could someone explain to me

kiel367 · 31 Jul 2011 at 15:52

what a laptop com port is, my girlfriends uncle has asked me to find him a laptop for his business which has one for his pat testing machine.
im probably just being an idiot not knowing what this is

edscdk · 31 Jul 2011 at 16:18

you are not likely to get a serial port on a laptop now, get a USB to serial adapter and a normal laptop

cannot see one on overclockers to link...

GeX · 31 Jul 2011 at 16:40

You'll not go far wrong with an FTDI USB to serial convertor tbh

Bubba · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:05

A lot of the time USB serial ports wont work. You could try getting an older laptop which would do the job.

Evilpaul · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:51

USB-to-serial adapters will usually only support basic functionality, such as TTY. At work when we are doing stuff like microprocessor flashing through serial we have to use a laptop docking station as the USB converters do not support this.

NightShadow · 31 Jul 2011 at 22:50

We still require these where I work. Last one was a Dell model around 9 months ago, go online and have a chat with the advisors on the site. They should have a model which still has a COM port.

GeX · 1 Aug 2011 at 23:56

Evilpaul said:
USB-to-serial adapters will usually only support basic functionality, such as TTY. At work when we are doing stuff like microprocessor flashing through serial we have to use a laptop docking station as the USB converters do not support this.

Even using FTDI products? I use them for flashing ECUs in cars, and I know of someone who uses them on dev kits for gpu testing / design.

JonnyT · 2 Aug 2011 at 01:08

HP laptops seem to be pretty good for this. Checking here: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/Division/Division.html#10008

The Probook 6555b and 6565b (AMD) and 6550b all have a built-in 9-pin RS-232 port

Evilpaul · 2 Aug 2011 at 09:51

GeX said:
Even using FTDI products? I use them for flashing ECUs in cars, and I know of someone who uses them on dev kits for gpu testing / design.

No idea. All our company laptops come with docking stations, so it's easier to use those than convince purchasing to actually go and buy something useful.