I have a 10 year old MCE controller and the group monitor terminal is out. Naturally there is a very expensive upgrade.
Is there a method for hooking up a lap top with a USB to the Com port (6 wire modular plug) with some sort of terminal emulator software on the lap top?
Any suggestions would be helpful.

All you should need to do is go into your swing panel an change your com port to personal cp,color cart with or without keypad.All switches in off down position raise F7 password be displayed hold S until System is displayed then raise appropriate flag.Remember to save at end

tiger term is the laptop program. call mce they can send to you at least they were going to email me but never did, you might google it.

do you have a separate terminal emulator box? if so they you can pick up a cheap crt
we have had a couple go out, and were lucky enough to find one in the garage, and one at the shop just plugged in and all is ok. if your monitor is the terminal emulator, google it, there are some on eBay.

procomm plus with Wyse 50 setting
you can use it for replacing your terminal

thanks ken, so what do u need cable wise to connect laptop to system ? trying to picture it in my mind, do you use the serial port? then plug into the comm board?

Correct

I also have the need to use my laptop for accessing MCE jobs that don't have the emulator, it sounds like dripcan has it figured out, but for the rest of us maybe a little more detail in the setup and hardware needed. Is the original cable that works with the emulator box being used? Or is it a different cable. What connection is needed on the laptop, if a program is needed is there a free one that works? Please excuse my lack of knowledge on the subject, I'm just trying to get a better grasp of what's needed