Those USB-to-RS232 chips used to come with drivers that creates a
virtual COMx port for Windows. Take a look at FTDI chips
(http://www.ftdichip.com).
This way you act as if it was a regular serial port on the Rabbit
(actually it is...) and also on PC side (where it is virtual).
Just take some timing issues into account, USB goes in chunks of
data, so it will tend to buffer things up. But this would not be a big deal
if you do not want to do just normal serial communication. This used
to be an issue only if you need to rely on some perfect timing like if
you want to simulate something else over RS232 signals.
-J
Reply by Eric Chan●June 6, 20052005-06-06
Hello,
Does anyone know if ZWorld's USB-RS232 Converter Cable
can establish 2-way communication? (i.e. it can do
more than just programming the Rabbit)
I am working on a project and want to test USB-RS232
communication between my RCM3400 and a PC. My goal is
to be able to read AND write data from both ends for
processing.
My plan is to implement normal 232-serial
communication on the RCM3400 and write a program for
the PC to read/write from the USB port. Unfortunately,
I cannot start on this yet as I believe I need Windows
DDK ($200) to get the necessary libraries for USB
communication development. (Please correct me if I'm
wrong. I want to confirm that there isn't another way
to do this before buying the DDK)
Any ideas/samples on this are greatly appreciated!