Laptops with RS232 port

urang · 02-12-2009, 19:18

Does anyone out there, know of any NEW laptops which have a native RS 232port.

We use laptops for programming various things PLC's, Drives, printers and so on. Although new technologies are going away from serial comms, we still need to support these products for the next 10 years.(At least)

USB to RS232 converters DO NOT work on all applications.

Help!!!

Ghozer · 02-12-2009, 19:53

Its hard to get a laptop with an RS232 now, of either size.... you can however still get RS232 PCMCIA cards, which add serial functionality, not via USB

this could be the other option to look into.

oldbag · 02-12-2009, 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghozer

Its hard to get a laptop with an RS232 now, of either size.... you can however still get RS232 PCMCIA cards, which add serial functionality, not via USB

this could be the other option to look into.

Yeah but try getting a new laptop with a PCMCIA slot!

Ghozer · 02-12-2009, 20:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbag

Yeah but try getting a new laptop with a PCMCIA slot!

most mid to high end laptops still have PCMCIA, or its the new slot, which I believe you can still get RS232 cards for.

oldbag · 02-12-2009, 20:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghozer

most mid to high end laptops still have PCMCIA, or its the new slot, which I believe you can still get RS232 cards for.

Will be new slot now, ExpressCard.

Out of curiousity on good ol google:
http://www.serial-cards.co.uk/produc...tegoryID=55924

Ghozer · 02-12-2009, 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbag

Will be new slot now, ExpressCard.

Out of curiousity on good ol google:
http://www.serial-cards.co.uk/produc...tegoryID=55924

thats the one OldBag, couldn't remember the name 'ExpressCard'

and thats the thing I was talking about... nice one

muddywolf · 02-12-2009, 21:46

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...6K%3D%26M%3DHP

That unit claims to have one. I'm sure many do its just finding em (But I agree they getting rarer).

L00b · 03-12-2009, 14:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by urang

Does anyone out there, know of any NEW laptops which have a native RS 232port.

We use laptops for programming various things PLC's, Drives, printers and so on. Although new technologies are going away from serial comms, we still need to support these products for the next 10 years.(At least)

For the price of a single 'new' one, why not keep the old one, and maybe buy (i.e. 'recycle') a few more 'old ones', for redundancy purposes

The environmentally-friendly solution, you know it makes sense

BluePolo · 04-12-2009, 20:18

The problem is, the old laptops wear out. Hinges break & motherboards stop working (I had 3 motherboards in one of mine), due to the plastic cases flexing & damaging the connections on some of the chips which are soldered underneath the chip so you can't get in to do anything with it.

At the moment I'm on what is my fifth laptop - and that's counting the one that's had three motherboards as one. This is a new one, but the serial port is very hit or miss as to whether it works with the software we use.

Consequently, there is no option of keeping using the old ones, because they just don't work any more.

As to buying secondhand, one of the first things to be no good is the battery life. There's also the problem that we need to have something that can run programs such as autocad & and the programs for the modern PLCs.

Cool_Jerk · 08-12-2009, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by urang

Does anyone out there, know of any NEW laptops which have a native RS 232port.

Look at the Toshiba Tecra range.

BluePolo · 15-12-2009, 21:09

We bought a Tecra A10 with a serial port, but the serial port would not work in a reliable manner - which is why urang was asking on here. As per Ghozers suggestion we bought a PCMIA to serial card, but could not get it to install due to a clash of IRQ or address.

I have the laptop dual booting with PCLinuxOS, so on I installed Virtualbox on that, and installed XP in that. After installing the program I need to use I then tried communicating with a PLC it worked, which implied it was something that the installed copy of XP was doing which was causing the problem.

The next step was to reboot back in XP then go to Device Manager & disable the Bluetooth & the dialup modem and some other stuff. The card then installed ok. It worked with the PLC as it should do. Just out of curiosity, I tried using the built in serial port, which was now working fine!

This seems to imply that one of the drivers that Toshiba supplies interferes with the operation of the serial port. At some point I'll start re-enabling the things that have been disabled to find the culprit.

Ghozer · 15-12-2009, 21:26

the IRQ issue is easy to resolve, just manually set/reserve the IQ, or switch wether its windows or the bios that handles the assigning of IRQ's.. they often share IRQ's for devices also.. this could be why its now working.

the_bloke · 15-12-2009, 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by urang

USB to RS232 converters DO NOT work on all applications.

In what respect? Do you end up querying the data from the converter itself, i.e. model number, serial etc, than from the device at the end of the wire?

alchresearch · 16-12-2009, 08:45

When I had to configure a new HP switch I used an Amstrad NC-100!

BluePolo · 16-12-2009, 21:24

The Bios on the Tecra has to be the worst I've ever seen. There are just three pages in it - the third page has just one option on it!
There are none of the usual options regarding the IRQs etc.
Even the boot sequence choice is rubbish. If you want to boot from CD first, your next to try is network, then HD, you can't have CD then HD.

When you look at the properties of the serial card in Windows (just to see which com ports are free), com1 is the the serial port, 2 is free, 3 to 12 are used, 13 is free.
However, some of the programs we have want to use com1 & don't give you a choice of changing it. Some will at least allow you to use com2 instead. At times we may need to connect to a PLC and a motor controller at the same time, so we really do need serial ports 1 & 2.

At least now I can now use the built in port and the PCMIA port to communicate to both without swapping the cables all the time.

Nagasaki · 17-12-2009, 08:31

Get a secondhand dell d600 or d610 we had them when I was in the industry and they connected to most things ok, I use an old Toshiba portege R100 now and the batteries last for hours (got an extra battery on it) It has an rs232 port
I think the only new laptops with serial ports will be Toughbooks cos the motor trade use them to connect to car engines, very expensive though
Glenn

BluePolo · 17-12-2009, 20:51

Trouble is, if we start buying old laptops, it's not a future proof solution, as it won't take long (relatively) before 'old' laptops don't have a serial port fitted. Laptops generally last us anywhere from 2-4 years before we've worn them out, so by the time this one's no good, the current crop with no ports will be the old ones offered for sale.

dkostas · 19-08-2010, 13:16

The list of laptops I have found with hardware serial port and which can be bought with Core 2 Duo or better Intel CPUs:

Dell Latitude D520
Dell Latitude D530
Dell Latitude D620
Dell Latitude D630
Dell Latitude D820
Dell Latitude D830

Dell E5500
Dell E5510

Dell Precision M2300
Dell Precision M4300

Toshiba Tecra M9
Toshiba Tecra M10
Toshiba Tecra A10
Toshiba Tecra A11
Toshiba Tecra S11

HP Compaq nc6320
HP Compaq nc8430

Fujitsu Lifebook E series
Fujitsu LifeBook E780

and of course there are more ...

Many in this list can still be bought new with Intel i3, i5, i7 CPUs and those older ones can be bough second hand for a fraction of the price.