This
board has been specifically designed to work with the Arduino
Pro Boards, however it can be used for many other applications.
Description:
This
is a basic breakout board for the FTDI FT232RL USB to serial IC. The pinout
of this board matches the FTDI cable to work with official Arduino and
cloned Arduino boards. It can also be used for general serial applications.
The major difference with this board is that it brings out the DTR pin
as opposed to the RTS pin of the FTDI cable. The DTR pin allows an Arduino
target to auto-reset when a new Sketch is downloaded. This is a really
nice feature to have and allows a sketch to be downloaded without having
to hit the reset button. This board will auto reset any Arduino board that
has the reset pin brought out to a 6-pin connector.
The
pins labeled BLK and GRN correspond to the colored wires on the FTDI cable.
The black wire on the FTDI cable is GND, green is CTS. Use these BLK and
GRN pins to align the FTDI basic board with your Arduino target.
This
board has TX and RX LEDs that make it a bit better to use over the FTDI
cable. You can actually see serial traffic on the LEDs to verify if the
board is working.
This
board was designed to decrease the cost of Arduino development and increase
ease of use (the auto-reset feature rocks!). Our Arduino Pro boards will
use this type of connector and the LilyPad will use this pinout in future
revisions.
Documents:
Additional
Notes from Sparkfun:
The
3V FTDI basic board is capable of bootloading the 5V Arduino Pro boards.
The only case where it becomes a problem is this:
-
The end
user attaches a bunch of external parts (servos, LEDs, sensors and
-
There
is no external power supplied.
The internal
3.3V regulator of the FTDI can only handle about 50mA before it starts
to sag. At 2V, the ATmega is not really capable of internally programming
the flash.
To
solve this, externally power the 5V board with 5V (the internal 3.3V reg
of the FTDI survives this without problems).
The
end user may also elect to purchase the 5V
cable from FTDI.
The
3.3V Version of the FTDI cable is listed here.
We
are tossing around the idea of a 5V version of the FTDI Basic Board but
we're not sure yet.
Support:
If
you need additional support on the above product, and you can't find the
information you need in the documentation, then please contact support
at the address below:
This
product is from: Sparkfun Electronics
Website:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
TroubleShooting:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/technical_assistance.php
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