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 ICs, Modules and Cables - USB Bridging Solutions from FTDI Chip

FTDI Chip develops innovative silicon solutions that enhance interaction with today’s technology. When a designer needs to add a USB port, rest assured that FTDI Chip has a full range of USB solutions to get the job done.

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is now established as the de-facto interface for connecting systems with a reliable, low-cost digital link. USB has expanded beyond PC usage, and can now be found in all market segments, including Industrial, Medical, Consumer, Communications, Networking and many more. Enabling designers to implement USB quickly into a design, FTDI Chip provides total solutions including silicon chips, development tools, application notes, and software support. Expertise in USB bridges provides seamless integration for a variety of interfaces such as UART, FIFO, I2C, SPI, PWM and GPIO, where the bridge converts the signalling and protocol from the selected interface to USB. USB solutions are delivered in packages as small as 10 pin DFN (3x3mm) or as modules that can be inserted into boards for development and production or in cables that bridge USB to numerous interfaces.

Whenever your development or product needs USB, check out FTDI Chip for complete solutions that can shorten your design time whilst providing robust system implementations, and realise how we make design easy.

Click here for a full brochure on our USB designs

 

 

 USB Device Solutions

With over 30 USB peripheral chips offered in 5 product families, designers can choose the device which best matches their system need. FTDI Chip devices are aimed at full, high, and super speed solutions.

 SuperSpeed USB3.0 USB Bridge Devices

FT60x Series:  Enabling faster and higher volume data transfers than ever before, the FT60x is the first SuperSpeed USB3.0 series from FTDI Chip that offers USB access to a wider range of data intensive imaging and data acquisition applications. The series incorporates two devices - the FT600 and FT601, which function as SuperSpeed USB3.0 to FIFO bridges, providing up to 5Gbps of bandwidth. The FT600 comes in a 56-pin QFN package and has a 16-bit wide FIFO bus interface, while the FT601 is provided in a 76-pin package and has a 32-bit wide FIFO bus interface. Both chips support up to 8 endpoints, with 2 additional communication endpoints, allowing for up to 4 data IN and 4 data OUT channels to be created with double buffering of up to 4kByte length for IN and 4kByte for OUT. FTDI Chip SuperSpeed Devices:

  • FT600 - 56-pin QFN package and has a 16-bit wide FIFO bus interface
  • FT601- provided in a 76-pin package and has a 32-bit wide FIFO bus interface

 

 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Bridge Devices

H Series: fast, flexible, multi-channel USB bridges. In addition to data rates these devices offer (up to 40Mbytes/s) when compared to full speed solutions, the Hi-Speed series also offer a range of multi-channel interfacing; The benefits of a multi-channel bridge is that the system BOM is reduced by taking away the need for a USB hub chip. Additionally, each channel of the device appears to the host PC as a separate device, enabling each channel to be independently configured for different modes e.g. UART, MPSSE or FIFO and with different parameters such as 4 UARTS all operating with different baud rates. FTDI Chip Hi-Speed devices:

  • FT232H - Hi-Speed Single Channel USB UART/FIFO IC
  • FT2232H -Hi-Speed Dual USB UART/FIFO IC
  • FT4232H - Hi-Speed Quad USB UART IC
  • FT4222H - USB 2.0 to Quad SPI / I2C Bridge IC

 

 Full Speed  Bridge Devices
  • X Chip series: optimised for small footprint, low power and battery charger detection, the X-chip series for full  speed USB bridge solutions offers the widest range of interface options, all backed up with robust driver support on Windows, Linux, MAC OSX and WinCE.
  • R Chip series: optimised for minimal external components on a PCB design, the R Chip series offers a highly integrated solution combining USB protocol handling, internal clock control and EEPROM capabilities in one IC package
  • BL and D Chip series: an original, robust and market hardened solution, this series offers IO levels 3.3V to 5V, typical 25mA operating current, internal data buffering and extended temperature range
  • FT12 series: fully configurable Full Speed USB Device Controller series to add to any class of USB device support to MCUs.

 

 USB Host Solutions

As mobility accelerates, the need for host support in tablets, handsets and consumer equipment becomes critical to enable USB connections. With this in mind, we have a range of USB host solutions with a focus on Android Open Accessories (AOA), add-on USB host capability for USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, and continued support for system level solutions that include USB technology.

 Vinculum

VNC2: Vinculum-II (VNC2) is FTDI’s 2nd generation of USB Host / Slave controllers.  The device features a powerful 16-bit MCU core, with embedded 256KB Flash and 16KB RAM memory.  The device supports a range of flexible interfaces including UART, SPI, FIFO and PWM.  The complete USB protocol data processing is handled entirely by hardware resources within the device freeing up processing resources for user developed applications.

The VNC2 is a fully programmable device and is supported with the Vinculum Software Tool Suite, which provides an easy to use ‘C’ based development environment to enable user firmware development. Alternatively, the designer can configure VNC2 with one of the many precompiled ROM files developed by FTDI to cover a range of popular interfaces. These are described at Precompiled Firmware . The VNC2 offers a complete USB system solution in a single IC.

