Is my FT232 fake or genuine?

The 'bricking'in the software was removed, as I recall, due to customer feedback. Too many products in the field, built in good faith, that the FTDI software could permanently damage - engendering product liability to FTDI.

RL

As I understand it, the new driver was removed from Windows Update, but I have not seen any mention of the destructive code being removed from it.

Also, the license terms still warn that the driver may destroy fake chips:

If they did indeed remove the destructive code, is there somewhere I could find the destructive driver?

If chips carry the FTDI marking, and are fakes, FTDI has conventional methods of redress. If chips from other mfrs employ FTDI proprietary intellectual property, there are other conventional methods of redress. None of these involve the end user.

Driver license terms can not absolve either FTDI or HW driver distributors of liability in the event of end-user injury, as a direct result of intentional damage to hardware, as could be the case in an inadvertent 'driver update' to safely functioning hardware.

FTDI revised the driver after Oct 2014 so as not to interfere with function. Since then, whatever method they are using to identify and handle invalid PID hasn't raised issues.

I don't know the rev number of the drivers after ver2.08.14 that were an issue. There were ways around it, depending on your version of windows, and whatever you expected to do with later hardware or fw updates.

RL

The problem is that these methods are pretty much useless when the perpetrator is in China.

OK. But I still want to make sure my chips are genuine. I am designing them into a product that I hope to sell a few of, so I'd strongly prefer genuine chips.

At this time, I still have the option to return them to my supplier, but before I do, I need undisputable proof that they are fake. Is the painted-on lettering proof enough?

I have searched FDTI's FAQ to see if they have any information on how to distinguish real from fake chips. I could not find any. Maybe I should try to contact them.

firmware revs with issues were 2.11.0 and 2.12.0. Last known unaffected was 2.10.0 from Jan27 2014.

FTDI's official response to all enquiries re component validity is redirection to authorized distributors for FTDI components.

What could be simpler?

RL

With this bricking garbage, maybe consider avoiding FTDI and their clones altogether and use CH340 chips from WCH in Nanjing. At < 40 cents each, pretty economical.

--sp

That's exactly what I have in mind. Unfortunately, I was not aware of either the bricking issue or the CH340 when I ordered the chips. I coincidentally stumbled upon it when browsing through Dave Jones' EEV blog.

Now I want to be able to prove that my chips are fakes so I have a strong case when I try to return them to the seller. The best proof would be if I could actually brick one.

I found version 2.12.00 of the driver, installed it and connected one of the chips. It works perfectly. OK, I have not actually checked if any data comes out the other end, but the Windows PC detect the USB device correctly every time.

If you _really_ want to be sure, you'll have to remove the epoxy and look at the silicon die itself under a microscope. Ideally you'll want a known real chip (or images from the 'net of one) to compare with.

Here's a good resource for information on how to do it, I've been wanting to try this myself for years:

Isn't the chip a generic microcontroller? The reason the counterfits could be bricked was that they were still programmable and the bad driver reprogrammed some of it.

So a device programmer or a evaluation board with a programmer for that device that could read the suspect device would show that it's a counterfit. Assuming that a real FT232 device would fail to read out.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Not according to these Real Vs Fake die images:

Certainly it would make sense for a USB controller to include a microcontroller internally, but I don't believe the official chip is an "off the shelf" microcontroller (and it is shown on the above page that the die has FTDI's name printed on it).

The fake shown on that page does apparently use a somewhat generic microcontroller to pretend to be a FTDI chip. Looking at the die, it is easy to differentiate between this and the custom design of the official chip.

No.

The VID and PID can be modified on the genuine chip as well.