[André Sarmento] needed to connect a computer to an RS-485 bus. A simple converter can be sourced online, but the only thing he could find locally that was even close was a USB to RS-232 converter.

Advantech’s industrial-grade isolated RS-232 to RS-422 or RS-485 converter is now available from the company ... Up to 115.2kbit/s can be handled, and a DB9 connector (for a straight pin-to-pin cable) ...