DealExtreme: $4.61 USB to RS232 Dongle with Extension Cable

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USB to RS232 Dongle with Extension Cable

Price: $4.61

SKU	5859
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Buy 3+ and Save ($3.68 ~ $3.88)

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- USB specification 2.0 compliant
- Supports RS232 serial interface
- Available for USB port
- Supports over 1Mbps data transfer rate
- Supports windows 98/ME/2000/XP
- Comes with one USB 2.0 cable

To enable volume discounts on this site, use coupon code: BULKRATE during checkout. You will see a discount applied at the bottom of the shopping cart. Competitive pricing is available. Contact us for details.

Quantity	3+ units	5+ units	10+ units
Rate	$3.88 shipped	$3.78 shipped	$3.68 shipped

What is Bulk Rate? BulkRate is a semi-wholesale system with items priced separately from retail. When you use bulk rates, a flat $1.70 registered air mail fee will automatically be added to your cart to ensure delivery of package. While BulkRate's intention is to offer cheaper prices when you buy in bulk, because it is priced separately it on occassions show a higher than retail price. That's why we ask you to enter BULKRATE as a coupon code to manually activate the rates. You can always opt not to use the bulk rates. If you are looking for wholesale prices please feel free to contact us.

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Showing latest 4 entries. Click here to read all 45 reviews.

Displaying reviews posted by certified DX gadget owners first, followed by all other posted reviews.
Decent For most applications.

Posted by deusSolInvictus on 8/11/2008
Involvement: General (knows how to use it) - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Price:
Ease of Use:
Build Quality:
Usefulness:
Overall Rating:

                                            Pros: - Good build quality, nothing loose or wobbly.
- functional for standard rs232 connection.
- works for use with commercial products.
 
                                            Cons: - may not work for some programming applications.  Especially where eeprom expects rs232 voltage levels to write.
  - most likely due to voltage stability/power issues of the charge pump.
- Also, charge pump is quite noisy (electrically) and you may have to filter this out ( or unplug ). 
- Lacks Rx/Tx lights.
 
                                            Other Thoughts: Good for use with commercial electronics, questionable performance for electronics development applications.
 
                                            Bottomline: Worth a shot at this price.

Mac driver problem solved

Posted by xylifyx on 7/11/2008
Involvement: Expert (understands the inner workings) - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Price:
Ease of Use:
Build Quality:
Usefulness:
Overall Rating:

                                            Pros: It is a cheap good little hardward dongle that gets the job done. On Windows it works very well
 
                                            Cons: The OSX driver is not very good. I use it to connect to my Garmin Etrex Legend GPS. I succeeded once to connect to the GPS but most often it fails.
 
                                            Other Thoughts: Had problems making the driver work on Mac OSX 10.5. First I tried the driver included on the mini CD. That was very unstable. Then I downloaded the latest PL-2303 driver from prolific, that was just as unstable. But I have just found an open source driver that works perfectly. You can find the driver here
http://osx-pl2303.sourceforge.net/
 
                                            Bottomline: The driver included sucks bigtime but using the open source driver, I give it 5/5.

well worth the price

Posted by thatonemorekid on 7/9/2008
Involvement: General (knows how to use it) - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Price:
Ease of Use:
Build Quality:
Usefulness:
Overall Rating:

                                            Pros: -works on Mac OS X.
-prolific chipset = very reliable operation
-comes with an USB extension cable although i haven't tested it.
-sturdy.
-does not have annoying LEDs.
 
                                            Cons: none so far.
 
                                            Other Thoughts: i bought it to upload software to my satellite TV receiver box and it works well. download driver from http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31 install it and reboot. recognized as block device /dev/usbserial under mac os x.
it says "glowing" on the box, but it does not have any LEDs. this is great.
 
                                            Bottomline: if you need an adapter like this, go for it.

Cheap and adequate

Posted by Thiadmer on 7/6/2008
Involvement: General (knows how to use it) - Ownership: more than 1 month

Price:
Ease of Use:
Build Quality:
Usefulness:
Overall Rating:

                                            Pros: It is cheap and it is small.
 
                                            Cons: The USB extension cable on one of the five dongles that I bought was faulty (probably a broken wire).
 
                                            Other Thoughts: I use these dongles to add a serial port to laptops (which no longer have an RS232 port by default). Please bear in mind that USB-RS232 converters are not 100% compatible with the RS232 timings. That is, if the other device requires strict timings, there may be (intermittent or persistent) communication problems. For better compatibility, see the PCMCIA card SKU 05572.
 
                                            Bottomline: A good product for the price.

Specifications

Dimensions: 2.56 in x 1.38 in x 0.59 in
Weight: 2.75 oz