Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Mconfig and a Macbook Pro

Hi,

I've just taken delivery of a shiny new MacBook Pro, and want to use it with Mconfig to control my system. My old Windows 2000 desktop (!) finally died.

Here's what I'm proposing to do, does it sound sensible?

Buy a copy of Windows 7 64 bit OEM and use with boot camp.
Use a USB cable to control my G61RSL. (Are drivers required for this?).

My HD621 needs to be controlled via RS232. What adaptors are recommended for use with my MacBook Pro which has USB ports only (no RS232).

Thanks in advance for any tips. I have got to grips OK with the Mac but have never installed Windows on one before.

Hi

You could try using Parallels instead of bootcamp? and the adapter advice can be found here you will need the adapter and the null modem cable unless you already have that.?

Russ

The Meridian products with USB maintenance ports are basically integrated USB/Serial converters.

These will require the FTDI virtual com port drivers from the FTDI website.

Any device not having USB maintenance port I recommend a FTDI chipset based USB/Serial adaptor. I use to recommend Prolific based chipset devices as they were typically more prolific (excuse the pun) but I discovered compatibility of certain (earlier?) prolific chipset devices were a problem with some versions of OSX.

Just watch out with some OEM Windows. I recently went boot am and in the end went full retail as I needed to be sure that, apparently as is happening with some OEM kit, the WindOws license is not suddenly rescinded.

You may also want to consider VirtualBox. It's a free (and debatably better) alternative to the other virtualization packages.

A shameless plug but I get all my USB->RS232 kit from Brainboxes, who use FTDI chipsets. I've also been trying their Ethernet to RS232 kit which is pretty good (it fools a 15 year old piece of software into thinking the VPN'd Ethernet box is a serial port built into the PC running it).

I know its not free, but I use Vmware Fusion 6.0.x and it has a wizard for helping you to install windows quickly. Adding USB devices and others stuff is a little tricky but works.

I wouldn't bother with bootcamp unless you plan on using the machine for games. One of the virtualization solutions mentioned are more than capable of running mconfig.

The keyspan USB to serial used to be the one recommended. Its never let me down.

Cheers
Greg

I use Fusion too and don't see any issue with USB devices. Can you elaborate?

Thanks for the advice... brainbox seems a good source for the USB -> RS232 adaptor. I presume this is the right one.

I was thinking of using bootcamp as it comes with OSX and I get the impression that it does everything for you and it just works... I don't envisage using windows for anything much other than MConfig so a happy to just boot into it when required.

The comment about OEM is more worrying though... I've not heard of licenses being rescinded... is that a real concern? The prices are quite a bit cheaper and indeed the retail versions are difficult to come across now. However, if it doesn't work it's even more expensive. Has anyone else any experience with OEM licenses on a Mac?

I have a Macbook Pro and run Windows 7 with Bootcamp. It works fine.

Rick recommended a iirc a Keyspan USB to serial connector which works fine never an issue.

Hope this helps

Hi John,

I use Bootcamp with my MacBook Pro. I am running Windows 7 professional. I think the best way of thinking about Boot camp is that it turns your Mac into two separate computers, a Mac and a PC. You choose which one you want when you start the machine. To swap between Mac OS and windows requires the machine to reboot. I personally find this easier as I used to run 'Parallels' and I'd occasionally accidentally close it and then have to wait for Windows to restart again within the program.

The only issue that I had with installing windows was getting the drivers for the keyboard backlighting and more importantly trackpad working. This required plugging in a spare mouse to the macbook. I also had to download the drivers from another mac and copy them across as it didn't work automatically.

I've heard of the OEM licenses running for a bit and then stopping. However, I think that the problem is resolved using Microsoft automated telephone license system so not too much of a problem.

I used the same USB to RS232 cable that is been using with my Windows XP laptop without issue. Windows 7 recognised it as a device and installed the driver. Mconfig had to be told which port it was connected to but otherwise fine.

I hope this helps?
Peter

I think it depends on the source of the license. I didn't find a source for guaranteed unused licenses so most of the licenses seemed to be license numbers taken from other machines. I needed Windows for commercial use so in the end played safe and bought full retail boxed license for about �160. If you look through reviews on Amazon for OEM you will see that some people are having problems.

[edit]Just looked through reviews, they seem more positive than the ones that i was looking at last Nov/Dec. Still caveat emptor.