I need to establish communication between a PC and a PIC microcontroller (both transmit and receive). I have opted to use the UART module of the PIC and do not want use a serial port. Because of this I may have to use CP2102 or PL-2303 or FT232 to convert the USB signals to serial and vice versa. The PL2303 is the most cheap one but I am wondering whether it is the best choice. What are the pros and cons of these three choices?

These are the modules that I am thinking of buying.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121101882627?ssPageName=STRK:MEBOFFX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1432.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FT232RL-USB-To-Serial-Adapter-Module-USB-TO-232-Download-Cable-For-Arduino-/281157340820?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4176488e94
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-To-RS232-TTL-Auto-Converter-Module-Converter-Adapter-For-Arduino-S9-E0Xc-/310807648933?pt=AU_CablesConnectors&hash=item485d945aa5

Regards

 

All three are cheap and common on ebay, all three should be plug and play from winXP onwards.

One of them (either CP or PL?) cannot do non-standard baud rates as supplied. You need to do a special programming procedure on it (that nobody ever does) to enable non-standard baudrates. Sorry I can't remember which one and don't have my data here but it should be easy enough to google for.

Definitely watch out for that, if you pick that one please be aware you have to run it at one of the baudrates in it's list, and it won't get the very high bauds either (I think the max is 115kbaud, when it is actually capable of much faster).

Having said that, if you just want to connect to a PC at a standard baudrate all three will work fine out of the box.