Support
Description
The USB to serial adapter protocol RS-232 has been widely used since the late 60’s and a standard in computer equipment use since the 1990’s, it is very reliable. The USB to serial adapter is generally used in industrial, office, or business environments. It is also commonly used as a consumer product for connecting USB serial products to personal computers. The RS232 USB to serial adapter is most often only used in industrial environments, labs and similar facilities since the protocol is very useful in these environments.
The High-end quality processor chip FT232RL from FTDI Semiconductors which is one of the best and most reliable USB serial processors on the market is used in converting to the serial signal; the converter also includes a ZT232E RS232 transceiver from ZyWyn USA. (Pictured Below)
Package Contents:
- USB to Serial Adapter with Activity LED
- Latest FTDI driver (available as download)
- GM-FTDI-A36 Product Manual (available as download)
Features & Specifications:
- Indication LED’s for Power, TX and RX
- No power supply needed, plug and play
- No IRQs, DMA or required. No IRQ Conflicts
- Supports Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11, Linux, OSX
- 3 feet (1 meter) cable
- Baud rate: 300bps to 1Mbps
- RS232 output power: -5.7 to +5.7VDC
- USB 1.1 and 2.0 compliant
- Automatic send data control
- Auto detection of data speed
- Zero delay automatic transmission
- Built-in static and surge protection up to 600W
- 5 year warranty
OS Support:
- Windows 7, 8, 10, & Windows 11
- Linux
- Mac OS 10.X
+1 (727) 209-1300
+1 (888) 688-2188
RPnak (verified owner) –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works well
Has its own driver too. No problems
Peg D. –
Works great
My used amateur radio equipment digital interface came with an old serial to USB cable that had a fake PL2303 chip, so I had to replace it since those don’t work with the current drivers. This cable works great. Solved a bunch of problems I was having.
Amazon user –
Works fine, but poor mechanical connection
This cable works fine with my Mac, but I had a problem with the mechanical connection. There are no screws on the connector. This assumes mounting screws are on the mating connector. This didn’t work for my radio connection so exchanged this cable for one that included the mounting screws.
Rich –
Good cable no issues at all
Would recommend this product and seller.
Chester Brzostowski –
Worko
No problem with Windows 10
Jon A. Hupp –
Works great with latest 64-bit Windows 10
Have multiple PL2303 Prolific based adapters which no longer work with Windows 10. This adapter, with the supplied driver, works perfectly! The blinking tx and rx lights are fun as well! Some of the reviews have discounted the drivers supplied (on tiny DVD), but I found them useful. Great product for those of us will legacy software that still wants RS232!
Alingarde –
Works as intended
Works as intended. I haven’t had any hiccups with using this with both windows and linux.
amxcoder –
This works perfectly with Windows 10
I needed an RS232 port for work that I do. I wanted it for an old laptop I had. As soon as I got my software, (a C++ compiler) set up for this new port it worked instantly and I was away and programming. That is the kind of product I want. No fooling around with special setting or anything, it just works. 5 stars and worth every one.
Mark Landry –
Works well with Windows 10
Have a corp laptop that has restricted loads for Windows updates etc.. This is the third adapter I have tried and it worked first try. Downloaded the drivers and it lit up.
zamecnik247 –
Needed for work
We use these for programming machines. These cables work everytime .we need them
Fuel683 –
I’ve tried several serial to USB adapters. I have to have a serial port for my job. I’ve even gone so far as to buy a docking station for my laptop, but found there was no serial port on the docking station. I plugged this in, and loaded the driver from the included disc, and BAM! I’m up and working!
T.m.levad –
Worked perfectly, well designed for industrial use and weird devices that need a true Serial to USB converter. This device is currently being used to connect an old (1990 something) Fluke Scope Meter to a newer model Lenovo laptop running windows 7. We had 2 previous ones, one from IO Gear, and one from Belkin, and neither worked like you would think they should. What I’m finding, is unless you invest in something with the FTDI and ZyWin chipsets (zyWin seems to the be most compatible with windows 7), your serial to usb adapter is pretty much a gamble if it will work with your device or not. Used this $35 adapter instead of buying the $200 cable OC4 to USB cable that Fluke wants you to buy, and it worked like a charm. The driver install is a little hairy, but no serious problems (actually requires 2 drivers due to the nature of how it works), after a windows reboot the device worked exactly as needed.
JRoman –
This Gearmo USB to RS232 adapter worked “out of the box” with Windows 10 and my aging Magellan GPS-320 handheld. Truly plug-and-play. My older adapters of a similar kind did not work with either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. Thankfully, the mini-CD was not needed since I don’t have any device that could read it. Yes, it has “Power”, “Transmit”, and “Receive” LEDs on the circuit board, but they are seen through the translucent plastic case and are not labeled.
Cows –
This adapter worked great with an industrial printing device; we had tried two different Prolific-based adapters that functioned with other simpler devices, but not with this particular printing equipment. I simply connected the adapter and installed the included drivers and then pointed the printer’s software to the correct COM port. The activity lights are probably my favorite feature. In my case, whenever the printer software is active, the activity lights on the adapter regularly blink showing TX/RX communications. Since I’m responsible for supporting these devices, being able to see if the equipment is communicating is an easy first step in the troubleshooting process.
