Lots of people have been experimenting with the new FTDI Vinculum II USB host chip. We covered the Vinculum II board here and here.
It looks like the hardware and firmware are still a little rough. jpieper has documented a number of bugs, including issues with interrupts and the compiler. If you’re starting a new project with this chip you might be well served to check this errata before getting too far.
Via the forum.
where can we find the doc about the Vinculum II core ? (I mean the programmers model for their CPU ?) ?
I could not find any doc on their website.
All:
I have been working with the V2EVAL board and a 64-pin package.
I continue to struggle with reading an input. None of the example code for the V2EVAL board is able to detect a pushbutton depress, at least on my board.
I am able to see outputs – I can toggle an LED, I can send messages via UART to my PC.
As far as I know, my IDE is at the latest level.
Hello Todd Anderson
I am also working on V2EVAL board with 64-pin package and want to communicate between UART(CN10) port and PC. I am stuck here, no output and also because of no help.
Can you help me?
I harassed the FTDI guys at Maker Faire about this. They really didn’t seem to know anything specific about the VNC2.
I exchanged a set of emails with VNC2 team two or three months ago.
They said that they will NOT GIVE the programmer model of their CPU (internal secret) and that we have to stick the api provided with their compiler and their IDE.
I can’t work or recommand working in such conditions! this is simply not serious! a secret programmer model for a programmable MCU is absurd!
Yeah, FTDI were just as secretive about its predecessor. I guess at least their pricing for the Vinculum II chip is less absurd than it was for the original Vinculum; possibly few customers are actually buying them given that there are ARM, AVR and PIC chips out there that are so much better documented and better behaved.
It appears there is no support for this product from FTDI.
Toolchain 1.4.2 is SLOW, the debugger still does allow examination of data on several occasion, either when the data is complex or even if simple after a few steps in and out of functions. You still need to turn optimization off, my code is close to filling up the chip (on a Z80, or ’51 with known machine code – I have not tried, but sure – it would fit in 16K). Use of ROM data where it cannot be used gets compiled without error or warning but without CPU description it is hard to find out what is going on.
The fatal blow for me is that a peace of USB host code works with one device (full keyboard) and not with an other similar one (keypad). and I now would need a USB analyzer to figure out what is going on and frankly, even then not sure I could fix it.
Summary: USB made easy if it works, USB made impossible if it does not.
I got carried away with the nice little module size. I still do not know what other chip/module to use that is small, USB host *1, slave *1, >4K RAM, but could do with a LOT more and some way of persistent store (that was not supported by the FTDI, had to use external). Any ideas?
Have you upgraded past that release? The 1.4.2 one is no longer supported. They now publish a 2.02SP2 release. And it improves everything. In fact they addressed your problems without even knowing about them.
Hello,
we are extremely disappointed about the VNC2- parts and Support.
We have ordered two VNC2DIP1 and an Evaluation Board. Only the evaluation Board is working.
I mean, I can load UART-Data (short ASCII-Text) on an USB-Sick. Nothing else.
On one of the VNC2DIP1 was a shortcut between two pads of the IC.
All parts have been programmed with the wrong program loader.
I wanted to use these VNC2DIP as an UART->USB Stick bridge. No chance.
It seems that the Team by FTDI has almost no idea what is going on in these IC’s/Modules.
After programming the Firmware for the UART->USB is still no function. None of the VNC2DIP1
does something useful. Only the yellow LE’sD are on.
I have a VNC1 Module too. This module is sticking in the command mode. But accepts no command!
In the Datasheet is no practical example how to change between the command mode and data mode.
Could anybody help me?
I use Hterm as Terminal – Program.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
.
Hi friend, I would like if anyone know what is maximum pen drive capacity that vinculum 2 can work? Thanks
I want to connect a pendriv with this vinculum 2 and read the name of the folders in the pendrive by connecting a display. is this possible with this???????? anyone pls help me……
Things haven’t improve much since 2011. Still slow, buggy, useless.
Just to give you an idea, function bug() below always return 0xFFFF when compiled with the latest toolchain v 2.0.2 SP2. Optimization level is set to 2 – lower levels produce huge image.
unsigned short foo(void)
{ return 0; }
unsigned short bug(void) {
unsigned short sector;
sector = 0xffff;
if (1)
sector = foo();
return sector; // always returns 0xffff
}
Actually not. Your C code will always produce that response.
No, it’s not. The code should return 0.
I have been looking at the VNC2 for fast data transfer from USB thumb drive and came here to see if anyone has any idea if data could be ported to a parallel bus (GPIO or FIFO?) but it sounds like this may not be possible at all.
UART is a hair too slow for data. I need rates of at least 4Mhz