USB to Serial Adapters

Serial to USB converters

We stock everything from simple serial to USB cables to sophisticated FPGA modules for serial port to USB conversion. There are lots of products out there with serial port interfaces but PCs rarely support RS232 nowadays. It is often easier (and cheaper) to create new applications with a serial port and use an external adapter for PC connection. We also have products to support other serial port profiles such as RS422 and RS485.

We have simple cables that appear as Virtual COM Ports as well as more advanced serial to USB converters that include DLL packages to give you more control in your own software. This is useful for more advanced applications or to fit with an existing software profile. They can support data transfer at up to 500 Kbaud, with software (XON/XOFF) or hardware flow control and programmable VID/PID for your own application.

The QuickUSB modules are much more advanced units that implement Hi-speed USB (480 Mbps) for rapid data transfer. They come with complete driver packages and libraries to integrate them into your own job. Our customers for these units include CERN, the European Large Hadron Collider, other Nuclear research labs and lots of astronomical observatories who deal with vast amounts of dat. Universities and research students commonly apply QuickUSB to experimental control. They are also used in the commercial sector in products for testing tanks and pipelines, 3D laser profiling and many other applications. QuickUSB can also be integrated with an FPGA for complete control of experimental data or similar projects and starter kits are available with an Altera Cyclone II FPGA and integrated QuickUSB unit. The FPGA can be setup in the free Quartus II Web software and programmed via the USB module. The starter kit also has JTAG for debugging your setup.