Ditto what Ginny and Jack10562 (and others) have said about the DS-01 itself, and it working with serial/USB converters.
My DS-01 worked perfectly right out of the box, and also thru a generic serial/USB converter. Sorry, but I can't find any info/name anywhere on the converter, and it just shows up as a 'Prolific" device in Device Manager. IIRC, the Prolific chip series seemed to be better than some other configurations, but don't quote me on that.
Kudos Chris!