Hardware Usb2serial Adapters

Specific USB -> Serial Adapters

Alcor Micro Corp (3' Green/Silver) Windows Driver: pl2303(Alcor).zip OSX Driver: OSX SourceForge Driver Linux Driver: Name: USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver Driver Sym: CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303 lsusb ID: 058f:9720 Alcor Micro Corp

Prolific Technology Inc (6' Green/Silver) Windows Driver: pl2303h-hx-x.zip OSX Driver: OSX SourceForge Driver Linux Driver: Name: USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver Driver Sym: CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303 lsusb ID: 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port

Magic Control Technology Corp (1' Purple/Silver) Manufacture Homepage: www.mct.com.tw Windows Driver: I believe it comes with XP Linux Driver: Name: USB MCT Single Port Serial Driver Driver Sym: CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_MCT_U232 lsusb ID: 0711:0230 Magic Control Technology Corp. MCT-232 Serial Port

Belkin (1' Black, w/ 3 led's) Manufacture Homepage: belkin.com/... belkin.com/support/... Windows Drivers: f5u109_xp.exe Linux Drivers: Name: USB MCT Single Port Serial Driver Driver Sym: CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_MCT_U232 lsusb ID: 050d:0109 Belkin Components F5U109/F5U409 PDA Adapter

Belkin (6' white, RadioShack) Manufacture Homepage: Radioshack.com Windows Drivers: rshack.zip Windows Updates on Vista will install the drivers as well. Linux Drivers: Name: Radioshack USB to Serial Cable Driver Sym: ? lsusb ID: 05ad:0fba Y.C. Cable U.S.A., Inc.

Linux Install Info:

Add the drivers above to your kernel's menuconfig. They are located under Device Drivers -> USB support -> USB Serial Converter support

General Serial Port Info

Pinouts

Male
Female

Loopback Tester

"The following RS232 connectors can be used to test a serial port on your computer. The data and handshake lines have been linked. In this way all data will be sent back immediately. The PC controls its own handshaking. The first test plug can be used to check the function of the RS232 serial port with standard terminal software." (http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/cable/RS-232.html)

Null Modem Cable

Used between computers (or a computer and a micro controller)
"The easiest way to connect two PC's is using an RS232 null modem cable. The only problem is the large variety of RS232 null modem cables available. For simple connections, a three line RS232 cable connecting the signal ground and receive and transmit lines is sufficient. Depending of the software used, some sort of handshaking may however be necessary." (http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/cable/RS-232.html)

Simple RS232 null modem without handshaking

RS232 null modem with loop back handshaking

More Info:

• More information than you ever wanted to know about serial/rs232 communication can be found here.
• Ditto