Question about software and a new computer for CMS

[Gary Anderson]

Here goes........I have a CMS CNC machine and the Digitizing Board that they used to sell (forgot the name of it right now). The machine and the Digitizing Board is about 4 years so Im looking to upgrade my computer and all the computers out right now DO NOT have a serial port that I can plug the Digitizer in to. So Im wondering if I buy a female to USB connector will the digitizer will be recognized through the USB?

Not really sure what to do, has anyone ran into this issue yet? Fill me in what can be done before I drive myself crazy

[Gary Anderson]

By the way I also run Easystone

[Jqualey4130]

Radio Shack had a USB to Serial adaptor back when I set up my laptop to run my digitizer. Was a major ass ache to get them to work together. They didnt plug and play. There was some configuring invoked, but they do work.

[Gary Anderson]

Justin

What did you have to do to get it to work? What configuring was involved???

[Todd Luster]

Yes from what i understand any serial port device can be ran through a usb to serial port adapter as long as you get the software for the adapter. You may also want to be sure you have the software for the device your needing to plug in and this could require you to download some patches for it to work with windows 7 or whatever. I also believe you can still add the serial port to your computer if you have the room. My brother could prolly help you work thru this over the phone if Justin or CMS can't help.

[Jqualey4130]

I don't really remember to be quite honest. When we bought ours new, the guy who made the digitizer had to come and hook it all up. We had some broken wires in the board so the guy was there to fix those. I believe the hardest part was making sure you are assigning one of your USB ports as a com port and making sure the board recognizes the com port.

[coolhandchris]

Best buy has USB to serial adapters. If you google the model number, you will be able to find the drivers for it. I use one with my Stealth arm, it crapped out and I found a new one at best buy.

[Joshua Hopkins]

They have the bases covered.

[barbianj]

gary bought an adapter compatible with windows 7 . It was a simple matter of plugging it into the USB port, and letting Windows search for the most current drive online. device manager will show which port its configured to, then put that value into the Altek software ( the tiny box that pops up when you click "digitize" in Easystone). Took about five minutes