Working around the lack of USB FTDI

Question

Created Mar ’24

Replies 2

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I'm working on hardware that communicates wireless and wired with mobile systems. Anything non-i[Pad]OS we can connect via USB and achieve great bandwidth, in situations where this is necessary.

Since i[pad]OS does not support FTDI class compliant devices through USB (and also omits the IOUSB framework), I wonder whether we have a way to "work around" this, e.g. how about (ab)using another protocol that i[pad]OS allows?

Concretely, would you think it's possible to tunnel our serial data stream via USBHID?

Answered by DrMickeyLauer in 890141022

Talking to me like a very lonesome person here, but for anyone who comes over this… I have since settled on Ethernet-via-USB, which works fine with/ iPhoneOS and so I can connect to all my gadgets.

Answer 1

DrMickeyLauer OP

18h

Accepted Answer

Talking to me like a very lonesome person here, but for anyone who comes over this… I have since settled on Ethernet-via-USB, which works fine with/ iPhoneOS and so I can connect to all my gadgets.

Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

8h

Talking to me like a very lonesome person here, but for anyone who comes over this… I have since settled on Ethernet-via-USB, which works fine with iOS and so I can connect to all my gadgets.

I'm sorry I didn't see your message before, but I have to say that Ethernet Over USB is an incredibly powerful option that I've actually suggested on several different threads. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why it hasn't been more widely used as, for many accessories, I think it's probably the best option, even on iPadOS (where DriverKit is an option) - it supports the iPhone, the available bandwidth is more than large enough to support most use cases, and the API support is excellent, arguably better than DriverKit or ExternalAccessory.

The only explanation I have for why it's not more widely used is simply that developers didn't think of it.

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Kevin Elliott
DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware