3 ms·

FT232 isn't very stable to begin with. CP210x is a much better alternative from my experience with FT232, PL2303 and CP210x.

nitrogen 12y ago
Does the CP210x support operation at exactly 250kbaud? I've previously recommended FTDI-based adapters for DMX-512 control of lights. The other adapters I tried can only do 232k or 256k or some fixed number, not 250k.
- msandford 12y ago
  Looks like it: http://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/usb-to-uart-bridge.aspx http://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/usb... USB 2.0 compliant, full-speed (12 Mbps) No external crystal required Up to 1024 Bytes of EEPROM or OTP ROM User-programmable custom Baud rates Supports all modem interface signals Baud Rates: up to 2 Mbps Industrial temperature –40 to +85 °C Datasheet: http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP2101.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP21... UPDATE: On this PDF (page 18) it talks about how to set the baud rates. I think it defaults to "normal" serial baud rates but there's a way to modify the baud rate choices. At least that's how it reads to me. http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/AN144.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/AN14...
  - tmm 12y ago
    The CP2102 - CP2104 will do 250k; the CP2101 will not. Also, the CP2102 and CP2103 have a fixed table of rates (one of which is 250k) while the CP2104 can do arbitrary rates (within reason, see section 6.1 for details: http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/cp2104.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/cp21...).
    - msandford 12y ago
      Thanks for correcting me!
stinos 12y ago
Can you elaborate on your problems with FTDI? We're refactoring some hardware with FT232, smallest package I think, and alternatives are welcome. Would CP210x allow for lower latency/less stalls on Windows or are the FTDI limits on that point just the limits of the usb stack on Windows?
- smilekzs 12y ago
  FTDI isn't very stable on long runs, say, a few days. Buffers get corrupted (nothing wrong on the MCU side as we tested) and all the PC side receive is garbage.

nitrogen 12y ago

Does the CP210x support operation at exactly 250kbaud? I've previously recommended FTDI-based adapters for DMX-512 control of lights. The other adapters I tried can only do 232k or 256k or some fixed number, not 250k.

msandford 12y ago
Looks like it: http://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/usb-to-uart-bridge.aspx http://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/usb... USB 2.0 compliant, full-speed (12 Mbps) No external crystal required Up to 1024 Bytes of EEPROM or OTP ROM User-programmable custom Baud rates Supports all modem interface signals Baud Rates: up to 2 Mbps Industrial temperature –40 to +85 °C Datasheet: http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP2101.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP21... UPDATE: On this PDF (page 18) it talks about how to set the baud rates. I think it defaults to "normal" serial baud rates but there's a way to modify the baud rate choices. At least that's how it reads to me. http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/AN144.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/AN14...
- tmm 12y ago
  The CP2102 - CP2104 will do 250k; the CP2101 will not. Also, the CP2102 and CP2103 have a fixed table of rates (one of which is 250k) while the CP2104 can do arbitrary rates (within reason, see section 6.1 for details: http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/cp2104.pdf http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/cp21...).
  - msandford 12y ago
    Thanks for correcting me!

stinos 12y ago

Can you elaborate on your problems with FTDI? We're refactoring some hardware with FT232, smallest package I think, and alternatives are welcome. Would CP210x allow for lower latency/less stalls on Windows or are the FTDI limits on that point just the limits of the usb stack on Windows?

smilekzs 12y ago
FTDI isn't very stable on long runs, say, a few days. Buffers get corrupted (nothing wrong on the MCU side as we tested) and all the PC side receive is garbage.