Can I interface RS-232 with USB on a Mac?

[PDJJ]

I have a light measurement device that has an RS-232 output. I'm running Labview 7.0 on a Mac with a data acquisition board. Is it possible to read the RS-232 port via the USB interface on the mac? I know there are cables to convert an RS-232 plug to USB, but the mac does not use the VISA drivers that PCs do, and I assume that the USB/VISA vi in Labview won't work on a mac.

[rolfk]

PDJJ wrote:

> I have a light measurement device that has an RS-232 output. I'm
> running Labview 7.0 on a Mac with a data acquisition board. Is it
> possible to read the RS-232 port via the USB interface on the mac? I
> know there are cables to convert an RS-232 plug to USB, but the mac
> does not use the VISA drivers that PCs do, and I assume that the
> USB/VISA vi in Labview won't work on a mac.

Yes the Mac uses VISA as well to access the serial port. What you will
need to have is an RS-232 USB converter with Mac OS drivers. Those
drivers will look to NI-VISA just like a normal serial port and be usable.

On Info-LabVIEW have been several MAC entusiast posting USB/RS-232
converters which work fine with LabVIEW and VISA. You can search the
Info-LabVIEW m
ailing list archives on http://www.searchview.net

Rolf Kalbermatter

[PDJJ]

Thanks for the info Rolf. I will take a look at your suggestions.