California Surveyors Forums

Is anyone using a serial to USB adapter they could recommend? I would love to be able to connect my old TDS ranger to a Windows 7 machine that doesn't have serial ports.

Ben

I tried some adaptors but could not get any to work with my old Topcon FC-4 data collector. I ordered a serial port card that matched the data transfer cable and was able to import data from the collector into my PC running Windows Vista and the Topcon software (old DOS based). I can send it to you if you want to try it. I have no use for it anymore. You can email me at dhunter@dslextreme.com if interested.

I eventually got frustrated and moved up to a TDS Ranger with USB.

I bought a serial to usb adapter from Tigerdirect that came with a small driver disk to install. It works well, but I haven't found a way to download directly to my drafting software (Carlson). The product is supplied by an outfit called "Sabrent".

What I do is export a text file in the Ranger, then I'm able to connect the Ranger to my computer using the adapter. Find the text file, copy and past it where I need it on my computer hard drive.

I do the same thing if I need to upload a file to the Ranger.

If you use a usb to serial adapter always use the same usb port otherwise the COM number will keep changing.

I couldn't get my first generation Ranger to connect to Windows 7. What I did was download the Windows virtual machine then run Windows XP mode. Then go to the USB menu and attach the usb-to-serial adapter. Then I use ActiveSync (which has to be downloaded and installed in the Windows XP Mode) to get the files off of the Ranger.