FTDI232 problems

Hi,

I have been building my Mendel and using a USB to Serial interface I purchased off eBay that uses the FTDI232 chip. I was able to test all the boards and briefly run the Mendel once it was fully constructed but quickly the USB to Serial interface gave up the ghost. I purchased a replacement through eBay which again worked fine for several days but now seems to be completely dead. If I plug the interface into my computer with nothing attached to it there are no lights and no indication in the operating system that something is connected to the USB port.

Has anyone else had any issues with this type of converter? I am thinking of buying a cable that has all the electronics built into it next, but was wondering if there might be something wrong with my motherboard that was blowing the things up!

Anyone got any ideas?

Milly.

Hi Milly,

maybe you have to check the 5Volt/VCC-connections of your motherboard and the USB-interface for shorts or high loads ... powering over 5V-USB and connecting another source with maybe higher voltage can damage the USB-interface and your atached electronics too!

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I've found my ft232 to be very robust.. it's had 12v dumped into it a couple of times and survived just fine

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Wooden Mendel
Teacup Firmware

Try to remove all drivers and reinstall... Sometimes this works. Especially if you're using windows.

Thanks for the info, my Mac wasn't showing anything connected to the USB port, even after several reboots. I also tried booting into Ubuntu and a quick check with usb-devices shows nothing plugged in. I paid only five quid for the unit off eBay, it was a UM232R clone so I have bitten the bullet and bought a proper FTDI device in the hope it will be more robust. In the mean time, whilst I await delivery I shall go over my motherboard and check for shorts.

Milly

Have you checked the ribbon cable between the FTDI232 board and the motherboard with an ohm meter (multimeter)? It's possible that you have bad or intermittent connection.