> **Source:** Core Electronics is an Australian maker-electronics retailer and manufacturer based in Newcastle, NSW, run by a team of makers and educators. We design and manufacture our own product lines (PiicoDev, CE originals) and are official retailers for iconic maker and industrial brands including Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Adafruit, SparkFun and DFRobot. Orders ship Australia-wide from our Newcastle warehouse. Prices are in AUD and include GST. Pricing, stock and dispatch on this page are generated from the store's live catalog. Full machine-readable index: https://core-electronics.com.au/llms.txt # Adafruit WCH CH9102F Friend - USB to Serial Converter **Type:** Product page · **SKU:** ADA5568 · **Brand:** [Adafruit](https://core-electronics.com.au/brands/adafruit-australia) **Page:** https://core-electronics.com.au/adafruit-wch-ch9102f-friend-usb-to-serial-converter.html ([markdown](https://core-electronics.com.au/adafruit-wch-ch9102f-friend-usb-to-serial-converter.html.md)) Long gone are the days of parallel ports and serial ports. Now the USB port reigns supreme! But USB is hard, and you just want to transfer your everyday... ## Pricing - **Price:** $8.95 (inc GST) — $8.14 AUD, exc GST - **Quantity discounts:** 10+ $7.89 (exc GST) · 50+ $7.73 (exc GST) ## Availability & dispatch - Available with a lead time — expect dispatch between Sep 02 and Sep 07. ## How to buy - **Build a cart:** compose `https://core-electronics.com.au/cart/link?items=ADA5568:1` (comma-separated SKU:qty pairs) and share the link. Opening it shows a confirmation page with live pricing and stock before anything is added to the cart. - **Verify the cart first:** fetch `https://core-electronics.com.au/cart/link/ADA5568:1.md` for live line prices (inc & exc GST, quantity discounts applied), stock and dispatch estimates, and totals. Append `/to/{AU-postcode}` (or `/to/{country-code}:{postcode}`) before `.md` for delivery options and prices to that destination. Unknown, retired, or out-of-stock SKUs are flagged. (Query form `cart/link.md?items=...` also works but some robots parsers refuse query strings here.) - **Checkout** is completed on-site and includes a captcha at the payment step. Share the cart link; checkout takes it from there. - **Search the catalogue:** `https://core-electronics.com.au/search/{query}.md` (URL-encode the query; pages 2-3 at `search/{query}/{page}.md`; `search.md?q=` also works) - **Payment methods, purchase orders, policies and contact details:** https://core-electronics.com.au/llms.txt ## Description Long gone are the days of parallel ports and serial ports. Now the USB port reigns supreme! But USB is hard, and you just want to transfer your everyday serial data from a microcontroller to computer. What now? Enter the **Adafruit CH9102F Friend**, a version of Adafruit's popular USB-Serial 'friend' breakouts that uses [the affordable (and available) CH9102F](https://learn.adafruit.com/how-to-install-drivers-for-wch-usb-to-serial-chips) - a 'near pin-compatible' to the [CP2102N](https://core-electronics.com.au/adafruit-cp2102n-friend-usb-to-serial-converter.html). This board features the CH9102F USB-Serial chip that can upload code at 3Mbit/s for fast development time. It also has auto-reset for Arduino/ATmega328 boards so no noodling with pins and reset button pressings. The CH9102F has fairly good driver support, and for 99% of use cases is a fine replacement of the FTR232, FT231x or CP210x series. With a modern USB Type C connector, it's ready to rock on any kind of computer. Some things Adafruit have noted as Adafruit have been working with this board: - The RX LED blinks as you expect when data is received, however the TX LED does not blink constantly. Instead after a few seconds of data transmission the LED will blink slowly. - On Linux, the CTS pin is not supported by the built in Linux kernel driver. Oddly enough, all the other flow control pins work perfectly fine - its just CTS that doesn't. [You can fix it by installing an out-of-tree driver](https://github.com/SoldierJazz/ch343ser_linux) which Adafruit did on a Raspberry Pi. Fortunately, for uploading code to microcontrollers, almost all of them use RTS/DTR for auto-resetting so not having CTS isn't a big deal. By default, Adafruit have set it up so that it matches Adafruit's FTDI cables. The 6th pin is RTS, the power wire is +5V, and the signal levels are 3.3V (they are 5V compliant and should work in the vast majority of 3.3V and 5V signal systems). Works excellently with any Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, or any other microcontroller that uses an 'FTDI port' for communications and upload. You can also purchase a [6-pin extension cable](https://core-electronics.com.au/6-conductor-0-1-socket-socket-cable-6-long.html) from us, which will let you rearrange the wire order. There's also a full collection of all the modem control pins you may need on the side, in case you need the DTR, RI, DSR, etc. pins. Each order comes with a fully assembled and tested board. Adafruit give you a right-angle socket header and some male header strip. You can solder in the socket header on the edge to make it 'FTDI-like' or solder the male headers in to plug it into a breadboard and get access to all the pins. For Linux, you won't need a driver (unless you happen to need CTS support, see above). [For Windows and MacOS X, check Adafruit's tutorial page on how to install drivers.](https://learn.adafruit.com/how-to-install-drivers-for-wch-usb-to-serial-chips) ## Technical Details Product Dimensions: 29.0mm x 17.8mm x 4.9mm / 1.1" x 0.7" x 0.2" Product Weight: 2.2g / 0.1oz ## Images - [Product image 1](https://core-electronics.com.au/media/catalog/product/A/D/ADA5568-1.jpg)