USB to RS232 converters

[Sprocket]

If you had the choice, which would you buy? FTDI or Prolific?

Is the Prolific still a bit hit and miss?

I dont mind spending a little more on one, and have been looking at industrial converters from B&B Electronics, since I use B&B devices at work without issues in demanding situations.

However, looking at the generic type converters, and after seeing so many people having issues with the Prolific based converters, even with the good drivers, I'm tempted to buy an FTDI based converter instead.

Farnell sell a converter manufactured by FTDI themselves. I suppose you cannot get any better than that with the FTDI chipset :D

Or will any cheap shit converter from Ebay work just as well, meaning I would be throwing my hard earned cash away buying something at 10x the price? We are only talking £30 max here, so its not really the end of the world, but I do at least want it to work without the head ache of communication issues and computer crash.

Your thoughts please :)

[[email protected]]

FTDI/EasySync every time...

EasySync: http://www.easysync-ltd.com/
Their address - EasySYNC Limited. Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place. Centurion Business Park. Glasgow. G41 1HH

FTDI: http://www.ftdichip.com/index.html
Their address - Technology Devices International Ltd. Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place. Centurion Business Park. Glasgow. G41 1HH

More than a slight coincidence!
So if you buy any of their well priced USB to serial adaptors from here http://www.easysync-ltd.com/category/133/usb-to-rs232-cables.html
You're getting it pretty much direct.

[Sprocket]

Took delivery of The Easysync / FTDI converter. Installed the latest driver from the FTDI website, Set the baud to 19200 for now and hooked up the V3. Worked an absolute treat, not one issue. hot plug and unplug, no problem. Hot unplug V3 and hot plug Vems Round, no problem. Power on Power off more than just the once, all good ;D ECU is not in the car yet though :D

I recommend this FTDI converter :)

http://www.easysync-ltd.com/product/526/es-u-1001-r10.html

[boostd audi]

i always use the prolific drivers. and i have used almost every adapter on ebay. never once had a problem other then once.. where the addapter had a short in the wire.. i thought it was my vems wiring and turned out to be the usb adapter wire.

[Ignitec]

I had no problems only with FTDI converters.

[boostd audi]

had an issue with a new usb adapter.  its a green cheap one from ebay for about $1.50,  looses comm even on running engine.

changed cable to my adapter.. works fine..

spend the money on a quality cable.

this is the third cable i have had issue with

[NOTORIOUS VR]

Anything FTDI based works with VEMS perfectly.. and anything else you could throw at it...

I use this one, and it works on everything else I'd tried it on too PLC's, programmers, etc, etc...

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Serial-Port-Adaptor-Cable-DB9M-FTDI-35CM-/260691139512?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb2671bb8#ht_3286wt_905

[gunni]

I haven´t had any problems with Prolific for more then a year and now at 115k baud it´s working just fine .

[peter_jensen]

FTDI usb to seriel can be problematic. I’ve seen on to cars (BMW) that it disconnects all the time when driving and no driver had helped so far.
We have used Bosch web shop coils on both cars and there wiring.

I think its ignition noise so a cap could maybe solve the problems.

US232R-500 is FTDI's premium USB to RS232 evaluation cable (5 meters)

Answer from FTDI
The USB disconnect could be caused by EMC possibly from the engine.
You could try increasing the reset pipe retry count described in section 5.1of our advanced drivers application note


Look at 5.1
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN_107_AdvancedDriverOptions_AN_000073.pdf

/Peter

[mattias]

Resistor ignition plugs can definately help in some cases where you get USB disconnects, depends on a lot of things I guess - like ignition wires, coils, etc.