P. Giulietti –
After years of fighting with inferior products it is refreshing to find one that works so well. Let’s face it these things do not need bells and whistles. If you’re using one of these cables it’s because you need to configure a device that is new out of the box or is no longer responding to telnet or SSH. This cable worked from the very first time I used it and has not dropped any connections. It works exactly like you want it to. Yes it costs four times what the cheap ones do but it’s an investment in calm, confident sanity.
Rolando –
Worked better than expected. Didn’t have to mess with anything, it just plugged in and the old serial port designed software worked like it did in my old machine that had a serial port. Using Linux, so don’t know how windows systems might work.
Alex Alexzander –
So I got a Cisco ASA 5505 and a layer 3 switch. Of course your need to do at least some of the configuration over the serial port… What’s that? No serial port? You’re not alone. I don’t have one either. And I am running Linux at that so I needed to be careful and get a widely supported USB to RS-232 adapter that would bridge the gap and allow me to configure my Cisco hardware. Knock it out of the park on the first try. This is the cable! Look no further. If it works in rhel, it will work on anything.
Jeff Hall –
I bought this Serial to USB adapter after trying a couple of others, such as Cables to Go brands. Despite stating their cables work, I could not get them to no matter what I tried, even with the most current drivers, under Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit and Mac OS Lion. However, I am happy to report and can confirm this item does work just fine under both Windows 7 64bit and Mac OS Lion. I have successfully installed and tested it in both. For Windows 7, there is no need to install any drivers, as it will be detected automatically and the drivers downloaded for it. For Mac Lion, you will need to install the included drivers or go to the web site for FTDI and download them. Under Lion, it is listed under the USB devices list and in Windows you will see the new drivers under Serial and USB.
Bottom line is this works as stated just fine in the most current versions of Mac Lion and Windows 7 64bit so I am quite pleased and would highly recommend to others.
Michael L Thompson –
I didn’t have a compatible cable, so I bought one and the issue was solved. I ran into an issue where I needed this cable so I bought cable and it allowed me to access my Cisco ASAA 5505 box and life was all good. This adapter works with well Windows 7 and 8 as well.
Floyd C. Fox –
I needed these USB to Serial adapters to connect to my Rigblaster M8 Digital Interface and my Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V HF Amateur (Ham) Radio Transceiver to use for doing digital modes such as PSK31, MFSK16, Feld-Hell also known as Hellschreiber, and other numerous digital modes. I used the Prolific cables and drivers with Windows XP and Vista with no problems, but they would not work with Windows 7(64 bit). My PC would either freeze up after a few seconds when running MixW or Ham Radio Deluxe or Digital Master 780 which is built into Ham Radio Deluxe and sometimes would give me the blue screen of death crashing the PC. As soon as I plugged these in (I had to buy 2, one for the Rigblaster and one for the HF radio) Windows 7(64 bit) automatically found and installed the FTDI drivers without having to use the driver disk included with the cable and all is working great now! I’m very happy with them and am back on all the digital modes. About the only thing I didn’t like about them is the cable could stand to be about 1 foot longer. I use them on a Dell 17R (N7010) laptop and can sit it pretty close to the radio, but if I were using them on a desktop PC I don’t think they would have reached without a little bit longer cable than the one provided here unless I had the CPU sitting on the same table as the radio. They would probably not be long enough if you have to sit your CPU in the floor beneath the table the radio sits on. Amazon has longer ones available although they also cost more.
Don Johnson –
The USB to Serial Adapter worked right out of the box. All others I had would not work with Windows 7, but this one with the FTDI chip works great.
Robert Wizard –
Those of us who do embedded development are probably all familiar with the FTDI chips. They are supported on Mac, Linux, and even Windows. When I needed to order a USB/RS-232 cable it dawned on me to look for one which used the FTDI chip family, since I would already have the drivers in place on all of my machines. A quick search here on Amazon for “FTDI” led me to this product. I have only just received it, but since no one has previously reviewed it, I thought I would go ahead and share my first impressions.
As I hoped, it was compatible with the FTDI drivers I already had installed, so no additional drivers were needed. It is a good thing that they weren’t because the drivers which shipped with it were on one of those annoying (and in my machine unusable) mini-cds, a fact which caused them to get four stars instead of five.
Overall, the unit is nicely constructed. It has an LED activity indicator, which is a very nice touch. The electronics are housed in the translucent blue shell for the DB-9, and it is ever so slightly on the bulky side. This shouldn’t be a problem normally, but if you had a tight squeeze on your serial connection, it could be an issue.
I’m very happy with my purchase, and plan to order a couple more to have on hand. If you need drivers and can’t use the mini-cd, they are readily available at the FTDI web site – Mac, Linux, or Windows.
If you need a usb/serial cable, especially for Mac or Linux, I believe this one would be a good choice.