cheap way to develop a USB device?

What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
For very low volume, I need low price development tools.

hi look up FT232BM

On 15 Dec 2003 10:55:36 -0800, yong wrote:

> What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
> seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
> which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
> which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
> For very low volume, I need low price development tools.

The Cygnal F32x development kit comes with an evaluation version of the
Keil development tools limited to 4K of code. Also includes simple USB
example code.

Bob

"yong" <yqin_99@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:be3c7875.0312151055.3371c868@posting.google.com...
> What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
> seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
> which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
> which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
> For very low volume, I need low price development tools.

The Cygnal part is a good option and it does not require the Keil compiler.
I have worked with the part using SDCC and it's been great for me.  The only
strange thing that I have run into is that the Cygnal debugger and the
compiler have a different view of which "endianess" is used for the part.
If you can see past that, it's fine.

That said, getting a USB Vendor Id value could present a big hurdle to your
$500 target.

Adam

"Adam Braun" <a.braun@comcast.net.nospam> wrote in message
news:RroDb.58213$8y1.229227@attbi_s52...
>
> The Cygnal part is a good option and it does not require the Keil
compiler.
> I have worked with the part using SDCC and it's been great for me.  The
only
> strange thing that I have run into is that the Cygnal debugger and the
> compiler have a different view of which "endianess" is used for the part.
> If you can see past that, it's fine.
>
> That said, getting a USB Vendor Id value could present a big hurdle to
your
> $500 target.

Another good reason to go for the FTDI chips. It's a single chip
ready-cooked solution. No worries about USB code and you get Product ID's
for free from FTDI. So you use FTDI's Vendor ID and a Product ID which they
assign to you upon request (issued in blocks of four). They provide a driver
set that can be tailored to your product by putting the right strings in the
INF files and by programming the right flags and values in the EEPROM of the
chip. And they provide the tools for that too.

Meindert

"Meindert Sprang" <mhsprang@NOcustomSPAMware.nl> wrote in message
news:3fde3716$1@news.nb.nu...
> "Adam Braun" <a.braun@comcast.net.nospam> wrote in message
> news:RroDb.58213$8y1.229227@attbi_s52...
> >
> > The Cygnal part is a good option and it does not require the Keil
> compiler.
> > I have worked with the part using SDCC and it's been great for me.  The
> only
> > strange thing that I have run into is that the Cygnal debugger and the
> > compiler have a different view of which "endianess" is used for the
part.
> > If you can see past that, it's fine.
> >
> > That said, getting a USB Vendor Id value could present a big hurdle to
> your
> > $500 target.
>
> Another good reason to go for the FTDI chips. It's a single chip
> ready-cooked solution. No worries about USB code and you get Product ID's
> for free from FTDI. So you use FTDI's Vendor ID and a Product ID which
they
> assign to you upon request (issued in blocks of four). They provide a
driver
> set that can be tailored to your product by putting the right strings in
the
> INF files and by programming the right flags and values in the EEPROM of
the
> chip. And they provide the tools for that too.

The FTDI chip does provide all of these things and it is a good solution if
you are looking to use the USB connection only as a custom data channel to a
specific application.  If you are only working with an embedded host, then
this can be a good solution.

However, if you intend for your device to connect to the system as a
specific device type (ie. mass storage, HID, etc.), it is generally MUCH
easier to handle the custom firmware development and use standard system
drivers then to try to connect the FTDI interface through the standard
system stack on each of the different operating systems.

Adam

"yong" <yqin_99@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:be3c7875.0312151055.3371c868@posting.google.com...
> What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device?

Develop a serial device and then use a serial-to-usb converter. -- Mike

On 15 Dec 2003 10:55:36 -0800, yqin_99@yahoo.com (yong) wrote:

>What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
>seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
>which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
>which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
>For very low volume, I need low price development tools.

The cheapest way is to buy a keyspan usb to serial device about $39.
It contains a cypress ezusb chip, which gets its code downloaded when
it is plugged in.

see http://people.omnigroup.com/wiml/soft/pic/keyspan.html for a
complete how-to. I have not tried it yet myself.

HTH ~Steve

"Steve Calfee" <stevecalfee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dbnf409kjrf35kc6ih1ehv4dp6das5icga@4ax.com...
> On 15 Dec 2003 10:55:36 -0800, yqin_99@yahoo.com (yong) wrote:
>
> >What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
> >seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
> >which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
> >which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
> >For very low volume, I need low price development tools.
>
> The cheapest way is to buy a keyspan usb to serial device about $39.
> It contains a cypress ezusb chip, which gets its code downloaded when
> it is plugged in.
>
> see http://people.omnigroup.com/wiml/soft/pic/keyspan.html for a
> complete how-to. I have not tried it yet myself.

It depends on product volume and requirements.
We used the DLP-USB245 module with great success.
You can also buy the chips FT245BM.
See http://www.dlpdesign.com/usb/usb245.html  module +-$25
and http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProduct.htm  Chip +-$5
The FT245 has an 8-bit paralel interface and the FT232 a serial interface.
No USB programming required. Device drivers are free of charge.

Gerhard


see

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 16:00:47 +0200, Gerhard v d Berg wrote:

> "Steve Calfee" <stevecalfee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dbnf409kjrf35kc6ih1ehv4dp6das5icga@4ax.com...
>> On 15 Dec 2003 10:55:36 -0800, yqin_99@yahoo.com (yong) wrote:
>>
>>>What is the cheapest way to develop a USB device? The Cygnal F32x
>>>seems good for its on chip USB controller. But it needs the Keil tools
>>>which is expensive. Is there any USB tools(hardware/software) exsisted
>>>which is under $500 for 8 bit microcontroller like 8051,PIC, or AVR?
>>>For very low volume, I need low price development tools.
>>
>> The cheapest way is to buy a keyspan usb to serial device about $39.
>> It contains a cypress ezusb chip, which gets its code downloaded when
>> it is plugged in.
>>
>> see http://people.omnigroup.com/wiml/soft/pic/keyspan.html for a
>> complete how-to. I have not tried it yet myself.
> 
> It depends on product volume and requirements.
> We used the DLP-USB245 module with great success.
> You can also buy the chips FT245BM.
> See http://www.dlpdesign.com/usb/usb245.html  module +-$25
> and http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProduct.htm  Chip +-$5
> The FT245 has an 8-bit paralel interface and the FT232 a serial interface.
> No USB programming required. Device drivers are free of charge.
> 
> Gerhard
> 
> 
> see

What OS's do they support?

Bob