FTDI new drivers bricking devices of competitors chips (clones)

[silios]

Good evening people!

Not sure if the DIY is the correct section to post this in but here it goes :

Alot of the stuff built by amateur astronomers include some kind of usb to serial converter when the end goal is to communicate with the computer.

Usually we try to minimize the costs and so ending up owning clones of hardware.

The bad news is that FTDI with the popular FT232RL (USB serial port) has released drivers that will actually reset the PID of the device and it will essentially stop working.

So software-compatible chips abusing "FTDI" marking are now silently bricked by FTDI drivers by resetting their PID.

If you want to know more in depth read here .

 If you’re wondering if your FTDI chip is genuine (working with new drivers) , the real chips have laser engraved markings, while the clone markings are usually printed.

There ways to revert the brick as reported here but it might prove challenging for the not so technical inclined people

Just a heads up, cause I believe that there will be a rise of "my xxxx part is not regocnized anymore from the operating system" and "it suddenly stopped working" threads.

My advise would be : If it works don't fix it (upgraded it)

[silios]

Seems I cannot edit yet so :

Also if you have Windows update on auto mode, it does the update on the driver automatically, if you have it in the first place.

If not using Windows update on auto mode and you are instead applying the updates by hand after inspection, usually a good policy to follow cause you never know what will break , watch out for :

FTDI - Other hardware - USB Serial Converter
Download size: 825 KB
You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.
Update type: Optional
FTDI Other hardware software update released in August, 2014

and do make sure you skip it!

[pete_l]

It would appear that someone has now had a word with FTDI and suggested that going round breaking other people's hardware is not a nice thing to do:

"The recently released driver release has now been removed from Windows Update so that on-the-fly updating cannot occur. The driver is in the process of being updated and will be released next week. This will still uphold our stance against devices that are not genuine, but do so in a non-invasive way that means that there is no risk of end user's hardware being directly affected.

[silios]

That is surelly good news, but they do say still, though in a fine manner, that non original devices will cease to work :-)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[stoffe]

Thanks for that information! I have too look at my own FTDI chips to see if they will still working after an upgrade.

[perfrej]

The simplest way to solve it is to use the 3.20 driver. I have this problem with Windows 10, albeit with any (i.e. genuine) FTDI chip. Using the 3.20 driver instead solved the problem, but with the latest build (9860) the newest driver works as well... Go figure

/per

[NickK]

Apple have added their own FTDI driver into the kernel..

[kev]

Lets just be thankful that theyve done that. Between profilic not always reading some devices and this it was driving me nuts at work.

Sent from my iPhone so excuse the typos!

[stoffe]

Is it any information about how I know before buying a FTDI converter if it is a genuine one or if it is a copy? Any signs of the outer case or something like that?

[pete_l]

Is it any information about how I know before buying a FTDI converter if it is a genuine one or if it is a copy? Any signs of the outer case or something like that?

No, none whatsoever.

All you can hope is that by buying one which is reassuringly expensive you won't get a cheap one in an expensive box.

[kev]

Alternatively you could use a brainboxes one. Thats the route i will be going.

Sent from my iPhone so excuse the typos!