[Elecraft] USB to Serial Ports adapter: a product test

[Doug Person]

Personally, I have had some aggravation with USB to serial port 
converters so I thought I would pass along my experience with a good 
product.

I always need more than even a couple of serial ports so I don't have to 
go through routines of unplugging and plugging cables.  So I picked up a 
GearMo Quad Port (FTDI) USB to Serial adapter (amazon.com US$48.29).  
This a USB cable that's 24" long to a junction and from there - there 
are 4 36" cables that are long enough to reach their targets.  I plugged 
it to each machine and Windows Update found the drivers, the Macs found 
the drivers and linux had the drivers as well. All was working perfectly 
in every machine in a matter of minutes.

This is great.  I can swap to any OS on any computer and I don't need 4 
seperate serial cables going to various built-in and USB serial ports.  
Works on everything.  I USB port tied up and everything is connected.  
The FTDI Chipset is clearly the best. Tested on Windows 7 64 bit and 32 
bit, Windows 8.1 64 bit, Linux (Ubuntu 1310) 32/64 and Mac OSX  for two 
most latest versions (Mavericks and whatever the last cat was).

The /real/ Prolific chipsets actually do work OK.  The real problem has 
been that most cheap adapters that claim to be Prolific are actually 
knockoffs of an old design that won't work with Prolific's official 
drivers on 64 bit machines. Early Elecraft cables were Prolific. Newer 
ones are all FTDI.

73, Doug -- K0DXV