hi,
I am about to buy a usb/serial cable in order to finally use my AtomPro…
I am in the US (Pittsburgh, PA, doing a lot of robotics at CMU!!! (pre-college program)) for a few weeks now, so I can find it easier than in France.
Which one of the cables listed here do you think will most probably work (even surely)? Link
I’ve already tried the Startech one, which didn’t work… And I won’t be able to test it here since I don’t have the hardware, so I’ve got to find one that works!
If you are using a laptop sometimes the USB ports do not provide sufficient power. If this is the case you need to use a powered USB hub to power the USB to serial cable. I know this has fixed one other persons problem.
After you plug in the serial adapter, go into device manager and see what com port number has been assigned to the adapter. XP has a problem assigning ever increasing com port numbers when some USB serial adapters are plugged in. I’ve had good luck with a Startech one.
Just as an update, I got the below USB-serial adapter and it appears to work ok (tx/rx). It is different than pictured, and looks like the bottom adapter (same HL drivers). It is 5v based instead of 10-12v, and the tx line goes to 0v instead of -10v like a real serial port when nothing is being sent. The rts line goes to 5v when the com port is opened. For ~$8 shipped, may not be a bad deal. In the seller’s feedback, others seem to give the adapter good remarks.
Just another update. I tried the latest Prolific drivers from the above site (updated 3/22/2007) with some Prolific usb to serial adapters I bought in the past, and the adapters now work for tx/rx. Interesting to note that the normally expeced ground on the adapter (pin 5) doesn’t appear to have any connection to the tx/rx or rts/dtr voltage changes. The driver update may or may not have anything to do with this behavior. If you have a usb to serial adapter that doesn’t appear to work, you may want to get a multimeter and see just what is going on with the various pins on the adapter.
