Quatech QSU2-540 USB2 Serial Adapter

Introduction

Quatech Industrial USB to Serial adapters provide secure connections in a ruggedized metal box to meet demanding applications and withstand harsh environments. You can now broaden the range of external serial peripherals at higher data rates with USB 2.0 Serial Adapters. USB 2.0 has more bandwidth that allows higher data rates on multiple serial ports and improves overall system efficiency.

The new Industrial High Speed USB Serial Adapter product line gives your laptop or workstation the ability to communicate between a USB port and up to four RS- 232 or RS-422/485 serial peripherals. The new High Speed USB Serial Adapter line adds the COM port(s) via its USB connection and is compatible with new and legacy RS-232 or RS-232/422/485 devices. The Industrial USB Serial Adapters are the ideal solution for a variety of applications including industrial automation/control, material handling/logistics and laboratory test and measurement in addition to other demanding applications where a robust and ruggedized solution is required. The Industrial USB Multiport Serial adapters provide DB9 (RS-232) and Terminal Block (RS-422/485) connections on each individual com port.

The adapters are USB bus powered and require no additional power input. A VDC power input is provided via terminal block if optional VCC output on pin 9 is used in RS-232 applications to provide power to external serial devices. Quatech's Industrial USB to Serial adapters are also available with 3000V DC to DC Optical Isolation to provide the highest degree of system protection and isolation between device and computer. All units are in a ruggedized metal enclosure and provide visual LED indication of power, USB ready and data transmit/receive per individual port.

USB Serial Adapters vs. USB Serial Cables

All USB to serial converters are not the same. There are a number of inexpensive cables on the market that perform USB to RS-232 serial conversion. While these may seem like an economical choice, they are often poor choices for all but the simplest of applications. Many customers who purchase Quatech USB to serial adapters do so after unsuccessful attempts to use these RS-232 converter cables. The reason these cables fail are varied but the most common is that they lack the advanced functionality built into the Quatech adapters.

For example. most adapter cables have very small data buffers and no IRQ support. Quatech USB to serial adapters use 16550 UARTs with 16-byte FIFOs for each port. This means that applications at very high data rates are easily handled in heavy multitasking environments. In addition, Quatech provides sophisticated drivers for its adapters that enable extensive system configuration options from setting data rates and controlling clocking to setting parity bits and flow control. With these options available, even the most sophisticated application software can address RS-232 serial ports enabled by Quatech adapters exactly as they would a standard COM port.