Hi,

Just in case you find it useful, I found this very small USB-RS232 device
cheap and convenient for lab use, debug etc.

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=2119

If you only need RS232 connectivity to trace messages for debug and don't
want to embed a FTTI chip in your circuit or use a bulky max232+capacitors,
this saves you to have to convert the circuit to RS232 levels to interact
with the PC, as it uses TTL signal level. It uses a prolific chip that has
drivers for most windows platforms, it worked fine in WinXP to me for some
time.

Only limitation I found is it has only a pin for in/out. By default it works
as out (from your micro point of view) so it is easy for debug and see
messages in your PC but not as easy to send commands back from your PC to
the micro. I hacked it to get the pins directly from the prolific chip so I
get a TLL RX/TX separated pins, but I wonder if there is no such device
available for lab use for a price like this with both RX/TX. Does anyone
know other option? Only options I see here and there are true USB-RS232
modules, but no-one as cheap as this one for TTL.

-- 
Ariel Rocholl
Madrid, Spain
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