Is the FTDI FT232H a good chip?

[e100]

Whilst pondering the perpetual Raspberry Pi shortage and complete lack of suitable drop in replacements with properly support drivers, I stumbled upon the USB  FT232H chip which as far as I can tell adds the GPIO/I2C/SPI capabilities that makes a computer like the PI useful.

So, does the FT232H effectively turn any USB equipped computer into a Rasp Pi lookalike, or is it more complicated than that?

Datasheet https://ftdichip.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DS_FT232H.pdf

[SiliconWizard]

Whilst pondering the perpetual Raspberry Pi shortage and complete lack of suitable drop in replacements with properly support drivers, I stumbled upon the USB  FT232H chip which as far as I can tell adds the GPIO/I2C/SPI capabilities that makes a computer like the PI useful.

Uh, that's not particularly what makes the RPi useful, but maybe it is to you.
The RPi can do much more than this. It has an enormous amount of processing power compared to a microcontroller. Let alone just a USB interface chip, which has virtually no processing power, it's just an interface chip.

So, does the FT232H effectively turn any USB equipped computer into a Rasp Pi lookalike, or is more complicated than that?

Yes it's a good product, it supports USB High-speed and is pretty versatile. But the number of IOs it exposes that can be used as GPIOs is pretty limited. So, it depends on what you want to achieve.

[RoGeorge]

Raspberry Pi is a computer, can work standalone.
FTDI needs a computer, it does nothing by itself.

If you only use the RPi as an external GPIO for a PC, then yes, FTDI can act as a GPIO, too, when controlled by the proper software from the PC side.

[Karel]

Yes, the FTDI FT232H a good chip.
But, as with many other popular chips, buy from official distributors (Digikey, Mouser, Farnell, etc).

[Doctorandus_P]

No, it's not a good chip.

Ever since FTDI gate I boycot that company and any product they make.

In the past they have bricked countless devices of end users, and a lot of them without those end users even knowing the IC's in their devices were not "genuie".

https://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/ftdi-drivers-break-fake-chips-again/

[robert.rozee]

[the] FT232H chip which as far as I can tell adds the GPIO/I2C/SPI capabilities that makes a computer like the PI useful. So, does the FT232H effectively turn any USB equipped computer into a Rasp Pi lookalike, or is it more complicated than that?

the FT232H provides you access to some GPIO pins, I2C, and SPI, but accessing and using these from your own programs running on your PC will require a whole load more work.

what exactly, are you wanting to do? for instance, do you want to be able to read from a DS18B20 temperature sensor and write the read data to a timestamped log file? or turn on and off the crossing lights for your model train set? do you require something that can operate unattended for days or weeks at a time? what sort of power are you happy to be used - a PC using 50w of electricity, a RPi3 using 5w, or something that can run on batteries?

one simple solution is the Raspberry Pi PICO. this can provide you access to GPIO, I2C, SPI and other things, along with a programming language. you can tether the PICO to your PC's USB port and pass data back to the PC via a virtual COM port, or the PICO can write directly to an attached SD card.

the PICO has a couple of language options. there is MicroPython available from the RPi website:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/micropython.html

or there is MMbasic available from Geoff Graham's site:
https://geoffg.net/picomite.html (for tethering to a PC, or standalone microcontroller)
https://geoffg.net/picomitevga.html (completely standalone version with VGA output and PS/2 keyboard)

both MicroPython and MMbasic allow you to write programs the run on the PICO hardware, and then pass data back to your PC. MMbasic allows for a completely standalone setup, or you can tether to a cheap netbook or similar.


cheers,
rob   :-)

[e100]

Isn't the Pi Pico RP2040 just another microcontroller and lacks the drivers equivalent to those created for the FT232H, or am I missing something?

[robert.rozee]

the RP2040 (pico) has USB out one end, and GPIO, I2C, SPI, etc out the other. in this sense, is is just the same as the FT232H. the difference is that the PICO can be easily programmed as a sort of 'intelligent peripheral', something that is a somewhat more complex proposition with the FT232H.

the direction you take really depends upon what you're after achieving. oh, and the PICO is readily available for around us$5, already assembled on a PCB with a micro USB connector.


cheers,
rob   :-)

[SiliconWizard]

No, it's not a good chip.

Yes it is.

Ever since FTDI gate I boycot that company and any product they make.

Why would we care about what you boycott or not?

In the past they have bricked countless devices of end users, and a lot of them without those end users even knowing the IC's in their devices were not "genuie".

That's an old story, that only ever affected ONE reference which was the FT232R (completely different chip), and has been long fixed. There has also never been any proof that one could ever have gotten ahold of those fake chips through official distributors.

But keep telling the same story over and over again, that may entertain some.

[Psi]

If you want to generate signals and control external circuity while connected to a computer then the FT232H might work for you.
But as soon as you unplug the FT232H from a computer usb port it turns into a paperweight that does absolute nothing.

A Pi continues to work after being unplugged from the usb port. It is programmed to make its own decisions.
A FT232H is entirely controlled by the computer, basically it has no brain.

Think of the FT232H like a speaker box with 2 connections on the back. Where as the Pi is an entire stereo system.

[SiliconWizard]

Isn't the Pi Pico RP2040 just another microcontroller and lacks the drivers equivalent to those created for the FT232H, or am I missing something?

Yes. Absolutely. Now you can always implement your USB device on a RP2040 as a USB CDC class. Recent OSs will by default attach a virtual COM port to it without requiring a third-party driver. Older OSs (such as Win 7) will require a driver, even for a CDC class. But a virtual COM port interface may not be what you want from an application POV. You can alternatively use a HID class, will not require any driver even on older OSs, but accessing custom HID devices from applications is usually a mess, be prepared to invest a really significant amount of time in all this.

Also, it's not just the driver, you will need to define your own protocol for controlling GPIOs and UART/SPI/I2C... while FTDI also provides ready-to-use libraries. Definitely a lot more work. But also a lot more flexible.

Re-reading your initial post and my answer, I think I may have misunderstood a bit what you wanted to achieve.
I assumed you wanted to replace a RPi with a FT232H, but that's not it, is it? You want to replace a RPi with a computer and a FT232H. Obviously that will not really be a replacement, as a computer, even a laptop, takes up a lot more space and draws a lot more power, but otherwise, why not.

In that case, the only real difference will be again that the FT232H has only one channel and a very limited number of GPIOs you can control, compared to what you have with the RPi. And also you can't use say SPI and UART interfaces at the same time, it's either one or the other.

You can consider the FT2232H which is relatively similar, but with 2 channels. Or go to the FT4232H, which has 4 channels and may get you something closer to what you have with the RPi in terms of number of GPIOs and interfaces.