@lefty, on another note, you mentioned the other day that the FTDI chip gets power from
the 5V rail, via the Power Jack, when the USB port is not connected, so you can still get a
measly 50mA out the 3.3V pin.
Do you know what state the TXD,RXD pins on the FTDI chip are in when it's powered this way?
[USB connector is not connected]. If low-impedance, then this is bad.