FTDI where are you?

Well the website is sort of working, at less than 1K Bytes per second it is 
very painful.

Just looking at the FT2232D datasheet it looks like it might need an 
external EEPROM. Is this true? All I want to do is transfer half a MByte of 
data from a 8bit FIFO (< 1 second) (from a laptop) and do some bit banging 
for control. I will get their evaluation board (DLP-2232M) and find out for 
myself but I thought someone might be able to give me a heads-up. Should I 
be looking into the Vinculum VNC1L that has the EEPROM built in? I would 
like to minimize the component count in my design.

Thanks,
Thomas

Thomas Magma <somewhere@overtherainbow.com> wrote:

> Well the website is sort of working, at less than 1K Bytes per second it is 
> very painful.

> Just looking at the FT2232D datasheet it looks like it might need an 
> external EEPROM. Is this true? All I want to do is transfer half a MByte of 
> data from a 8bit FIFO (< 1 second) (from a laptop) and do some bit banging 
> for control. I will get their evaluation board (DLP-2232M) and find out for 
> myself but I thought someone might be able to give me a heads-up. Should I 
> be looking into the Vinculum VNC1L that has the EEPROM built in? I would 
> like to minimize the component count in my design.

If you want to bitbang, the Vinculum might be a better choice. But it
doesn't have the MPSSE machine. 

If you want to use the FT2232 in 245 FIFO mode, you need the EEPROM and need
to program it accordingly.

-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

> If you want to bitbang, the Vinculum might be a better choice.

Thanks Uwe,

I'm just wondering why you think the Vinculum would be a better choice for 
bitbanging, no where in the VNC1L datasheet does it even talk about 
bitbanging.  ??

Thomas

Thomas Magma <somewhere@overtherainbow.com> wrote:
> > If you want to bitbang, the Vinculum might be a better choice.
                                         ^^^^^
> Thanks Uwe,

> I'm just wondering why you think the Vinculum would be a better choice for 
> bitbanging, no where in the VNC1L datasheet does it even talk about 
> bitbanging.  ??

Sorry, I thought about the EEPROM in the VINCULUM and the built in serial
number, but didn't look specifically about bitbanging. But in the "Hardware
Feature" entry in the datasheet, "Up to 28 GPIO" are mentioned. GPIO pins
are normally what is used for bitbanging. 

But thinking further, as there is no programming environment available for
non-NDA users, probably the GPIO pins can't be made to bitbang for normal
users neither...

-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:12:56 +0100, Paul Burke <paul@scazon.com>
wrote:

>Thomas Magma wrote:
>> Are you using the 
>> 2232C or 2232D version?
>> 
>
>2232D. Watch out with inverters... check that the connected device 
>doesn't throw a wobbly if the clock is left in the "wrong" state. I 
>think the problem is more to do with outputting the first bit without a 
>clock edge.
>
>> BTW...The www.ftdichip.com website is still not working for me. Tough way to 
>> sell product...geez!
>
>British web sites... the hosts haven't cottoned on that they are more 
>than a toy.

Go through an anonymous proxy. Here in South Africa the internet
access is particularly bad and some web sites are basically impossible
to connect to. (Incompitence more than malice from the telcos part). I
have found that connecting through many of the available anonymous
proxy servers allows me to connect to these "problem" sites.

Regards
  Anton Erasmus

On Friday, in article <iY5oi.133185$NV3.125271@pd7urf2no>
     somewhere@overtherainbow.com "Thomas Magma" wrote:

>Well the website is sort of working, at less than 1K Bytes per second it is 
>very painful.
>
>Just looking at the FT2232D datasheet it looks like it might need an 
>external EEPROM. Is this true?

Yes, unfortunately serial EEPROM and 3 x resistors. If you want 2 x serial
no EEPROM required, I personally wished that two pins had been used for
selecting each port as serial/parallel.

I'll add a note on my web page.

>All I want to do is transfer half a MByte of
>data from a 8bit FIFO (< 1 second) (from a laptop) and do some bit banging 
>for control.

You may be at the limit of the device as these are 12Mbps (High speed
NOT full speed) devices. So 12Mbps transfer rate is for BOTH ports
combined.

>I will get their evaluation board (DLP-2232M) and find out for
>myself but I thought someone might be able to give me a heads-up. Should I 
>be looking into the Vinculum VNC1L that has the EEPROM built in? I would 
>like to minimize the component count in my design.

It does not take much to build up a test device, crystal, few resistors,
serial EEPROM and QFP package. I knocked up a test USB hub and FT2232D on
a couple of Schmart boards. I could email a link to a photo if you want.

