> **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

# USB/Serial Converter - FT232RL

**Type:** Product page · **SKU:** ADA18 · **Brand:** [Adafruit](https://core-electronics.com.au/brands/adafruit-australia)
**Page:** https://core-electronics.com.au/usb-serial-converter-ft232rl.html ([markdown](https://core-electronics.com.au/usb-serial-converter-ft232rl.html.md))

This USB cable adds a DB9 serial port to your computer or laptop. Works with MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Note that this provides (approximately) +-10V serial (RS232)...

## Pricing

- **Price:** $39.20 (inc GST) — $35.64 AUD, exc GST
- **Quantity discounts:** 10+ $34.56 (exc GST) · 50+ $33.85 (exc GST)

## Availability & dispatch

- Available with a lead time — expect dispatch between Aug 18 and Aug 24.

## How to buy

- **Build a cart:** compose `https://core-electronics.com.au/cart/link?items=ADA18:1` (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/ADA18:1.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

This USB cable adds a DB9 serial port to your computer or laptop. Works with MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Note that this provides (approximately) +-10V serial (RS232) not 5V serial (TTL), good for old devices like GPS, handhelds, programmers, etc with chunky DB9's on the side. Some cheaper RS232 cables 'cheat' and only give you 0-5V which wont work with some devices - this one has a true voltage doubler/inverter to make it more compatible.
 
These are tested and work great with bit-bang serial devises MiniPOVs, DASA programmers and Serial SpokePOV adapters - note that they are slow in comparison to hardware serial ports due to the high overhead of USB.
 
 
New! Adafruit just upgraded Adafruit's adapters to be way more awesome. They're now FTDI-chip based for better performance and reliability. The drivers are rock solid and available for pretty much every operating system you will run across. Even better, inside are three visible LEDs: a power LED (letting you know its plugged in and working) and RX/TX LEDs that you can use to help debug your connection. These are now Adafruit's favorite RS232 adapters!
 
Using Adafruit's older "gray" PL2303 converter? It comes with a CD but Adafruit strongly suggest using the most recent drivers from the Prolific Website if you're running windows and the 'fixed' driver for Mac OSX. If you're using Windows 7 and you have issues, try the Prolific driver version 1.013

This is only for the older "PL2303" based converter!

## Technical Details

- Cable Length: 1.37m / 54.25"

If you're having some issues with Win 7/8 driver installation, please try the following:

- start win 7 or win 8, click start menu, input **CMD** and run to start the command window. Type in the following command: **bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE\_INTEGRITY\_CHECKS**
- then input: **bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON**
- then re-start computer, computer will go into testing mode, install the driver from the CD. When ready, run CMD againa and run input: **bcdedit -set loadoptions ENABLE\_INTEGRITY\_CHECKS**
- then run: **bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING OFF**

![](https://core-electronics.com.au/attachments/localcontent/rohs_icon_8216055e11.jpg)

## Images

- [Product image 1](https://core-electronics.com.au/media/catalog/product/1/8/18-00.jpg)