$13 USB/Serial Adapter, Free Ship, Not Sure About Compatiblity

erco

NOT SURE IF THIS IS PARALLAX COMPATIBLE, I DON'T OWN IT, but·I just saw it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250629447582

Cables Unlimited brand name, sold by Tiger Electronics.··If it works, it's a good deal.· If it don't, it ain't.. Modular adapter includes seperate USB cable.

Anybody know if this works with Parallax products?


Of course, the Parallax adapter (known to work) is just $15. http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CablesConverters/tabid/166/CategoryID/40/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/378/Default.aspx

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Tubular

Hey Erco,

Since you brought it up, check out some of the other stuff Gamesalor is selling. Amongst them is a USB<>DB9 serial converter for US$1.84 including free shipping.

At that price I wouldn't expect it to work!, but if it does it's about as cheap as those nokia serial cables but with all the handshaking pins

cgi.ebay.com.au/USB-2-0-RS232-SERIAL-DB9-9-PIN-ADAPTER-CABLE-9587-/160428905146?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255a4ed2ba#ht_4473wt_958

erco

I did try a silver/blue cable off Ebay that looks exactly like that one, mfd by HL, and it didn't work. Cheap experiment. This one is from Tiger Electronics (USA) and I bet you can return it if it doesn't work.

But I would really like to find a $2 China Ebay cable that works, to be able to recommend to the group. That was intent when I bought the HL cable.

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Dr_Acula

@ Tubular, I've got a quite a number of those $1.50 to $2 adaptors and they all seem to work fine with propellers. Where they sometimes don't work is with a non standard 'break' signal where the data line is brought high for a long period of time. For example, the Picaxe chip uses this break signal as a reset and a number of adaptors don't implement 'break'.

Those cheapie ones are great for debugging propeller networks - at one stage I had four running at the same time, each with a terminal program.

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www.smarthome.viviti.com/propeller

erco

Thanks, Dr. Acula! Do those same serial adapters work with a Stamp & BoE? If so, please advise the sellers you bought them from to help others track down the right ones. Not all $2 adapters are created equally!

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Tubular

Thats good news Drac

I've ordered one of the ones I mentioned above @ $1.84, will let the forum knows if it works

I've had problems with the Jaycar ones (blue screen of death on win Xp!) and Bafo sometimes too. But the prop plugs haven't ever caused me any trouble. Fingers crossed...

erco

This email settles that: NOT COMPATIBLE!

Thank you for your email.

The item# 250629447582 (New Cables Unlimited Serial Adapter) is not compatible with a
Parallax BASIC Stamp. Also, the item could be returned back to us within the 30 days time
frame from time of purchase.

Thank you for visiting our website. We appreciate your business. If you have further
inquiries and reply to this email, please make sure to include your entire message, so we
can address it appropriately.


Sincerely,
John
TigerDirect.com Web Response

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Leon

I think that many of those low-cost adapters use a Prolific chip, which seems to be rather troublesome in some situations. Those with an FTDI chip seem to work a lot better. One of the early ones I bought a few years ago has worked with everything I've tried.

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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM