USB Serial Adapters from eBay

I use cheap Chinese things too, probably not genuine, but found that they didn't work with Windows 7 or 8 unless you used an old driver. If so, then Google PL2303_Prolific_Vista_332012.exe dated 2008, install it and they'll work.

Cheers

These counterfeits have caused Prolific and nearly all users a significant amount of trouble. I don't wish to encourage them by buying their products. In fact, the ones I bought which were misrepresented resulted in my getting a total refund and so were a net loss for the vendors. If they say they use Prolific chips why not hit them back? Heck, at $2.35 for a genuine device, there is no real incentive to use the counterfeits.

Absolutely. But if you do have parts, bought in good faith, which used to work but don't work with Windows 7+, then the old driver is the answer. Or you could get all self-righteous and burn them. Your choice.

Cheers

Don't do that, then.

Digi-Key and Mouser both sell FTDI USB-to-serial cables for about $20 each and I just buy them. The $17 cost delta between that cable and finding a random eBay one that works more than pays for the time I would have spent screwing around on eBay.

Matt Roberds

Finally some rational thought!

Time dicking around costs money too. ...Jim Thompson

I had some such parts, but I tend to tuck them away in places that I can't recall and so need a fresh supply periodically. I think my older ones are stored with a test fixture somewhere.

Like I said, at $2.35 each I don't mind buying a few more now and then. I also don't like the hassle of installing old drivers (unsigned) on a new machine. But then if you have an XP machine you can't install the newer drivers at all I believe. So then you are stuck with the old drivers and I think the older cables.

$20 x some arbitrary quantity gets to be more money than I am willing to toss at the problem.

I have lots of time actually. Finding a reliable source is useful.

I'm a fan of usconverters , just because they have ones that work with WIN7,8, and ones that dont. ( they even tell you )

Cheers

That's a Forth background for you. While I don't use Forth much these days (Customers? Pah!) nearly every embedded system I've worked on has at lest one spare UART showing all sorts of diagnostics on an ANSI terminal.

My latest has six uP's with six diagnostics ports which the end customer doesn't see.

Cheers

I won't say Newegg is counterfeit-proof but I'll gladly pay the premium for improved protection against counterfeits. YMMV.

I have bought several of the $4.70 RS485 adapters and they all work fine. Wish they had a TX/RX/GND only RS232 equivalent.

Sure. We often use a spare USB or sometimes even a LAN port for diagnostics. ...but there is always a spare serial port wired to a header (sometimes unpopulated) just in case.