Hi, I wasn't getting any replies under general discussion (whiterussian), so i thought i'd re-post it here:

I am getting garbled text on my serial console, with only partially readable blocks of text.  I am wondering if it's because i might have yanked the cable out while it was connected damaging the serial port or some other reason.  Originally, I had been able to use this USB tty connector but now it doesn't seem to work properly without getting intermittent garbage text. 

I thought since i've been trying to get this a program I've been working on to send text over the serial port i've been trying different set ups and I had thought that maybe it was the settings that I had wrong, so I decided to go with a clean install of whiterussian and i still can't read the serial console on /dev/tty/0 without getting internmittent garbled text.

I've also tried different port speeds and flow control but it doesn't seem to work.  As i understand it, it should work with the following settings:
speed - 115200
data bits - 8
stop bits - 1
parity - none
flow control - none

The router i am using is a wrt54gl v1.1

I've also tested out the usb tty chip to check and see if maybe there was problems there, but it I am able to use it without any problems to upload programs to my arduino.

original post: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=21340

Those are correct serial settings.  Check your solder connections.  Possibly your wires are too long leading to weakened signal and occasional garbage?

Occasional garbage text is usually a result of a bad cable / intermittent connections.

(Last edited by aport on 26 Aug 2009, 19:17)

Noise pickup.
Route your cable away from know noise sources: Input regulator, radio output.
Shield your cable if not possible to avoid noise sources.