[aprssig] Winbook TW101 unfriendly for APRS

Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf2 at aol.com
Fri Sep 23 02:24:46 EDT 2016


On 9/22/2016 10:57 PM, KF4LVZ wrote:
> On 2016-09-22 19:20, spam8mybrain wrote:
>> Greetings, all.
>>
>> I just have had an unpleasant round of attempting to configure a TW101 tablet
>> for mobile/portable APRS.
>>
>> Alas, this nice new cheap machine is cursed with pre-installed Microsoft Windows
>> 10. This makes life difficult because many of the USB-to-RS232 adapters out
>> there use the Prolific chipset.

This is the REAL problem -- the inexorable Prolific chipset and the vast number 
of counterfeit copies that the current "official" drivers brick.

You should INSIST on serial<-->USB cables based on the FTDI chipset which is 
stable, well-behaved and not plagued with official vs unofficial driver 
distributions.    As a bonus, the FTDI devices always take on the same COM 
number, no matter what USB port or hub you plug them into.  [There is something 
analogous to a unique MAC code in every FTDI chip that lets the driver 
positively identify a given device regardless of what port you plug it into.]

By contrast, the Prolific devices take on a DIFFERENT COM number every time you 
plug them into a different port, or into a hub vs direct connect.




>>
>> So the TW101 is not really suitable for field operation without an Internet
>> backhaul, unless all of your peripheral hardware is new and all of it is plugged
>> in prior to taking the machine away from the Internet.
>>
>> Drat.
>>
>> I wonder if I can boot Linux onto that tablet.....
>>





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