kris92 wrote:
tokafondo wrote:
Is the FT245 acting as virtual com port or native USB connection?
This is a true 8bits usb interface. This chip is rarely used. This is strange since it is very to interface, and I do not have to add or synthesize an ACIA.
I've been using and praising the FT240X for atleast a few years now (it's basically the same as the FT245R but with a larger FIFO buffer and cheaper prices, though it's technically 3.3V only but has 5V tolerant inputs).
and i agree, if you already use USB for power, then also using it for Serial data seems like a no-brainer, the chips are very easy to program for and even easier to hook up to all the logic required to interface them compared to a regular UART+FT232 combo.
also if you want to experiment with some displays, take a look at some Arduino TFT Shields (320x240)... they are pretty cheap and use an 8 bit Parallel Interface that is easy to connect through a single VIA (D0-7 on one port and RD, WR, RS, CS, RST on the other port). though they are a bit of a pain to initialize they are still very capable screens (kinda a shame the 6502 primer never mentions them, only their Serial cousins)
here a post on reddit where someone connected one of these to the Ben Eater 1MHz 65C02 Computer, so just imagine what you could do at +20MHz!
https://www.reddit.com/r/beneater/comments/ndoncl/