Identifying & Replacing A Fake FTDI FT232R Chip | Voltlog

[@lasersbee]

Ever since the FTDI Fiasco (that backfired) where FTDI installed a Bomb in their Drivers to "Brick" fake FTDI Chips installed in products..... I have never again bought a product with ANY TYPE of FTDI chip on it... Fake or Original. There are other more reputable RS232 to USB Converter companies to chose from.

[@voltlog]

I would totally agree and support that kind of attitude. Myself I haven't purchased any FTDI chips ever since but, if you search for an RS485 to USB adapters, the affordable ones that fit the requirements are of this type shown in the video with the fake FTDI chips. That's why I was thinking about designing my own, have it isolated and I would be using a different chip for the conversion something like the CP210x

[@lasersbee]

@@voltlog We use the CH340 series chips in our products. Never had a problem since we switched over.

[@pulesjet]

@@lasersbee I've never used anything but the Chines CH340. Finding a driver was a bit difficult but I found one. My Chines SUCKS. If there is a drawback to using the CH340 I wouldn't know what it was. LOL

[@tobi_n]

Since FTDI-gate I avoid any products from FTDI. I have never had problems with CH340 chips and in my own projects I stick to Silicon Labs CP210x.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Same, FTDI lost my support when they did that. Regarding RS485 - maybe I missed where you mentioned that (or maybe it's just senility setting in) but may I ask what are you using RS485 for...?

[@KeanM]

I have a few USB serial adapters that used the Prolific PL2303 chip, a chip that was being faked even before the FTDI FT232. Some are in isolated USB interfaces for test equipment that came from pretty well companies (e.g. BK Precision IT-E132). I guess even large companies can be hit with counterfeit parts, but I actually just think the Prolific driver is badly written, and especially has compatibility issues on Windows 10. A solution is that the PL2302 and FT232 have almost identical footprints, so you can usually swap in an FT232 and get things working again, rather than throwing otherwise useful equipment away.

[@voltlog]

I used to have a usb to serial adapter, maybe 10 years ago, it was based on the PL2302, I have no idea if it was fake or not but I remember having issues quite often.

[@tanphatnguyen4873]

Does it work fine after you replace the genuine FT232RL IC?

[@robatoto]

USB-to-serial chips requiring a proprietary driver aren't really needed anymore. USB has a standardized extension for it (USB CDC ACM and PSTN) and all major operating systems come with the required drivers out of the box. It's often implemented by an MCU, e.g. by an ATMEGA8U2 on the Arduino Uno or directly by the Arduino core for STM32 or ATEML SAM-D. Unfortunately, no single chip solutions are available and I'm not aware of any USB-to-serial adapter using the USB CDC protocol. Let me know if you know of such a commercial adapter.

[@rcinfla9017]

For RS485 converter it is usually better to find converter with FT232RL chip for USB to serial converter. It has a Tx enable output for the MAX485 chip. A lot of cheap RS485 converters just use Tx data line tied to Tx enable of MAX485 chip. This causes MAX485 chip Tx output to tri-state during logic zero, relying on 120 ohm line termination resistors load to pull lines to logic zero. It reduces max baud rate useable and reduces max line run length.

[@OldboyWOW]

FT232RL and FT232RQ are they important for vag commander cabel? Which should i chose?

[@0dium.]

if you give them tips ... expect the next batch of fake ones to include unique serials no. ;)

[@benbaselet2026]

That might be enough to defeat the fake chip detection though?

[@SeanBZA]

@@benbaselet2026 Not really, the driver detects a fake by rewriting one half of the 16 bit enumeration number, but not completing the write, and restarting the chip, which on a genuine part does nothing, as the ID requires 2 byes to be written and then confirmed before it programs the 16 bit register, but the fakes simply execute each write as they come in. Thus the ID has one half set to zeros and no longer is recognised as a valid chip by the USB driver system, as it has no matching driver to that false ID. The serial number of the chip is just there to allow drivers to detect individual chips irrespective of the port they are plugged in to, but as is so common with USB, this can be poor at doing so at the best of times if you plug into a different port. That is why my PC has a diagram of the USB layout on the rear, with a note of which port goes to which device, so they go back in the same. Saves a lot of Copy xx of driver YY issues.

[@klassichd10]

@@SeanBZA thanks for the info. Do you know more about reallocation of com port numbers, especially using an USB hub?

[@meanxmeanx1763]

It seems you may have the cheap 3rd hand helper. If that's the case, i hope you 3d printed one of the available extension arm

[@voltlog]

I have one with a magnifier, I rarely use it and never thought of upgrading it :-)

[@meanxmeanx1763]

@@voltlog I did that one www.thingiverse.com/thing:4362459 , not perfect but much more usable

[@nomadic_rider42]

That MAX485 chip is probably also fake, but it would work fine.

[@voltlog]

Yeah, that's probably true.

[@martinsonnleitner7911]

I do have the A50285BI Serialnumber - with the latest driver 2.12.36 it doesnt work anymore. The IC doesnt work anymore. These fake chips are everywhere!

[@pulesjet]

What issues do the fake chips cause or have if they work ?

