On 28 Jan 99, at 0:08, Chris Blom wrote:

> Hi experts,
> I have a digital camera that needs a 9-pin serial port connection
> to the computer.  My desktop has its mouse connected to the only
> 9-pin serial port it owns.  I tried connecting to the 24-pin
> serial port via an adaptor, but that did not work -- the system
> did not seem to recognize its existence.
>
> My question; can one add another 9-pin serial port via an
> expansion card?  And if so, how do you assign a COM port to it?
> (I use COM1 for the mouse and COM4 for my modem.)
> Second question; is there any way to change over to a PS style
> mouse to free the 9-pin serial port for use by the camera?
>
> Thanks for your help!

There are two kinds of motherboards, AT and ATX.  The "old" type is the AT type
boards where the "outside" serial ports ( = what you see on the back pane) are
connected to the motherboard with small ribbon cables that can either have a 9-pin
connector or a 24 pin connector.  If that's what you have you are in luck - just go to
your local computer store and tell them what you want, and for a few bucks they will
give you a connector cable with the right connectors on both ends.  There are probably
several push-outs on the back of the computer case where you can fit the new port
connection.  If not, your friendly computerstore can sell/give you a slot cover with a
hole for the 9-pin serial connection.

Since I have never worked with the ATX board I can't help you here, but I think you will
have problems since all the connections for ports, mouse, and keyboard, are together
in one unit.  If you have such a thing you can easily add a "multiport" expansion board,
but don't be talked into getting an expensive (= PCI) board, just get the cheapest
possible with a 16550 UART.

Good luck.

--
Mo
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