I'd then install the H元40 driver that comes with the cable and it would work. I've used these cables a hundred times before, and usually once plugged in it will come up in the device manager under COM and LPT ports. Having DSR, CTS, RTS and DTR available can come in very handy, allowing for example, a VB based app to do I/O with the Picaxe.I'm trying to instal an H元40 USB to serial cable on a Xp Media Center OS. All you have to do is solder in a header into an unpopulated header position on the board. These bring out ALL of the serial signals including DTR,RTS, DSR, CTS and RI. There are some CP2102 based USB to TTL adapters on EBay branded 'BAITE'. While I use these cheapies here on the bench with good results, my preference is still an FTDI based adapter. Some of these are known to be fakes and might not work. The only way you would not need to invert the data is if you get a USB to RS232 cable/adaptor, in which case the adapter will be sending RS232 level voltages to the Picaxe just like using an AXE026 serial cable. Any of these methods should give adequate results. or two NPN transistors or even two 2n7000 FETS. Inversion can be done with either a digital inverter chip such as an 74HC14 or equivalent. None of these can be programmed to invert the data ( required for Picaxe programming) so external inversion will be necessary. All can usually be made to work unless you happen to get a 'fake' Prolific based adapter where the Bridge Chip is not a real Prolific Chip. I have used the arduino one before but at 10€ + shipping it is almost as expensive as the Download have done extensive testing of most of the 'cheap' USB to TTL adapters, including several different models of CP2102, Prolific, and CH340/341.

One of the cheapest is this one from, where else, China: What are your experiences with these USB adapters? If I google a litle bit I find all kinds of USB to Serial/UART devices ranging from 2.5 USD up to infinity The circuit only draws a few miliamps, far less then 100 mA and runs on 5V so it should be perfectly happy with USB power. One example is a project where I upgrade a old NES controller to send button events over USB to my PC where a application written in C# converts the serial data back to keystrokes. The Picaxe download cable is very nice but at 12£ it's quite expensive (compared to the low cost of a picaxe) it also, for a good reason, lacks the ability to power the picaxe.

For some projects I need constant Picaxe to PC communication over USB.

Hl 340 usb serial driver xp