any known working USB/serial converters?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Tue, 7 Jul 2009, Alan Cox wrote:

> On Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:10:01 -0400 (EDT)
> "Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
> >
> >   a while back, i was whining about the lack of functionality of a
> > particular USB/serial converter:
> >
> > http://osdir.com/ml/fedora-test-list/2009-05/msg00398.html
> >
> >   does anyone have such a converter that just plain works out of the
> > box?  i'm more than happy to buy and try another brand if it's the
> > prolific product that's causing the trouble.
>
> pl2303 is pretty standard stuff. Check the baud rates and the like
> would be my first guess. If they seem to match and csize and the
> rest match at both ends then see if different baud rates each end
> helps (eg if the board you have uses some strange non standard
> clock)

  i've spent quite a bit of time messing with this.  in a nutshell,
i'm trying to talk to the serial console of a beagleboard via a USB
port on my laptop.  if i run out of my laptop to a targus port
replicator, from there to a null-modem cable, and then to one of those
IDC serial cables (so i can connect to the 2x5 10-pin connector on the
BB), that works *every* *time*.  flawlessly.

  for simplicity, if i try to replace the bulky port replicator with a
simple USB-serial converter, then null-modem and IDC cable, that fails
-- what i get (after verifying all the same minicom settings) is junk
being dumped to the screen, exactly as if the baud rate was wrong but
this is being done without touching any of the minicom settings.

  in my situation, this is absolutely reproducible -- the targus port
replicator always works, the USB-serial converter never.  i'm baffled.
now, this is the only USB-serial converter i've ever tried so i'm
tempted to pop down to the local geek store and just pick up a
different brand to see if it's still reproducible.

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
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