USB to RS232 cable adaptor review.

RS232 Wiring.
IO Gear USB to RS232 Cable adapter review.

GUC232A, USB to RS232 cable, USB to RS232 converter cable

This RS232 wiring adaptor is a USB to RS232 cable serial converter and is one of the cheaper on the market (now, not when I bought one four years ago, bah humbug) but it still works perfectly well. It’s very well made and robust as well as simplicity itself to use. Even four years of use and abuse later, it still looks in as good a condition as when I first received it, ok apart from the label wearing off a bit.

Incidentally, I've have used and still use several RS232 wiring adaptors which I will review (just for you) in due course so if you want a pick of the few please be patient. I’ve had this one the longest so I thought it should be first. Also a PC RS232 multiplexer card review to follow that, yes, I have used extensively in the course of my work.

OK, out all the USB to RS232 cable converters I have used, they all work very well and invisibly so I’ll say this in all my reviews about these USB to RS232 cable converters, they all work very well. A good thing that I liked most about this RS232 wiring adaptor is how simple they've made the software that comes with the device. There’s no over-inflated fancy front end for installation, just a simple set of drivers on one of those small size CD’s.

If you know a little bit about PC’s, the driver installation is very simple and straight forward. Even if you don’t, it’s not that difficult but they could have put a note on the box for the benefit of less tech savvy users of how to find the instructions (like me ha ha).

There’s no book of instructions with the RS232 wiring beastie but there are instructions buried on the CD. When you open it up in explorer, look in the directory with the same name as the USB to RS232 cable product. The instructions are well done and demonstrate how to install it in pictures with exactly what to click on.

With Windows XP, insert the CD, plug the adaptor into a USB wiring port and wait for the 'found new hardware' wizard to start. All the settings are standard and your PC will know where to find the drivers.

After it’s installed, there’s a good chance you may want need to know the COM number of your new port, as it is a serial port you are installing not a USB device. To find this, open the hardware manager, that's in right-click 'My computer' - properties - Hardware - 'Device Manager'.

Scroll down to the 'ports' sub menu and bingo! You'll see new port with its COM number. Any equipment software that connects via a serial device will need to know the COM port number to work.

Another way to find out what it is, is just to try ports 1,2,3,... until you get the connection come up, for your GPS, PDA or in my case PLC, manages to connect. Maybe that sounds a bit on the complex side but it is straight forward, it's really quite intuitive.

So just think, before you chuck that programmable thingy, GPS or PDA because your new laptop doesn't have a RS232 wiring serial port, use this, it's cheap, invisible in use and it works very well with most of the stuff I’ve tried it on.

Ah, you picked up on the word ‘most’ did you, now I could have said all with a clear mind but the truth is it just did not work with one or two of the old PLC software I have, but I didn’t really expect it to because the software and PLC itself is around fifteen years old! I have to use an old computer with Windows 3.1 running on it.

SO! How much will this RS232 wiring cable beastie cost ya then?

Well, last time I looked it was $29.95 but don't take my word, have a look.

Use this icon to see the GUC232A USB to RS232 cable on the IO Gear website, (oh yeah ‘GUC232A’ is it’s name/model). By all means go and check it out as all the specification and anything you want to know about it is there. But you might not want to order it there just yet! (just a thought).

I've had a good old dig around and found it is available a little bit cheaper elsewhere, yeah I was surprised too!
Which I might add, makes me even more gutted as I paid £102 (pounds not dollars) to buy and import this exact RS232 wiring adapter from the USA about three to four years ago.

Even so, as I recall, it did turn up shortly just after a few days of ordering which was very good. I was very impressed at the speed of delivery.

There wasn’t the amount of USB to RS232 cable converters around then as there is now, but I checked several of them out at the time and plumped for this one and yeehaa it hasn’t let me down on anything I’ve actually needed it for. I’m not including my old PLC test in that of course! But hey ho, you can’t have everything, can you?

There we are then, if you have been looking for the right choice for one of these USB to RS232 cable converter wiring thingy’s?

Then, this particular one, IO Gear GUC232A USB to RS232 cable converter, just to name it properly, (it’s so long winded).
Will, I can say with confidence, do you proud for your USB to RS232 cable converter wiring serial needs for a good number of years without fault.

Mine has!

Another USB to RS232 converter cable review coming soon.

A USB printer to parallel port converter review.

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USB to RS232 cable adaptor review.

RS232 Wiring. IO Gear USB to RS232 Cable adapter review.

RS232 Wiring.
IO Gear USB to RS232 Cable adapter review.