Serial communication using USB

Question

I am trying to connect ATmega128 uart to PC using USB-to-RS232 converter so that PC can receive and transmit data from microcontroller using hyper terminal. I set the correct stop bits and baud rate in hyper terminal. It doesn't seem to work.

Can any one tell me if this is possible by USB-to-RS232 converter and if not what other options are there for serial communication between PC and microcontroller ?

Answer 1

You should be able to do this without any issues. I'd suggest putting your USB-to-RS232 cable in loopback mode first (if possible) to ensure you can communicate, then connect it back up to your MCU.

If you aren't seeing what you expect the first thing to look at are the settings, specifically the baud rate. Since your USB-to-RS232 cable is from a third party vendor I'd assume that your settings on the host side are OK. So you should look in to your MCU code to ensure that all your clocks are running at the proper speed and you have indeed performed the correct calculations to achieve your desired baud rate. Debugging here to ensure you are transmitting data out of the device is important.

Additionally, there are tools that can help you debug. Portmon is a tool from Microsoft that lets you look at the serial data path on the host side. I'd also recommend a USB analyzer, such as an Ellisys, that will allow you to view data going across the line from your MCU to the host.