Home > Consumer Reviews > Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter ( USA-19HS )

After trying other USB to Serial Adaptors to get a Garmin eTrex Summit to communicate with an iMac, I am happy to report this one works flawless. (You will need also the Garmin serial connector)

Now you won't have to suffer Windows to use TOPOS with your Garmin.

Want to connect your Garmin eTrex to a Mac so you can use TOPOS, this works, some others don't. (Have not checked this with Tiger, can't think of a reason it would not work)

I purchased this adapter specifically to connect an old Garmin GPS III (dates to 1997) to my Mac G5 running under OS X 10.4.11. After installing the driver from the supplied CD, I connected the GPS III and started up GPSBabel+. With the GPS III's transfer mode set to Host, GPSBabel+ was able to download all of the track logs in short order.

I also tested HoudahGeo, and it successfully read the track logs, also.

Bottom line: It works!

Simply put it works as stated with Microsoft Vista. I did have to download a driver from their website, no big deal. Installation was straight forward and the unit works great. I would recommend it.

KEYSPAN USA-19HS USB to Serial adapter:

Summary:
I had a device that came with a USB-Serial adapter from FTDI Chip that only worked intermittently, was poorly documented, and the vendor ignored my e-mail. The KEYSPAN USA-19HS worked flawlessly, is well documented, and comes with a powerful utility (which I did not need).

Details:

Recently I acquired a "Duplimate Mark IV bis" duplicate bridge card dealer. It uses a serial connection to the host Windows computer. I'm using an IBM Thinkpad T40 running Windows XP SP2.

The computer has no serial ports, but the Duplimate came with an adapter, as well as a serial cable. That adapter has a captive USP cable, and a DB9-F connector for the serial device (unusually, with screws - no independent serial cable needed). The adapter was identified only by manufacturer, FTDI Chip. It came with a mini-CD, which I explored and used to print out the manual. I eventually deduced that the adapter was an HL-340, which I found stamped on the DB9 connector and as the name of a folder on the mini-CD, but not in the manual. I installed a driver in that folder, and got the dealer to work - kind of. It would actually deal a hand only about half the time, otherwise taking several seconds to report a communications error. By the time I had hit Ctrl-A to restart dealing for the fifth time on a deal, I was wondering what I would do if it refused to deal. FTDI Chip has a web site, and I downloaded a driver from there - no use. I did perform a successful reinstall without using the HL-340 folder directly, with no change in results. A detailed e-mail to FTDI chip produced no response. If you ever have a chance to buy something from FTDI Chip - DON'T!

Two days ago, I ordered the KEYSPAN USA-19HS from Amazon for just under $32, with free shipping. It arrived today, and I put it through its paces. It comes with a full-size CD. First, I removed the old driver. When I installed the Keyspan software, which must be done with the adapter disconnected, the driver went right in. (I also took the time to register the product.) A Keyspan USB Serial Adapter folder appeared on my Programs menu, and it contains a powerful and potentially useful Keyspan Serial Assistant - as well as the manual in HTML and PDF. Don't read the manual on CD - it's slow - wait to read it on your computer. The manual is excellent, tho you may not need it.

The adapter has a short detachable USB cable, which is probably fine for most applications; but if you need a longer one, you can substitute. Using the serial assistant or Start-Control Panel-System-Hardware-Ports confirmed that the newly connected serial port was COM3. The DB9-M connector has nuts for the screws on a typical serial cable, so it would not mate with the Duplimate, which also has nuts. No problem, I had the serial cable that came with the Duplimate. While using the extra cable is not as convenient, I judge this to be the correct implementation, because it will mate with captive or specialized serial cables. Because my WinDup software was already configured for COM3, I was able to fire it up and start dealing immediately. No more communications errors, no more waiting to hit Ctrl-A if the machine did not start dealing immediately. It always started dealing as soon as I inserted the next board.

I bought it to connect a Polar cyclometer to a Powerbook running iSmart software (a Mac substitute for the Wintel software that came with the Polar) and it worked without a glitch