Data Sheet

Copyright © Future Technology Devices International Limited 26
FT230X USB TO BASIC UART IC
Version 1.4
Document No.: FT_000566 Clearance No.: FTDI# 260
7.2 USB to RS485 Coverter
FT230X
1
2
3
4
5
SHIELD
Ferrite
Bead
GND
GND
VCC
GND
VCC
3V3OUT
USBDM
USBDP
VCCIO
VCC
AGND
GND
RESET#
100nF
100nF
10nF
4.7uF+
TXD
RXD
GND
DB9M
SHIELD
10
PWREN#
VCCIO
10K
RS485 LEVEL
CONVERTER
Vcc
ZT3485
5
1
2
3
4
Link
120R
7
6
TXDEN
27R
27R
GND
47pF
47pF
10k
10k
10k
VCCIO
Figure 7.2 Application Example Showing USB to RS485 Converter
An example of using the FT230X as a USB to RS485 converter is shown in Figure 7.2. In this application,
a 3V3-TTL to RS485 level converter IC is used on the serial UART interface of the FT230X to convert the
TTL levels of the FT230X to RS485 levels.
This example uses the Zywyn ZT3485 device. Equivalent devices are available from Maxim and Analogue
Devices. The ZT3485 is a RS485 device in a compact 8 pin SOP package. It has separate enables on both
the transmitter and receiver. With RS485, the transmitter is only enabled when a character is being
transmitted from the UART. The TXDEN signal CBUS pin option on the FT230X is provided for exactly this
purpose and so the transmitter enable is wired to CBUS2 which has been configured as TXDEN. Similarly,
CBUS3 has been configured as PWREN#. This signal is used to control the ZT3485’s receiver enable. The
receiver enable is active low, so it is wired to the PWREN# pin to disable the receiver when in USB
suspend mode. RS485 is a multi-drop network; so many devices can communicate with each other over a
two wire cable interface. The RS485 cable requires to be terminated at each end of the cable. A link
(which provides the 120Ω termination) allows the cable to be terminated if the ZT3485 is physically
positioned at either end of the cable.
In this example the data transmitted by the FT230X is also present on the receive path of the
ZT3485.This is a common feature of RS485 and requires the application software to remove the
transmitted data from the received data stream. With the FT230X it is possible to do this entirely in
hardware by modifying the example shown in Figure 7.2 by logically OR’ing the FT230X TXDEN and the
ZT3485 receiver output and connecting the output of the OR gate to the RXD of the FT230X.
Note that the TXDEN is activated 1 bit period before the start bit. TXDEN is deactivated at the same time
as the stop bit. This is not configurable.