usb ports only on laptop

[Adam Myrow]

I've played with USB to serial converters, and the one I have is 
unreliable in Linux.  I have it driving a Power Braille 80, and if too 
much information comes over the link too fast, Brltty will temporarily 
lose communications with the PowerBraille.  It will eventually regain it, 
but this is annoying to say the least!  It also usually has to try to 
start about 3 or 4 times before it gets communication with the Braille 
display.  Even in Windows, I usually have to unload and reload JFW to get 
it to talk to the Braille display.  My Dectalk USB is on the real serial 
port.  So, even if you could somehow convince it to work as a module, I 
don't think you'd get reliable performance out of it.  The model is the 
USA19H converter made by Keyspan.  They are one of the more open 
manufacturers in terms of Linux support, so heaven only knows how bad it 
would be if using a converter where the drivers had to be 
reverse-engineered because the manufacturer wouldn't help.