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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Another PCMCIA question, USB2 adaptors.


Chris Wilson

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My trusty old laptop only has USB1 ports. My laptop based oscilloscope works OK, but makers recommend for best performance it is plugged into a USB2 port. I bought a known brand PCMCIA USB2 card and although it seems to work there is a major issue with the `scope. When I plug the scope into the original USB1 ports it powers up straight away and the LED lights on the `scope. If I plug it into the card it doesn't power up at all. Is the adaptor faulty or am I missing something here? Thanks. Do the USB2 PCMCIA cards need some sort of driver loading? I like the old laptop as it has a true serial port, which is very useful to me.

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I'm not sure if there would be any point if the bus speed of the laptop can't transfer the data quick enough. What are the specs of the laptop? FSB, ram speed etc?

 

Sometimes you find that them expansion cards don't have enough juice to run internally powered stuff (without a power supply).

 

It could however be as simple as it needs a driver loading. Some are P&P, where others need faffing on with. What make / model is the card & what OS are you running?

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Wont be any laughing from this end, I've still got old laptops with true serial ports laying around for mapping the bikes with. They bounce better than new stuff too :)

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Chris,

 

Not sure whether this has any bearing, but if the oscilloscope requires power from the USB port, it is possible that the PCMCIA adaptor can't provide enough. However you can get adaptors that take additional power from a second port, you could then connect the data connector to the PCMCIA port, and the additional power feed from one of your USB 1 ports.

 

This solution would of course depend on your problem being a lack of supplied power.

 

Mike

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