AIM 4170C on MacBook Air

[W6JHB / Jim]

I joined this forum a couple weeks ago, in advance of my ordering the AIM-4170C. My plan was to use it connected to a MacBook Air (original version). I had asked if anyone was currently doing this. Didn't get any replies.

Well, the '4170 arrived, I installed the software (I run Win/XP Pro SP3 under VMWARE Fusion on the MacBook) - it works just fine! Got the USB->Serial adapter with it and it works as slick as anything. Was also concerned about speed - not a problem - running a scan on a 40 meter dipole from 6.9 - 7.4 mHz takes less than a second.

[wh6dqu]

Aloha Jim,

I just received my AIM 4170C and I'm running WinXp Pro on my iMac via VMWare Fusion ver 5.0

I would be interested in knowing what you had to do in order to set everything up as nothing is working.

I plugged the usb to serial port connector in, turned the power on but nothing seems to happen after that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

73,

John WH6DQU

[jimworth]

I use the 4170C with my MacBook Air running Windows 7 under Parallels and it works well. Before that I had a MacBook Pro running Windows XP under earlier versions of Parallels which worked well, too. A few tips that might help:
1) Make sure Windows, not OS X, has control of the serial port created by the USB adapter cable. In Parallels there is a display of all the USB devices available. You can also use the Device Manager under Windows Control Panel to see the serial ports. Control Panel will tell you which COM port has been assigned to the AIM 4170C cable.
2) Make sure the AIM 4170C is turned on before launching the AIM program.
3) Be sure the port shown by Device Manager is selected in the AIM program. If you need to change the port in the AIM program, you will need to re-start the program after that.
4) While I've used both successfully, I've found the USB-to-serial cables using the FTDI chip more reliable than those using the Prolific one. Be sure to get the latest driver for your cable.

73,
Jim AD4J