The pinout of the Serial Basic mimics the common DTR/RXI/TXO/VCC/CTS/GND pinout found on hundreds of FTDI-to-USB derivatives.

The Serial Basic uses the CH340C IC to quickly and easily convert serial signals to USB. With USB-C you can get up to three times the power delivery over the previous USB generation at 1.5A and and also solves the universally frustrating dilemma of plugging a USB cable in correctly, because it’s reversible! The Serial Basic works with 5V and 3.3V systems and possesses the capability to auto install on most operating systems without the need for additional drivers. Recently I got a ESS32-CAM card and it contains the same Ch340 chip and it has worked fine even with the USB cable so I suspect that the ch340 designer released an updated design of the chip that meets the USB timing specs or maybe some aspects of the board design are adjusted to help make the timings.īottom line, unless you enjoy chasing down problems you will be better off buying the more expensive ftdi or other non-Chinese designed chips.This SparkFun Serial Basic Breakout is an easy-to-use USB-to-Serial adapter based on the CH340C and takes advantage of the handy USB-C connector. When I say I get it to work, all I have been able to do is install the wrap connector and get the adapter to talk to itself as verified with putty. This would also explain why sometimes it will work after installing into a different USB connector on the PC since those timings can vary as well. Consequently if a chip designer is not careful about meeting USB timing specs then there will be situations when that chip will not work. From my work experience I know that the USB timings are very critical in order to maximize performance. However, if I use an extension USB cable most of the time it fails to work. I say this because I have noticed that if I plug my Ch340 board directly into my USB port it works. Next, it is apparent that the Ch340 design does not meet USB standards in the area of critical timings. After doing that I was able to solve the install failed problem. First thing to do is run/click the uninstall button.

Since my last posting I have discovered some things that may help eliminate this problem.

Usb to serial ch340 driver windows 7