Sun Sep  2 07:05:20 PDT 2007

How I got a MaxStream USB development board and an Arduino board to both work when 
they are plugged into USB ports on my Ubuntu Linux laptop.

I am using a MaxStream (http://maxstream.com) zigbee USB development board to collect
temperature data from a remote sensor (thanks, Joel!).

I recently purchased an Arduino USB board (http://arduino.cc) from AdaFruit
Industries (http://adafruit.com).  I finally bought one after having read about the
boards in various places (e.g. http://makezine.com) off and on for quite some time.
Late one night I saw and downloaded the software to take a look at it.  The software
installed and ran so easily that I bought a board that night.

AdaFruit must have shipped the board immediately (thanks!).  I received it from New
York to Oregon promptly.  The arduino board was not recognized when I plugged it in.

After monkeying around for awhile, I remembered that I had modified the ftdi_sio
driver so the maxstream development board would run.  You know, the vague  "change
PID to 0xEE18" in ftdi_sio.h instructions (WHICH PID LINE?!).  I hadn't known which
*_PID line to change so had changed a bunch of them and the maxstream dev board worked
so that was that.  Now, I was thinking that was probably the problem causing the
arduino board not to work.

I grabbed the magnifying glass and looked at both boards.  The maxstream board uses
FTDI chip FT232BL, the arduino board uses FT232RL.

I went to Future Technology Devices International website.  I looked at some chip
documentation (http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/FT232R.htm).  The final ftdi_sio.h
file configuration that I am using, and that works with both boards plugged in, is
located here (http://autosys.us/misc/ftdi_sio.h).  Here's the two pertinent changes:

/*m3m#define FTDI_8U232AM_PID 0x6001  /* Similar device to SIO above (0xee18)*/
#define FTDI_8U232AM_PID 0xEE18  /* Similar device to SIO above (0xee18)*/


/* m3m #define FTDI_8U232AM_ALT_PID 0x6006 /*FTDI's alternate PID for above */
#define FTDI_8U232AM_ALT_PID 0x6001 /*FTDI's alternate PID for above */


My Ubuntu system:
$ uname -a
Linux delora 2.6.20-15-386 #2 Sun Apr 15 07:34:00 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux


The number on the sticker on the back of my arduino board:
14615  (not sure if it is a serial or rev number; it's one of the new boards).

The Maxstream board identifiers:
94V-0
XBIB-U-DEV REV. 3
M100386 
WOLF 1704149  (this last item is on a light green sticker; previous items are 
               silkscreened on the board)


~Michael


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