I've just been through several of the threads about the difficulty of connecting an MX-850. That was after spending two hours trying to connect to one. I knew about these problems but I couldn't just tell my client to throw away his working remote that needs some modification.

Is there, finally, some totally reliable process and combinations of parts that let this just plain work?

I've got a ThinkPad T420 running Windows 7. I have the Keyspan Adaptor, USA-19H, which I think is the only single-port adaptor they ever had. I'm using a URC cable, and I swapped a second one in today just to see if that might be the problem. My laptop doesn't want to assign anything but Port 1 to the Keyspan. I've tried setting the port wrong in the MXEditor, then setting it right.

I've deleted and reinstalled the software from a fresh download. And I've been mystified as to what MXEdit and MXEditor are; I thought I wanted MXEditor, this was confirmed in an earlier thread, and neither program communicated with the MX850.

Hell, the MX850 might be dead, but since connection is not AT ALL reliable, how would one know?

I looked at my archives and I've got a copy of MX850_setup.exe dated in 2006 which was in the days before complete control so I'm thinking it might be okay to pass it along. Have no clue which OS it would require. Was it a 3 wire (TX RX and GND) serial cable connection low baud rate like 19,200 via stereo plug in to remote and serial rs-232 (hence the USB to serial adapter you mentioned, I've always used another brand and can locate brand if you want) on PC -- right?


PM me if interested

Just FYI, I have two MX-800 remotes where the com port seems to have failed. I can program some that I have just fine, but there are two that say they are not connected. This could possibly be the problem with the 850 you have as well