When the laptop manufacturers suddenly decided to do away with Serial ports, I was stuck with two such convertors ( Serial <> UB). Both had drivers by a company with name starting in "P" ( Maybe they have improved now and so why spoil thier reputation...!)

There have been so many occassions that I have faced the blue screen of death in Windows with these covertors. Never could figure out why.

Once went on stage to demo my new Proportional Valve curve tracer that had an MCU doing the profiling and sending the data to VB code on the laptop through the convertor. Presentation went smoothly and finally when I switched on the unit for demo, the PC screen went blue; my face a dirty pale shade; and the audience faces a bright red.

Incidentally is there any brand name that I can get with the FTDI chip inside?

Thanks

raghu