pyftdi 0.25.0

========
PyFtdi
========


Overview
~~~~~~~~

.. |I2C| replace:: I\ :sup:`2`\ C

PyFtdi_ aims at providing a user-space driver for modern FTDI_ devices,
implemented in pure Python language.

Modern FTDI_ devices include:

* UART-only bridges

* FT232R (single port, clock up to 6 MHz, 3Mbps)
* FT230X (single port, clock up to 48 Mhz, 3Mbps)

* UART and multi-serial protocols (SPI, |I2C|, JTAG) bridges

* FT2232D (dual port, clock up to 6 MHz)
* FT232H (single port, clock up to 30 MHz)
* FT2232H (dual port, clock up to 30 MHz)
* FT4232H (quad port, clock up to 30 MHz)

Other FTDI_ devices could also be supported (including FT232* devices),
although these devices are not a primary goal for PyFtdi_, and therefore have
not been tested with PyFtdi_.

Primary goals
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PyFtdi_ currently supports the following features:

* UART/Serial USB converter, up to 12Mbps (depending on the FTDI device
capability)
* Bitbang/GPIO support
* SPI master
* |I2C| master
* JTAG master

PyFtdi_ provides a pyserial_ compliant API, so it can be used as a drop-in
module to access USB-serial converters based on FTDI_ devices.


Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Python_ 3.5 or above is required. (see next section for Python 2.x support)

PyFtdi_ relies on PyUSB_, which itself depends on one of the following native
libraries:

* libusb_, tested with 1.0.21

may still work, but are fully untested there are nowaways obsolete.

PyFtdi_ does not depend on any other native library, and only uses standard
Python modules along with PyUSB_

PyFtdi_ has been tested with PyUSB_ 1.0.0. PyUSB_ 1.0.0b1 or below is no longer
supported.

Note about previous releases
----------------------------

If you have no choice but using previous releases of software, such as

* Python_ (2.6+, 3.3+),
* other PyUSB_ backends such as the deprecated libusb-0.1, or openusb,
* PyUSB_ 1.0.0b1 or below,
* pyserial_ 2.6+ (previous versions of pyserial_ will NOT work)

please checkout the latest PyFtdi_ 0.1x series (0.13.3) which provides support
for these deprecated environmement, but is no longer actively maintained.

Status
~~~~~~

This project is still in beta development stage.

However, PyFtdi_ is being forked from a closed-source software implementation
that has been successfully used for over several years - including serial
@ 3Mbps, spi and jtag protocols. PyFtdi_ is developed as an open-source
solution.


Supported features
------------------

* All FTDI device ports (UART, MPSSE) can be used simultaneously.

* However, it is not yet possible to use both GPIO and MPSSE mode on the
same port at once

* Several FTDI adapters can be accessed simultaneously from the same Python
runtime instance.

* Serial port, up to 12 Mbps. PyFtdi_ includes a pyserial_ emulation layer that
offers transparent access to the FTDI serial ports through a pyserial_-
compliant API. The ``serialext`` directory contains a minimal serial terminal
demonstrating the use of this extension, and a dispatcher automatically
selecting the serial backend (pyserial_, PyFtdi_), based on the serial port
name.

* SPI master.

Supported devices:

===== ===== ====== ====================================================
Mode CPol CPha Status
===== ===== ====== ====================================================
0 0 0 Supported on all MPSEE devices
1 0 1 Supported on -H series (FT232H/FT2232H/FT4232H)
2 1 0 Not supported (FTDI HW limitation)
3 1 1 Supported on -H series (FT232H/FT2232H/FT4232H)
===== ===== ====== ====================================================

PyFtdi_ can be used with pyspiflash_ module that demonstrates how to
use the FTDI SPI master with a pure-Python serial flash device driver for
several common devices.

Only half-duplex communication is supported for now.

* |I2C| master. For now, only 7-bit address are supported.

Supported devices: FT232H, FT2232H, FT4232H

* JTAG is under development and is not fully supported yet.


Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Install native dependency. The actual command to install depends on your OS
and/or your distribution. Examples:

* Debian/Ubuntu Linux

apt-get install libusb-1.0

You need to create a `udev` configuration file to allow user-space access
to the FTDI devices. There are many ways to configure `udev`, here is a
typical setup:

::

# /etc/udev/rules.d/11-ftdi.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6001", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6011", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6010", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6014", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6015", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0666"

You need to unplug / plug back the FTDI device once this file has been
created so that `udev` loads the rules for the matching device.

With this setup, be sure to add users that want to run PyFtdi_ to the
`plugdev` group, *e.g.*

sudo adduser $USER plugdev

Remember that you need to log out / log in to get the above command
effective.

* Homebrew macOS

brew install libusb

* Windows

see `Libusb on Windows <libusb_windows>`_

* Install Python dependencies

pip3 install pyusb
pip3 install pyserial
pip3 install pyftdi_


FTDI device pinout
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

============ ============= ====== ============== ======= ======
IF/1 IF/2 [#if2]_ UART |I2C| SPI JTAG
============ ============= ====== ============== ======= ======
``ADBUS0`` ``BDBUS0`` TxD SCK SCLK TCK
``ADBUS1`` ``BDBUS1`` RxD SDA/O [#i2c]_ MOSI TDI
``ADBUS2`` ``BDBUS2`` RTS SDA/I [#i2c]_ MISO TDO
``ADBUS3`` ``BDBUS3`` CTS CS0 TMS
``ADBUS4`` ``BDBUS4`` CS1
``ADBUS5`` ``BDBUS5`` CS2
``ADBUS6`` ``BDBUS6`` CS3
============ ============= ====== ============== ======= ======

.. [#i2c] FTDI pins are either configured as input or output. As |I2C| SDA line
is bi-directional, two FTDI pins are required to provide the SDA
feature, and they should be connected together and to the SDA |I2C|
bus line. Pull-up resistors on SCK and SDA lines should be used.
.. [#if2] FTDI232H does not support a secondary MPSSE port, only FT2232H and
FT4232H do. Note that FTDI4232H has 4 serial ports, but only the first
two interfaces are MPSSE-capable.

API Overview
~~~~~~~~~~~~

UART
----

.. code-block:: python

# Enable pyserial extensions
import pyftdi.serialext

# Open a serial port on the second FTDI device interface (IF/2) @ 3Mbaud
port = pyftdi.serialext.serial_for_url('ftdi://ftdi:2232h/2', baudrate=3000000)

# Send bytes
port.write(b'Hello World')

# Receive bytes
data = port.read(1024)

SPI
---

Example: communication with a SPI data flash

.. code-block:: python

# Instanciate a SPI controller
spi = SpiController()

# Configure the first interface (IF/1) of the FTDI device as a SPI master
spi.configure('ftdi://ftdi:2232h/1')

# Get a port to a SPI slave w/ /CS on A*BUS3 and SPI mode 0 @ 12MHz
slave = spi.get_port(cs=0, freq=12E6, mode=0)

# Request the JEDEC ID from the SPI slave
jedec_id = slave.exchange([0x9f], 3).tobytes()


|I2C|
-----

Example: communication with an |I2C| GPIO expander

.. code-block:: python

# Instanciate an I2C controller
i2c = I2cController()

# Configure the first interface (IF/1) of the FTDI device as an I2C master
i2c.configure('ftdi://ftdi:2232h/1')

# Get a port to an I2C slave device
slave = i2c.get_port(0x21)

# Send one byte, then receive one byte
slave.exchange([0x04], 1)

# Write a register to the I2C slave
slave.write_to(0x06, b'\x00')

# Read a register from the I2C slave
slave.read_from(0x00, 1)


URL Scheme
~~~~~~~~~~

There are generally two ways to open a connection to an Ftdi() object. The
first method is to use the ``open()`` methods which accept VID, PID, and serial
parameters (among others). These methods are:

* ``open()``
* ``open_mpsse()``
* ``open_bitbang()``

``open()``, ``open_mpsse()`` and ``open_bitbang`` arguments have changed in
v0.22.0, be sure to update your code.

