We had a customer post a question regarding establishing communications w/ the Serializer over USB on another forum (Trossen Robotics).  We replied, and decided to put the contents of the response in this post for other customers...

We are actually putting together some How-To videos for establishing communications w/ the Serializer. We've finished the Bluetooth video, but we still have to complete the RS-232, USB, and XBee videos. I'm waiting to put all of them on the site at once. It takes a lot of time to record, edit, and polish video, hence we are running a bit behind.

I apologize for the delay in getting them finished...We've been spending a lot of time getting our demo working for our Robotics Studio show at Maker Faire.

As for establishing communication via USB, it should be pretty straight forward.

Before plugging the USB cable from your Serializer in to your PC/Laptop, I would go into Hyperterm, and see the list of currently available COM ports. Then, plug the USB cable in which should be attached to the Serializer USB module. Under windows XP, you should hear the little 'ding' sound that typically occurs when a USB device is recognized and enumerated (make sure your sound is turned on). Once XP recognizes the USB module, it will basically set it up as a new COM port.

Now, go into Hyperterm again, and look at the list of COM ports. The new COM port is the one that was assigned to the USB module. You should be able to power up the Serializer, and establish communications via 19200 baud at this point using the new COM port.

A few notes...The USB chip on the USB module on the serializer is powered from the cable (e.g. the PC/Laptop), so if you want to totally disconnect the module from your PC or Laptop, you need to disconnect the cable. Cycling power on the Serializer won't cause a USB disconnect.

We have tested the USB modules under XP only, and haven't tested using Linux.  If anyone has any experience in doing, so, please reply to the post with your findings.

By the way, here's the 'Establishing Communication via Bluetooth' video link (I still need to work on the audio track volumes & re-render - I know the audio sucks right now - I'm new at video editing ).