Solderless Serial to USB adapter for Raspberry Pi Zero (CDC)

by 8086

Get quick access to the serial console on your Pi Zero projects.

Using solderless pins, the adapter slides onto the back of a Pi Zero GPIO.

The adapter PCB is printed with an alignment guide - This ensures the white SQUARE on the PCB is aligned with the GPIO pin with the SQUARE gold pad on the Pi Zero GPIO pin 1.

Please note: this adaptor is not compatible with the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

It's advised to connect the adapter to the Pi Zero before connecting the USB cable to the adapter. Once connected the Pi Zero can be powered on/off without issue (to prevent the serial RX/TX pins being connected before the ground pin).

The IC is used as the adapter enumerates as a Communication Device Class (CDC) device which modern (Win10/Linux/Mac OS X) operating systems have built in drivers for.

The following baud rates are supported:

Baud rate Miss rate (%)
2,400 0.16
4,800 0.16
9,600 0.04
19,200 0.04
38,400 0.16
57,600 0.16
115,200 0.16
230,400 0.16
460,800 0.79
1,700,000 0.84
2,300,000 0.62
3,400,000 0.84

You are buying a single USB to serial adapter (Pi Zero / Cluster HAT / USB Cable not included).