shiny_car Posted October 19, 2004 Posted October 19, 2004 hey i've been reading about various components benefitting from firmware upgrades from the respective manufacturers. i have a laptop, but it doesn't have an 'RS-232C' output on it which looks to be necessary to hook straight up to the components (the ones i have that can accept upgrades are the rotel RSX-1056, thomson DTI 1500 HD, (very soon) denon 3910). what do you other guys do? is it possible otherwise? the laptop only has USB, monitor output (similar looking plug), printer/parallel port. hmm, i'm not home right now, but maybe my desktop has an RS-232C port? is this what a 'serial' port is? :? interested to hear of my options.
wgong Posted October 19, 2004 Posted October 19, 2004 You can try using a USB to RS232 adapter. Note however that some do not work well for programming embedded devices (which is effectively what a STB is). Apparently ones that use the FTDI chip work well - see http://www.dontronics.com/usb_232.html for an example (note I have not used this particular model). Alternatively (and probably harder to find and more expensive) you can get PCMCIA serial cards which should do the job as these typically exactly duplicate a standard serial port right down to the register level. Your desktop probably does have an RS232 port (aka serial port) - look for a 9 pin male D type connector unless you have a really old computer (PC or PC/XT) which used a 25 pin D type connector. P.S. Some equipment needs a straight through cable while others need a null-modem or cross over cable - check your equipment manual. I am lucky - my laptop is old enough still to have a serial port....
shiny_car Posted October 19, 2004 Author Posted October 19, 2004 Your desktop probably does have an RS232 port (aka serial port) - look for a 9 pin male D type connector unless you have a really old computer (PC or PC/XT) which used a 25 pin D type connector.P.S. Some equipment needs a straight through cable while others need a null-modem or cross over cable - check your equipment manual. excellent. thanks for enlightening me. i shall inspect the desktop when i get home. the minor hassle is that the HT is upstairs and the desktop is downstairs! i might investigate the PCMCIA option; could be a cheap dodgy one on ebay.
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