Usb to serial adapter install#
Usb to serial adapter serial#
Usb to serial adapter mac#

Usb to serial adapter serial#

This setup simply connects one computer with a serial device by a 1-port USB to serial adapter. Lets take a look at one of the most simple setups using a USB to serial adapter with RS232 interface:

Usb to serial adapter install#

However, some of the higher level high quality adapters offers an option to install the driver files manually, this can be an advantage it you want to control exactly what is installed.Īfter the drivers has been successfully installed you will be able to find the new virtually createdĬOM port in your operating systems Device Manager where different parameters for the COM port, such as baud rate and data bits can be configured.Ī standard RS232 USB to serial converter with a DB9 connector is usually very easy to connect to a serial device, simply connect the DB9 connector to the serial device, the DB9 connectors needs to be female / male to be able to connect, and it is an advantage if one of the connectors has thumb screws and the other has nuts.Ĭonnection Examples. Simply by starting an exe file and the drivers will automatically installed. Installing the drivers are easy if you have a good USB to serial adapter, usually you can install the drivers

Usb to serial adapter mac#

Usually drivers are available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems, however some low-cost adapters only have drivers for Windows, which is another reason for selecting a quality USB to Serial adapter. The drivers are small files / programs which makes it possible for your computer to find the adapter and help in converting the data sent and received from your serial device. We will not go into the details of how the RS232, RS485 or RS422 protocol works, but if you are interested in this then there are lots of RS232, RS485 and RS422 information on Wikipedia.īefore you can start using a you need to install the drivers for the adapter. Regardless of which interface type the adapter has it usually looks the same, with the one difference that RS232 adapters usually have a DB9 connector for connecting to the serial device where as the RS485 and RS422 adapters usually have a screw terminal header for connecting a serial device. Other frequently used interfaces are RS485 and RS422. The most commonly used interface type is serial RS232. USB to Serial adapters comes in several different variations in regards to interface types. The reason is that low-cost processor chips are often poorly designed and have incompatible drivers. The problem with an unknown or low-cost processor and driver ship is that it will most likely cause you more problems when installing the drivers or when trying to communicate with your serial device. The seller of the adapter should be able to tell you which processor brand is inside the chip, if they cant tell you, don't buy it. Examples of well known brands are FTDI and Silicon Labs. Well known brand of USB processor and driver chip. We highly recommend a USB to serial adapter designed with a The main parts of the inside circuitry consists of two processor chips: a USB to Serial processor chip, this chip converts all the USB data to serial data and all the serial data to USB data, and a Serial driver chip, this chip provides the power for your the device connected to the serial port of the adapter it kind of amplifies the signals. Okay, but how about the inside of the adapter? Well, the circuitry inside the adapter is even more important that the outside.

This is a very helpful feature when troubleshooting. One of our favorite features of the USB to serial adapter is the type of adapter which have indication lights for the TX and RX communication lines. Most USB to Serial adapters has a DB9 connector however some adapters has a screw terminal header instead, this applies to industrial adapters and converters in particular. Some have thumb screws for attaching the DB9 connector to a device while others have screw nuts for connecting devices. Other differences are that some adapters has a female DB9 port instead of a male DB9 serial port. However mostly the physical size of the USB to serial adapter is actually the least important feature, more importantly are the electrical features of the adapter. For example a one port adapter is much smaller than a four port adapter. So what is the main differences between these USB to serial adapters? The most obvious difference is the physical size of the adapters this is mostly due to the number of ports the particular adapter has. What are the differences between USB to Serial adapters?