The second, better way to open a connection is to specify connection details using a
URL. The URL scheme is defined as:

``protocol://[vendor[:product[:index|:serial]]]/interface``

Where:

* protocol: always ``ftdi``
* vendor: the USB vendor ID of the manufacturer

* ex: ``ftdi`` or ``0x403``

* product: the USB product ID of the device

* ex: ``232h`` or ``0x6014``
* Supported product IDs: ``0x6001``, ``0x6010``, ``0x6011``, ``0x6014``, ``0x6015``
* Supported product aliases:

* ``232``, ``232r``, ``232h``, ``2232d``, ``2232h``, ``4232h``, ``230x``
* ``ft`` prefix for all aliases is also accepted, as for example ``ft232h``

* serial: the serial number as a string
* index: an integer (not particularly useful, as it depends on the enumeration
order on the USB buses)
* interface: the interface of FTDI device, starting from 1

* ex: ``1`` for 232\*, ``1`` or ``2`` for 2232\*, ``1``-``4`` for 4232\* devices

All parameters but the interface are optional, PyFtdi tries to find the best
match. Therefore, if you have a single FTDI device connected to your system,
``ftdi:///1`` should be enough.

You can also ask PyFtdi to enumerate all the compatible devices with the
special ``ftdi:///?`` syntax.

URLs can be used with the same methods as above by appending ``_from_url`` to
the method name such as:

* ``open_from_url()``
* ``open_mpsse_from_url()``
* ``open_bitbang_from_url()``


Troubleshooting
---------------

*"Error: No backend available"*
libusb native library cannot be loaded. Try helping the dynamic loader:

* On Linux: ``export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<path>``

where ``<path>`` is the directory containing the ``libusb-1.*.so``
library file

* On macOS: ``export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=.../lib``

where ``<path>`` is the directory containing the ``libusb-1.*.dylib``
library file

*"Error: Access denied (insufficient permissions)"*
The system may already be using the device.

* On OS X 10.9+: starting with Mavericks, OS X ships with a native FTDI
driver that preempts access to the FTDI device.

The driver can be unloaded this way:

``sudo kextunload [-v] -bundle com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI``

You may want to use an alias or a tiny script such as
``pyftdi/tools/uphy.sh``

Please note that the system automatically reloads the driver, so it may be
useful to move the kernel extension so that the system never loads it.

* This error message may also be triggered whenever the communication port is
already in use.

*"serial.serialutil.SerialException: Unable to open USB port"*
May be caused by a conflict with the FTDI virtual COM port (VCOM). Try
uninstalling the driver. On macOS, refer to this FTDI macOs
`guide <http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN_134_FTDI_Drivers_Installation_Guide_for_MAC_OSX.pdf>`_.

*Slow initialisation on OS X El Capitan*
It may take several seconds to open or enumerate FTDI devices.

If you run libusb <= v1.0.20, be sure to read the
`issue <https://github.com/libusb/libusb/commit/5e45e0741daee4fa295c6cc977edfb986c872152>`_
with OS X 10.11+.


Development
~~~~~~~~~~~

PyFtdi_ is developed on macOS platforms (64-bit kernel), and is validated on a
regular basis on Linux hosts.

As it contains no native code, it should work on any PyUSB_ and libusb_
supported platforms. However, M$ Windows is a seamless source of issues and is
not officially supported, although users have reported successful installation
with Windows 7 for example. Your mileage may vary.


Examples
~~~~~~~~

See `PyFTDI unit tests <PyFtdi_tests>`_ directory for GPIO examples.

See pyspiflash_ module for SPI examples.

See pyi2cflash_ module for |I2C| examples.

.. include:: serialext/README.rst

.. _PyFtdi_tests: https://www.github.com/eblot/pyftdi/tree/master/pyftdi/tests
.. _PyFtdi: https://www.github.com/eblot/pyftdi
.. _FTDI: http://www.ftdichip.com/
.. _PyUSB: https://walac.github.io/pyusb/
.. _Python: https://www.python.org/
.. _pyserial: https://pythonhosted.org/pyserial/
.. _libftdi: https://www.intra2net.com/en/developer/libftdi/
.. _pyspiflash: https://github.com/eblot/pyspiflash/
.. _pyi2cflash: https://github.com/eblot/pyi2cflash
.. _libusb: http://www.libusb.info/
.. _macos_guide: http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN_134_FTDI_Drivers_Installation_Guide_for_MAC_OSX.pdf
.. _libusb_windows: http://libusb.org/wiki/windows_backend