Derby Talk

I just bought a new lap top, downloaded "Grand Prix Race Manager", hooked up the freshly painted new "christmas tree" that I had just made to the parallel port and then got out out our new Racemaster finish line detector with a serial port. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!! How dumb can I be! I never looked at the ports when I bought it. There is NO serial port!! To add insult to injury the light tree doesn't work either even with the AC adapter hooked up! The light tree does work if triggered with batteries so I guess I'll add the low current modification and get that part working but how about the serial port problem? Has anyone tryed using a serial port to USB adaptor? Will it need a driver? Will the "Race Manager" software be able to access this port? I need help, race day is drawing close!!!

USB to serial port converters come with a driver. I've used them without problems. The IO Gear GUC232A is the best one I've tested.
http://www.iogear.com/

Terry

Scott Morgan wrote:To add insult to injury the light tree doesn't work either even with the AC adapter hooked up! The light tree does work if triggered with batteries so I guess I'll add the low current modification and get that part working but how about the serial port problem?

Which plans did you use to construct the light tree? Since the parallel port only uses 5V, you cannot use a very long cable from your computer. It should be as short as possible. Though, I did hear of comeone using a 50' CAT 8 cable successfully.

Scott Morgan wrote:I never looked at the ports when I bought it. There is NO serial port!!

I take it that you are using a laptop. If you have or can get a base station, the base station should have at least one parallel and serial port.

You can try using a USB to serial convertor as terryep suggested. It will work with GPRM as long as the driver will emulate the port as one of the ports between COM 1 and 7.

Scott Morgan wrote:I just bought a new lap top, downloaded "GrandPrix Race Manager", hooked up the freshly painted new "christmas tree" that I had just made to the parallel port and then got out out our new Racemaster finish line detector with a serial port. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!! How dumb can I be! I never looked at the ports when I bought it. There is NO serial port!! To add insult to injury the light tree doesn't work either even with the AC adapter hooked up! The light tree does work if triggered with batteries so I guess I'll add the low current modification and get that part working but how about the serial port problem? Has anyone tryed using a serial port to USB adaptor? Will it need a driver? Will the "Race Manager" software be able to access this port? I need help, race day is drawing close!!!

We just bought "GrandPrix Race Manager" and we are using a serial port to USB adaptor without any problems.