Hello Everyone, I need to buy a new USB to TTL for my 5v ATMEGA328p 16Mhz Arduino Promini (my ch340g adapter doesn't work), and there are a lot of options, mainly based on the pl2303,cp2102, and the ft232rl. So which of these do you best recommend, I will add pictures and details for all 5 adapters (5 because there are 2 adapters for cp2102 and the ft232rl) below:
Onboard CP2102 USB to RS232/TTL interface conversion chip
Onboard power light and RX/TX pins have led notification, facilitate communication with computer.
Built-in USB to RS232 Transfer chip.
Dual 3.3V and 5V Power output, work with 3.3v and 5v target device
The Two FT232RLs
Number 1:
Details:
FTDI based USB to TTL Serial Cable are designed using the standard FT232RL chipset. The cables provide a fast, simple way to connect devices with a TTL level serial interface to USB.
The cables are available with a 6-way connector TTL levels are 3.3V
The internal clock (6MHz, 12MHz, 24MHz and 48MHz) can be brought out of the device and used to drive a microcontroller or external logic.
It has a 3.3/5V DC jumper and will supply 500mA through its Vc pin.
On the other side, the FTDI USB to TTL serial converter module has breakout pins (Tx, Rx, Vc and GND) that is connected to a microcontroller’s corresponding pins.
The module has a mini-B USB port which is used to connect to an USB port of an interfaced device (e.g. a PC).
Sorry if this is too much but I wanted to include everything, thank you for reading this
I'd go with the last one. You can't really go wrong with FTDI based adapters. I've had mixed success with others that involved lots of driver variants.
I got some PL based boards and they were more trouble than they were worth.
The CH based boards seem to be ok. Although I had an issue with 2 CH based boards plugged in at the same time. A different driver seemed to fix that.
I would go even higher end but unfortunately my only options are the ones I posted because these are my local options and I avoid online purchases but I may look into getting a family member or friends to get it from other countries and get them to me, thanks for the recommendation @sterretje
+1 on the red FTDI module. I'm a bit confused on the CP2102 module because that chip is a 3.3V device, which means its TX and DTR pins would be 3.3V outputs. I think. But the FTDI jumper controls the voltage of all outputs. I think that's the one to use (set to 5V) for your 5V Pro Mini. It's the one I use with Pro Minis, 3.3V and 5V, and it works fine.
Greetings! It's almost 6 months since you opened this topic. I hope I am not in the wrong here, I just joined this community. As I purchased a FTDI with FT232RL chip a couple of days ago (exactly the one in the image you provided) I would like to address to a problem I encountered that in the end made me send back the adapter to the vendor.
The problem was with the windows (windows 11) that couldn't recognize the module after multiple attempts to install the proper driver and search the web for a fix.
In the device manager, once connected to the laptop, it appeared under the "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)" in the Universal Serial Bus controllers, so not even the name of the device couldn't be showed.
The questions are: Was I maybe so "lucky" to get a defective device? Or is it possible that I damaged the device? (all I did after I opened the package was to connect it to the laptop via a proper cable - functional and tested cable - ). Should I try maybe to order another device of the same type?
What can you tell me about this one? -> It is a USB - RS232 TTL CH340 Convertor
You are in the wrong. You have "hijacked" an old topic belonging to someone else. It would have been better to start a new topic of your own. You could have put a link to this topic, and asked forum members who helped in this topic to read your topic by mentioning their names like this: @oladragos
Please read the forum guide in the sticky post at the top of most forum sections. This will help you avoid breaking any more rules!
As for your question, you seem convinced that your adapter is faulty, but have you tried it on Pc/laptop with older version of Windows, or better still, Linux?
Reports of problems with the FTDI FT232R are quite rare so I think you could describe it as "lucky".
In addition to the standalone modules being very popular, these chips are built-in on some Arduino boards such as the classic Nano and I would guess the majority of the Arduino community are now using Windows 11 so a lot of people (including myself) are using these chips under similar environments without experiencing any problems.
As was already mentioned earlier in the thread, you should be careful to purchase a module that breaks out the "DTR" or "RTS" pin, which allows the module to provide the signal that activates the bootloader on Arduino boards at the right time during the upload process. If you get a module without one of those pins broken out, you will need to manually reset the Arduino board at just the right time during each upload, which is quite inconvenient.
The module you are considering does not break out one of these pins:
so I would recommend against purchasing it. It is worth paying a little extra to get the tool with full capabilities.
I also recommend you get one which uses the standard "FTDI header" pinout:
DTR or RTS
RX
TX
VCC
CTS
GND
That will allow you to plug the adapter right in to an Arduino Pro Mini, or many other boards that use this standard pinout. If you get an adapter with a non-standard pinout, you would need to use a mess of jumper wires to adapt it to the standard pinout.
I am sorry for breaking the rules, from now on I will be careful and try not to make any mistakes. I confess that I'm not used with a forum community like this one, but there's always a start I guess.
To reply to your question I don't currently own a laptop/PC with other OS other than Windows 11.
I apologize again for posting this in a completely wrong place.
Thank you for your detailed answer.
It is way more clear for me now why the FTDI is far superior, for the reasons that you mentioned.
I will stick with the FT232RL and purchase it again (maybe from another place) and try everything again. Indeed I'd like to make my setup as clean as it can be.
Thank you very much! Next time I'll post I promise I will be in the right place :D.
Best regards!
To be clear, if you can find a CH340 adaptor with the DTR or RTS pin broken out and the standard "FTDI header" pinout, I think you'll be happy with that adapter as well. Even though we refer to it as the "FTDI header" pinout, that standard pinout might be used by a module with any USB to serial bridge chip; not only the chips manufactured by FTDI.
Unfortunately it seems the common CH340 modules don't follow this convention so it might end up being difficult to find a CH340 module with all the recommended characteristics even though there is no technical reason why they can't be manufactured.
In my experience, if you buy one of these modules from a random seller on eBay or Aliexpress, you are guaranteed to get a counterfeit FT232R chip. The modules are often sold for less than the price of a genuine chip alone!
However, I'm not certain the problem @oladragos reported would be caused by a counterfeit chip in general, since the cheap modules with the counterfeit chips are in wide use in the Arduino community. Other than the "FTDI-gate" driver release of 2014, which was reverted long ago, I'm not aware of any similar symptoms that can result universally from using a module with a counterfeit chip. Of course, the quality control on these chips and modules is sure to be inferior to what would be provided by an honest manufacturer so the functionality and reliability of each individual module is surely a gamble.
It is completely understandable. As long as the pinout is right, the chip can be either one.
As regarded to the seller, it is a national seller (Romania), the price for one unit was around 5 euros (definitely not a fortune - is it a fair price for a genuine component?).
It is not a matter of price, but of how much I want it to function properly . If I was that unlucky and the adaptor was indeed genuine then is a matter of trial and error ish.
Thank you again! I'll come back again for sure.
. If I was that unlucky and the adaptor was indeed genuine then is a matter of trial and error ish.