Bafo USB to serial adapter

[ardhuru]

Has anyone on the forum used the Bafo USB to serial connectors for communicating with a PIC?

My config. is a Celeron 2.66 desktop running XP with Sp2.

In my experience, the interface works okay for a while, but if I switch off the PIC power for some time (keeping the serial window on the PC on), the interface does not work. I then have to close the terminal window, plug out the USB-to-serial, plug it in again and then run the serial comms. window again.

Is this normal with USB to serial adapters? I tried looking for the latest drivers, but that did not help.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Regards,

Anand

[dhouston]

Anand,

I've never used any from that company but I've used several other USB/serial adapters and the behavior you're seeing is not normal. My adapters have all operated as if they were regular COMx ports.

[ardhuru]

Dave, do these other interfaces work with peripherals needing handshake signals as well? For example, would one work with the X10 Firecracker? Or the UIRT?

Could you name some brands I could specifically go after?

BTW, I also noticed that the Bafo serial signals seem to be the right polarity, but TTL level.

Regards,

Anand

[dhouston]

The ones I have pass all the handshake signals but I don't think either is still sold. One was a multi-port hub I got several years ago (the company was absorbed by Intel) and one is an eval unit from FTDI using their first chipset.

The chips made by FTDI and by SiliconLabs handle all handshake lines but adapter manufacturers may or may not implement them.

I would suggest getting one of the breakout boards from Spark Fun, either the FTDI or SiliconLabs boards.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=198
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=718

[ardhuru]

Thanks for the information, Dave.

My adapter apparently has a Prolific Pl2303 chip.

I notice most of the USB to Serial adapters available in our market seem to use this same chip.

I had tried using a PCI based 2 Serial + 1 parallel card (NetMos), but that worked even less satisfactorily.

Regards,

Anand

[dhouston]

I have an 8 serial port ByteRunner PCI card in one machine and a 4 serial port card from the same source in another. Neither has ever given me any difficulty.