You don’t need to keep old computers around to program the CNC machines in your shop! Now you can use a Windows laptop, MacBook, iPad, Microsoft Surface, or Android tablet to upload and download CNC programming on your wireless network. One USB cable does the whole job. There is no need to buy a USB to Serial Port adapter and another cable to your CNC control port. My prices are reasonable, especially when you look at what some CNC specialty stores are charging for obsolete cables. Ouch!!
With the cable, you get my installation instructions, email address, and cell phone number.
Decision Time -- Hardware Flow Control vs Software Flow Control
Software flow control three wires and xOn/xOff as the flow control in the controller settings. Hardware flow control uses two additional wires in the cable called RTS/ CTS. The controller settings must match the configuration of the cable. You can use a five-wire cable for either Hardware RTS/ CTS or Software xOn/xOff flow control as long as your CNC controller supports both. You can never make a three-wire cable support RTS/CTS. The choice is yours to decide which of my cables is best for your situation.
The standard cable is 1.8M. We have longer lengths of this cable available on our bluemax49ers website.
What is FTDI?
All USB adapter cables have one or more computer chips to convert USB ports into RS-232 ports. Most USB adapter cables sold today use a chip made by Prolific or, even worse, fake versions of the Prolific chip. There are serious driver OS compatibility issues with Prolific drivers that are a nightmare for users. You get what you pay for. My cables use only the FTDI chip, which is more expensive, but there are no driver issues and no fake chips to worry about. The operating system will typically install the FTDI drivers automatically, and I provide installation instructions if you need them.
Supported Operating Systems
Drivers are available which allow USB FTDI devices to work with the following operating systems:
Contact me if you don’t see what you need.