FTDITerm
Miniterm (from pyserial) like simple console using the FTDI direct interface. Can be used as an alternative to virtual com ports when you are using a direct driver on a multi-port device. For example, a common use case is the FT2232H with openocd/JTAG on port A and UART on port B. This works sometimes in linux, but OS X and Windows enforce the choice between VPC and D2XX drivers. JTAG and FTDITerm can both use the D2XX interface.
Supports all libftdi supported devices including the FT2232H (testing platform).
Depends on pylibftdi, which can be installed with pip. pylibftdi depends on the libftdi and libusb libraries.
Usage
% ./ftditerm.py -b 115200
opening first available ftdi device...
--- Miniterm on None: 115200,8,N,1 ---
--- Quit: Ctrl+] | Menu: Ctrl+T | Help: Ctrl+T followed by Ctrl+H ---
hello world
hello world
--- exit ---
On linux systems you may need to use sudo to access the usb device.
Optionally, use the -b/--baud flag to set the baud rate. If not specified, it defaults to 9600.
Optionally, use the -p/--port flag to look for a specific FTDI serial number. If not specified, use the first one available.
Use --help to see the full set of options available.
Reprogramming USB VID/PID
On Windows/Mac systems the virtual comm port (VCP) driver automatically grab any USB device with the FTDI VID/PID (0x0403/0x6010 for FT2232), blocking access from libusb/libftdi. To prevent auto driver/kext loading we can set the VID to a reserved value (0x0000) and tell our libftdi tools to look for this VID instead. Note that this is not endorsed by USB-IF and should never be done to a production device.
On Linux, just run the ftdi_usb_program.py script, probably with sudo. Change the NEW_VID and NEW_PID to your desired values.
On Windows/Mac you will first need to disable the VCP driver. FTDI has documented this for Mac in an application note (section 7.1). Rename /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleUSBFTDI.kext to AppleUSBFTDI.disabled and reboot. OpenOCD on Windows provides a tool that lets the user change the driver per USB device. Once the VCP driver is disabled, the ftdi_usb_program.py script should run successfully. Change the NEW_VID and NEW_PID to your desired values.