JBtek Windows 8 Supported Debug Cable for Raspberry Pi USB Programming USB to TTL Serial Cable

Excellent cable, 4 single pin connectors at the end. There is absolutely no documentation included, just a cable. 1 star off for that. Should have at least had a slip of paper to send you to their website for drivers.As to connections, the Black wire seems to reliably be ground and the Red +5v, in my case the White and Green were 3.3v RX and TX respectively but they seem to vary as to which is which.I was able to determine this by easily snapping apart the blue usb plug cover with a thumbnail or screwdriver to see what color wire was connected to what pinout on the chip circuit board. Also, if you are handy with a soldering iron you could easily move the 5v red wire to the unused 3.3v power pinout should you need 3.3v power.I used this cable as is to TFTP recover a bricked WNR3500Lv2 router I had flashed with the wrong firmware. The single pin connectors were easy to use. I connected pin 6 of the router to ground, Pin 5 to RX and Pin 2 to TX. No need to connect the red power wire. The rest of the procedure took some patience, but the cable worked like a charm.Note that the cable has OSX, Linux and Windows drivers you can download from the Prolific 2303 website. The cable showed up in my mac as /dev/usbserial.

I bought this as a last resort to try and resuscitate a bricked Linksys WRT1900ACS router I had flashed with the wrong firmware. I followed the steps in a particular YouTube video (search for video #PZYXKAkuJ5w). I used a laptop with Window 10 (64bit).Success on the first attempt! This little $8 cable saved a very expensive and, before I bricked it, reliable router.A few caveats:1. The connecters weren't tight enough initially to fit on the serial pins on the router's circuit board. I had to take the black covers off and slightly crimp each one so it would grip the pins.2. For Windows users, using PuTTY and Tftpd software (freeware you can find online), when trying to set the com port for the cable, if you correct driver isn't installed, the cable won't show in device manager as connected to a com port. It will be in USB devices and have an exclamation point next to it. Just right click on it and update the driver. You computer will download it from Windows Update and as soon as it is installed, the cable will appear in the proper place in device manager.At this point, I'm thinking about placing an ad in FB Marketplace, "Have you bricked your Linksys router with a failed firmware update? I can help!"

Review for JBtek USB-Serial Controller cable that I tested with a Mac Pro, an early Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi dedicated power supply.I had a fair amount of struggle with this device, but some of that was learning the basics because this was my first venture into USB-Serial Controllers for serial console access to a single-board computer.After reading the many reviews of this product, I decided to first snap open the case and view the assembly. The soldering technique is not very good with the surface-mount components depending on wicking of solder that is unevenly spread. The four wire connections had solder balls on more than one, indicating improper heating and the board had brown spots at various locations and I hope that was just overheating during the soldering reflow process. But while it was open I noted the labels on the wires: there are five solder points: 5v, 3.3v, TX, RX and Ground. As others have mentioned, you might possibly rewire this for a 3.3v output to the red lead if you need that. (I was unable to boot my Raspberry Pi from this power lead so I did not use the red lead.) I also measured 2.7v and 2.8v DC on the TX and RX leads, somewhat below the expected 3.3v there.Because this identifies itself as a Prolific chip, I installed the standard Prolific drivers. Things did not go smoothly until I made two changes: I had to update the Raspberry Pi to enable the serial console (/boot/config.txt or raspian-config) and reverse the green and white leads. But after hours of trial and failure, I was able to find the combination that worked and retest with the proper configuration and it consistently works.1. BLACK to GPIO PIN (6)2. WHITE TO GPIO PIN (8)3. GREEN to GPIO Pin (10)4. RED NOT USED (Dedicated power supply)5. /boot/config.txt enable_uart=1There is a decent discussion of this in the book "Raspberry Pi - Interfacing to the Real World with Embedded Linux" which I recently purchased used here on Amazon and the first chapter led me to buy this cable.Summary:Amateur but just adequate build qualityConfusion about labeling TX and RX (my TX is your RX, and so on)Works with real Prolific drivers on Mac OSI wish it took fewer hours to figure out.

I used it to "un-brick" a router. It worked!

Pro:- Cheap. Less than $10- Wide OS support. PL2303 is supported by most common OSes- Can be configured for either v5 or v3.3 power output. PL2303 has an on-board DC-DC converter- Converter functions reliablyCons:- Average fit and finish. Converter body easily comes apart and PCB assembly is adequate.- Mechanically unsound. Shield around USB port is unsoldered so repeated usage can result in failure of part.Warning:!!! Open up the converter body and solder the body of the USB port to the pads around the PCB immediately upon receipt. !!!The plug flexes around the USB signal pins and can either result in a bad connection or stress failure over time.Notes:As others have stated the serial converter is 5.5v on the power pin and 3.3v on the logic.The blue case around the USB can be removed easily; it is a push fit case held together by plastic pins so don't be too rough with it. The PCB inside has an unpopulated through hole for v3.3. However, you will need to cut the red 5.5v wire and solder for 3.3v output.The Prolific PL2303 USB to Serial converter chip has additional pins (RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, and RI) exposed if modem function is needed.