Mark

    Leave a comment:

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