When you are in the field, your computer won’t have an Internet connection to automatically download and install the driver. Tip: Test your USB adapters in the office with your field computer. (The older cables were silver in color and did not have a driver available for Windows beyond version 7.) We chose this cable because it uses a chip that has a certified driver available on Windows Update. Because off-brand chips with poor drivers are unreliable, Campbell Scientific recommends and currently sells a cable using an FTDI chip ( part number 17394). The driver must correspond to the chip inside the cable-not to the manufacturer of the cable.įor USB to RS-232 chips, there are two primary manufacturers: Prolific and FTDI. The most common problem that our customers encounter with a USB to RS-232 adapter is getting the proper driver installed. For example, there are three types of problems that you may encounter when using a USB to RS-232 adapter: While USB to RS-232 adapters perform a necessary function, they do have some limitations. Therefore, to connect an RS-232 device (such as a CR1000) to a computer, you need to use a USB to RS-232 adapter, such as the 17394 converter. With the widespread adoption of USB, most computers sold now do not have an RS-232 port. The software driver sits between the hardware and the computer program you are using, and it must be installed and working correctly. To handle the packets and move data in and out of the program accessing the USB device, a software driver is needed. Data is wrapped up and transferred in packets.

USB devices have high throughput, but they use a shared data bus. The USB provided smaller connectors and more data throughput than the serial and parallel interfaces it replaced. In 1996, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard was introduced as a replacement for the serial connector and other connector types that were typically found on the back of computers. Data practically flowed directly to and from the software that was accessing the serial port. Built-in RS-232 ports featured direct mapping to memory and worked at a high priority. The connector was reduced from a 25-pin connector to a 9-pin connector, but RS-232 ports remained present on every computer for many years. Apart from the parallel port, it was the primary means to connect an external device. In the old days of personal computers, one of the primary connections available was the RS-232 serial port. In this article, I’ll briefly discuss the origin of these issues and provide you with some suggestions for successfully handling them. Our customers frequently encounter issues with these adapters.

Have you had difficulty using a USB to RS-232 adapter to connect your RS-232 device to a computer? If so, you are not alone.

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