USB to Serial adapter Wiki by Magneto Tech Research

The Mini USB to Serial adapter

The Mini USB to serial adapter is characterized as a small adapter 3 inches or less long. It is convenient for most kinds of mobile applications and devices. The interefaces is a male USB connector and either a male or a female DB9 RS232 serial connector. It can have either thumb screws or stand-off nuts for securing the adapter to the serial device. Often the adapter comes with a 8 to 10 inch USB extension cable to make it easier to connect the adapter to a USB port.

Processor Chip Types

As most other USB to serial adapters the Mini USB to serial adapter is available with several different types of processor chips and serial driver chips, and as with other adapters we highly recommend that you invest in a good quality adapter with a reliable brand name processor chip. Not only will this save you a lot of time when installing the drivers but it will also give you a much more reliable data transfer and conversion, and also make your adapter compatible with more devices.

Data Signals

A Mini USB to serial adapter usually only have a minimum of data signals available, meaning only the TX, RX and GND signals are availab for communication. Other signals such as RTS, CTS or DSR are not enabled. This however usually is not a problem since most serial consumer devices only use the TX and RX signals.

Conclusion

We can conclude that a Mini USB to serial adapter with a good quality processor chip is fully capable of converting data signals similar to a standard USB to serial adapter. The main difference is the physical construction of the mini USB to serial adapter, which makes it convenient for mobile applications and in places with restricted space.