i had my board working with 4800-8-N-1 settings with a regular serial cable.
i bought a “Serial-to-USB” adapter (err i guess it could be USB-to-Serial as well right? they’re the same thing?) and with the same settings it outputs garbled text in hyperterminal.
driver install was fine and i dont think thats the issue. a new port popped up as COM6 which is what im trying to connect to now with hyperterminal.
Is based on the FTDI chipset and drivers? If so, it should be OK.
Connect a loop-back plug to the adapter’s DB9 and see if a terminal program will display what you type correctly. If so, then the device is probably OK.
If not, here are some possibilities
Baud rate set wrong on either end or microprocessor side has a crystal yielding a too-high error for the chosen baud rate. Slow it down if so.
Bad cables/connectors; broken ground.
Device connected to the USB/Serial does not have true RS232 voltage levels, e.g., it may fake things with TTL voltages. This makes it marginal.
USB/Serial device is defective
USB/Serial device has a poor design and cannot work reliably.