Fed up with closed-off-the-shelf molded serial adapters, Anders Nielsen created a versatile serial tool that can adapt to various needs. The open sourced Universal Serial Adapter supports USB-C, UART, and RS232. Nielsen invites potential collaborators to extend its functionality and, quite literally, hack the modular design.
Nielsen’s Universal Serial Adapter ingeniously combines three circuits into a compact and efficient printed circuit board (PCB). A USB-C connector connects modern computers to a CH340G USB-to-Serial integrated circuit (IC). That chip provides UART-style connections to a 2.54mm header and a MaxLinear SP3243E RS-232 transceiver. The takeaway of this design is that serial hackers can use each circuit independently, adding to the tool’s convenience and…