Ive been using the gigaware cable from radioshack for 2 years and it finally died on me. got a new one but there has to be something with a better lifespan out there. I would just continue to use straight DB9 if todays laptops made that possible. currently running three cars on megasquirt off of one laptop so if there is a really good cable out there let me know as im about to buy 2. Amazon has plenty of options but the one I got from office depot didn't work at all. 
This one is guaranteed to work: https://www.diyautotune.com/product/usb-to-serial-adapter-works-with-tunerstudio/
never had luck with the adapters. . . but I never got one thru DIY either. might give it a try
I would go DIY. They know there stuff. If they say it works you know that they have tested it.
Really? No one?
I'd skip the USB and go Bluetooth:
http://www.tunerstudio.com/index.php/cablesandbluetooth
This way you could even use a tablet/smartphone to monitor MegaSquirt while on the move.
I think the best and most compatible ones are based on the FTDI FT232R chip. The complete cable they sell with that is the US232R-10 or -100. For what its worth, the MS3 USB input goes thru an FTDI chip. I have a US232R-10 that I use with either a laptop or my Nexus 10 tablet if I need to go thru the Megasquirt's RS232 port and it works great on both. I got the -10 because I wanted the USB cable to be short and I added a shielded RS232 cable to the other end for length. I went this way because the RS232 signals are inherently better in noisy environments than USB.
One thing you need to look for with generic USB-RS232 cables is that they often dont actually have RS232 level outputs, but TTL levels. The good news is that many will label themselves as TTL, UART or the like so you know. The other thing is that many generic cables dont tell you what chipset they use, making finding drivers hard, or drivers may not be available for all platforms (for instance an unrooted Android).
wclark wrote: I think the best and most compatible ones are based on the FTDI FT232R chip. The complete cable they sell with that is the US232R-10 or -100. For what its worth, the MS3 USB input goes thru an FTDI chip. I have a US232R-10 that I use with either a laptop or my Nexus 10 tablet if I need to go thru the Megasquirt's RS232 port and it works great on both. I got the -10 because I wanted the USB cable to be short and I added a shielded RS232 cable to the other end for length. I went this way because the RS232 signals are inherently better in noisy environments than USB. One thing you need to look for with generic USB-RS232 cables is that they often dont actually have RS232 level outputs, but TTL levels. The good news is that many will label themselves as TTL, UART or the like so you know. The other thing is that many generic cables dont tell you what chipset they use, making finding drivers hard, or drivers may not be available for all platforms (for instance an unrooted Android).
This guy. This guy knows what he's talking about. 
Gigaware one is still working great for me after 4+ years...
Agreed on the Gigaware, been using the same two on countless installs and bench builds for over 5 years.
Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: I'd skip the USB and go Bluetooth: http://www.tunerstudio.com/index.php/cablesandbluetooth This way you could even use a tablet/smartphone to monitor MegaSquirt while on the move.
I use this adapter as my primary connection with my Nexus 10 tablet as my dashboard. The refresh rate isnt quite as high as with the wired USB or RS232, but its still usually way more than needed to avoid appearing jumpy with the tach and I have to focus on them side-by-side to tell any difference. The BT approach lets me also keep the tablet on charge...useful when its your dashboard. I keep the BT adapter powered by the same USB charge port I use for the tablet so it is on whenever the tablet is powered up and the BT connection remains connected. That cuts the time delay from when the engine is started until I have a working display by 10-15 seconds as compared to having the BT adapter powered by the Megasquirt.
I tried using the BT adapter with a BT dongle on my XP laptop (I use that for tuning) and while it does work, getting it to connect and start each time is not automatic for some reason, whereas the USB wired input is.
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