DSD TECH SH-B23A Bluetooth 2.0 to RS232 Serial Adapter with DB9 Converter

I'd been using the IOGear GBC232A for my projects and spending $70/ea on them. Wish I'd found out about this unit sooner - it does the same thing for a fraction of the price. I've only been using it for < 24 hours, but so far it seems to perform just as well as the IOGear. It also defaults to the sensical 9600, 8N1 so it pretty much works for me right out of the box without any configuration whereas the IOGear's default is 19200.The one issue is that when I use it with devices where a straight-through cable typically works, I have to pair a null modem gender changer with this box instead of the regular one they include - not sure why they don't just include a null modem instead?UPDATE 2/13/2021 - at this point I have purchased and deployed around 20 of these units in the past few months to various customer sites. So far, one simply died after a few weeks of use and another has struggled / refused to connect out of the box. A ~10% defect rate is quite high.Update March 2023 - at this point I have over 80 of these at customer sites and they perform well and are reliable. Other than the occasional one that doesn't work out of the box, none have died since my previous review so I'm updating this to 5 stars.

I found a guide to program this little guy to work with my microsquirt. I guess the main instructions are missing a key item.Oh, -1 star because half the pins in the gender adapter were bent.As posted by PFloor on msextra:Download their app.Use the HC-05 tab in the software.OPEN up the case (remove 4 screws).Make sure jumpers are on "PC"Connect to pc via serial port.Select UART (comm port), 9600 Baud and "Open".IMPORTANT!!! Press the tiny button on the board to put it in "programming" mode (this critical step is missing from all instructions).Press "Test". If you get an "OK" reply, you are good to go. If no "OK", you will not be able to program it. You may need to press the button first, then open the port.Set the name and PIN if desired.Change the Baud Rate to 115200 (this is required).Leave role as "Slave".IMPORTANT!!! Put jumpers on "Device"Test on MSRe-assemble case

Bought this to allow reading of RS232 scale to be placed inside a vac chamber, to allow wireless weights while chamber was sealed. Barely worked outside (have to move jumpers from PC-COM to DEVICE or scale would not respond at all), with power provided by computer USB port. Once placed inside chamber, power coming from a 5V supply (battery phone recharger) or from lithium battery stack, would turn off after 60s. Gave up. Odd that it worked with a computer 5V USB out, but not with 6.4V battery or phone recharger.Don't trust this to work - many other reviews about random product substitution. Other reviews have some workarounds that are handy, but look for a different widget than this.

I'm an IT hobbyist, not an IT professional. I have above average knowledge for sure. I'm using these for perhaps a unique use case, having one computer transmit data to another computer (multiple, actually). I'm a court reporter, and I can send my realtime transcription to other computers so it can be viewed by attorneys or whomever. There are a few ways to do this (many cloud based options charge high fees), but the classic/free way is via wired serial connection. Ancient tech, but (with a USB to serial cable) it works.I wondered, could I possibly find some wireless solution? And I found this. Like many others, hours of trial and error later, and it works! I could not get it to communicate with the built-in Bluetooth on my laptops, but when pairing it with the Startech USBBT1EDR2 (which I literally had lying around), it works like a charm. I wish I didn't need the extra Bluetooth dongle -- maybe a geekier man than me wouldn't -- but I'm happy.

For me this worked perfectly right out of the box but I really wanted to customize the name. There is no software because the link that the vendor gives you goes to a dead website. I messaged the vendor on Amazon and they kept telling me to download it from their site and I kept telling them that their site was offline and they kept telling me to download it from their site. They were either intentionally playing dumb or they were not understanding me. For anyone that needs the software to modify the default settings then I would say this product is useless for you. For me it worked great out of the box as a bluetooth bridge between an old serial astronomy computer to be able to access modern astronomy software.