Hi All,
There are several USB to TTL IC converters. The FT232RL being common and costs 4USD, ATmega16UR at 2USD, CH340G at less than a dollar on eBay but does not seem to be available on Mouse, Digikey or Newark and there is the FT230XS-R which is at 2USD.
Experienced users at the arduino forums says that the ATmega16U2 is a no no as it needs to be programmed and often fails. The FT232RL is costly on Digikey the eBay is not reliable for Genuine ones as the windows drivers would brick any FAKE FTDI chips if detected. Then that leaves me with the CH340G and FT230XS-R, the CH340G, not sure if that would be a reliable would it fail at any time.
I was hoping to go with one of the three, FT230XS-R, CH340G or the ATmega16U2(Since arduino already uses them, tho it has bad reputation for failing). I've seen that the FTD232RL is quite slow when uploading sketch and the UNO is quite faster and i believe that it is because of the ATmega16U2.
I would really appreciate if anybody could advise me on this.