Silicon Laboratories CP2104 User Manual

CP2104-EK

CP2104 EVALUATION KIT USER ’S GUIDE

1. Kit Contents

The CP2104 Evaluation Kit contains the following items:

CP2104 Evaluation Board
RS232 Serial Cable
USB Cable
DVD
Quick Start Guide

2. Relevant Documentation

Application notes can be found on the Interface Application Notes page for all fixed-function devices:

www.silabs.com/interface-appnotes.

AN721: CP210x/CP211x Device Customization Guide — Customize the VID, PID, serial number, and

other parameters stored in the CP2104 one-time programmable ROM.

AN197: Serial Communicat ions Guide for CP210x — Programming guide for using the Virtual COM Port

(VCP) drivers.

AN169: USBXpress Programmer’s Guide — Programming guide for using the USBXpress drivers.
AN220: C8051F32x and CP210x USB Driver Customization — VCP or USBXpress driver customization

tool.

AN223: Port Configuration and GPIO for CP210x — Programming guide and DLL for runtime control of

the CP2104 GPIO pins.

AN571: CP210x Virtual COM Port Interface — USB interface details for CP210x devices.

3. Software Setup

The Software Development Kit (SDK) for the CP2104 kit is included on the kit DVD. The latest version of this
installer can also be downloaded from the www.silabs.com/interface-software website. This package includes:

Device Customization Utility (AN721)
Documentation — data sheet, application notes, user’s guide, quick start guide, etc.
CP210x Virtual COM Port (VCP) Drivers
Software — Driver Customization Utility (AN220) and programming examples

The Windows installer should launch automatically after inserting the
appropriate directory on the
drivers to the system.

DVD to install the software package. Follow the instructions to install the SDK and

3.1. USBXpress Driver Development Kit

The Silicon Laboratories USBXpress® Development Kit provides a complete host software solution for interfacing to
CP210x devices. No USB protocol or host device driver e xpertise is req uired. Instead, a simple, high-level Applica tion
Program Interface (API) for the host software is used to provide complete USB connectivity. The USBXpress
Development Kit includes Windows device drivers, Windows device driver installer, host interface function library
(host API) provided in the form of a Windows Dynamic Link Library (DLL). See Application Note AN169, “USBXpress
Programmer’s Guide” for detailed information on using the USBXpress drivers.

The USBXpress drivers are available here: www.silabs.com/usbxpress.
Click the USBXpress Development Kit link in the Download for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Win7 section

to download the USBXpress drivers. Run the installer and follow the steps to install the software to the desired

DVD. For Mac and Linux, browse to the

Rev. 0.7 7/13 Copyright © 2013 by Silicon Laboratories CP2104-EK

CP2104-EK

CP2104 EK

Serial Device

RS232

CP2104 USB-to-

UART Bridge

USB

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location. The default installation directory is C:\SiLabs\MCU\USBXpress_SDK.
Further installation instructions for the WinCE drivers can be found in the ReadMe.txt file contained inside the

driver package.

4. CP2104 Hardware Interface

The evaluation board is connected to a PC as shown in Figure 1.

1. Connect one end of the USB cable to a USB Port on the PC.

2. Connect the other end of the USB cable to the USB connector on the

3. Connect one end of the RS232 serial cable to the DB-9 connector on the

4. Connect the other end of the RS232 serial cable to the target serial device.

CP2104 evaluation board.

CP2104 evaluation board

.

Figure 1. Hardware Setup

2 Rev. 0.7

CP2104-EK

5. CP2104 Software Interface

If the Virtual COM Port drivers are used, the CP2104 will appear as a COM port in the Device Manager, as shown
in Figure 2. The CP2104 will always use the lowest available COM port for operation. For instance, if COM ports 1
and 2 are in use by other peripherals and applications, the CP2104 will use COM 3.

The CP2104 functions identically to a COM port from the reference point of both the host application and the serial
device, and it can support serial device control requests defined in the Microsoft Win32
Examples for how to communicate with the device as a serial COM port are included in AN197 on the

www.silabs.com/interface-appnotes page or in the SDK.

If the USBXpress drivers are used, the CP2104 will appear as a USB USBXpress device as shown in Figure 2.
Examples for how to communicate with the device using the USBXpress interface are included in AN169 on the

www.silabs.com/interface-appnotes page .

®

Communications API.

Figure 2. CP2104 in Device Manager

Rev. 0.7 3