USB2Serial

Extra UART/Serial ports

FTDI Chips

FTDI has USB to UART/Serial converter chips which can be used with our modules running WinCE Image. FTDI also provides the needed drivers. As per FTDI website drivers are supported for WinCE5.0/6.0/7.0.

FTDI Chip website links

• For FTDI USB to UART Chips, check here.
• For FTDI Drivers, check here.
• For readily available USB to RS232/RS485 modules, check here.

How to test

• FTDI USB to UART solution can be tested using any Colibri Module (PXAxxx, Txx, VFxx) with Colibri Evaluation Board V3.1. We have an FTDI chip (only RXD, TXD) on board which is primarily provided for debug port access via USB (Laptop/PC do not come with CoM/Serial port these days). The FTDI chip RXD and TXD is connected to JP17 and JP19 on the Colibri Evaluation Board. You can directly connect these signals to the TXD and RXD signals of UART_A on the Colibri Evaluation Board or you can use the signals to connect to your own UART device. Please check Colibri Evaluation Board schematic for details.
• Installation of FTDI driver is quite simple, extract the driver files, put the FTDI_SER.DLL & FTDI.REG files in "\FlashDisk\System" folder (in case you don't find System folder, create it), double click on FTDI.REG file to import the registry, save the registry using save registry tool (Start > Programs > ColibriTools > SaveReg). Now plug in the cable (USB-B to A type Cable - connect X27 and USB HOST port (X31, X32)), you will get one UART/Serial port extra. Now you can test your application.

NOTE: We have tested on:

• Colibri PXAxx modules (WinCE 6.0 Image Version 4.2/Bootloader 4.3).
• Colibri T20/T30 modules (WinCE 6.0, 7.0 Image Version 1.2, Bootloader 1.2).
• Colibri VF50/VF61 modules (WinCE 6.0/7.0 Images Version 1.0 beta 5).

Silicon Labs Chips

• Silicon Labs offers several single-chip connectivity bridge solutions to support USB to serial protocols.
• USB to Serial Chips. Quad chips do not have WinCE driver support.
• WinCE Drivers can be found here.
• Single USB - UART Evaluation Kit.
• Other Documentation.
• We've tested CP2102 USB to 3.3V TTL module with all our modules. Its drivers can be downloaded from here. (WinCE6 driver works on WinEC7 platform.)

Do you have any feedback/question?. Please email us at support@toradex.com