FTDI were once the interface of choice and perhaps the most common. But there's a story behind that : they didn't like other manufacturers cloning them and issued a windows driver that sometimes destroyed devices. This had the effect of people avoiding anything identified as FTDI in case it turned out to be a clone. FTDI pulled back and stopped destroying them (instead merely warning) but the drivers were out there and the reputational damage was done.
I don't know if they got their pole position back. I don't think so. As a designer, I still consider them good products. As a customer, I'm wary. I think the most common on new designs - especially on cheap devices - is the CH340 and relatives. Of course, most new designs integrate the USB interface and don't have a chip at all. But that's only based on what comes in my aliexpress parcels, not any industry stats. I think the CH340 can also have polarity flipped programmatically. On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 2:36 PM Tom Katt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 9:19:25 AM UTC-5 Adrian Godwin wrote: > > Some RS232 converters are biased to accept TTL, and some USB-serial > adapters can have inverted data. It's a bodge, but can simplify a board > made for a specific purpose like these. > > > Yeah - I took a crash course on the various flavors of serial when I > started working with the Noritake display... While *most* devices will > work with TTL, the bipolar voltages of 'true' RS232 mean that sometimes the > TTL signals from many usb adapters is seen to be inverted... After a lot > of poking around I discovered that FTDI - who is the most prevalent usb > serial chipset - has a configuration program that allows you to invert any > pin you want. That allows common cheap usb adapters to work. But > controller projects will need an inexpensive MAX232 adapter to create the > 'correct' voltages. > > If you ever need it, you can download the FT_PROG configuration app from > the FTDI website <https://ftdichip.com/utilities/>. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/53466f13-9faa-436d-8d28-1f1f76ff607en%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/53466f13-9faa-436d-8d28-1f1f76ff607en%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CALiMYrsiFe9_jLbDbL9ctdw8LL7EHmPJVmnAyx6iOVRJ4OeAew%40mail.gmail.com.