[@jeffhousen8968]

They would function perfectly. The only issue is FTDI writing nukes into their drivers.

[@SeanBZA]

99% of them work well enough, but are cheaper than the FDTI chips, and in most cases are nearly identical as to input and output in most applications. There are edge cases, but so few people actually use them that you can be hurt by FDTI doing a chip revision on the genuine parts at times, changing things in subtle ways.

[@petrslansky6659]

FAKE FTDI chips handle frame errors in a wrong way, they lose synchronization to serial data stream. This bug in their design could be used to identify fake chips (FT232RL, FT232BM, etc). Identification by serial number is not reliable, manufacturer of FAKE chips improved their process and they produce FAKE chips with unique serial numbers. I heard that they even produce documentation (batch ID, etc) in the way that supplier can trace fake chips to genuine FTDI chips, so it is really difficult to identify them. They real weakness is that fake chips are not 100% compatible, this can be used to identify them. When man boughs cheap FT232RL at Aliexpress, that is not good but when man pays the price of genuine FT232RL for a fake chip with unique serial number, that is a tragedy and that is the current situation. Most applications doesn't need advanced features of FT232RL chips but designers used them because these are well known parts. Even those fake chips work for most people without real problem because they just use basic features of FT232RL.

[@vh9network]

There's a USB to RJ45 cable on Newegg that was advertised as FTDI for connecting to Cisco. I intended to use it to console in to my new Cisco Switch so I bought it. It took a moment for me to locate the drivers because the linked drivers from the official FTDI-chip website that I download would fail to install drivers for the device, and the USB serial cable would just sit in Other on Device Manager as USB-45! I eventually stumbled on a driver made from a Chinese brand WCH that produced CH341ER driver that I was able to finally get installed and show serial COM port. But I had no luck with getting to the console in Putty as I got no response from the terminal. Dug deep further online and realized that there are these Chinese FTDI knock offs and that the chip in this RJ45 USB serial cable I bought from Newegg was not a legit FTDI and that was why I could not console into my Switch.

[@avejst]

Nice walkthrough 👍 Thanks for sharing 👍😀

[@electronic7979]

Helpful video. I liked it

[@GeorgeGraves]

Not a fan of FTDI. That chip is way too expensive for what it does (in 2020) - and they way they handled by bricking products.....yea. Not a fan.

[@KeanM]

They have some much cheaper USB serial chips like the FT231X, but yeah the way they handled counterfeits by hurting customers and end users was really poor form.

[@Oli83two]

I have three of these fake chips. They all do their job well, but I found that the serial number cannot be changed with FTProg. I wanted to create symlinks on debian, but all chips have the same serial number! why can't the serial number be changed on these fake chips? such a crap...

[@klassichd10]

Thanks for this really interesting topic. I learned a lot. 1. I bought aliexpress 33055692276 Isolated RS485 with FTDI. Serial number starts AD0J... , so it seems not beeing a fake. Has isolated power supply and data line isolators. So, may be not worth developping your own? 2. Is it possible to reprogram the serial numbers of the fake chips? I do not know, but fear not. 3. If having just one single serial2USB converter attached to the computer, nearly all converters worked up to now, also the cheap CH340. But if having more than one at the same time, it may matter to identify the unit und allocate to the same comport number after reboot. Do you konw more about it? Does Windows use the Serial number to reallocate to the com ports? I could not find enough info up to now.

[@voltlog]

Programming of the serial numbers on the fakes is not possible as far as I know. They bypassed the driver bricking issue by disabling writes to the internal eeprom.

[@klassichd10]

@@voltlog Thanks, thats a pity.

[@fernandobin7808]

@@voltlogHello, would it be possible to edit the serial number of the original 232rl. This way, making a clone of each other.

[@UndernetSystems]

Very good video brother

[@fpgaguy]

An original hack design, and other legitimate versions the firmware seems to blow up for you. Avoid all of them

[@ticktock8751]

can you tell me the pros and cons of using fake chips i like to know as i have some and they still work OK to program my MCU

[@superdau]

How to identify a fake FTDI? Simple. You bought it on ebay, aliexpress or any other of the China "outlets". ;)

[@benbaselet2026]

Not guaranteed I guess, you might get a genuine chip someone blowtorched off a recycled board.

[@SeanBZA]

@@benbaselet2026 They even pop up from reputable suppliers, somebody swaps in a reel of fake parts for the real items, or ordered the real ones, and returns the fakes in the same packaging material.

[@benbaselet2026]

@@SeanBZA Yeah, I heard that happens with phone bits. People buy a phone, swap fake parts inside and return it.

[@petrslansky6659]

Is it really so simple? I received yesterday chips from big European distributor that is on "the white list" of distributors of FTDI chips. The chips have unique serial numbers but I believe I received FAKE FT232RL because those chips have the same bug in the design like cheap chips from Aliexpress. I clearly see the communication problem that I cannot see with "genuine" FT232R from FTDI or when I use other UART chip (CP2102, etc).

[@peterjantzer4767]

Nothing of true quality comes out of china..... NOTHING.