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FTDI Basic Breakout - 3.3V

Description: This is the newest revision of our FTDI Basic. We now use a SMD 6-pin header on the bottom, which makes it smaller and more compact. Functionality has remained the same.

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. This is a really nice feature to have and allows a sketch to be downloaded without having to hit the reset button. This board will auto reset any Arduino board that has the reset pin brought out to a 6-pin connector.

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.

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.

This board was designed to decrease the cost of Arduino development and increase ease use (the auto-reset feature rocks!). Our Arduino Pro and LilyPad boards use this type of connector

Documents:

Pricing

images are CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

ASCII version

Comments 31 comments

odriew | about a year ago 2

Why isn?t the header aligned with the edge of the board like the 5V?
Mr Earl | about a year ago 2

I just got one via a local store. On the top it says 3.3 V but on the bottom the trace is set to 5 V.
What is it? 5 V or 3.3?
- RobertC. | about a year ago 1
  
  It might be a 5V. the easiest way to tell is to plug it in and measure from VCC to GND.
  - Mr Earl | about a year ago 1
    
    Thanks! It’s 5 V.
    Another thing I could not find out here is how to connect an Arduino bootloaded MCU to the DTR.
    After a little bit of google search I found out that you need to put a 100 nF capacitor between DTR and the reset pin (pin 1 in case of a atmega328). In my case, just connecting reset and DTR did not work.
    Maybe you could put this information into the description.
    - RobertC. | about a year ago 1
      
      There are thousands of uses for this board. If you look at the breadboard Arduino kit, we have it hooked up this way.
Microman | about 5 months ago 2

To point out an error in the description: “This board was designed to decrease the cost of Arduino development and increase ease use” Shouldn’t it be ease of use?
eterer | about a year ago 1

Is it possible to use this board with 4d uOLEDs instead of the ?USB-CE5 ? Thanks for any advice.
- Microman | about 5 months ago 1
  
  It is possible to do such. After reviewing the datasheets, it does state near the end that the ftdi from 4d is a 3.3v device
evaniderstine | about a year ago 1

Have you thought about selling this in kit form? It would be good for sufrace mount soldering practice, and you can’t have too many of these.
EngGirl | about a year ago 1

I know this is probably an odd question but is it possible to configure an XBee with this???
- ZerotimE | about a year ago 1
  
  Can you program an XBEE with this as well?
  - xang33k | about 9 months ago 1
    
    yes guys absolutely, you can program xbee with it. actually you can also program ur xbee with Arduino MCU just connect GND to RESET and ur good to go
:MattW: | about a year ago 1

EngGirl

As such?

XBee Explorer USB

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8687
samuel | about a year ago 1

There is something I miss. You say:
“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. This is a really nice feature to have and allows a sketch to be downloaded without having to hit the reset button."
But really this pcb behaves reverse and I MUST PUSH reset button in order to download a new Sketch. I’ve tested this with several Arduino boards with the same result.
Can you have a look at this????
TheLoon | about a year ago 1

Can you cut the solder bridge on the back and make this unit 5v?
- xtalk | about 11 months ago 1
  
  I am under the impression that if you cut the 3.3v bridge and re-wire to 5v you can convert this unit as such.
Invisible | last year 1

Why are there no instructions on how to connect this to an Arduino Pro Mini? I’m assuming I just connect the end of the mini to the plugs on this board. I hope the pins are correct!
MatthewR | last year 1

Are the IO pins 5v tolerant? What is the max current it can supply?
Chris | about 11 months ago 1

FYI:
The schematic shows the 3.3v board wired for 5v while the Eagle files shows the 3.3v jumper set. Might be confusing to some people.
Member #186833 | about 10 months ago 1

Is this board compatible with the ArduIMU?
Randonee | about 9 months ago 1

Dimensions Shown in the images are not correct.
Actual dimensions are: 18x22 mm
- RobertC. | about 9 months ago 1
  
  Actually, it measures 23.5 x 15.5mm
  I’ll get the pictures updated, thanks.
mae156bsolar | about 7 months ago 1

What is the temperature operating range of this device?
Member #218146 | about 7 months ago 1

Does this work with XBee Explorer Regulated (WRL-09132) directly?
- RobertC. | about 7 months ago 1
  
  No, this is designed to mate up with an Arduino, which has TX and RX reversed. This has the same pinout as the explorer regulated, which means output will be going into output and input into input. They won’t talk. What you want is a Xbee explorer USB which is an FTDI basic combined with an explorer regulated.
  Here
miked13 | about 7 months ago 1

Your Schematic is showing it’s the jumper is wired for 5 V not 3.3V even thought it says 3.3 V right below the jumper in the schematic
- Single T | about 4 months ago 1
  
  Thanks for pointing this out. The device is actually routed to 3.3V. There is an error in the schematic, but not in the physical product. We will get this document corrected. Thanks!
RyanW | about 5 months ago 1

Do you sell the SMD female headers, like the one on the FTDI Basic Breakout?
Gizzygo | about 5 months ago 1

Does this charge the battery when you plug this FTDI Basic Breakout into the Arduino Pro where the battery is attached? My assumption would be Yes, but I rather get confirmation to be sure.
Member #5847 | about 2 months ago 1

If you are using one of these boards on Linux and having “permission denied” even though you ought to have read/write permissions for the relevant TTY file, see this bug :

bug 586751

Basically, some versions of udev misidentify every device that uses an FTDI chip as one particular device, and attaches the tty to the powerd daemon.

To fix the problem, you just need to comment out the udev rule for that device (see the bug). Or, wait until your distro pushes udev with the updated rules.
Antony Trupe | about 2 months ago 1

I’d love to see a version of this with a micro-usb connector.