Drivers for Louet Dobby2 and Interfaces
Current dobby2 and Interfaces, newer than 2014
ftdi driver windows 10/11
A FTDI driver for mac is not needed on newer macs. if you upgraded your mac from an older version with a custom installed driver, that old driver may prevent the new one from working. unfortunately as we have no macs at louet, we cannot give info on this.
Electronic Interfaces PRE May 2014
silabs driver windows
If you need the Silabs serial to USB conversion driver, open the attachment found below. The Louet Silabs pdf has the step by step instructions.
Silabs driver Mac
Silabs driver windows 10/11
How to check the date of your interface
If you have a dobby2 with display, you always need the FTDI driver.
For the other interfaces, the age should be determined by reading the serial number. there should be a sticker on your interface. the current interfaces have a serial number like 23nl1623 of 24nl1303. the first number denote the amount of shafts, the second number starts with two digits for the year and a unique serial number.
Older serial numbers are in the form of 2001320001, denoting a 32 shaft dobby from 2001, using the silabs driver.
Background Info
Louet Dobby history
From 1998 to 2014, Louet electronic dobby’s were developed and made in Canada. If you have one of these units, it should have a made in Canada sticker or identification on it. These units were made with mid 1990’s components, some of which started to become scarce in 2013. All Dobby's from 2014 and older are no longer supported and can not be repaired.
In 2014, Louet started making its electronic dobby units themselves in the factory in Holland. At that time components, circuit boards, power supplies, solenoids were all upgraded to current technology.
The Dobby 2.0 evolved from this redesign process.
USB to Serial drivers needed for Louet electronic Dobby’s
The original chip that is at the heart of the Louet Dobby does not talk USB natively. It’s input is expected through serial input , despite only USB input has been available on computers for years. Changing the chip was a major issue as that would require all 3rd party software would need to change their drivers as well, creating a major disruption in the market. so we choose to keep the protocol from 1999 alive.
The quicker solution was to use a common internal (on the board) USB to serial converter. This technology is quite common and readily available. However, the specific driver and operating systems using it also changed over the years.
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