tonydenson
Member
I wish to use a USB to serial converter from an XP application under Parallels. The device comes with both MAC and XP drivers. Which should I use ?
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The Keyspan USA-19HS serial to USB adapter works fine as long as it is set up properly.
To do this, install the Keyspan driver, version 2.3 or later under Mac OS X. DO NOT install a driver under Windows.
The next step is to add a serial port to the Parallels Windows 2000 virtual machine configuration. To do this, start Parallels Desktop, select the Windows virtual machine from the list and click the Select button. On the Parallels Desktop menu bar, click Edit, select Virtual Machine from the drop down menu and click the Yes button on the drop down dialog box. The Configuration Editor window will be displayed.
Click the Add button in the Configuration Editor, select Serial Port from the Available Hardware list and click the Next button. Select 'Use a socket' and click the Next button. The following window shows the properties of the serial port. The default name of the serial port is /tmp/serial and this does not need to be be changed. Set the socket role to 'Server', check the 'Connect the Serial Port at startup' checkbox and click the Finish button to complete the setup of the serial port. Click the OK button to close the Configuration Editor and then quit the Parallels Desktop application.
One other software component that is required is a small utility called SerialClient. SerialClient is a free download from the Eudyptes website and is used to connect and disconnect the Keyspan driver from Parallels. Download the SerialClient utility and install it under Mac OS X by dragging it to the Applications folder.
Start the SerialClient application and it will display a serial port configuration window. The Stream Path field will have the default name of the serial port in it and must be the same as the name given to the serial port when it was added to the Parallels virtual machine with the Configuration Editor. Set the Baud Rate to whatever you need and the Flow Control to Hardware (RTS/CTS).
In your ~/Documents folder, create a new folder named SerialClient. Click File on the SerialClient menu bar, save the serial port configuration in the ~/Documents/SerialClient folder and quit the SerialClient application.
Now, to use the USB to serial adapter, make the necessary hardware connections, start the Windows virtual machine and let it complete its initialization. Start the SerialClient application by double-clicking the saved configuration file, click the SerialClient Connect button and then start the application that uses the serial connection. Be sure that the application is using the COM port that the Keyspan adapter is connected to.
You have to install the driver for the host o/s..Once you do that then you can transfer to the guest..
If your Host is Mac..then insert the usb to serial adapter and install the Mac driver (If the HOST is XP then do the same except use the XP driver)..then check to make sure it WORKS in the HOST(Very Important step)..Then you can do one of two things...Either..
go to your settings for the guest machine and add a serial port and use physical serial port and select the com port that the Host assigned to the usb to serial device...This option will always make the serial port on the guest machine be assigned to Com 1..so when you connect to your rs232 device via the serial port, select Com 1 in the guest o/s..
OOOOOORRRRR...when the guest machine starts up..(make sure that usb is enabled of course) go to VM-Devices-USB and select the usb to serial adapter to connect to the virtual machine..The VM should recognize that a new device has been plugged in and prompt you to install the driver which you will now do using the driver appropriate for the GUEST o/s..Using this option..your usb to serial will be assigned to a different com port than 1...usually 3 or something like that...Check the hardware config in the guest o/s after the install to see what com port was assigned to it then use that port number when connecting an RS232 or 485 device to your serial cable..
Anyway..hope this helps...btw..the keyspan usb to serial adapter is SKETCHY at best with parallels...
Mike