| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
rrb011270
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 51
|
| PIC USB Development Kit |
 Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:25 pm |
 |
|
Mabuhay!
I like to ask an inquiry if anybody in the forum who knows where to buy a good PIC USB Development Kit.
Any help will do.
Thnx |
|
 |
Yashu
Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 26
|
|
|
Darren Rook
Joined: 06 Sep 2003
Posts: 287
Location: Milwaukee, WI
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:38 am |
|
|
http://www.ccsinfo.com/usbkit.shtml
A lot of people have been wimping out and using an FTDI chip though instead of developing a real USB application.
Last edited by Darren Rook on Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:55 am; edited 2 times in total |
|
|
Mark
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 2838
Location: Atlanta, GA
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:37 am |
|
|
Yeah, I did  But the PIC18F6720 didn't have USB so I have an excuse! I would probably go with a Cypress part now. |
|
|
Darren Rook
Joined: 06 Sep 2003
Posts: 287
Location: Milwaukee, WI
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:56 am |
|
|
| Mark wrote: | | Yeah, I did But the PIC18F6720 didn't have USB so I have an excuse! I would probably go with a Cypress part now. |
After using the National part on CCS's USB Prototype board I have fallen in love with it. I used to hate USB with a passion, now I think it's great. Plus CCS provides a driver for the National part and a USB stack (all written by me  ) |
|
|
Dale Botkin
Guest
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:04 pm |
|
|
And I can tell you why; I just recently did a analysis of dev & production costs for a new project, starting from scratch and with no idea of how well this thing will do in the market -- probably a few thousand or possibly a few tens of thousands of units over the product's life span, but there's always that possibility people might latch onto this as a really cool thing, which could then sell a LOT. Or it could die a quick death.
At least for the development and proof-of-concept phase, if you've got a tight budget it seems to me you could save a few grand and some serious time by using the FTDI chip. Now all the USB stuff is done for you -- at virtually no cost. Otherwise you plow a few thousand dollars into a USB vendor number, dev tools, etc. before you can even start developing the proof of concept prototype. Then you get the joy and satisfaction of writing Windows drivers in 57 flavors, or shelling out more thousands for a Windows driver dev kit. It's a pretty stiff ante if you're playing with your own money and a completely new idea. It makes sense up to a few hundred units.
Long term, it's a very expensive way to go. But you can always go back later on if you want to and develop your own PIC or Cypress solution. I just finished an analysis for a project I and another guy are starting up. Disregarding developer time (ours, so not a cash factor), for production quantities up to 400 or 500 units it's cheapest to go with an FTDI USB frontend and a cheap PIC doing the "real" work. By the time we get to that point we should know whether the market will justify re-engineering with a Cypress chip -- sorry, but it's just way less expensive in the long run than a PIC solution, much as I will hate to have to learn a new compiler and hardware architecture.
I may have overlooked some glaring flaw in my reasoning. If so, I'd be more than happy to have someone point it out to me. Neither of us have ever done any USB stuff before. |
|
|
Yashu
Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 26
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:49 pm |
|
|
Re: FTDI
Developers spoon fed by governments can afford to develop from scratch
Designers competing in the open ended commercial sector must research and develop efficiently...therefore, the choice of FTDI is debateless for initial product launch |
|
|
Darren Rook
Joined: 06 Sep 2003
Posts: 287
Location: Milwaukee, WI
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:08 pm |
|
|
No doubt, FTDI is a great product.
But what if you want to make a HID mouse, keyboard, or joystick? Or any HID device? What if you want your product to act like a USB harddrive? In these regards the FTDI doesn't help you.
Also, you can do a lot of stuff in HID without having to write any drivers. BTW - CCS provides an example bulk driver in MSVC++. |
|
|
Darren Rook
Joined: 06 Sep 2003
Posts: 287
Location: Milwaukee, WI
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:26 pm |
|
|
In addition to my previous post, things you can do with a real USB device you can't do with FTDI: a device with more than one interface (say it has both a HID keyboard and a HID mouse). A device that has more than one configuration (say it has low power and full power configuration mode).
FTDI will probably add support for things like this in the future, though. But they don't have it now, and the development of a real USB device isn't that hard especially considering CCS already provides with examples, a USB stack/driver, and example hardware with schematic.. And since all of you already own a CCS compiler....
Just my opinion. |
|
|
Mark
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 2838
Location: Atlanta, GA
|
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:07 pm |
|
|
Sounds like you need to scratch off the tops of a couple of pics, do a little firmware, and start selling DRUSB chip  |
|
|
alexz
Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 133
Location: UK
|
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:15 am |
|
|
| Yashu wrote: | | http://www.compsys1.com/workbench/pUSB/pusb.html |
This kit does not include the in circuit debugger
_________________
Alex |
|
|
|
FAQ 
Search
Register
Profile 
Log in to check your private messages 
Log in
