LilyPad FTDI Basic Breakout - 5V

The LilyPad FTDI Basic Breakout - 5V is a unique revision of Sparkfun's FTDI Basic, now coming in a distinctive purple LilyPad board that's half the thickness. This basic breakout board is designed for the FTDI FT232RL USB to serial IC, with a pinout that matches the FTDI cable, making it compatible with both official and cloned 5V Arduino boards. It can also be utilized for general serial applications.

The standout feature of this board is the DTR pin, which replaces the RTS pin found on the FTDI cable. The DTR pin facilitates an auto-reset function for Arduino targets when a new sketch is downloaded. This eliminates the need for manual resetting, making sketch downloads more efficient. This board is capable of auto-resetting any Arduino board that has the reset pin connected to a 6-pin connector.

For easy alignment with your Arduino target, the pins on this board are labeled BLK and GRN, corresponding to the colored wires on the FTDI cable. The black wire is GND and the green wire is CTS.

Enhancing its usability over the FTDI cable, this board comes with TX and RX LEDs, allowing you to see serial traffic and verify if the board is functioning correctly. This feature, combined with the auto-reset function, makes this board a cost-effective and user-friendly tool for Arduino development.

This board also includes a jumper on the back, allowing you to configure the board to either 3.3V or 5V for both power output and IO level. The default setting is 5V, but you can modify this by cutting the default trace and adding a solder jumper for 3.3V.

For those who prefer microUSB over miniUSB, Sparkfun offers the FT231X Breakout as an alternative solution for your micro FTDI needs.

A portion of each sale of this product contributes to the ongoing development and education of e-textiles by Dr. Leah Buechley.

Additional resources for this product include a schematic, Eagle Files, and tutorials on how to upload an Arduino Sketch and how to install FTDI drivers. FTDI Drivers are also available for download.