[geeks] Suggestions for USB to serial adapter?

[Joshua Boyd]

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 11:41:24PM -0600, Cody Swanson wrote:
> Make sure it can send a break signal! A lot of the cheaper ones can't. I  
> bought a belkin one and it works great except it can't send a break so  
> it's pretty much useless as a console adapter.
>
> I hear the keyspan ones are pretty good, with support for break in  
> hardware etc.
>
> http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=3914
>
> Not the cheapest but certainly one of the best.

I too hear that keyspan is good.  But, which chipset can't send breaks?
The FTDI and Prolific units I've used send breaks. All the prolific
units I've bought have been under $15, and now they are often under $10
on ebay.

That said, 6 years ago there was a bug in the linux driver for
prolific.  At the time the author had no intention of fixing the bug,
butn then that was 6 years ago, so hopefully he has come to his senses
or been replaced.  The substance of the bug is that everytime the device
(/dev/ttyUSBx) is closed, the driver resets the speed to 9600.  This is
not an issue for programs that set the speed themselves (like most
terminal programs), but it is an issue if you want to script something
on a device that defaults to a higher speed.  This hasn't kept me from
buying prolific chips so far, but one of these days I should probably
consider getting a FTDI unit just in case I ever need that ability at
home.