I need to trouble shoot an industrial grinder that is being run by an embedded computer that only has one serial port(no monitor,no keyboard, no mouse). I need to know how to connect to and communicate with the embedded computer using my laptop(which has both usb and serial ports). Thank you for any helpful responses

Do you have the make, model & OS of the embedded computer & the grinder? How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

Unfortunately this is a completely custom built small machine. It is being used by a really small shop. They had the controls built by the old technician. No make or model for anything. I do believe they told me the OS might be Linux. The small computer has a few serial ports and other plug in connectors that are being used as I/O connected to other controls on the grinder. I just need to know how to communicate with the computer using the single serial port on the computer. They tell me that the old tech used to connect his laptop to that serial port to communicate with the computer(I just don't know how). Thank you for your help.

http://sewelldirect.com/usbtoserial... Since you have not other information, try one of those. You may need the gender changer too. http://sewelldirect.com/FemaletoFem... How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

Guapo thank you for your reply. However the problem I am having is that I don't know how to communicate or access the information on the embedded computer. My laptop has a serial port and I have a serial to serial cord already.

When you connect the cable, does the device show in my computer, network places or in disk manager? Have you connected the cable & rebooted the laptop? You might be better off using a Live CD such as backtrack. That might mount the drive automatically. How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

You probably need a terminal program. We used to connect to all kinds of navigational gear on boats through Hyperterminal. We even used older style Palm Pilots to capture data strings. A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her. > - Oscar Wilde