Function of "USB-HiSpeed-SERIAL-A CH347 (COM3)"

[TVHD]

NiPoGi AM16 AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 5675U:
An explanation of the function of the device "USB-HiSpeed-SERIAL-A CH347 (COM3)" would be appreciated.

[barry777]

The role of internal debugging

[TVHD]

• Which (Windows-) application is needed to perform the "internal debugging" procedure?

• Is Debugging related to the CPU type "AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 5675U"?

• Do other mini PC addressed in this forum have the "internal debugging" capability?

[dragonpoo]

TVHD, I don't have that model, so I doubt any of my systems will have this specific hardware in it. I've checked a couple already, and found nothing similar. How does it show up in Windows Device Manager? Its Hardware Ids, etc?

If it's used for internal debugging, it was probably a connection for an old COM port, like the name says, and might not even have the serial port connected anymore. I doubt there will be any publicly available application for it, but if a serial port was available, you could probably use an old telnet application to connect to it.

[TVHD]

dragonpoo,
Please find some information about the mysterious USB device enclosed (taken with AIDA64).
Maybe you might have an additional insight.

[dragonpoo]

Thanks for the details. I did some searches for VID_1A86 and PID_55DD, and found a few references to people who had this chip in programming Arduinos.

You can download the drivers directly from the Microsoft Update Catalog: https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/Sc ... db197cef1f - it lists the driver manufacturer website as wch.cn. I did some searches there and got a hit on CH347 (https://www.wch-ic.com/search?t=all&q=ch347), which includes software downloads, plus a full PDF of capabilities of the chip: https://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/CH347DS1_PDF.html

Hopefully that helps. I don't know how technical you are, but to refer back to what Barry explained, I can see how they might use this for internal debugging of the system, but I don't think it will be helpful for end users.

[TVHD]

dragonpoo,

Thank you for linking the additional information.

I was curious about understanding this "COM3" device, which I've never noticed in other MiniPCs.

Currently I presume the AM16 manufacturer will not provide further information.

[dragonpoo]

Yeah, it's pretty clear we won't get any other guidance on something intended for internal use only.

In general, COM devices are old generation technology, like Serial and Parallel ports from decades ago, used for low speed connections and debugging via terminal logs. I'm not surprised to find out some of these mini PCs have them onboard; in fact, I think my old GK3 has a port like this, but I've never needed to use it. It's just less common as USB has replaced these older generation communication ports.