SparkFun FTDI Basic Breakout - 5V

Description of SparkFun FTDI Basic Breakout (DEV-09873):

This FTDI breakout is a super small board withg a standard FT232RL USB to serial IC circuit. The pinout fits FTDI cable making it compatible with any Arduino or Arduino compatible 5V boards.

The board introduces quite an interesting solution having a DTR pin instead of RTS pin as instandard FTDI cable, which enables an auto-reset of your Arduino every time a new Sketch is downloaded. No longer need to press a reset button when uploading a new program!

The pins labeled BLK and GRN correspond to the colored wires on the FTDI cable. The black wire on the FTDI cable is GND, green is DTR. Use these BLK and GRN pins to align the FTDI basic board with your Arduino target.

FTDI cable vs FTDI basic:

There are pros and cons to the FTDI Cable vs the FTDI Basic. This board has TX and RX LEDs that allow you to actually see serial traffic on the LEDs to verify if the board is working, but this board requires a Mini-B cable. The FTDI Cable is well protected against the elements, but is large and cannot be embedded into a project as easily. The FTDI Basic uses DTR to cause a hardware reset where the FTDI cable uses the RTS signal.

Documents:

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• USB to serial UART Boards Hookup Guide
• How to Install FTDI Drivers
• FTDI Drivers
• GitHub (Design Files)