FTDI Basic Breakout 3.3/5V (Arduino Compatible) (DFR0065)

Support Product Questions
1

This is a placeholder topic for
“FTDI Basic Breakout 3.3/5V (Arduino Compatible)” comments.



This is a basic breakout board for the FTDI FT232RL USB to serial IC. The pinout of this board matches the FTDI cable to work with official Arduino and cloned 3.3V Arduino boards. It can also be used for general serial applications. The major difference with this board is that it brings out the DTR pin as opposed to the RTS pin of the FTDI cable. The DTR pin allows an Arduino target to auto-reset when a new Sketch is downloaded.

Read more

1 Like
2

The labelling of TX & RX pins is incorrect and does not match the DFROBOT schematic.
The pin labelled TXO (pin5) is an input, the pin labelled RXI (pin4) is an output.
Pin 5 on the schematic is RXD & pin 4 is TXD, this is the standard for an FTDI connector (if there is such a thing as a standard)

Someone messed up when making the silk screen.

And Yes I know, in data comms TX can be an input or an output. In this case the silk screen labelling does not match the schematic and should be fixed by RFDOBOT to reduce confusion when using this board.

1 Like
3

Hi Jim,

Thanks heaps for pointing that out, we’ll update the product page with your findings :smiley:

Liam

4

I note that your article Programming with USB-Serial Converters describes Sparkfun USB to Serial Breakout FT232RL as “the most versatile FTDI board on this list” … but the article is dated November 2016.

This DFR0065 appears to be almost identical, except that it has a 6-pin FTDI connector and is $8 cheaper. Both have jumper to select 5v or 3v3, and LEDs for RX and TX.

I have decided on Raspberry Pis, and ESPHome for microcontrollers, avoiding Arduino - so would FTDI be useful to me anyway ?

What are the differences between these Breakout boards ? Eg, does Sparkfun have a better reputation for quality to justify the extra cost ?

5

Most boards now have USB built in, no need for a USB-Serial converter. If you want to interface to the serial port of a processor, there are cheap converters that just have TX RX Vcc GND. I bought a batch of CH340G converters from AliExpress for less than $2 ea. They work fine. The only use I have had specifically for an FT232 based converter is to program older Pro Mini boards, the later ones have USB on board.

2 Likes
6

I suspect you mean “most Development Kit boards have USB built in”. Or maybe because I am looking mainly at Espressif devices. Seems a bit of a waste putting a USB interface in a commercial product designed to communicate by wi-fi or bluetooth, such as a ESP01-Relay or ESP32-CAM.

And that is my point … while I accept that the cheap converters work fine, I expect that sooner or later some device will need one or other of the flow control or other pins, and I will end up buying the more expensive breakout board anyway. Might as well invest a bit more now.

2 Likes
7

Hi Donald,

I have an ESP-PROG, its great for both ESP devices and STM (Has the reset circuitry built in) plus a JTAG debugging port.

Pairing this with a Tag Connect cable it makes for a pretty commercial expreience making boards.

1 Like