[time-nuts] If any of your USB devices have stopped working lately...

[jim s]

Petty BS.  If they want to disable the competitors, rev the device to 
have something that they can use to id their devices, and leave the 
other driver alone.  USB supposed to put the widest support in the host 
end, and the secret sauce in the device.

If they have a problem, they will not produce anyone with a dead device 
wanting to ever do business with them by disabling infringing devices.  
If they put out a message or such, but still worked with their driver fine.

Else I will expect a generic unsigned driver to be out, which can be 
installed and will again work with all.  That isn't desirable for 
anyone, but if that is what it takes to get going,  most will install 
the unsigned driver, then mark FTDI devices forever off their list.

They aren't the only ones with the secret sauce.  I've seen several 
others, and had I known about them planning to do this would have gone 
with them, and not FTDI.  There are only a few things that I have that 
have incorporated FTDI in, and I'm going to look at dumping that code 
and device now.

Jim

On 10/23/2014 8:01 PM, Paul Berger wrote:
> Unfortunately the issue that FTDI is trying to combat is 
> counterfeiters, and I think you will find that the counterfeit devices 
> will report the same product and vendor id as the genuine ones.  The 
> product and vendor ids are how the OS identifies a device and how they 
> decide which device driver should be used.  Apparently at least some 
> of these counterfeit devices are not perfect copies or else a device 
> driver would be unable distinguish them from genuine.  It is like a 
> number of years ago when cable TV companies where having a lot of 
> trouble with counterfeit cable descramblers, they found a flaw in the 
> code used in them and transmitted what became know as a "magic bullet" 
> that caused them to fail.
>
> Paul.
>
> On 2014-10-23 11:30 PM, Chris Albertson wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 7:05 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Umm I think its profoundly hard to know one way or another what chip 
>>> you
>>> have in a widget.
>> Before you buy it yes, you can't know.  But it's trivial to find out
>> after you own it.  For example click the Apple logo then choose "about
>> this Mac" and the data is there.  For example it says this random USB
>> thumb drive I have is
>>
>>      Product ID: 0x3260
>>     Vendor ID: 0x0aec  (Neodio Technologies Corporation)
>>     Version: 1.00
>>     Serial Number: 20040602032741578
>>
>> This same exact information is logged every time the device is
>> inserted to my Linux system too.  I assume MS Windows will tell you
>> all the vendor info as well.
>>
>> The vendor IDs are handed out to manufacturers by an outfit at 
>> "usb.org".
>>
>> So, check your devices.  It's not hard to find out about the ones you 
>> have.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> This is pretty insane actually.
>>> I buy products that I believe are legit no way to know just as if 
>>> the cpu
>>> in my acer or emachines not legal. Heck I have no idea.
>>> Regards
>>> Paul
>>> WB8TSL
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:02 PM, Bill Dailey <docdailey at gmail.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Well..if they didn't properly license the technology...  They 
>>>> should be
>>>> disabled.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>
>>>>> On Oct 23, 2014, at 8:45 PM, Mark Sims <holrum at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Happened to a friend of mine.  All his Arduino stuff died.   This 
>>>>> could
>>>> be the reason:
>>>>> http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232 
>>>>>
>>>>> Short story:  FTDI released a new version of their USB driver (via
>>>> Windows automatic updates no less) that bricks other vendor's 
>>>> compatible
>>>> versions of their interface chip.   They also updated their license 
>>>> file to
>>>> indicate that this may happen...  except you never get a chance to 
>>>> decline
>>>> the new license with automatic driver updates.  I can just hear the 
>>>> class
>>>> action lawyers drooling...
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