Doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KevinTheMule]

So the Brown Truck of Happiness delivered my new 246 today. Stupid me didn't bother to notice that my fancy shmancy new Dell-o-Destruction doesn't have a serial port!!!

Argh....luckily I have my old P4 1.4 Compaq set up in the next room in all of it's Win2000 Pro glory....

I guess I can get a serial port card for the new box. Or is there a USB cable I can get for the 246?

 

[rocksteady]

get a serial to usb cable and yer good to go.

 

[KevinTheMule]

get a serial to usb cable and yer good to go.

The Butel site and owners guide advises against that...is that warning old news?

I'd certainly like to be able to control and program the new 246 with my two newest computers.

Thanks.

Kevin

 

[rocksteady]

I use a serial to usb for my 396 with out problems. 396 software is free.

 

[wannabescannist]

So the Brown Truck of Happiness delivered my new 246 today. Stupid me didn't bother to notice that my fancy shmancy new Dell-o-Destruction doesn't have a serial port!!!

Newer computers seem to be trying to phase out your old UART RS-232 serial ports for USB (no, not Upper Side-Band ). Can't really get mad at 'em 'cause I doubt the average user makes sure that a computer they are thinking about purchasing has a serial port.

 

[subclavius]

My Vaio doesn't have a serial port either. I use a Keyspan USB/serial adapter with Butel software and it works great.

 

[16b]

I have a Belkin serial to USB converter and a BC246. I tried the Butel software a while ago (never bought it). I'm pretty sure it worked, but it's been a long time. I know I got my scanner programmed, but I can't remember for sure if it was with the computer that I was using the converter on or one that actually had a serial port. Anyway, I don't think those converters are very expensive, so it probably wouldn't hurt to try it out.

Hope you enjoy your BC246. I love mine; I've had it for over two years and don't plan to get rid of it. It has a few minor annoyances, but it was the first scanner that Uniden tried their new "dynamic memory" system on, so I expected some issues. The benefits far outweigh anything negative about it.

 

[KevinTheMule]

Thanks for the replies, gang.

I love the 246 so far...I was able to program it using my older comp before I travelled this weekend through several counties. It worked great even in the car and with the stock antenna in and through Clinton, Greene, Montgomery, Miami, Shelby, Auglaize, and Allen counties...it worked equally well with conventional and trunked systems.

So far so good....

I think I read on my recent Butel download that it now works with the Uniden USB-1 cable. I'd rather do that than use a converter. It costs the same.

 

[baw]

I use the Butel software via a USB to serial adapter to my BC246T with no problems. The USB adapter is for my Garmin GPS, which it too only had a serial cable. And I'm running the Butel software on a Macbook running Windows2000 via virtulization software (Parallels for Mac).