My Win11 laptop (Lenovo Ideapad 1) does not support the new violet USB to UART cables which use the PL2303TA device (bought ten days ago). Has anyone got this to work?
Of course, my old FTDI cable works fine.
Stephen
Correct.
Prolific (the manufacturer of that USB to Serial chipset, does not support the TA version of the chip in Windows 11.
https://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=225&pcid=41
Well, I knew that already. I just assumed that PiMoroni would support the common operating systems. Shipping a USB cable that does not work on a major operating system released three years ago is a little disturbing. I have written embedded drivers for CDC operation from bare metal up, but not host drivers.
I was also disturbed to find no documentation for the TTL level pins. Even if a driver had installed, I would still have had to ask tech support questions. The lower down the price curve the supplier goes, the more expensive tech support becomes. My questions could all have been answered directly as information on the web site.
The gold standard for these cables seems to be the FTDI cables, which I have now gone back to.
Pimoroni don’t make the cables, or the chips in the cables. Drivers are usually the bailiwick of the actual manufacturer.
It still works with Linux running on the Raspberry Pi, or other computers.
Newer Prolific chipsets work with Windows 11.
If you’d post a link to the product page, it would be easier to tell what cable you’re talking about. I haven’t been able to find a “violet” USB serial (UART) cable on Pimoroni’s shop.
They appear to be the same as the equivalent Adafruit cable. However, Pimoroni tech support cannot confirm that the cable pin out is the same.
Having been in the embedded systems business for a very long time, I am well aware that maintaining or changing a quality culture is really, really hard.
I’m making a fuss because my desk has the following systems on it and I have to test my software on a minimum of three of them:
Windows, Linux, and Mac x64 laptops
Mac M1 Mini
RPi 4 running 32 bit OS
RPi 4 running 64 bit OS
A non-functioning USB to serial cable is a proper headache.