This is an excellent inexpensive gadget to have when you need to connect to TTL level devices, whether it's a router or a bluetooth slave dongle. The price, ease of use, and quality of the product really make it stand out above other choices. As I highlight below, I advise against using the software which comes with it, and lay out another way to install the drivers.
Below I list the Pros, Cons, OS Compatibility, Device Driver Setup, Initial Setup, Com Ports and Usage.
Hopefully you find this review helpful!
PROS:
* Inexpensive yet high quality - The price I paid for this, $6ish, is an excellent price. I wouldn't want to pay more, and I wouldn't expect to pay less. The PCB and assembly is high quality, and it includes jumper wires.
* Simple setup - You install the drivers from Silicon Labs, and then you plug it in. That's pretty much it. You can customize the com port settings once you've installed it.
* Ease of use - It essentially sets up a com port, so any serial port communication software will work with this
CONS:
* The included driver CD falls into the 'fishy' category. It may be absolutely safe and legit, but I wasn't going to chance it. It does include drivers for the device, but they're outdated drivers, and there are some files on the CD which seem fishy. They're clearly in Mandarin/Cantonese, which means they likely came from China, and being a security minded individual, that makes me shy away from use. I tossed the CD and instead used drivers from Silicon Labs' website, as outlined below. If nothing else, you never want outdated drivers anyhow.
OS COMPATIBILITY:
Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, etc.
Linux compatible
There may be more, but this is what popped out to me.
DEVICE DRIVERS:
The device is a chipset from Silicon Labs known as CP210x. You can search for them online. Here is a link to the driver webpage: [...] /USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx
I downloaded the VCP Driver Kit, it's a safe zip file which contains the drivers, as well as a simple installation utility. This is exactly what you want. I ran the VCP Installer, which installs the drivers for you, it takes about 5 seconds. These are safe, and are the most up to date drivers. What came on the CD with this product was several revisions behind ( almost 2 years old ), another reason why I tossed the CD.
This is the most crucial step, I highly advise using only the drivers from the Silicon Labs website.
INITIAL SETUP:
Once the drivers are installed, find a USB port which you will use the item in most often, and plug it in. For Windows users, it will take a second for the system to initalize the new drivers to the device. I emphasize using the same USB port because in Windows it will assign the drivers and a com port to the device on that particular USB port, so if you plug it into a different USB port next time, your com port will change without notice. I give more info on that below.
Next, you need to figure out what com port the device is on.
COM PORTS (in windows):
You can easily find out what com port is in use, and change them around if you want to, within Windows. There's software utilities to do it easily, but here is how to do it in Windows XP with just the Control Panel:
Open Control Panel, goto System, then goto the Hardware Tab, and then Device Manager. Expand the list called Ports (COM & LPT), and find the one for the CP210x. It will show what port it is currently assigned to for where it is plugged in, for example it may say Silicon Labs CP210x (COM5), showing it's on Com 5.
If you only needed to know what Com port it was on, you are now done and ready to use the product. If you want to see how to change the port assignment, and learn a little tech info on how Windows handles usb port/com port assignments, read on.
To change the com port designation from the device manager, Right click on the device and go to Properties, then go to Port Settings tab. Here you can change the serial communication settings. For port assignment, goto Advanced Settings. You'll see a drop-down box for COM Port Number. Here you can change the port to anything which is free.
Background: Windows assigns devices like these a com port based on which USB port you're plugged into. The first time you plug the device in, Windows will initialize the drivers for the device on that port (lets say, USB port 1), and it will assign a free com port to that USB port 1.
If you plug it in a different USB port in the future, it will use a different com port for that particular USB port. For example if you plugged it into USB port 1 and it was assigned Com port 5, if you then plug it into USB port 2, it will get assigned the next available com port, which could be Com port 6 for example. It's still usable, but you'll have to keep track of the Com port the device is on.
Like I said before, there's several software utilities which do this quicker and easier. USBDeview is one such software, it shows all usb devices and the history on your computer, along with port/drive associations. There's one piece of software specifically built for com port changes under Windows but I can't remember the name, I'm sure you can find it online.
USAGE:
Now that you know what com port the adapter is on, you can use it. Keep in mind you have to match the Com port serial settings (baud, parity, bit, flow control) to whatever TTL device you're trying to interface with.
| Brand | Micro SATA Cables |
|---|---|
| Item model number | USB-TTL-ADPT |
| Item Weight | 0.8 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 5.6 x 0.3 x 3.4 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 5.6 x 0.3 x 3.4 inches |
| ASIN | B006JKNWLE |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | December 8, 2011 |
