USB to serial converters for Mac OS X

[drum365]

I just thought I'd pass along my experiences, in case it can help others:

FWIW, I'm running a MacBook with OSX 10.5.6. I had a Keyspan USA-19 lying around from my old Palm Pilot. I tried to program my MiniPOV with this adapter and the Keyspan driver and it didn't work. I tried it with the PL2303 driver and that didn't work either. (I don't think the Keyspan has a PL2303 chipset, but I figured, what the hey?) Tried various delays, etc., still no go.

After reading an Amazon review where the reviewer said he was using a Trendnet TU-S9 for programing AVRs, I bought one for $13 at: http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-USB-to-Serial-Converter/dp/B0007T27H8. It seems to be working great with the PL2303 driver. (I also picked up a banned for my daughter's birthday to bring my total to $25 so I could qualify for free shipping.)

Keyspan's website says the USA-19 (with no letters after the "19") is designed specifically for syncing PDAs and they don't recommend it for general USB-serial uses. Keyspan makes several other variations 19h, 19hs, 19q, etc. Others say they have been successful with Keyspan adapters, so it seems that some work and some don't. But, at least in my case, the plain USA-19 doesn't work.

I hope someone finds this helpful!

[adafruit]

wow that is good to know, i didnt realize that there were different 19's
that would explain a lot of "wtf?"-ness relating to that adapter (i have one that works so it drove me crazy when others couldnt get it to work)

[rosciol]

It's good to know that there is one that works; I initially tried to program my board on OS X using a Keyspan converter, and I ran into the exact same problems you did. I eventually gave up and found an old Linux machine that had a serial port, but I'd like to buy the adapter so that I can program the board from my laptop when I need to. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[phil.drummond]

I tried an IOGear dual-port device (Model: GUC2322). Fail.
Even with drivers provided by the chip manufacturer, the IOGear device (which claims to be Mac OS-X compatible) does not work with my SIM Card Kit board.
I bought an FTDI cable (and two XBee radios) from Ladyada, and the FTDI cable works flawlessly!
Both the SIM Reader and the XBee radios work exactly as advertised.

Advise not bothering with the IOGear dual-port serial port product.
I give them points for a nicely built product, but zero-stars on account it does not work.
Note: I spent 84 minutes on the phone with IOGear's support and no help, AND they never called-back as promised. "Our top-level support technician will take a look at this and call you at the number you supplied within 48 hours."

Phil

[boerner]

A little late but I thought I'd throw my two cents in...

I found this little guy on digikey:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=768-1013-ND

You can see the manufacturer page here:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/USB-Serial.htm

So far has worked well on my MacBook Pro. I believe this is the same usb-serial chip in the Arduino, no?

[rconybea]

Following up on boerner's post, I spent an hour flailing around before getting to this point, so maybe this will help someone. I have Mac powerbook running osx 10.6.4, want to program the 3x3x3 led cube hacked on minipov kit.

I bought the digikey part 768-1013-ND, it's FTDI part # US232-R10-BLK.
It's advertised as an evaluation cable for their chip.
I downloaded drivers from http://www.ftdi.com/Drivers/VCP.htm,
this page has all their so-called virtual com port drivers.
For mac osx snow leopard, driver is 2.2.14, I ran FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6.mpkg to install.
After installing, when I plug in the cable, a new entry /dev/cu.usbserial-FTF5F9K9 appears.

(so far so good)