FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
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FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
1–10 of 315 posts
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#2Ouch, something tells me the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. forums are going to be full of people that are confused why they can't talk to their device anymore. IMHO it's pretty bad to target the consumers who probably don't even know or care that there's an FTDI chip in their device. Certainly am not condoning piracy of the chips, but wonder if there's a better way of handling the situation than breaking everyone.
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#3Ouch, something tells me the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. forums are going to be full of people that are confused why they can't talk to their device anymore. IMHO it's pretty bad to target the consumers who probably don't even know or care that there's an FTDI chip in their device. Certainly am not condoning piracy of the chips, but wonder if there's a better way of handling the situation than breaking everyone.
I suppose they could beg the Chinese government to enforce their IP rights and crack down on counterfeit manufacturers.
Or they could crack down on end-users. Or let the counterfeit manufacturers free-ride off their driver development.
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#4Ouch, something tells me the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. forums are going to be full of people that are confused why they can't talk to their device anymore. IMHO it's pretty bad to target the consumers who probably don't even know or care that there's an FTDI chip in their device. Certainly am not condoning piracy of the chips, but wonder if there's a better way of handling the situation than breaking everyone.
Wow. That is seriously uncool.
I'd never even heard of FTDI before but they can rest assured that if I ever need a USB-to-UART chip that FTDI won't be the company I choose to buy. FTDI's drivers refusing to work with the fake parts is understandable, purposely reprogramming them to make them non-functional isn't.
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#5IF this is on purpose and can be proven so, it is most definitely illegal!
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#6Hackaday has a good short summary of the situation: http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftd...
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#7FTDI have been anti-consumer for years - their last several drivers have introduced intentional instability and Code 10 errors for suspected counterfeit devices.
I think this is totally crappy. I see what they're trying to do (create market incentive for consumers to insist on real FTDI chips) but the reality is that it's just screwing over innocent consumers who buy a device.
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#8Ouch, something tells me the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. forums are going to be full of people that are confused why they can't talk to their device anymore. IMHO it's pretty bad to target the consumers who probably don't even know or care that there's an FTDI chip in their device. Certainly am not condoning piracy of the chips, but wonder if there's a better way of handling the situation than breaking everyone.
Wow. That is seriously uncool. I'd never even heard of FTDI before but they can rest assured that if I ever need a USB-to-UART chip that FTDI won't be the company I choose to buy. FTDI's drivers refusing to work with the fake parts is understandable, purposely reprogramming them to make them non-functional isn't.
> purposely reprogramming them to make them non-functional isn't
Dumb question maybe, but why?
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#9I foresee an arms race here.
Next gen FTDI clones will work around this driver detection. Next FTDI driver has new detection code.
Iterate until the counterfeit chips are indistinguishable from the real thing via software.
Re: FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232s
#10As mentioned, Prolific's USB serial driver previously dropped support for counterfeit some Prolific chips, albeit not in quite as nasty of a way.