circuitpython-org/_blinka/ft232h.md
Jeff Epler 4715875cc4 Fix board dates to always be of the form YYYY-MM-DD
.. leading zeros are required for `frontmatter` to treat them as dates
rather than strings, apparently per the YAML specification.

This was done by script:
```py
import re
import datetime
import pathlib
import sys

import frontmatter

rx = re.compile(r'^(\s*)date_added:.*$', re.M)

for path_str in sys.argv[1:]:
    print(path_str)
    path = pathlib.Path(path_str)

    post = frontmatter.load(path)
    date_added = post.get("date_added", "")

    if isinstance(date_added, datetime.date):
        continue

    if isinstance(date_added, str):
        try:
            date_added = datetime.datetime.strptime(date_added, "%Y-%m-%d")
        except ValueError as exc:
            print(f"Failed to parse date {date_added} in {path_str}: {exc}")
            continue

    date_added = date_added.date()
    content = path.read_text("utf-8")
    new_content = rx.sub(lambda m: f"{m.group(1)}date_added: {date_added}", content)
    assert content != new_content

    path.write_text(new_content, "utf-8")
```
2024-03-22 11:31:45 -05:00

1.6 KiB

layout board_id title name manufacturer board_url board_image download_instructions downloads_display date_added blinka features
download ft232h FT232H Download FT232H Adafruit
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264
ft232h.jpg https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-on-any-computer-with-ft232h true 2019-09-30 true

Wouldn't it be cool to drive a tiny OLED display, read a color sensor, or even just flash some LEDs directly from your computer? Sure you can program an Arduino or Trinket to talk to these devices and your computer, but why can't your computer just talk to those devices and sensors itself? Well, now your computer can talk to devices using the Adafruit FT232H breakout board!

What can the FT232H chip do? This chip from FTDI is similar to their USB to serial converter chips but adds a 'multi-protocol synchronous serial engine' which allows it to speak many common protocols like SPI, I2C, serial UART, JTAG, and more! There's even a handful of digital GPIO pins that you can read and write to do things like flash LEDs, read switches or buttons, and more. The FT232H breakout is like adding a little swiss army knife for serial protocols to your computer!

This chip is powerful and useful to have when you want to use Python (for example) to quickly iterate and test a device that uses I2C, SPI or plain general purpose I/O. There's no firmware to deal with, so you don't have to deal with how to "send data to and from an Arduino which is then sent to and from" an electronic sensor or display or part.

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