USB to COM adapters???

todd_musheno@yahoo.com

I am starting design on a K-9 robot (from doctor who), but I know I am going to need MANY inputs & controls.
Does any one have any suggestions?
I am a Java Developer, and would like for the app to run in windows...
I found the Java Communications API, but it is COM port only, for the Basic Stamp / Javain this is great, but...
I will need more then 4 of them.
I have found some USB to COM adapters on the net, but know nothing about them.
Does anyone have experience using more then 4 COM ports on windows???
Todd_Musheno@yahoo.com

allanlane5

The "KeySpan" units are excellent.

It IS possible to have a 'master' communications controller on your robot, which then talks over a 'party line' to multiple processors on board. This can reduce the number of ports you need to hang off your PC.

todd_musheno@yahoo.com

I realize that, but I am not a hardware GURU, so I would like to try to keep the amount of hardware to a minimum.
Plus I have seen adapters / cables, that say they do exactly what I need (usb to com), but I have not used them before, and am looking for advice.

Todd_Musheno@yahoo.com

PS: Thanks for the advice anyway, if I cant get help on the adapter (or cant get it to work), I will probably seek your help again.

Naphtali Moore

Well, first of all, on building a K-9... AWESOME! What series are you building? (Mark I, II, III, IV) I'm using the USB to serial adapter from parallax to hook up my serial BS2SX to my laptops USB port. It works great! http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28031 and its only 18$US. I am working on a DLL for my PC based AI and got it to send messages to the BS. the BS shows up as COM5 with the parallax adapter. And as allenlane5 was saying its easy to string a bunch of Stamps together, without ANY fancy equipment. You just run them all on the same serial bus in chain. SO they will all get the same messages from the PC. Then you sort it out in the software. Like with the app mods you can use a specialized pre-amble to your messages so each stamp knows which message is intended for it. In the system I'm build messages TO the pc start with !PC and end with CR messages to the stamps start with !BS1, !BS2, !BS3 etc and end with CR as well. SERIN has a wait feature which can look for this Preamble and ignore everything else. (example: SERIN 16, 240, [noparse][[/noparse]WAIT("!BS1"), DEC CMD, DEC ARG, DEC ATM]) Hope this helps! [noparse]:)[/noparse]

todd_musheno@yahoo.com

I think so,... does the above adapter start as com5, or is there configuration required?
As for running them all on the same bus, I don't think that will work, as I will be requiring a massive amount of BS -> PC IO traffic.
The solution above allows me to send data without collision, but there is no way to guarantee I can "receive" without collision.
$18 is defiantly in my price range, but I have seen some for $8.95 at...
http://www.buyextras.com/setousbco.html?gclid=CODI_c-x0YsCFQrRIgod2C2z_w
Also there are multi port systems (1usb, 2 to 40com)...
Recommendations???
Todd

PS: I know, cool isn't it? The design is for a totally autonomous K-9, speech enabled, etc... (the only thing I am dropping is the blaster, duh...) I have everything required bookmarked an budgeted, outside the "windows only supports 4 com ports :-(" problem.

todd_musheno@yahoo.com

I almost forgot, has anyone got the above adapter working on com5..N using Java Communications, for Input and Output, on a windows PC?
I'd like to have a testimonial before buying a dozen or so... you understand
Todd
http://java.sun.com/products/javacomm/