I can confirm this.
Received a FTDI cable in connection with debugging a board: the cable worked first time and then stopped working.

http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-th … ake-chips/

On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, from information from lsusb, I did:
modprobe ftdi_sio
echo 0403 0000 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/ftdi_sio/new_id

Edit:
lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04ca:7036 Lite-On Technology Corp.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 138a:0017 Validity Sensors, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bdb:193e Ericsson Business Mobile Networks BV
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 0403:0000 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd H4SMK 7 Port Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

(Last edited by oxo on 23 Oct 2014, 20:33)

A "safe" place to purchase @:
http://shop.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/ … -TTL(UART)
http://shop.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/ … L-232R-RPi

However, the action of the company, is beyond forgiveness...

It delayed me a lot on tuesday, back to the wonders of how loading of kernels, rootfs, works @ https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=53511

Edit:
I am quick to forgive. Just like consumer routers, the software is sometimes outsourced: wonders if this was the case here.

(Last edited by oxo on 18 Dec 2014, 15:08)

I filled in https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FTDI_CHIP_SURVEY_2014 with the following closing comment which I also sent to sales @ FTDI

To whom it may concern.
When reading this, understand that, my mum and brother live in Troon/Prestwick and we _NEED_ jobs in Scotland.

I needed a USB to TTL level Serial device and was bought one that another person said would work.

The action of the new driver caused the cable to be made unusable when I tried it on Windows.
As I use it on Linux, I was however able to get it to "work" again, with a considerable cost in time.

I was not aware of FTDI's problems with clones, or that FTDI was a company and not just "something" that was written in connection with a cable description.

I can understand the frustration of developement of drivers to be used with the FTDI products, but the solution used is _NOT_ acceptable
FTDI should supply drivers that examine the chips used, and if not genuine, refuse to function.

At the present time, I have taken the trouble to link to FTDI's webshop as a "safe" place to buy USB to TTL converters.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 62#p251762

If some more reasonable action is not taken, I will then be forced to investigate alternative suppliers of USB to TTL converters that I can trust

Yours Sincerly
Owen Brotherwood

(Last edited by oxo on 24 Oct 2014, 08:17)

Who need f*cking FTDI if CP2102 exist ?

Dear Owen,

Thank you for your recent email regarding our recent driver release – we appreciate your feedback, comments and suggestions.

As you are probably aware, the semiconductor industry is increasingly blighted by the issue of counterfeit chips and all semiconductor vendors are taking measures to protect their IP and the investment they make in developing innovative new technology. FTDI will continue to follow an active approach to deterring the counterfeiting of our devices, in order to ensure that our customers receive genuine FTDI product. Though our intentions were honorable, we acknowledge that our recent driver update has caused concern amongst our genuine customer base.  I assure you, we value our customers highly and do not in any way wish to cause distress to them.

The recently release driver release has now been removed from Windows Update so that on-the-fly updating cannot occur. The driver is in the process of being updated and will be released next week. This will still uphold our stance against devices that are not genuine, but do so in a non-invasive way that means that there is no risk of end user’s hardware being directly affected.   

As previously stated, we recommend to all our customers to guarantee genuine FTDI products please purchase either from FTDI directly or from one of our authorised distributors.  http://www.ftdichip.com/FTSalesNetwork.htm

If you are concerned that you might have a non-genuine device, our support team would be happy to help out.

Yours Sincerely

Fred Dart - CEO

On the 26 November, FTDI gave a $250 donation to support OpenWrt project