We (SparkFun) have seen fake FTDI chips, too. They appear to be based on some cheap microcontroller that has been reprogrammed to pretend to be an FTDI chip. Again, maybe that's okay, maybe not. Mike H On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 9:28 AM, Bob Blick wrote: > On Thu, Jul 3, 2014, at 03:03 AM, RussellMc wrote: > > The Mini is very basic and has no USB hardware BUT you can buy a plug i= n > > USB to serial FTDI board for under $3 from the same sellers and use it > > for > > eg bootloading from PC. > > If you go that route I advise avoiding USB-serial adapters with PL2303 > or CP2102(or whatever) chips. The FTDI is the only USB-serial chip that > works every time with the newer Arduino bootloader. Also the PL2303 > adapters all use fake PL2303 chips so getting a driver that doesn't > choke is troublesome at best. > > Best regards, Bob > > > -- > http://www.fastmail.fm - mmm... Fastmail... > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .