Windows Mobile: Install FTDI_SER serial to USB adapter

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To see what FTDI devices are attached to your computer (and see or set their serial numbers), use the FTProg application provided by FTDI. Also, see the code I use to list FTDI devices from inside a C# program ftdiDDS program. Read more: FTDI USB-to-serial converters to drive SPI devices. Current Project / Post can also be found using. Unscrew all 15 Phillip’s head screws around the midframe of the phone. Gently pry up the midframe using a guitar pick or credit card corner. It is easiest to separate the midframe at one of the bottom edges. Work your way around all the sides of the phone until the midframe separates from the phone’s body. I have a Lumia 950 phone running windows 10 mobile. And am intending to use a FTDI usb to serial(rs232) cable with the USB OTG port on the phone. However, the cable doesn't work automatically. I guess it is not natively supported and I can't find the driver from FTDI as well. Go to the Device Manager (From the Start Menu, select Settings→Control Panel. Double click on System and select the Hardware tab. Then click on the Device Manager button) When plugging in a USB cable, the window will refresh and you will see USB Serial Port (COMx).

Sometime you may need additional serial connectors for your windows mobile device. Here is the odyssey I had with a FTDI adapter:

How I installed a FTDI serial to USB adapter within ITC CN50 running Windows Mobile 6.1.

Although the USB to Serial adapters with FTDI chips can be installed with drivers from FTDI, these will not work out of the box with WM6.1.

Initial Test with CN50

Ftdi Mobile Phones & Portable Devices Driver Download For Windows 10 Windows 7

First I copied the Armv4 driver files ftdi_ser.dll and FTDIPORT.INF to Windows on the device.

Inserted a Micro USB/B to USB A host connector (Digikey H11576-ND)

Inserted the USB2SER adapter “US232R-10 – Premium USB – RS232 Serial Converter Cable“

The device prompts for the driver name and I typed “ftdi_ser.dll” although it should not do so, as I copied the files previously. See also

Then I started to try to communicate using COM10 (verified with registry). But there was no communication possible. The VCP test application did not list any port to open, so I entered COM10: (or SER0 for patched driver) but without success.

I also tested without success using a Loopback adapter as described here http://www.airborn.com.au/serial/rs232.html:

Using the VCP PC drivers for WinXP the serial adapter worked fine, so the hardwware is not faulty.

I also tested on CN3 (WM6.1) at the dock connector without the micro-USB cable. But this did also not work.

Finally I tested on a WinCE5 device (CK61) and this worked OK. So I compared the registry of WinCE5 and WM6.1 after driver install and adapter connection. I found the following (red) keys are missing on the WM6.1 device and so I added them manually:

Using this registry changes and after reinserting the adapter, I was able to communicate using the patched driver, where all COM was replaced with SER. Maybe the original driver will work too, it uses COM10 as port, where the patched driver uses SER0.

VCP test tool

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Although the VCP Test application is not the best in regards of error checking (you can enter whatever you want for port and it always makes you think it was able to open the port), I include it here only for completeness.

Ftdi Mobile Phones & Portable Devices Driver Download For Windows 10 64-bit

Original VCP test tool: http://www.ftdichip.com/Projects/CodeExamples/VC++/VCPTest_vcpp.zip

Patched Driver: FTDI driver install cab using the standard COM prefix and not SER (838 downloads) UPDATED 13.02.2021

Same driver as cab with COM instead of SER: FTDI (CE ARM) patched driver (1975 downloads) UPDATED 13.02.2021

Here is the source code of the modded VCP test tool: Modded VCP test tool (1190 downloads) UPDTAED 13.02.2021

Additional links

Link to Installation guides: http://www.ftdichip.com/Documents/InstallGuides.htm

Ftdi Mobile Phones & Portable Devices Driver Download For Windows 10 Pro

The CE installation guide: http://www.ftdichip.com/Documents/InstallGuides/Windows_CE_Installation_Guide.pdf

Update 23. march 2011: Anyone looking for a two port solution? Try the drivers provided by Handera (SD50).