[Swansea Hackspace] FTDI chip - PCB

[Justin Mitchell]

On Mon, 2014-10-27 at 09:38 +0000, Ceri Clatworthy wrote:
> WARNING
> 
> 
> if you have any 'Chinese' FTDI breakout boards, 
> Then DO NOT allow Windows to update driver !!!
> because it will be BRICKED !!!
> look at this post.. 
> https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1629

> Just 'lost' my 3D printer :(

There is an FTDI util that lets you write the PID value back and
re-enable the device, then learn from your mistakes and stop using
windows :)

p.s. that article is quite badly wrong and deluded, we know exactly how
its done, and linux will never do it, i doubt mac ever would either, the
drivers arent supplied by the manufacturer, and the fake "bug" in the
code that does the bricking would have been spotted.

p.p.s. for those that havent read, the driver does this by deliberately
overwriting the PID value to 0 (making it an invalid device) but it does
so in a way that would fail to write on a genuine device due to a quirk
in the hardware. the cloned devices dont have the quirk and obediently
make the write.