I would like to use a Serial to USB cable to communicate with a PiC16F688 which is running through an RS232 type level converter (actually an ICL2323). If I do straight serial communication with a com port on an older PC, everything works fine all the time. I can also communicate with a palm pilot, no problem. So I've established that straight serial works fine. But when I try serial to USB cables, the results vary from device to device. My first attempts failed utterly--I only got some periodic gibberish on the PC. A colleauge working with the same PIC-driven device also failed to establish communication, but then she tried a different (newer) PC and got it to work. I'm at a loss to see why there should be these discrepancies--serial to usb ought to be pretty simple right? Anyway, I was wondering if you had any insights because I have several people who will be using these devices, and I need to be able to recommend communication setups that work.
One possible clue is flow control. I tried setting up serial communication between a palm pilot and the PC using the serial to USB cable, and I could not get it to work until I messed around with the flow controls. Flow control is not necessary when doing straight serial communication between the same palm and PC.
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