Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Using a board with a removable FTDI programmer is great if you are design-
ing a project that will not need to be connected to a computer via USB to run.
This will reduce cost if you are making several devices, and will reduce overall
size of the finished product.
Following is a list of Arduino boards that use an onboard FTDI chip. Note,
new Arduino boards no longer use an FTDI chip, so most of these have been
discontinued. However, there are still many clones of these boards available
for purchase, so they are listed here for completeness:
■
Arduino Nano
■
Arduino Extreme
■
Arduino NG
■
Arduino Diecimila
■
Arduino Duemilanove
■
Arduino Mega (original)
Following is a list of Arduino boards that use an external FTDI programmer:
■
Arduino Pro
■
Arduino Pro Mini
■
LilyPad Arduino
■
Arduino Fio
■
Arduino Mini
■
Arduino Ethernet
ArduinoBoardswithaSecondaryUSB-CapableATMega
MCUEmulatingaSerialConverter
The Arduino Uno was the first board to introduce the use of an integrated circuit
other than the FTDI chip to handle USB-to-serial conversion. Functionally, it
works exactly the same way, with a few minor technical differences. Figure 6-5
shows the Uno's 8U2 serial converter (now a 16U2 on newer revisions).
Following is a brief list of the differences:
■
First, in Windows, boards with this new USB-to-serial conversion solu-
tion require a custom driver to be installed. This driver comes bundled
with the Arduino IDE when you download it. (Drivers are not needed
for OS X or Linux.)
Search WWH ::
Custom Search