Serial port connector for Asus Motherboard

Rather hit-and-miss, I'm afraid, and carried out over several weeks.

It would all have been MUCH easier if Asus had thought to document the pinout
of the COM connector on the motherboard so that I could tell whether any of
the 3rd-party connectors available from various places would be compatible.

You've lost me ... what's a Q-connector? I thought that was something to do
with case-front connections (power switch, power LED, disk activity LED, and
various i/o thingies)? I see that some Asus boards do list "ASUS Q-Connector"
among their features ... but, no, neither of my boards have that -- the front
panel connection is just a block of 20 header pins (some unused) onto which
the various case connections from my cases fit easily. Nothing 9-pin about any
of it.

The serial port connection on both my boards is a 10-pin header connection
(with one pin missing) that the 10-pin plug (with one pin blanked off) on the
cable of the COM port backplate just pushes over.

The boards I have are P4P800-VM and M2NPV-VM (both uATX boards with onboard
video, the former is a S478 intel board and the latter an AM2 nForce
430/6150). I believe the serial port connection is pretty-much standard across
the whole Asus range, though.

Which board(s) are you considering?

That's simple then - don't use Vista! You won't be missing much.

In fact, I suspect that all serial/parallel port cards use hardware that is so
standard that Vista will recognize it out-of-the-box -- no driver necessary --
but don't blame me if it doesn't!

You might have a problem with the COM ports on the card trying to use the same
i/o addresses as the ones on the motherboard, but this should be resolvable in
the BIOS setup and/or by jumpers on the card.

Cheers,
Daniel.

...

Thanks, Your searches have been much better than mine.

I have sent Kustompcs an email asking when they will get some more.

Did you Asus motherboard come with a Q-connector on the 9 pin motherboard
socket?

At the moment my knowledge of Asus mobos is limited to reading the instruction
manual.

I want to have a parallel port and have found that I can buy a Sweex 2 serial +
1 parallel port adapter, but of course there is no Vista driver - same goes for
the Sweex card reader!

--

Michael Chare

...

My thoughts exactly! Though as a flat cable is used I presume that there are
fewer practical options.

AIUI the Q-connector is a 2 part block to which the above wires attach. You can
attach the wires to 1 part, then plug it into the other part on the mobo.

Asus P5B-V The onboard graphics do not appear to add much to the price and may
well be good enough for what I need. If I don't get a picture I won't be left
wondering whether it is the mobo or a graphics adapter that has died.

So I gather!

I live in hope and have also emailed Sweex!

--

Michael Chare

I've been trying to get the same thing.

The supplier of my motherboard (scan.co.uk) say they won't order it as it's
difficult to obtain and they have to order in bulk and then have difficulty
selling the rest of the batch. I see their point ... but I'm disappointed that
Scan aren't more obliging -- they seem quite good in other respects.

I contacted Asus through their website and got a reply from Asus in Shanghai
saying "I will try to pass your case to our colleague in UK to help you ASAP.
They will contact you soon. Do not worry". Needless to say that's the last I
heard from them.

I do know that you *can* buy the connectors from the Asus online store in the
US/Canada ... but they won't ship worldwide.

#

I spend some time searching the web and found several UK-based retailers who
sell serial port brackets, but not the Asus part. However there seems to be
more than one way that these things can be wired up, and I don't know which is
compatible with Asus's motherboard connector.

However, to cut a long story slightly less long, I have recently found that
KustomPCs stock the Asus brackets -- and at a very modest ??2 each -- and bought
some from them.

#

They are now showing the part as "Out of stock", though.

Cheers,
Daniel.

I found two solutions to this problem, once I stopped searching for "COM module" and went looking for "internal serial cable".

1. In the junk pile of my local computer parts store, I dug out an internal serial port cable with bracket. It was unlabeled. They charged me $1. It worked fine, and it is in service now. The cable to the bracket was too short, so I can't mount the rear bracket in my case.

2. http://frontx.com sells internal serial cables for Asus motherboards. In fact, they track two different types of serial cables for motherboards and have all sorts of pinout diagrams and photos. Asus internal serial cables are FRONTX V1, part number CPX102-2. I ordered one for $6.70, with free shipping. It has a long cable, but the mounting bracket is shaped for use in FRONTX's front panel connector system, sold separately. I plan to let the serial connector flop out the back of my case.

Best regards,

Lester

Try this site for information and sourcing info.

www.scantips.com/serial-db9.html

Good luck.

I have the same issue; the solution I am going to go with is to buy a USB to serial converter. This is actually a serial port with the UART chip onboard, and with USB pin-out. Its a hack to be sure, but just as cheap as getting the silly serial cable from ASUS.

Asus part here

Com Port 1
Part Number 14-000000091
http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=235&catid=136

or here

COM2 PORT
Part Number 14-000020091
http://e-techsiliconvalley.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=5913&zenid=056f5ff74f6c1bc1a907a9490e3e3f82

http://www.cablestogo.com like many of you guys I searched high and low, even ebay. But finally found these guys that have the serial port connect AND lpt as well as a bunch of other stuff. They have 16inch too, I'm just about to place my order.

This is called a Serial Backplate. I found one in Canada for myself at www.compunation.com/
Type "Serial back plate" in search box.

...

Thank you for your kind offer. I have sent an email. :-)

--

Michael Chare

That arrangement used to be standard for serial and parallel ports on
all motherboards before the advent of ATX.

Let me have your address and I can send you one of each.
--
Thoss