Serial Port Problem

[UncleRonin]

Okay, I looked for a section to post this under but the only one I thought might be the correct section was the Net/Socket one but that implies networking so I'm posting this here instead.

I want to send information to and LED using the serial port. The problem is that the PC doesnt even HAVE a serial port! Instead I have to use a USB adapter to communicate with the LED. I've installed all the necessary drivers and that but no communication takes place. I've tried with a switchboard using this USB Serial Port but it didnt work. Is there any place I can get the necessary drivers for this?

I dont think the code I'm using is incorrect because its been used on other PC's before and apparently worked fine. How can I troubleshoot this? Is there not something that must be done to enable this Serial Port?

I'm really at a loss and dont know what to do

 

[UncleRonin]

Okay, just in case someone in the future runs into a situation where USB-to-Serial converters must be used...

Most USB-to-Serial converters are absolutely rubbish. Fact. In most cases, these converters only support the most common BAUD rates of 9600, etc. (some of the standard BAUD rates aren't even supported!) and all custom BAUD rates are not supported. Also be careful that the minimum and maximum BAUD rates support the range you're looking for because sometimes even the best converters will not support something as low as 5 BAUD...

So if you ever need to do conversion beyond using the most standard of standard BAUD rates because no serial port is available make 100% sure the converter you're using CAN do them. I've noticed that PCI serial cards ALSO suffer from this problem. So just be warned that if you're noticing bad data coming through or there is simply no communication whatsoever, it is very likely that the BAUD rate is not supported. There are some converters out there worthy of the name but they will be the more expensive versions and nearly all the converters you will find are not worth the plastic they're made from!!

So, just keep in mind that USB-to-Serial conversion (indeed any type of Serial conversion) is very very susceptible to problems so if you can avoid it if at all possible! Use TCP/UDP communication or something else rather...