Serial Connection -- Laptop to IMSAI

[Ken Vaughn]

I'm absolutely sure that I will get a dozen replies saying that you have been doing this for years, but in case someone, like me, didn't think of it:

I have been using a serial port to connect my IMSAI to a Win98SE laptop. This allows me to capture and send short files (under N*DOS or CP/M), capture printer output (under N*DOS or CP/M), and send or receive complete disk images under N*DOS (using Dave Dunfields NST software). I can also use the laptop as a serial terminal in lieu of my parallel port keyboard/video card terminal. Works fine -- but my Win98SE laptop isn't on my wireless network, which would be convenient. I have a Toshiba Windows XP laptop which will connect to the network, but it doesn't have a DB9 serial port.

While at a local computer store today I saw these for $20 and it gives me a serial port on a modern laptop running XP (tested) or Vista (not tested). Dunfield's software would probably have problems running under Vista/Win7.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0335176

I tested it with all the above using HyperTerminal (8N1-9600) and Dunfield's NST software (8N1-9600) running under XP's command prompt.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Direct from Chinese sellers, they can be had substantially cheaper than $20.

 

[Ken Vaughn]

Direct from Chinese sellers, they can be had substantially cheaper than $20.

I'm sure that's true -- MicroCenter is just about the only game in town now that CompUSA and Circuit City closed down, with 8 or 9 stores between them, and I'm not much of a fan of Best Buy. At least I can easily return something that doesn't work at MicroCenter.

 

[RichCini]

I have several different versions of this from Belkin and Parallax (they had a sale so I bought 2). I use them for everything vintage, including my IMSAI (although I recently got an ADM31) and my N8VEM. They do the job, are inexpensive, and I can drag them from laptop to laptop.