Good price for a real FTDI FT232 chip! The TX and RX LED indicators are a nice feature showing activity on the FT232RL [RB-Spa-541]. I use this FT232RL breakout on my Windows 8.1 laptop. Windows 8.1 drivers installed automatically with no effort (no, it did NOT "brick" the device). After drivers were installed, I saw the device in Device Manager as "USB Serial Port (COMxx)" and Driver Provider was "FTDI." For my projects, this FTDI breakout serves multiple purposes: 1. *program the PICAXE microcontrollers such as the PICAXE 20M2 [RB-Pic-31] 2. directly connect a 315MHz receiver [RB-See-11] to my laptop! 3. *communicate with the PICAXE microcontroller and/or debug the microcontroller *Note: if you are using this with the PICAXE microcontroller, take special care to use the correct 10k + 22k resistor circuit between the FT232RL and the PICAXE! (for correct circuit layout see AXE029 User Guide pdf [RB-Pic-10] and/or the "download circuit" diagram in PICAXE Manual #1). I was able to use the FTDI FT_Prog utility to invert the TXD, RXD, RTS#, CTS# signals for use with the PICAXE microcontrollers. The utility is available on the FTDI utility/download page: "FT_PROG is a free EEPROM programming utility for use with FTDI devices." Please note that special care must be taken when using this utility as it modifies the EEPROM of the FT232RL chip itself. Also, recommend stopping all I/O to the FT232RL before attempting to change settings (in other words: close the COM port in any apps that might be running, such as PuTTY, PICAXE Editor: Serial Terminal window, etc). At the time of this review I used FTDI FT_Prog v3.0.56.245, so the following process may change with newer versions... To invert the FT232RL signals: 0. with FTDI Breakout board connected via USB cable to the machine & drivers installed... 1. download & run the FTDI FT_Prog utility 2. Select Devices | Scan and Parse (should show similar to: "Device: x Loc ID xyz; Chip Type: FT232R" 3. Select File | Save As Template to create a kind of config backup 4. Browse under Device Tree | Device | FT EEPROM | Hardware Specific | Invert RS232 Signals 5. Check the boxes to invert: TXD, RXD, RTS#, CTS# 6. Select Devices | Program | Program 7. The device was ready to go! I was able to use with with any PICAXE download circuit! To connect the 315MHz receiver [RB-See-11] to the FTDI Breakout [RB-Spa-541], I simply attached the +5v, GND, and TX0 pin to the correct pins of the receiver and ran PuTTY on the specified COM port using [1200 baud rate, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity & no flow control]. I immediately saw data from the 315MHz receiver/FT232RL pair (...a LOT of RF NOISE!). Once I had the transmitter connected to the PICAXE 20M2, and code executing a series of SEROUT commands at N1200 baud rate, I saw my transmission clearly out of the noise!!!
