Hi Bill,
AllyCat. Do you agree with my conclusion that if both the cable that works and the ones that don’t all show up in Device Manager as USB-SERIAL CH340, then it’s not a driver problem that causing the new cables not to work?
Not necessarily (but I'm no expert on drivers). It was the "updated" drivers from FTDI that caused what it considered to be "fake" devices to no longer work.
Like you (and stan) it's some years since I bought any of the "blue" adapters, but I did fnd that they stll work on Win10-64 bit, even though a lot of the sellers say that they don't (probably to be safe rather than sorry). What I'm reasonably confident about is that any adapter sold with a sub-D 9 pin connector will be the correct signal
polarity for PICaxe, however may well use only TTL
levels, and there is no guarantee that it will support break signalling.
Until now, I/we were reasonably confident that any adapter using the CH340 chip would support break signalling. What may have happened is that there is now a "new" CH340 chip on the market which no longer supports break signalling. Maybe another manufacturer is making "fake" chips, or CH340 has become a "generic" chip, but somebody has made a mistake (in the break signalling functionality). Generic semiconductor chips are very common (probably started with 74 series TTL and 741 opamps, etc) and some product manufacturers will use only generics (to ensure second source availability).
Some of the adapters I bought that worked well, didn't even meet all of stan's criteria (e.g, they had blue thumbscrews and COB) but the latest "blue" adapters that you linked do appear to be a slightly darker blue. The "Gold" adapters described by marks now apppear to be the best option, but maybe not quite as rugged as ones with a 9-pin sub D. I did order one a few months ago, but didn't get around to fully testing it; I think maybe I had a problem finding a driver for XP, but must look again.
Cheers, Alan.