FT245R USBto FIFO only recognized as a Serial Port

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When connecting a FT245 USB to FIFO board to my Windows PC, it is immediately recognized as a Serial Port. In the Device Manager it shows up in the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section. I want to use it to control the individual I/O's, like on a relay board. But since it is not recognized as a 'FT245R USB FIFO', I cannot get it to work.
I've tried installing / re-installing several times, tried to force a new driver install, but whatever I do it just stays a Serial Port.
Anyone ever experienced this, and solved it ?

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0
Christian B. On

If I get it correctly there are several issues:

'[...] it is not recognized as an 'FT245R USB FIFO', I cannot get it to work' 

I assume that "cannot get it to work" means you cannot access the devices via the D2XX driver.

According to the datasheet, the 245R has an EEPROM, which can be written via FT_PROG. FTDI provides this tool and allows you to change several default settings. The setting controlling the default driver to be loaded is named "Load VCP Driver". If you set it to "disabled" via FT_PROG, the devices should not appear as VCP anymore and be solely accessible via the D2XX driver.

"I want to use it to control the individual I/O's, like on a relay board"

I am not sure if this will work, because "Bit Bang Mode Availability for the FT232R and FT245R (FT_000339)" states:

The CBUS Bit Bang mode must be configured in the FT232R EEPROM (this can be done using the FT_PROG utility) and then enabled with an FT_SetBitMode command to function. 
It is not available on the FT245R.

However, I assume one can use the other modes and rig the devices to be write only and then use the serial write to set the pins accordingly. In this case each pin is repesented as one bit in the word written.

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jnewcomb On

The following library provides access to SPI, GPIO and I2C features of the FTDI chipsets that support them. If it appears in device manager, you are good to go
https://github.com/swharden/FtdiSharp/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#gpio-protocol
(I'm assuming assume you are using Visual Studio?)

As the other answer indicates, open a serial connection and send characters. Do they present themselves on the 8-bit databus?
Have play with 'Bray terminal' to send hex data.