Any suggestions along this line? It should support Windows, ideally Win2K, but Win7 (or XP SP2) if push comes to shove. Unfortunately, Win98SE is no longer an option unless a legal version is available cheap via e-bay (i tossed all my older disks).
Anything new would need to support W7 or W8.
Please define "NOT expensive" ?
Do you want one, two, 25, 137 ?
I would guess that having to support Win?? means you have some legacy software that does not have any replacement.
Via has lots of small solutions.
Good luck
hamilton
Salvation Army, etc.
Tim
-- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation
I'm assuming you don't want a laptop.
A used/refurbished "slimtop" PC might do what you want for $100-$120. Some will still have one hardware serial port. Most all of them have either one PCI or PCI Express slot, to which you can easily add a 1 or
2 port serial card for $20 or so. If you think you need the card, don't buy it until you have the computer in hand; sometimes vendors are confused about which expansion slots the PC actually has.See my previous post to a possibly similar query at any of the following:
I understand having old apps that can't deal with a new OS, but I would suggest that you at least choose an OS whose vendor end-of-life date is still in the future. Even if just by a few months. :) Assuming you're not going to be connected to the Internet, and that you have 2 GB or less of memory, and maybe a slower processor, XP is IMHO a better choice than Win7.
Matt Roberds
Scrapyard?
That was pretty silly. I still have disks for almost everything going back to DOS2.10 and I always record registration license codes in case I ever need to reinstall something old on a VM for testing.
In practice an end of life Dell or HP compact PC with an XP license included from whoever the US equivalent of these guys is:
You may need to pay more for the RS232 card than you do for the PC!
-- Regards, Martin Brown
It's too bad Windows is a requirement. You could get a Raspberry Pi for pretty cheap, but it runs BSD AFAIK. Then, just get a USB to RS-232 dongle. Done.
Anyway, I don't know if its still any good, but years ago I used to use "
In the "PC - Barebones" section, there is a Pentium 4 for $75 (+$20 shipping)
In the "PC - No OS" section there is an Intel Core 2 Duo also for $75.
I don't know about you, but that's "cheap" to me.
You might be able to build one cheaper, depending on how you value your time, by buying the parts and assembling it yourself.
On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 07:38:59 +0000, Martin Brown Gave us:
snip
Run Linux.
While you are at it... use a 3 watt PC for this.
It is an ARM platform, so added benefit of no WindBloats security nightmare OSes.
What do you need the port for?
My set-up uses about 50 Watts (sans peripherals)
PC - $150.00 BlueTooth Touch Panel Keyboard - $9.00
21" Touch Screen Display - $306.00 (It is *ALSO* an Android PC)Total - $465.00
Power:
PC - 2.5 to 5 Watts BlueTooth Touch Panel Keyboard - 3 to 6 Watts
21" Touch Screen LED Display - 40 WattsTotal - 47 to 50 Watts
$10 per watt. Not bad.
I bought an XP machine plus monitor and kbd, mouse for $90 from a guy who reconditions them. It had an RS232 port. It is a good machine. He also sold me several SATA 500 gb drives for $30. Old technology VERY cheep. jb Check craigslist. YMMV.
You can get fanless brick computers with serial port support that will handle the new OS'es.. I still have a pile of used ubnits here with WXP pro in them, they have 4 RS232, 2/3 USB, EtherNet, Parellel port, vidoe, sound etc..
They come with SSD or HD in them... Oh, the ones I have also have CF and some other size.
I also have thin clients that have serial ports on them..
Jamie
That's a good deal btw..
Jamie
Rather nice; most have real RS-232 which i need. No pricing which makes comparison nasty. Thanks.
Am going to noodle around with empty HD and see if Win3.11 will do..; too bad i tossed my Win95 and my Win98SE disks.
Tell me! Thanks.
USB to RS-232 will NOT work; the software is Win95 age (roughly and tied into the port addresses.
Absolutely NOT an option; the program is Windows based and addresses the RS-232 port.
I avoid Craigs list like the plague..once i advertised a mattress; got ZERO relevant responses and hundreds/week of "you can make money using our system" BS - and even tho they tapered off some after 3 months, the BS continued for around TWO YEARS.
Looks nice, but how in the hell does one ask the seller a question?
Any standard Linux distribution(Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian ...) running on a standard x86 box would work just fine. Win2K is prehistoric and the latest Windows versions are just bloatware with useless fluff.
Hard to sell mattresses, unless it's thrown in with a bed or other furniture.
Greg
Might be helpful to know why you need the rs-232 port. All usb/rs-232 dongles are not created equal. I can't make any recommendations, because all mine are noname dongles. But they do behave differently if you're bit-banging the control lines. And there are utilities to open the ports on XP and newer to make old SW run. If you need accurate timing bit-banging the port, you may be outa luck.
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