FTDI have released a windows driver update that bricks any product using counterfeit chips.
A classic case of corporate suicide.
Dave breaks down "FTDIgate", and rants about FTDI's official response.
NOTE: The 2nd half of this video includes the original rant video before FTDI responded and withdrew their new driver.
FTDI's response: http://www.ftdichipblog.com/?p=1053
The forum thread that's going crazy!
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232'>http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232
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A classic case of corporate suicide.
Dave breaks down "FTDIgate", and rants about FTDI's official response.
NOTE: The 2nd half of this video includes the original rant video before FTDI responded and withdrew their new driver.
FTDI's response: http://www.ftdichipblog.com/?p=1053
The forum thread that's going crazy!
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232'>http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232
EEVblog Main Web Site: http://www.eevblog.com
The 2nd EEVblog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/EEVblog2
Support the EEVblog through Patreon!
http://www.patreon.com/eevblog
EEVblog Amazon Store (Dave gets a cut):
http://astore.amazon.com/eevblogstore-20
Donations:
http://www.eevblog.com/donations/
Projects:
http://www.eevblog.com/projects/
Electronics Info Wiki:
http://www.eevblog.com/wiki/
Done.
Maybe Fred's a good engineer, but has poor people skills. Ain't that what makes us engineers? So Win95 all the way. This can bloom, guys….. Motorola has been doing this with their radios for 20+ years.
I am 8 years late so what ended up happening in the industry ? Dave may want to do an update review ?
Everything. I have to install a third party driver to fix my rs-232 adapters I think about right to repair and the fact that someone should actually be held criminally liable for remotely disabling property legally owned by others. They also constantly update their intentionally defective driver to make it look updated as a means to continue this farce.
They actively go one of their way to ship an intentionally broken driver. Most manufacturers won’t recompile a drive to fix future operating systems and yet we have these assholes doing it to disable our devices.
BREAKING news
ba dum tss
windows somehow allways in the mess … why linux mashines dont do this … just asking this noobish question
Lol, 7 years ago and i'm still never bought another FTDI chip.
I said back then i'd never use FTDI again and i've not in 8 years.
they can go die. crap company.
What would be funny is if they messed up the driver and it bricked genuine ones too
Think they opened themselves up to lawsuits. They purposely bricked products. If they just stopped the update, then all would have been fine.
You have to add a "/" at the end of the forum link to get it work.
Here in 2021
Tried a few months back to approach FTDI for info on how to ID counterfeits, hoping they'd finally have a little app or something to clearly ID devices.
Essentially they told me to shove it and just buy my chips from their safe sources.
Issue with that is i don't buy chips (often), i buy a few trinkets that often already contain these chips, so i have no way of knowing where they sourced those chips.
From what I've learned the current driver is well aware if a chip is counterfeit or not, why the hell they don't offer an app that levers that functionality to say 'hey this is genuine' or 'hey this is fake' and work with us at stamping out dodgy supply.
I doubt many of us want counterfeits.
6 years later and FTDI are still failing at this.
you can slow down the communication by adding some latency even some driver disconnects or something but don't brick it,
They did it again in 2016 February… Trash company
They are pure evil scum
I know this is old, but there's something not taken into account. No contract or agreement can be above the law. They destroyed private property, and they did it intentionally. That's a crime in at least 99% of world's countries, even if I accepted that agreement.
I got a bad name from one of my clients only because of this fcking ftds….
question out of curiosity: anyone still uses that FTDI garbage ?
new computer virus that bricks every device 🙁
I was not familiar with topic. I am already steering my company designs towards Silicon Labs, so now I am sure, I will never design with FTDI chip (6 years later). FTDI is not trustworthy
There's plenty of genuine FT232RL for sale at distributors here in the UK. 184,000 in stock at Farnell. I bought one of those damn fakes, silly me. Boo to fakes. Got to de-solder it and replace with a genuine one at some point. Boo to fakes. Boo. I hear the coppers arrest counterfeiters who make bootleg clothes and such. Oh no, the TAX payers 😢😢😢
FTDIs Twitter responses make me never want to purchase a genuine FTDI part because of how high and mighty they are and how they just keep doing that annoying thing of specifically saying the exact opposite of what someone said to try and be cocky
"It does not hurt the counterfeiters"
"It means counterfeiters don't exploit"
wtf? you just said the opposite of what they said without actually refuting why you think they're wrong
Just saying the scope in top RHS or behind your left ear is still upside down?
It makes us CDO sufferers scream a bit – (CDO is OCD with all the letters in the correct order!)
Just saying. But as an Analogue Designer I never did trust these big digital companies anyway so your rant is the tops mate – keep it up – please
Great video! And you are 100% correct! Who ever thought bricking product was a good idea was a STUPID DICK HEAD with out any thought of what the result could be, not to mention the dumb dick that wrote the code to do the deed! Fucking stupid shit! Im surprised the whole gang of people doesnt file suit against FTDI! This smacks of industrial espionage!
Yep in your face? Have you looked at your own videos… lol
And they did something similar again in 2016
what a dick move, i hope they'll run out of business
almost 6 years later and I'm still pissed off about this. There are still fake FTDI chips around and they seem to work with the FTDI driver. SEEM … since those fake chips are no full copies but only copies with the most basic implementation used by most users. Specific support for I2C, SPI or JTAG protocols are often missing – and that is what I am using.
So I buy an FTDI device that seems to work but as soon as I start using it in my application it does not work or does not work according to spec.
Since there were so many complaints about FTDI protecting their VID/PID numbers (which according to the USB specs may not be used by anyone except for the one who paid for them a.k.a. FTDI) I now have no way to detect if the chip I bought is a genuine one or a clone.
Let's compare this to someone copying the license plate of your car: is it unfair to take that copy of your license plate from that car – in fact making it illegal to drive it on the public roads?
The guy driving the car does not knot it's a fake.
if he says hes sorry that would be admitting fauolt…. dood.,..