>Thanks,
>Thomas

-- 
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/>    PC Services
<http://www.gnuh8.org.uk/>              GNU H8 & mailing list info
<http://www.badweb.org.uk/>             For those web sites you hate

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:33:21 +0100 (BST), paul$@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk (Paul Carpenter) wrote:

>On Friday, in article <iY5oi.133185$NV3.125271@pd7urf2no>
>     somewhere@overtherainbow.com "Thomas Magma" wrote:
>
>>Well the website is sort of working, at less than 1K Bytes per second it is 
>>very painful.
>>
>>Just looking at the FT2232D datasheet it looks like it might need an 
>>external EEPROM. Is this true?
>
>Yes, unfortunately serial EEPROM and 3 x resistors. If you want 2 x serial
>no EEPROM required, I personally wished that two pins had been used for
>selecting each port as serial/parallel.
>
>I'll add a note on my web page.
>
>>All I want to do is transfer half a MByte of
>>data from a 8bit FIFO (< 1 second) (from a laptop) and do some bit banging 
>>for control.
>
>You may be at the limit of the device as these are 12Mbps (High speed
>NOT full speed) devices. So 12Mbps transfer rate is for BOTH ports
>combined.

12M is full speed, 480M is high speed  - 'full' referred to the maximum speed at the time of the 1.1
standard. Confusing I know!


>>I will get their evaluation board (DLP-2232M) and find out for
>>myself but I thought someone might be able to give me a heads-up. Should I 
>>be looking into the Vinculum VNC1L that has the EEPROM built in? I would 
>>like to minimize the component count in my design.

VNC1L is a totally different beast - it's a host controller 

Have you looked at the FT245R?

if you want really quick USB transfer, look at this :
http://www.quickusb.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
expensive, but pretty flexible.

On Monday, in article
     <8rl8a3tcvte8drqa2v4pnerpocns7m7er2@4ax.com>
     mike@whitewing.co.uk "Mike Harrison" wrote:

>On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:33:21 +0100 (BST), paul$@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
> (Paul Carpenter) wrote:
>
>>On Friday, in article <iY5oi.133185$NV3.125271@pd7urf2no>
>>     somewhere@overtherainbow.com "Thomas Magma" wrote:
>>
>>>Well the website is sort of working, at less than 1K Bytes per second it is 
>>>very painful.
>>>
>>>Just looking at the FT2232D datasheet it looks like it might need an 
>>>external EEPROM. Is this true?
>>
>>Yes, unfortunately serial EEPROM and 3 x resistors. If you want 2 x serial
>>no EEPROM required, I personally wished that two pins had been used for
>>selecting each port as serial/parallel.
>>
>>I'll add a note on my web page.
>>
>>>All I want to do is transfer half a MByte of
>>>data from a 8bit FIFO (< 1 second) (from a laptop) and do some bit banging 
>>>for control.
>>
>>You may be at the limit of the device as these are 12Mbps (High speed
>>NOT full speed) devices. So 12Mbps transfer rate is for BOTH ports
>>combined.
>
>12M is full speed, 480M is high speed  - 'full' referred to the maximum speed
> at the time of the 1.1
>standard. Confusing I know!

That is what I meant to put, you are right. I confusingly got them wrong
way round.

>>>I will get their evaluation board (DLP-2232M) and find out for
>>>myself but I thought someone might be able to give me a heads-up. Should I 
>>>be looking into the Vinculum VNC1L that has the EEPROM built in? I would 
>>>like to minimize the component count in my design.
>
>VNC1L is a totally different beast - it's a host controller 
>
>Have you looked at the FT245R?

If he needs a FIFO port and bit banging at same time FT2232D or other
chip is better. Having done something similar hence my example page.

The thing you have to watch is how many USB 2.0 devices are actually
USB 1.1 that works with USB 2.0.

>if you want really quick USB transfer, look at this :
>http://www.quickusb.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
>expensive, but pretty flexible.

-- 
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/>    PC Services
<http://www.gnuh8.org.uk/>              GNU H8 & mailing list info
<http://www.badweb.org.uk/>             For those web sites you hate

> Yes, unfortunately serial EEPROM and 3 x resistors. If you want 2 x serial
> no EEPROM required, I personally wished that two pins had been used for
> selecting each port as serial/parallel.
>
> I'll add a note on my web page.
>

I think that they should have just put the EEPROM right on the chip. Or even 
have volatile configuration registers on the chip that you can configure via 
their driver command set. It's expensive to inventory and control new 
components.

Thomas 

Thomas Magma <somewhere@overtherainbow.com> wrote:

> > Yes, unfortunately serial EEPROM and 3 x resistors. If you want 
> > 2 x serial  no EEPROM required, I personally wished that two pins
> > had been used for selecting each port as serial/parallel.
> >
> > I'll add a note on my web page.
> >

> I think that they should have just put the EEPROM right on 
> the chip. Or even have volatile configuration registers on
> the chip that you can configure via their driver command set. 
> It's expensive to inventory and control new components.

On embedded world 2007 the people at the FTDI booth told my that they plan
to redo the FT2232 with embedded EEPROM, unique hardware ID and two MPSSE
channels. I hope they keep promise.

And let's hope they get mode setting right.

-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------