pyftdi: FTDI Device Driver

0.57.1 · active · verified Mon Apr 13

pyftdi is a pure Python driver for FTDI devices, providing access to their various functionalities including USB-to-serial, SPI, I2C, and GPIO. It acts as a wrapper around the `libftdi` C library, enabling cross-platform control of FTDI-based hardware. The current version is 0.57.1, with an active development cadence supporting recent Python versions.

Warnings

gotcha pyftdi requires the `libftdi` C library to be installed on the system. `pip install pyftdi` only installs the Python wrapper, not the underlying C library. Without `libftdi`, pyftdi will not function.
Fix: Install `libftdi` via your system's package manager (e.g., `sudo apt-get install libftdi1-dev` on Debian/Ubuntu, `brew install libftdi` on macOS) or build from source.
gotcha On Linux and macOS, accessing USB devices directly often requires specific user permissions (e.g., udev rules). Without these permissions, pyftdi may fail to detect or interact with FTDI devices.
Fix: Create appropriate udev rules (Linux) or ensure the user has permission to access USB devices. Consult `libusb` or `libftdi` documentation for detailed setup. On Linux, temporarily running with `sudo` can confirm permission issues, but proper udev rules are recommended.
gotcha On Windows, pyftdi (via libusb) may conflict with standard FTDI drivers (e.g., VCP, D2XX). You might need to replace the standard drivers with WinUSB (using tools like Zadig) for pyftdi to detect the device.
Fix: Use a tool like Zadig to install the WinUSB driver for your FTDI device. Be aware this may prevent other applications that rely on the standard FTDI drivers from working.
breaking Support for Python 3.8 and older versions has been deprecated and removed. Running pyftdi on Python 3.8 or earlier will result in errors or installation failure due to `Requires-Python` metadata.
Fix: Upgrade your Python environment to Python 3.9 or newer. The current recommended minimum version is Python 3.9.

Install

pip install pyftdi Install core library
pip install pyftdi[pyusb] Install with PyUSB support (optional)

Imports

Ftdi
```
from pyftdi.ftdi import Ftdi
```
SpiController
```
from pyftdi.spi import SpiController
```
I2cController
```
from pyftdi.i2c import I2cController
```

Quickstart

This quickstart code demonstrates how to scan and list all detected FTDI devices connected to your system. It is a common first step to verify the `pyftdi` installation and device connectivity without requiring specific device URLs or complex operations. It relies on the underlying `libftdi` C library.

from pyftdi.ftdi import Ftdi

def list_ftdi_devices():
    """
    Scans and lists available FTDI devices.
    Requires 'libftdi' to be installed on the system and appropriate
    USB permissions.
    """
    print("Scanning for FTDI devices...")
    try:
        # Ftdi.show_devices() prints detected devices to stdout
        Ftdi.show_devices()
        print("\nIf no devices are listed, ensure they are connected,")
        print("libftdi is installed, and USB permissions are correct.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error scanning for devices: {e}")
        print("Ensure 'libftdi' is installed and USB permissions are set correctly.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    list_ftdi_devices()

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