RS-232 serial COM port expansion with power output now available

11 Aug 2016

Update 6 March 2020 - Now applies to Mesa 3 as well.

The Mesa 2 can now be purchased with an optional integrated RS-232 9-pin serial COM port on the back. This can be ordered on a new unit.

This port is connected through an expansion port using an FTDI FT231XQ chip USB-to-Serial interface. It will be dynamically assigned a COM port number by the operating system, such as COM5 or COM7, as can be viewed in Device Manager. A control panel applet is available for use with this port to adjust settings such as for the custom 5V power output on pin 9 (Ring In line). A custom 12V output option is also available. Power output is 5 V @ 600 mA or optional 12 V @ 390 mA continuous (500 mA peak). It is a regulated output so the voltage will stay constant less wiring internal resistance drops until the regulator starts to foldback voltage due a current overload.