[NTLK] Serial to USB

[Tony Morrow]

On Jan 17, 2010, at 8:23 AM, Leendert De Cae wrote:

> Does it matter which Serial to USB cable I buy, or does just every  
> cable work?
> And which software do you use to connect and sync your Newtons with  
> Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Tiger (or both)?
>
> Thanks in advance

You really have to make sure the adapter you get has OS X drivers.  
There are two kinds of serial adapter you can look at. One has a PC's  
serial connector (square, DB-9 connector) and the other has a Mac's  
serial connector (round, Mini-din 8). The model of Newton you have  
also has influence in the decision. The OMP through MP130 all had a  
Mac serial connector. The MP2000 and MP2100 had their own custom  
serial port that required a dongle. The Emate had both.

For the OMP through MP130: If you plan on never connecting them to a  
PC then you might want to look at the Keyspan USA-28 series adapters.  
They have the Mac serial connector so all you would have to get is a  
Mac serial cable to connect everything up.

For the MP2000 & 2100: If you don't have a serial port adapter for  
your MessagePad then you might want to look at getting a Newton-to-PC  
serial cable from J&K Sales. It connects directly do the serial port  
of the MessagePad and has a PC serial connector on the other end.  
 From there you could use a Keyspan USA-19HS adapter to connect to  
your Mac. The great benefit of the 19HS is that is would also work  
with PC's if you never needed to connect to one.

-Tony Morrow