I was really looking forward to try this Aduino thing out but somehow I cannot upload sketches.
My setup is :
An FTDI USB to serial TTL 6 pin unit - see attached "FTDI_small.jpg".
connected to
an Arduino Pro Mini (5V, 16 MHz) - see attached "ProMini_small.jpg".
My system is Win 10, 64 bit.
The "L" LED on the Pro Mini keeps flashing so I guess it is executing a program in it's memory.
My "Device Manager" looks like this - see attached "DeviceManager.JPG".
I don't know why "the Prolific" is added in the device manager.
The "USB Serial Port" I think is the right one. If I enter "properties" on this one, it is the FTDI driver.
This is also the only one that I can get the Rx LED to flash on the FTDI board when hitting the "upload" button within the Arduino IDE.
I have verified the setting within the Arduino IDE "tools" regarding "board" and "processor".
I get the following error messages when trying to upload within the IDE (holding shift while pressing upload):
"avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb""
When doing the "loop back" test I get the Rx and Tx LEDs on the FTDI to flash clearly.
But when during the test I get the following text in the "Serial Monitor" :
"NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!"
The sketch I am trying to upload is the "Blink" sketch found in "examples" within the IDE.
Any suggestions in order for me to get it working.?
You can tell because the driver is introducing the text "NON GENUINE" into your serial stream.
FTDI has created at least 3 kinds of drivers for Windows throughout the history of producing chips:
driver that works properly
driver that bricks counterfeit FTDI chips by reprogramming the counterfeit chip to have the wrong PID or VID
driver that introduces extra text in the serial stream ("NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!")
I believe during the period of time between #2 and #3 they produced a version which once again worked properly with both genuine and counterfeit chips.
So, it appears you are using a counterfeit chip and you have the version of the driver that interferes with proper operation by introducing that extra text.
You will have to research which version of the driver will work without reprogramming your counterfeit chip and without introducing the extra text that interferes with your programming. I do not know what version number you need. You may be able to google to find the answer. You may also want to try the FTDI drivers that came with an older version of Arduino IDE, such as version 1.0. If you try a version of the driver and it happens to be the one that bricks the chip, I have heard there are ways to unbrick.
You could also set aside that USB to serial adapter for use with Linux, where you will not have that problem.
Google "FTDIgate" to learn about the troubles FTDI has been having and what they have been doing to discourage counterfeiting and see all the discussion people have been having about it. Their countermeasures have been mostly a pain to the end users like you.
Windows users who want a guaranteed pain free FTDI experience must be 100% sure of the source of their adapters, and not attempt to buy an adapter from a discounter, because they are likely to get a counterfeit if they attempt to buy at a discount. I would tend to trust sources such as Digikey, Mouser, Sparkfun, and Adafruit. You can expect to pay $14 to $20 USD for an adapter, those are the non-counterfeit prices.
I have actually just now ordered an FTDI (redboard) from www.ardu.dk.
It was somewhat more expensive than the one I got (which I bought from eBay) so I hope this one works...
So just if I have understood it correctly..
The USB to serial made by FTDI is copyrighted, therefore FTDI have build countermeasures within the driver to protect their product from being copied.
The Arduino boards are all opensource and would therefor never be locked as the like the TFDI USB to serial.?
texasflood_dk:
The USB to serial made by FTDI is copyrighted, therefore FTDI have build countermeasures within the driver to protect their product from being copied.
Yes. They have produced versions of the driver before they thought of including countermeasures, and it may be possible for you to find a version of the driver that just works with your counterfeit.
texasflood_dk:
The Arduino boards are all opensource and would therefor never be locked as the like the TFDI USB to serial.?
It is possible any Arduino maker could buy chips from a counterfeiter. They could fall victim, too. For example, Sparkfun has purchased ATmega328P chips which they found out were fake, and they no longer buy from that seller. They wrote an article about their experience: Revisiting the Counterfeit ATMega328s - News - SparkFun Electronics
Sparkfun is the original and official manufacturer of the Arduino Pro Mini. Since they are a generally trusted company and they are interested in their reputation, they make an effort to detect when they have been deceived and not just pass the bad product on to the consumer.
It is also possible some clones knew and used fake chips anyway. There's no way to find out with so many different clones out there. The source of my early clones had closed up a couple years ago when eBay suspended him for too many complaint and opened claims. It would have been about the time FTDI released update that bricked fake chips and it must have caught the seller off guard and he just dropped off the face of the Earth to avoid dealing with numerous return and refund.
One of my older clone from that seller had a fake FTDI chip and it had been a few years before the first problem I experienced that time. It was way too long ago for return or refund so I just swapped the chip and it has been working fine since then.
I contacted the seller at eBay complaining about FTDI converter and added the link for the article describing the exact behavior and without answering directly in technical terms, they issued a refund on the item.
Go figure whether or not they knew that this was a fake at the time of purchase...;0)
