FTDI Click

How does it work?

FTDI Click is based on the FT2232H, a 5th-generation high-speed USB to a serial interface converter from FTDI, capable of configuration in various industry standard serial or parallel interfaces. The entire USB protocol is handled on the chip, with no USB-specific firmware programming requirements, but requires USB device drivers for operation available free from the official FTDI page. It can work at high speed (480Mbps) and full speed (12Mbps), depending on the usage, alongside a dual Multi-Protocol Synchronous Serial Engine (MPSSE) used to simplify synchronous serial protocol between USB and available interfaces.

The FT2232H can communicate with the host MCU over the mikroBUS™ socket using one of the available interfaces (UART, I2C, SPI). The SPI interface can be used as is, while one of the other two has to be selected by the I2C UART jumper, with UART chosen as a default. Each interface is compatible with an LED indicator marked as TX/RX that signals data transmission. In addition to the communication pins, this board has some additional routed to the RST, PWM, and INT pins of the mikroBUS™ socket and marked as BC0, BC1, and BC2 used for configuration purposes for the MPSSE, or FIFO interface. For additional information on these pins, consult the attached FT2232H datasheet.

This Click board™ also features the CAT93C46, a 1K-bit serial EEPROM from Catalyst Semiconductor that can be accessed directly from the FT2232H. The FT2232H uses external EEPROM to configure operational configuration mode and USB description strings. The EEPROM also allows each of the FTDI’s channels to be independently configured. It customises various values and parameters, some of which are remoted Wake Up, power descriptor value, and more.

In addition, FTDI Click features the MCP4921, a 12-bit DAC from Microchip, that communicates with the host MCU over an SPI serial interface of the mikroBUS™ socket. Activated using an FTDI signal over a BD4, it can be used as a reference for external peripherals with a value from the VO pin routed to the AN pin of the mikroBUS™ socket.

This Click board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. Considering that the board can be powered via USB and used as a standalone device, using an additional LDO, the AP7331, in this way, the existence of the voltage of both mikroBUS™ power lines is ensured. The board must complete the proper logic voltage level conversion before use with MCUs with different logic levels. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library from FTDI, containing functions and an example code that can be used, as a reference, for further development.

Specifications

Pinout diagram

This table shows how the pinout on FTDI Click corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).

Notes	Pin					Pin	Notes
DAC Output	VO	1	AN	PWM	16	BC2	User-Configurable BCBUS pin
User-Configurable BCBUS pin	BC0	2	RST	INT	15	BC1	User-Configurable BCBUS pin
SPI Chip Select	CS	3	CS	RX	14	TX	UART TX
SPI Clock	SCK	4	SCK	TX	13	RX	UART RX
SPI Data Out	SDO	5	MISO	SCL	12	SCL	I2C Clock
SPI Data IN	SDI	6	MOSI	SDA	11	SDA	I2C Data
Power Supply	3.3V	7	3.3V	5V	10	5V	Power Supply
Ground	GND	8	GND	GND	9	GND	Ground

Onboard settings and indicators

FTDI Click electrical specifications

Software Support

We provide a library for the FTDI Click as well as a demo application (example), developed using MIKROE compilers. The demo can run on all the main MIKROE development boards.

Package can be downloaded/installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager (recommended), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on MIKROE github account.

Library Description

This library contains API for FTDI Click driver.

Key functions

• ftdi_generic_write This function writes a desired number of data bytes by using UART serial interface.

• ftdi_generic_read This function reads a desired number of data bytes by using UART serial interface.

Example Description

This example demonstrates the use of FTDI Click by echoing back all the received messages.

void application_task ( void ) 
 { 
     uint8_t rx_data = 0; 
     if ( ftdi_generic_read ( &ftdi, &rx_data, 1 ) > 0 ) 
     { 
         ftdi_generic_write ( &ftdi, &rx_data, 1 ); 
         log_printf( &logger, "%c", rx_data ); 
     } 
 }

The full application code, and ready to use projects can be installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager (recommended), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on MIKROE github account.

Other MIKROE Libraries used in the example:

• MikroSDK.Board
• MikroSDK.Log
• Click.FTDI

Additional notes and informations

Depending on the development board you are using, you may need USB UART click, USB UART 2 Click or RS232 Click to connect to your PC, for development systems with no UART to USB interface available on the board. UART terminal is available in all MIKROE compilers.

mikroSDK

This Click board™ is supported with mikroSDK - MIKROE Software Development Kit. To ensure proper operation of mikroSDK compliant Click board™ demo applications, mikroSDK should be downloaded from the LibStock and installed for the compiler you are using.

For more information about mikroSDK, visit the official page.