SparkFun Forums

[SmileyMicros]

I was about to make my own CP2103 breakout board when I saw your CP2102 board. The CP2103 has, in addition to the 'RS-232' signals of the CP2102, 4 general purpose I/O lines. Which leads to lots of intriguing possibilities... none of which I'll mention since I might want to market them. Howsomeever, if you guys are already on the path to making a CP2103 board, I can wait and buy one from you, if not, I'll have to do it myself.

Thanks,
Smiley

[sparky]

Why not? I'll see if I can locate the CP2103...

I hand not planned on one since we don't have a use for the extra lines, but it's silly not to have one.

-Nathan

[henrik]

I just got a CP2103 Breakout, and there is component print error on bottom. You can easily spot the problem ( pad connected to ground plane is labeled 5V )

Mine is labeled 9-23-05. My guess is that bottom component print is reversed 180 degrees.

Thanks,

Henrik

[SmileyMicros]

Henrik,

Mine is labeled 6-12-05 and does not appear to have this problem.

Smiley

[sparky]

!@$#% - Yep. On the new rev with mounting holes, when the header got flipped to the bottom, the bottom connector got rotated.

The CP2102 boards are correct. The CP2103 boards labeled 9-23-05 are reversed.

-Nathan

[henrik]

Am I qualified for a free t-shirt now

[sparky]

You design it, I'll buy it for you

[powool]

Not sure if a new thread is best for this, but a couple of quick comments on the breakout board for the CP2103.

The pinouts don't correspond to a DIP spacing - why is that? Or alternatively, is there a handy connector that fits that spacing?

The chip has GPIO, but these are not helpful without chip programming specs. I note that the Linux drivers are binary only, so FreeBSD users (me) are left out, and also there is no access to the GPIO pins, which of course was partly why I bought the board.

It is a nice chip, but the closed spec makes it awfully hard to take full advantage of.

it would be nice if sparkfun could bug Silicon Labs to release programming info.

What I'm hoping to accomplish is to make a low cost adaptation of the TI USB->JTAG that will allow single stepping, as well as providing USB power for my experimenting.

[wt808]

I'd like to suggest versions of the CP210x breakout boards that use the USB miniB SMD connector.

[powool]

It appears that Silicon Labs is attempting to release a human readable Linux driver for the CP2101, CP2102 and CP2103, presumably including GPIO capabiltiies. They said they're aiming for late Q1 2006 release.

There is a driver in the Linux kernel now, but it is a reverse-engineered one, and missing some key features, as well as not directly supporting the 2102 and 2103.

[sparky]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the update. SILabs really ticked off the Linux community with some initial linux/driver reluctance in the beginning. Let's hope they are finally coming around.

-Nathan

[roach]

I'd like to suggest versions of the CP210x breakout boards that use the USB miniB SMD connector.

Amen. The connector take sup half the space of the board!