This serial to USB to TTL console cable enables you to quickly and easily connect your PC directly to the serial port of your Raspberry Pi.

Length approx 90cm/3ft (if required, you can add a USB extension cable up to a total of 5m long).

One end of the cable has header sockets which connect to three pins on the Expansion/GPIO connector on the Raspberry Pi. The cable uses the 3.3V logic levels required by the Pi.

The other end has a USB plug which connects to the PC's USB port. The cable contains a USB to serial converter, which appears as a COM port on the PC.

Linux on the Pi can be configured so you can log in on the serial port, which, for example, enables you to:

• run your Pi without needing a display
• de-bug X windows applications on a separate console
• easily make changes to an embedded Pi system
• run commands even if SSH is not enabled
• investigate network problems easily

All you need on the PC is a terminal program, e.g. cu, minicom, gtkterm (Linux) or putty, hyperterm, TeraTerm (Windows).

Alternatively, you can control the serial port directly from software running on the Pi and send data to and from your PC. Please see the Raspberry Pi wiki at eLinux for more information about the serial port:

http://elinux.org/RPi_Serial_Connection

As an added bonus, the cable also has a 5V output, which can use to power your Raspberry Pi from your PC using this cable, subject to the USB port supplying sufficient current for your set-up. Please read carefully if considering this:

http://elinux.org/RPi_Hardware#Power

This cable uses the highly regarded FTDI FT232RL chip which is guaranteed to work with all these operating systems:

• Windows 10
  
• Windows 8 and 8.1
  
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows XP
• Windows ME
• Windows 98
• Linux
• Mac OS X
• Mac OS 9
• Mac OS 8
• Windows CE.NET (Version 4.2 and greater)
• Android

32 and 64 bit operating systems are both supported. Latest drivers available from FTDI here. Driver installation guides are here.