Re: Ttl-232R-5.0V cable @ 2Mbaud continuous read of data flow

[Will Zhang <wilzzha@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Take a look at this application note from FTDI, particularly part II.

http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN232B-04_DataLatencyFlow.pdf

FTDI recommends using hardware flow control/handshaking to prevent chip buffer overrun.

This FAQ has info on how CTS/RTS work on FTDI chips.

http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/FAQs.htm#HwGen3


However though, I think there's a bug with libftdi's flow control setting function. Here's what I know:

My configuration involves an FT232R in UART mode connected to an FPGA. The FPGA has UART transmitter implemented in HDL with CTS input (which is connected to the RTS output on FT232R) as flow control option.

Ideally, if the FPGA is sending data non-stop but meanwhile the PC cannot keep up with it's pace (USB driver is not scheduled frequent enough to move data from chip buffer to the PC), the chip buffer will fill up quickly and the RTS line will go high (RTS# is active low) to indicate buffer full. Then the FPGA UART Tx should stop transmitting data in order to prevent buffer overrun on the FT232R.

The problem I've found is that many driver options did not set the flow control register in the FT232R chip correctly. I have experimented numerous driver options on the PC side, some worked, many didn't.
Here's a list:

These drivers are not working correctly, RTS line is constantly high, which is the behavior when flow control is set to NONE.
- FTDI's D2XX library (binary release only) on Linux and Mac OS X
- ftdi_sio VCP kernel module on Linux (This is the Linux VCP driver on FTDI's website)
- libftdi on Linux and Mac OS X

These drivers are working correctly, RTS is high when buffer is nearly full, low otherwise.
- FTDI's VCP kernel extension (binary release only) for Mac OS X
- FTDI's VCP driver (binary release only) for Windows

I haven't tested D2XX DLL driver on Windows.

Apparently, I'm not the first one to report this issue. This is an archived conversation that had described the same problem:

 http://developer.intra2net.com/mailarchive/html/libftdi/2009/msg00131.html 

Note that for all these drivers, the CTS/RTS flow control works fine
 in the other direction, FPGA -> FT232R in my case.

Any suggestions? Should I report this to FTDI, Bill Ryder maybe?

Cheers,

Will

2010/8/24 Szőke Sándor - Alex <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi!

I trying to manage a connection between the PC and a micro controller.
using a cable with ftdi232rq.

The things I have figured out:

1. managed setting of exact 2Mbaud with 2000100 baud, which is funny for
me. :) (This cable has maximum transfer capacity of 3Mbaud.)
2. ftdi_read_data(...) was returned without data with the size of the
puffer, but the one currently in svn is suitable. Read returns after
latency or buffer is full.

The problem I have just recently discovered, is when making a continuous
receive for more than 10 seconds. There are missing bytes somewhere in
the middle... (variable missing bytes occur in the data flow). I would
be happy with 1 byte missing from 4kbyte.

I read in 4096 bytes with 16ms latency.

I don't know how to resolve this.

Maybe there is data received, in between the calls to
ftdi_read_data(...) that is missed? Or what?

Currently, the micro sends bytes continuously at 2Mbaud.

Any help would be appreciated...

Alex

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