USB to Serial cable

[doggington]

Sometime back I bought a USB to serial cable (usb010) to help me program a basic stamp(sorry to swear) I have now gone back to a couple of picaxe projects. Trying to program them via this cable connected to the serial download cable gets (error on COM 3). should I be using the axe027 cable or is there an issue with drivers in the laptop? any advice much appreciated.

 

[Pauldesign]

(error on COM 3)

The above could mean many things.

I've found Rev Edu USB to serial adapter cable to work (in programming PICAXE ) only with the appropriate drivers downloaded from Rev Edu website.
Not even the drivers from prolific website can do the trick.

A forum search will pop details about this issue.

 

[inglewoodpete]

The USB010 should work fine if you have the correct drivers loaded. I expect you have that. The USB010 uses the Prolific chipset. (The AXE027 works a little "nicer" but there is very little wrong with using USB010).

Follow the directions to test the functions of the cable. Either do a "loopback" test of the cable or follow the test procedure described in the manuals.

 

[doggington]

Problem solved!
searched and found a post from Inglewoodpete back in january. which lead me to discover that my usb to serial cable works on COM4 so changed that in the editor. works fine now!
Many thanks for the help.
I just Love the internet!

 

[hippy]

USB010 should work with the correct drivers but it seems some people have not achieved reliable operation with their particular configurations or Windows version while others have.

Check you do have the correct drivers installed, and then it's a matter of of running through the 'download checklist' to see if the issue is with the cable or the PICAXE hardware. Try the Hard Reset procedure to make sure that it isn't simply a previous downloaded program preventing the downloads from being accepted.

 

[Milos]

Prolific is OK

I use an USB<->COM converter with the Prolific PL2303 chip and their driver under MS Vista without any problem. I did the same before under XP. I use my converter for programming PICAXEs, controlling my ham radio set, configuring CISCO equipment etc. No troubles at all.