Find FTDI cable serial number on linux - gmenounos/kw1281test GitHub Wiki
Find FTDI cable serial number on linux
How to find your cable serial number:
In the D2xx driver install files you downloaded and installed for the cable to work, there are a set of example programs included with the drivers.
First, go to the directory where you untarred your driver archive file, and a bit deeper, into the examples sub-directory
/home/youraccount$ cd /path/to/libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.24/release/examples/
/path/to/libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.24/release/examples$
We'll ignore the really long path that's in front of the prompt from this point on, for simplicity. Then, run make to build the example files.
$ make
(let make build the examples, and wait for the prompt to return) Change directory to the folder for the example program we're after:
$ cd /path/to/libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.24/release/examples/EEPROM/read/
And now, as with any program that accesses the FTDI serial cable, you'll have to execute the example program "read" using sudo:
$ sudo ./read
Library version = 0x10424
Opening port 0
FT_Open succeeded. Handle is 0x5607e5ecdc40
FT_GetDeviceInfo succeeded. Device is type 5.
FT_EE_Read succeeded.
Signature1 = 0
Signature2 = -1
Version = 2
VendorId = 0x0403
ProductId = 0x6001
Manufacturer = FTDI
ManufacturerId = AC
Description = FT232R USB UART
SerialNumber = ACDCBLAH
MaxPower = 90
PnP = 1
SelfPowered = 0
RemoteWakeup = 1
232R:
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Here's what you came for: The serial number is in the "SerialNumber =" line -- "ACDCBLAH" in this fictional example. These serial numbers are unique to each individual FTDI chip in each cable. Yours will also be eight characters, and likely will begin with "AB".
As of this writing, kw1281test does not automatically search and find this serial number. I resorted to writing it down on paper.
If you're handy, you may want to make a shell script that calls kw1281test with your serial number, to keep from re-re-re-typing it each time. And if you've done that already, please consider contributing your script to the wiki, for others to use and learn from.
Backgrounder:
To use kw1281test, you must specify the target cable as one of the command line parameters. As of this writing, only serial cables using FTDI chipsets can be used.
On Windows it's the specific COM port (COM1, COM2, etc., etc.)
On unix based OSes, (Linux and macOS), the serial number on the FTDI chipped serial cable must be used.