Connecting RS232 GPS Board to Raspberry Pi

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I purchased a NEO-6M GPS board to connect to my Raspberry Pi, and when I bought it I didn’t realize that it was meant for RS-232 communication instead of UART TTL (which I believe is what the Raspberry Pi uses). I found an adapter which I think would work for connecting this. It is a USB to RS232/TTL cable which utilizes a PL2303HX chip. Looking at the datasheet for this chip though, it says it supports “RS232-like” communication, and it looks like it only lists 1.8v-3.3v as the supported I/O voltage range (however I may be reading the wrong value in the datasheet for this). The GPS board that I bought outputs -5.5v to +5.5v though for its I/O. I am confused because it seems like this adapter should work for RS232 communication but the voltages don’t seem to match. Would it work or should I find another?usbuartrs232ttlgpsShareEditFollowFlagasked 43 mins agoAwesomeMarioFan11122 bronze badges

• If the USB<>RS232/TTL cable has a DE-9 connector on the serial side, it probably has an RS232 interface chip in addition to the PL2303 to produce RS-232 levels. If it has loose wires or “Dupont” connectors, then it probably uses TTL levels, and will not be suitable for use with your GPS. – Peter Bennett 22 mins ago
• We need to see datasheets for the GPS board and RS-232 adapter. – Elliot Alderson 15 mins ago
• Ah, don’t worry, you don’t need to know anything about the old guy RS232. What you need to know is (1) Rpi onboard/UART 9k6bdn81, and (2) Windows UART to serial cable/adaptor. Neo-6/7/8M Window interface is very userfriendly. Start off with Winodws Neo Centre, and only when you know how to use NeoCentre, then try Rpi Python Serial. This might help a bit: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/519711/…. Good luck. Cheers. – tlfong01 10 mins ago   
• If you don’t want to mess with USB, use a MAX3232. It will convert RS232 to 3.3V logic level. – Mattman944 8 mins ago
• Ah I forgot to mention that my answer referred above includes a couple of references which are helpful to newbies. But if you are too lazy to read the friendly references, just to this: (1) Put your Rpi aside, (2) Just install the uBlox Neo-6/7/8M IDE in PC Win10, and there you go! Happy GPSing! Cheers. – tlfong01 1 min ago    Edit   

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