 

VNC1L: The VNC1L is the first generation device of the FTDI Vinculum family of USB Host / Slave Controller ICs, which are designed to deliver USB Host level interfacing capabilities to embedded applications. The VNC1L features two independent USB Host / Slave ports with an inbuilt 8/32-bit MCU processing core with 4KBytes of RAM program memory and 64KBytes of embedded Flash memory for firmware storage. The VNC1L supports UART, SPI slave and 8-bit parallel FIFO interfaces to enable communication with external processing devices. Further the two USB Ports on the VNC1L can be individually configured by firmware as Host or Slave ports.

VNC1L can be programmed with FTDI’s in-house developed firmwares which supports a range of common USB device classes, providing a cost effective, complete, ready-to-use USB interfacing solution. Users do not need to license any USB software stacks or develop USB drivers, indeed no knowledge of USB is required to use these devices. VNC1L is ideal for implementing USB interfacing within existing applications which do not already have USB, example applications include adding USB Flash drive connectivity to a wide range of consumer and industrial products.

 

 Android Host (FT311D/FT312D)

The FT311D IC is designed to specifically host Android platforms that support Android Open Accessories (AOA) mode (Android 3.1 onwards). This chip will enumerate to provide a bridge to a variety of platforms selectable from 3 GPIO lines. The interfaces include GPIO, UART, PWM, I2C Master, SPI Master and SPI Slave, while the FT312D provides a UART interface. Packaged in 32-pin QFN or LQFP options, the devices offer a small, reliable bridge to allow Android devices such as mobile phones or tablets to communicate with peripheral hardware over USB.  The device does not require any drivers to be loaded on the Android platform and draws no power from the Android USB port, as the device is the USB host. To support this chip, we offer a development kit and GPIO interface board to jump-start engineers' designs and provide easy access and integration into users' end systems. With this fixed function, bridge host chip, designers can quickly and easily add USB functionality into products and connect to the expanding Android ecosystem.
 

 

 USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Host Solution (FT313H)

The feature rich FT313H supports USB 2.0 hi-speed (480 Mbits/s), as well as full-speed (12 Mbit/s) and low-speed (1.5 M bit/s) implementations. Specifically designed for easy integration, it adds high speed connectivity capability into a system, enabling fast data transfers, mass storage thumb-drives, addition of wireless dongles and modular system expansion, through its support of standard USB class drivers.The device offers a single USB channel to a parallel bus, with DMA engine for optimised data transfer, and also supports battery charge host emulation

 USB Modules

FTDI Chip offers a complete range of PCB boards and sub-assemblies based around our chips. The modules are available in a range of formats to support various applications, including: development, pre-production, and in some cases end-product integration. These hi-quality modules, shorten development time and provide engineers with implementation alternatives to meet their system and project requirements. 

 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Modules

A range of hardware modules designed to develop with the FT60x series of USB3.0 ICs from FTDI Chip, the UMFT60xA and UMFT60xX range of evaluation/development modules feature either HSMC or FMC(LPC) connectors for interfacing FTDI’s FT60x USB 3.0 Superspeed IC with external hardware.

  • UMFT600A - 16-Bit FIFO bus, HSMC connector
  • UMFT600X - 16-Bit FIFO bus, FMC (Low Pin Count) connector 
  • UMFT601A - 32-Bit FIFO bus, HSMC connector
  • UMFT601X - 32-Bit FIFO bus, FMC(Low Pin Count) connector

 

 USB RS232/RS422/RS485 Modules

A range of modules supporting conversion from USB to a range of commonly used serial interfaces such as RS232, RS422, and RS485. The modules are based on the the FTDI Chip USB to serial converter ICs and support multiple channels.

  • USB-COM422-PLUS2 - single USB interface to two independent RS422 ports communication device
  • USB-COM422-PLUS4 - single USB interface to four independent RS422 ports communication device
  • USB-COM485-PLUS1 - single channel USB to RS485 communication device
  • USB-COM485-PLUS2 - single USB interface to two independent RS485 ports communication device
  • USB-COM485-PLUS4 - single USB interface to four independent RS485 ports communication device



 Development Modules

FTDI Chip supply a wide range of development modules supporting prototyping and development for FTDI USB devices. The development modules come in a range of compact form factors, and can be used for product integration to enable USB connectivity within existing product designs. For a full list of products please visit our Development Modules page.


 

 Application Modules

Our range of application modules are based around a number of our ICs, offering ready-to-use devices that can be easily integrated into customer applications..

  • FT211 G-Sensor Shield - for direct connection to an Arduino Pro and VinculumII development boards
  • FT-X-GPS - used to enable location services under the Windows Operating System
  • VDrive3 - Vinculum-II USB host / microcontroller development module with an enclosure
  • VMusic3 - Vinculum-II USB host and MP3 / WMA player application module
  • USB-Key - security device to be used as a “key” for “unlocking” particular applications
  • VDrive2  - USB Flash Drive interface module.

