Adafruit
FTDI Serial TTL-232 USB Type C Cable
Just about all electronics use a UART serial port with RX and TX pins for debugging, bootloading, programming, serial output, etc. But it's rare for a comput...
Just about all electronics use a UART serial port with RX and TX pins for debugging, bootloading, programming, serial output, etc. But it's rare for a computer to have a serial port anymore. Thus, a serial cable is an essential part of any electrical engineer's toolkit.
This is a USB C to TTL serial cable with an FTDI FT232R usb/serial chip embedded in the head. It has a 6-pin socket at the end with 5V power and ground, as well as RX, TX, RTS and CTS at 3V logic levels. Useful whenever you want to communicate with a TTL serial device such as an Arduino Pro Mini or ESP breakout, and the pinout will match up exactly to any 'FTDI' 6-pin header.
The version we have is the 3.3V Power / 3.3V Logic. The data signals are at 3V and the power line provides 3V as well. We suggest this for any product that needs FTDI cables and draws less than 50mA from the 3V power pin. Because the cable is 5V-logic compliant, you can use it with 3V or 5V logic just fine - no level shifting required!
If you have a device that is running at 5V logic and power, this cable will work fine. If you want to tweak the voltages and signals a little, you should also check out the FTDI friend.
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- breakout
- A breakout is a small circuit board that makes a tiny or hard-to-solder component easier to connect to with standard pins. It matters because this OLED module can be wired into a microcontroller project without needing to solder directly to the display’s fine contacts.
- CTS
- CTS stands for Clear To Send, a serial flow-control signal that tells the other device it may transmit. It matters for reliable high-speed serial communication where buffers could otherwise overflow.
- RTS
- RTS stands for Request To Send, a serial flow-control signal used to manage when a device is ready to receive data. It matters when moving fast serial streams because flow control can help prevent lost data.
- TTL serial
- A simple serial data connection that uses microcontroller logic-level signals rather than computer RS-232 voltage levels. It matters because the camera can connect directly to many microcontroller pins or a USB-to-TTL serial adapter, but not safely to an old-style RS-232 port without conversion.
- UART
- UART is a simple serial connection that sends data over separate transmit and receive wires, often labelled TX and RX. It matters because this module is designed to replace a wired UART cable with a wireless link while keeping the same serial data format.
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