October 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

CH330N is a New USB to Serial Chip in an SOP8 Package

Earlier this month we covered Air602 low cost Arm WiFi module, and while it’s not clear whether it will ever compete with ESP8266 due to software support, some readers noticed an interesting new chip on the corresponding development board: WCH CH330N USB to serial chip with features similar to CH340, but less pins (e.g. DTS, and CTS are missing), and available in a tiny SOP8 package.

CH330N comes with built-in crystal oscillator, and supports baud rate from 50 bps to 2 Mbps. You’ll find more hardware technical details in the datasheet in Chinese.

CH330(N) works with CH340/CH341 driver as pointed out by Icenowy Zheng who made a small USB to TTL debug board based on the chip to practice PCB drawing with KiCAD. She also mentioned the USB ID and behavior of CH330 is the same with CH340.

CH330 / CH330N chip is still nowhere to be found on Aliexpress, but you can purchase it for around 30 cents in LSCS, as well as in a few shops on Taobao and 1688.com for 1.75 CNY ($0.25) and up.

Thanks to Zoobab for the tip

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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15 Comments

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Diego

6 years ago

How is the driver situation under Windows? Recently my hamradio neighbour mentioned how hard it is with new pcs without rs232, so i was about to hand him a converter but then hesitated when i saw it was a ch340. I decided giving a different one instead…

halherta

6 years ago

I’ll take a well documented USB to serial I.C any day over this piece of junk

TLS

6 years ago

halherta

Care to provide a bit more details as to why it’s junk?

halherta

6 years ago

TLS

Does it have a legible datasheet? Does that datasheet list absolute maximum ratings and other tolerances? Does it have drivers available for Windows, Mac & Linux? Are these drivers half decent? Is hardware flow control supported? how well is this support? And many other questions. Sure its cheap but documentation is lacking and even when a datasheet is available it is usually incomplete. Oh can I discuss this part with a Field application engineer from the company that makes this component. Speaking of which do we even know who manufactures this IC.? What process was the IC made with. What… Read more »

willy

6 years ago

halherta

If you had taken the time to read the post and the links before complaining, you’d have responses to some of your questions : – yes there is an available datasheet. A very small one but there is, see the LCSC site – it’s probably legible only by Chinese people, though for most parts (pin names, example schematic, maximum ratings) it’s OK even for me who do not read Chinese – yes it lists abs max ratings (section 6.1) – yes it lists tolerances/recommended operating conditions (6.2) – from what I’ve read the driver is supposed to be the same… Read more »

iridiumsat

6 years ago

willy

Totally agree,
Today everything has changed, a changes that open up a new opportunities for electronics design industry.

halherta

6 years ago

iridiumsat

Change that will cheapen the electronics industry & basically turn it into a big joke

Arachinvore

6 years ago

halherta

There have been (mostly) bad and (more recently) good, cheep Chinese products on the market for half a century. It’s never “cheapened the electronics industry” or “turned it into a big joke”.

Your comments are the real comedy here. Stick with FTDI if that’s your preference, but whatever you do; get your freaking diaper changed!

halherta

6 years ago

willy

That datasheet is a joke. 2 page wow….so detailed. Oh it is also in Chinese which means I can’t read it. I have no interest in contacting a company that makes shoddy ICs with shoddy datasheets.

Diego

6 years ago

halherta

Then whats the big issue staying with ftdi? For many uses this IC has it’s niche but certainly not for you it seems.

TLS

6 years ago

halherta

Sorry, but I don’t care if you can’t read it. I think there might be a billion or so other people that don’t care as well…
Your comments aren’t helpful, you just seem to want to trash this product because.

David Willmore

6 years ago

halherta

I’m starting to think you must work for FTDI or something. How are their Windows drivers? Last I heard, they had a bit of a bug when dealing with some compatable chips.

Arachinvore

6 years ago

halherta

So… this chip is a “piece of junk” because you can’t read Chinese?

walkabout

5 years ago

willy

I’ve taken a look at the IC and it’s actually quite nifty. A small package that does conversion between USB and serial, and with only two caps as external components. I know of no western ICs that can do the same job with so few components.

walkabout

5 years ago

halherta

I would find it inappropriate if a Chinese were to call an American IC junk just because he can’t read English.