  • VDrive1 - evaluation module - OEM version of the VDrive2 module
  • VMusic2 - USB Flash Drive and Audio Playback interface module
  • VMusic1 - OEM version of the VMusic2, providing audio playback from a USB Flash drive interface
  • VPROG-1 - programmer module designed to support the programming multiple VNC1L devices
  • VF2F2 - USB Flash Disk File-to-file Transfer Vinculum Evaluation Kit

 Raspberry Pi Module

The RPi USB Hub Module utilises an USB-to-UART/MPSSE IC, along with a GL850G USB hub controller IC. It provides engineers with up to 4 downstream USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480Mbit/s) ports. Asynchronous serial data transfer rates from 300 bits/s to 12 Mbits/s at 3.3 V TTL levels are supported, while synchronous serial data rates of up to 30 Mbits/s can be dealt with on JTAG, SPI and I2C interfaces.
RPI-Hub-Module Datasheet

Application note AN_221_Adding_An_ADC_to_a_Raspberry_Pi explains how to install FTDI D2xx drivers on the Rapsberry Pi platform and then wire up an ADC to the RPi_HUB module.



 

 FTDI Chip Cables

FTDI Chip offer a wide range of USB based converter cables offering a variety of connectivity options. Connectivity options include conversion from USB to RS232, RS422, or RS485 interfaces, and TTL based signaling interfaces.  Many of the cables feature integrated electronics assemblies featuring our ICs, providing simple easy-to-use connectivity for many USB conversion applications.
 TTL Cables

The USB TTL Serial cables are a range of USB to serial converter cables which provide connectivity between USB and serial UART interfaces.  A range of cables are available offering connectivity at 5V, 3.3V or user specified signal levels with various connector interfaces. All cables feature an FTDI FT232R device integrated within the cable USB type ‘A’ connector, which provide access to UART Transmit (Tx), Receive (Rx), RTS#, CTS#, VCC (5V) and GND connections.  All cables are fully RoHS compliant and are FCC/CE approved.

Products:
  • TTL-232RG-VSW3V3-WE - supports +3.3V based TTL level UART signals and +3.3V / 50mA power output
  • TTL-232RG-VSW5V-WE - supports +5V based TTL level UART signals and +5V / 450mA power output
  • TTL-232RG-VREG3V3-WE- supports +3.3V based TTL level UART signals and +3.3V / 250mA rated power output
  • TTL-232RG-VREG1V8-WE - supports +1.8V TTL level UART signals and +1.8V / 100mA rated power output
  • TTL-232RG-VIP-WE - cable features voltage reference input for setting UART signalling levels
  • TTL-232R-3V3-WE  - version 1 cable. Supports +3.3V UART signalling and +5V/75mA power output
  • TTL-232R-5V-WE - version 1 cable. Supports +5V based UART signalling and +5V/75mA based power output

  • TTL-232R-3V3 - USB cable with 6 way 0.1" pitch single inline connector with +3.3V signalling
  • TTL-232R-5V - USB cable with 6 way 0.1" pitch single inline connector with +5.0V signalling
  • TTL-232R-3V3-2mm - USB cable with +3.3V based UART output on 2mm connector.
  • TTL-232R-3V3-AJ - cable with audio jack connector with +3.3V based TX, and RX signalling
  • TTL-232R-5V-AJ - Cable with audio jack connector with +5V based TX and RX signalling
  • TTL-232R-3V3-PCB - PCB only. Supports +3.3V UART signalling and +5V/75mA power output
  • TTL-232R-5V-PCB - PCB only. Supports +5V UART signalling and +5V/75mA power output
 


 

 USB to RS232 Cables

USB to serial RS232 Converters.  Custom cables are also available, please contact FTDI sales for more information on custom cables. 

Products:
  • US232R-100 - premium 1m USB to RS232 cable
  • US232R-500 - premium 5m USB to RS232 cable
  • UT232R-200 -  2m USB to RS232 cable with thumbscrews on the DB9 connector
  • UT232R-500 - 5m USB to RS232 cable with thumbscrews on the DB9 connector
  • UC232R-10 - economy version of FTDI's USB to RS232 converter cable range
  • UC232R-10-NE - basic minimum component USB - RS232 converter
  • US232B/LC - PC compatible DB9 male connector

 

 USB to RS422 Cables

Range of USB to RS422 based converters. Products:

 

 USB to RS485 Cables

Range of USB to RS485 based converters. Products:

 

 USB to USB Cables

Range of USB cables and accessories. Products:

 

 USB Hi-Speed Cables

Range of USB cables based on the FT232H, using the MPSSE to emulate SPI, I2C or JTAG for communication with external hardware, plus USB Hi-Speed to UART cables. Products:

 




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