Warning - Off Topic (you Have Been Warned) !!
A big thank you (not) to Future Technology Devices International Ltd (FTDI) for playing a major role in wasting over 4 hours of my time last weekend.
Is this reef related? Not really, although there may be an impact on some electronic gadgets that may be used around a reef tank.
From their website -
“FTDI's product focus is on USB connectivity and display interfaces, which have wide applications across all market segments, including; industrial, consumer, PC peripheral, medical, telecom, energy infrastructure, etc.”
In plain English, they manufacture, amongst other things, a silicon chip that enables a USB port to operate as a serial port which can then be used as a communication medium. These would be used in a wide range of products including computers, mobile phones and, more relevantly in my case, Arduino micro computers.
Now, around 6 months ago, I purchased a few Arduino Nano microcomputers - one from an Australian site (around $15 from memory) and five from China, via eBay (around $6 each, again from memory). The Arduino architecture is open source so anyone is free to copy the official versions as they see fit – no issue so far. At the time I tried a couple of them and they worked fine – unfortunately, a lack of time has prevented any further development of the project I purchased them for. That was, until last weekend when I needed one for another project.
I connected one to my computer – it could not identify it! I tried another one – it could not identify it!! I knew that both of these had worked previously. I tried the original, more expensive, Nano – it worked. I then tried them in my laptop – it could not identify them. So, thinking that there was an issue with the driver I spent a few hours trying different things - uninstall/install a number of versions of the Arduino IDE; different USB cables; different USB ports; tried installing the Arduino IDE on my wife’s laptop – all with the same result. I was starting to get a bit pissed at this stage as I just couldn’t think what the problem might be.
I decided to try Google (which in hindsight I should have done much earlier) – it appears that this first became a major issue back in October 2014.
Here’s what happened…
FTDI were getting a bit concerned about cloned/pirated copies of their chips (I do not condone copyright infringement) and so they silently rolled out a new driver as part of a Windows update which effectively ‘bricked’ all cloned copies – they did this by changing the Product ID (PID) which is embedded in all USB devices. So, not only would the USB device not work with the new driver, it wouldn’t work with any driver on any computer!!
Let's think about this for a minute - with the cooperation of Microsoft (via the Windows update) this company was able to change the internal structure of a third party product without advising the user of the repercussions. I didn't know that the Arduino's I had purchased contained a cloned chip and yet FTDI are effectively punishing me!!
As it turns out, there are ways to revert the PID to its pre-existing state but many people may not have had the ability/knowledge to undertake this task nor, in my opinion, should they have needed to. If FTDI had concerns about their products being copied then go after the copiers and not after the unsuspecting consumers who purchase products that use the copied chips. @The Reefuge I am sure you would have something to say about this type of thing :)
This was one of many articles covering the issue - http://arstechnica.com/information-...-efforts-sit-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/
This was the Youtube video that got me on the road to fixing my problem
This video didn't actually solve my problem as it turns out that my Arduino's were using a CH340 chip (which still got bricked!!), but it did point me in the right direction. Just in case anyone else is looking for the correct driver I have attached a copy of the CH340 driver to this post.
Hopefully, FTDI and Microsoft have learnt a lesson from this episode and won't try anything similar in the future, although I wouldn't hi my breath.
Is this reef related? Not really, although there may be an impact on some electronic gadgets that may be used around a reef tank.
From their website -
“FTDI's product focus is on USB connectivity and display interfaces, which have wide applications across all market segments, including; industrial, consumer, PC peripheral, medical, telecom, energy infrastructure, etc.”
In plain English, they manufacture, amongst other things, a silicon chip that enables a USB port to operate as a serial port which can then be used as a communication medium. These would be used in a wide range of products including computers, mobile phones and, more relevantly in my case, Arduino micro computers.
Now, around 6 months ago, I purchased a few Arduino Nano microcomputers - one from an Australian site (around $15 from memory) and five from China, via eBay (around $6 each, again from memory). The Arduino architecture is open source so anyone is free to copy the official versions as they see fit – no issue so far. At the time I tried a couple of them and they worked fine – unfortunately, a lack of time has prevented any further development of the project I purchased them for. That was, until last weekend when I needed one for another project.
I connected one to my computer – it could not identify it! I tried another one – it could not identify it!! I knew that both of these had worked previously. I tried the original, more expensive, Nano – it worked. I then tried them in my laptop – it could not identify them. So, thinking that there was an issue with the driver I spent a few hours trying different things - uninstall/install a number of versions of the Arduino IDE; different USB cables; different USB ports; tried installing the Arduino IDE on my wife’s laptop – all with the same result. I was starting to get a bit pissed at this stage as I just couldn’t think what the problem might be.
I decided to try Google (which in hindsight I should have done much earlier) – it appears that this first became a major issue back in October 2014.
Here’s what happened…
FTDI were getting a bit concerned about cloned/pirated copies of their chips (I do not condone copyright infringement) and so they silently rolled out a new driver as part of a Windows update which effectively ‘bricked’ all cloned copies – they did this by changing the Product ID (PID) which is embedded in all USB devices. So, not only would the USB device not work with the new driver, it wouldn’t work with any driver on any computer!!
Let's think about this for a minute - with the cooperation of Microsoft (via the Windows update) this company was able to change the internal structure of a third party product without advising the user of the repercussions. I didn't know that the Arduino's I had purchased contained a cloned chip and yet FTDI are effectively punishing me!!
As it turns out, there are ways to revert the PID to its pre-existing state but many people may not have had the ability/knowledge to undertake this task nor, in my opinion, should they have needed to. If FTDI had concerns about their products being copied then go after the copiers and not after the unsuspecting consumers who purchase products that use the copied chips. @The Reefuge I am sure you would have something to say about this type of thing :)
This was one of many articles covering the issue - http://arstechnica.com/information-...-efforts-sit-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/
This was the Youtube video that got me on the road to fixing my problem
This video didn't actually solve my problem as it turns out that my Arduino's were using a CH340 chip (which still got bricked!!), but it did point me in the right direction. Just in case anyone else is looking for the correct driver I have attached a copy of the CH340 driver to this post.
Hopefully, FTDI and Microsoft have learnt a lesson from this episode and won't try anything similar in the future, although I wouldn't hi my breath.
