18 Aug
2012
18 Aug
'12
3:43 p.m.
On Aug 18, 2012, at 13:04, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
4) If I use a USB to RS232 adapter, HOW can I tell which ones are good?
eBay listings usually do NOTR mention which internal chipset. How do I
find an FTDI chipset, V the one that spews garbage characters?
(apologies for long lines, on my phone)
Don't use eBay to buy USB<->UART adaptors. If you want to make sure you get one
with an FTDI chip, Google for one. There are lots of dual and quad adaptors out there as
well, because (with some oversimplification) the FT2232 and 4232 are dual and quad UART
versions of the FT232. You may pay a bit of a price premium, but you'll probably only
need to buy one.
For what it's worth, at work, I've taken to putting an FT232 (or 2232 or 4232,
depending on how many ports) on new boards instead of real RS232 for the simple reason
that our clients have a hard time finding PCs with serial ports and are too clueless to
buy proper serial adaptors. Plus, a mini-USB port takes up a lot less room on the panel
than one DE9 (let alone four), and the chips generally cost about the same as a decent
RS232 level converter.
- Dave