Anyone used any USB to RS232 cables?

Having a look on Amazon there's a few to choose from, but the price jumps from about £1.50 to over a tenner.

I acquired an A3 flatbed plotter at the weekend, and although I'd probably eventually power with an Arduino I'd like to hook it up to my laptop and have a poke around with the various languages it supports first. 


(I'll be changing the pen for a drag knife and hopefully cutting some cool shapes out, too)

I've got some USB to parallel cables. But I guess that's no use.

I've got a USB to VGA adaptor. Also no use?

My experience of buying cables in general is: the £1.50 ones don't work most of the time. I guess there's a reason they're £1.50.

But there's also plenty of £10 cables that are the same cables as the £1.50 ones.

Kos: Check amazon or DX.com reviews

I am assuming you are asking for a Serial to USB cable? I have bought quite a few.  There are at least two different chipsets and one is much better than the other. The one you want is the Prolific Chipset.

I have bought this one and this one recently and both have been working fine.

It has a parallel interface too! And also a some kind of BBC Micro specific interface! I was under the impression that USB -> Parallel is flaky as heck, though.

That'd be very useful, actually.

Yeah, what Ant said basically. Seems to be no easy way to distinguish them on Amazon - mixed reviews all round, some people saying they got prolific chip sets and they work fine, others (on the same product review) saying they got some shit that doesn't work. :(

If I've still got one (I had a box of about ten) I'll send you one.

>>I am assuming you are asking for a Serial to USB cable?

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I asked for (in reverse), so no assuming required!

What are you using them for, and do they just work? I think I've found one seller who seems reputable and actually provides what he advertises, but I just  realised I need a DB25 connector, not the 9 pin one. Presumably I can put an adapter on the adapter..?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-Adapter-Prolific-PL2303HX-Chipset/dp/B00425S1H8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1381789491&sr=8-6&keywords=9+pin+serial+to+usb+db25

That'd be sweet, but don't go out of your way.

Yes but you used fancy, antiquey terminology and my feeble mind was confused.

I used one to configure Cisco shit.  The others were for customers.  A couple that operate a plasma cutting table and some to configure fuel controllers at a gas/cng station that I set up.

Sounds like they work, then :-D

Yup, indeed they do.  And that's a good thing since serial ports are getting hard to find!

I'll be doing something like this on Monday, helping someone get a parallel printer working on windows 8, if i can.

Ugh, it might be less painful to buy a new printer!

Should be possible as long you can find drivers that work...

You're right, I find it very useful indeed actually!