Eprime Digest - 06/11/06

[Brandon Cernicky]

Hi Jennifer,

PST does not have any reports that a PCMCIA serial
adapter won't work with E-Prime.  If you are not
having any success with the adapter, I would suggest
ensuring that the SerialDevice or SRBOX device
settings in the Experiment object are set to the COM
port number of the PCMCIA serial port which can be
determined through Device Manager in Windows.  E-Prime
currently only supports COM port 1-4 so if the value
is reported is higher (COM5, etc), then this can be
changed through Device Manager in Windows also (see
the KB listed below for steps on how to do this).

==============================================

As far as the concern about timing issues with the use
of the USB to Serial Cables, I would suggest anyone
interested to view the KB article on the E-Prime Web
Support site "1835 - INFO: Use of DB9 Serial to USB
connector within E-Prime" for more information.  On
average, the USB to serial adapters will perform 150
microseconds slower than a standard serial port.  Both
the standard serial port and USB to DB9 cables have
aprx a 0.66 stddev value.  There is a table of values
in the KB article above.

=================================================

Although not related to serial, but I feel the group
shoudl note that PST is not aware of ANY USB to
Parallel cables that work with E-Prime.  This is due
to how Microsoft supports these devices with a "USB
Printer Driver" and does not support direct hardware
communication directly.

For those that need parallel access in E-Prime, the
use of on-board Parallel is first choice.  For desktop
machines, any PCI parallel adapter should have no
compatability problems.  PST has tested parallel
adapters from chipset makers SIIG, NetMos, and Sunix.

For laptop users that need parallel access, the only
known compatible unit is the Quatech SPP-100 PCMCIA
adapter.


-Brandon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandon S. Cernicky
Senior Software Engineer
Psychology Software Tools


>> Dear E-Prime list,
>> 
>> I have a laptop that does not have a serial port >>
(like most), but which I
>> would like to use to collect data using E-Prime >>
and a SRB.  I purchased a
>> PCMCIA serial port adaptor, which adds two serial
>> ports to the machine.  I
>> chose this method as it looked like the timing >>
would be a lot more reliable
>> than a USB serial port add on.  However, this set
>> up isn't working with the
>> SRB.  Experiments will run, but no responses are >>
detected from the SRB.

>> When the PCMCIA card it attached to the laptop the
>> two COM ports are listed
>> on the laptops settings and they can be configured
>> individually.

>> Has anyone used a similar set up?  I'd be very >>
grateful for some guidance on
>> whether this is going to work and how to configure
>> the ports.  I can give
>> more detail if necessary.

>> This is the PCMCIA card I bought:
>> http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?>>
ModuleNo=47115&criteria=PCI%20SERIAL%20LAPTOP&doy=12m6

>> Thanks for reading,
>> 
>> Jennifer Thompson
>> 

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