USB to Serial Adapters can be used when you do not have a regular 9 pin serial port on your computer to connect your serial timer to. These are readily available at many electronics stores. Though, many customers have had problems with the adapters available from Radio Shack.

If you have a USB timer, the information below still applies since the timer essentially has a built-in adapter.

1. You MUST install the USB software driver that came with the adapter/timer. This will create a new COM port number that the software can then use. If it did not come with a software driver, check the manufacturer's website to see if you can download one.
2. With some computers, you may need to always plug the adapter into the same USB port on the computer; otherwise, you may need to reinstall the USB driver to be able to use the adapter/timer on another port.
3. Installing to another USB port may actually result in a different COM port number, so you may have to reconfigure the port in the Hardware Settings screen.
4. Make sure that the USB adapter/timer is plugged in before you try to use GrandPrix Race Manager. If it is not plugged in, then you will not see the COM port number listed on the drop-down list of COM Ports in the Hardware Settings screen.
5. If you are not sure of the COM port number that was created, then follow these steps:
   1. Disconnect the USB adapter/timer from the computer.
   2. Open the Hardware Settings screen.
   3. Check the drop-down list of COM Ports to see which are currently listed.
   4. Connect the USB adapter/timer to the computer.
   5. If the USB adapter/timer driver was successfully installed, you should notice a new COM Port number listed in the drop-down list. This is the port you should use.
6. If you see no change in the listed COM ports, then the driver for the adapter/timer is not installed correctly.

Note: The software's Help file has a wealth of troubleshooting information. Make sure to refer to the Support section of the Help file if you need to do further troubleshooting.

It is possible, but the video quality may not be very good.  We do recommend that the webcam support at least 1.3 megapixels.  A progressive scan webcam may also provide better video quality.

Possibly. It depends on the video camera. Some video cameras will not provide a live video feed using a straight USB cable connection. That connection is instead intended to transfer files from the camera to your computer, not to provide a live video feed.

RaceReplay needs the live video feed. It will record portions of the live feed and save the video to an AVI file on your computer. Your camera does not do any recording.