USB To Serial Question

This is the usb converter I have. 

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/USBSerial

Can anyone suggest the pin configurations to connect to the mini so I can double-check them?  Can I power the mini from this converter as well?

I've been having all sorts of connection issues, and I would like to verify that I am not having simple driver issues since i'm on Win8.

Thanks in advance

Welcome to the forum!

Arduino stuff uses 5V whereas the Netduino uses 3.3V but I it is 5V tolerant so it should work. Connect your wire list this:

Shield   Netduino mini

5V   Pin 21

GND Pin 23 (or 4)

Rx Pin 11

Tx   Pin12

Applying 5V to Pin 21 will power the board. Also have a look at this:

http://www.netduino....omini/specs.htm

Good luck!

That is how I have it configured.  My issue was software related.  Everything is working now. 

Thank You!

Update...

Adafruit makes a "USB Console Cable #954" (a.k.a. "USB-to-TTL Serial Debug Cable") (Newark part 44W3509) that goes for $9.95.  In addition to being low-cost, it also brings out the USB's +5V which you can use to power the Netduino Mini.  It makes the "pay-to-play" price for the Mini about $40 ($30 for the Mini and $10 for the cable).

I used to use a Parallax "Board of Education" (serial or USB versions), but they're pretty pricey ($70 for the board alone, and $100 if you want to get it with a BASIC Stamp 2 module).

The only issue with the #954 cable is that your firmware needs to use USART0 (instead of the DBGU).  I hook it up as follows:

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]AT91SAM7X512 Netduino Mini  Adafruit 954[/font]

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]TXD0 PA1(A)   TX0  DIP 11   white[/font]

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]RXD0 PA0(A)   RX0  DIP 12   green[/font]

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"] 5V DIP 21   red[/font]

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"] GND  DIP 23   black[/font]

[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]Regards,[/font]

[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]Tom[/font]

Hello!

Oddly enough for connecting to my Mini, I use either a Sparkfun FT232 breakout board, which is still shown as https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718 or the one that was aimed for an Arduino design https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8165 I switched to that breakout board because its easier to combine the whole business onto one breadboard, instead of three. I might switch to their FTDI basic part as soon as I find one. That branded one you showed earlier, is good, but it's aimed towards the brand. Adafruit certainly does. The FTDI parts are the (big) cat's pajamas.

FYI you can get RS232->TTL converters a lot cheaper, I bought 10 for $14 on ebay...

http://www.ebay.com....984.m1439.l2649

FYI you can get RS232->TTL converters a lot cheaper, I bought 10 for $14 on ebay...

 

http://www.ebay.com....984.m1439.l2649

Hello!

The brand of chipset thus described has a poor reputation amongst a certain community. But okay, I'll allow it.

You can use one USB-to-TTL cable for either deployment on COM2 or applications on COM1 with a Schmitt trigger inverter circuit on COM2,

http://forums.netdui...x232-interface/

If you want to get fancy, just add a switch to select one function or the other. No need for a USB to RS232 cable and no DB9 connector.

i also wouldnt buy the pl2303.

the cp2102 are very good ones, i use them myself a lot.

the cheap ebay modules are missing the pins for flow control and such, but since i dont use it, i dont care

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3a731c735c

500000 bitrate works very well on them, 1million i couldnt get to work (iam not sure if it was the adapter or my uC that made the problem)

(thats nearly 5 times faster than 115200!)

i have 5 or so of them, all are working fine.

btw: my ftdi breakout also works fine, but for the price, idk, i wouldnt buy one again.

edit: they are able to supply 5v and 3.3v at the same time.

I normally don't like replying to a topic that's older then Methuselah thanks to how the chap who started this off,then, I was able to confirm that I wasn't loosing my touch, and did get my setup to work. And yes it was an FTDI breakout board that did it.

I strongly suspect that there is logic on the board to translate the serial communications properly, such that it knows that we did wire things properly as used on both places.

Besides if there are problems its not the fault of the board, or the fault of the IDE.....