MacSailing.net

On my boat, I use a MacBook with a Keyspan 4 port serial-USB adapter. Running OSX I use two serial ports, one for a GPS input for electronic charting using GPSNavX, and one for an AIS receiver input to that same application.

Using BootCamp and Windows Vista and running Airmail software, two more serial ports are used, one to do frequency control to a Yaesu FT 100D, and the other to a SCS PTC pactor III modem.

In both cases the correct drivers for both OSs have been downloaded from Keyspan and both systems run fine...just one at a time.

Yesterday I attended an excellent lecture on charting by Mark Doyle at the Seven Seas Cruising Association annual meeting, and he strongly recommended Parallels 4.0, indicating that the multiple serial port issues that existed in earlier versions had been fixed in this latest release.

Any experience with this combo and suggestions are welcome including any other OSX/Windows solutions using multiple serial ports?

73, John, W6JTB

parallels works great for me, seems far less painful, and much prefer not having to do a full boot into windows, just having it run in a window.

created 4 serial ports (com 1 to com4) no problem at all

Hi John,

I use VMWare Fusion. I use a Keyspan USA-19HS and GPS Gate software for my Windows solutions. I am currently running MaxSea software and Raymarine RayTech software on the Windows side.

On the Mac side the Keyspan USA-19HS delivers the Raymarine NEMA outputs to MacENC.

Does VMWare Fusion handle 4 serial ports?

Thanks,

John

I think so John... I believe the latest version 2.0 supports more than 4 serial ports.