Sunday, December 16, 2007

How to find out if USB mobile phone data cable is based on PL2303

Recently, I hunted for a PL2302-based USB-Serial cable to make a generic serial cable for NAS hacking. Of course, it's not easy to figure out on what based some cable sold in a small shop next door. During my searches, I even found that phone vendors have gone so bold that include PL2302 right into the phone, and sell passive cables ;-\. In the end, I bought a cable with transparent casing thru which I could clearly see what chip is there ;-). But based on the packaging of this one and other packages I saw, I could make following generalizations for future searches:
  • If instructions on package mention Prolific (PL2302 vendor) site for future driver upgrades, that's good sign ;-)
  • If it mentions using SER9PL.INF for Windows driver install, that's also likely it.
Disclaimer: This post is just a note for myself. If you read it and then buy, for example, a cable in package which doesn't correspond to the content, don't blame me ;-D.

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