about Maxim MAX3421E

>Hello All,
>
>I need a feedback about MAX3421E. I'm developing a particular device,
and
>my boss wondering if we are able to add on our device the USB.
>
>I'm using a Freescale MFC5213 micro, and I'm able to use SPI, so my
>question regarding the effort required to implement this part.
>I read something on the web about this component (MAX3421E), but would
be
>great for me to have a feedback directly from a developers and not from
a
>seller :)
>
>My goal is to have the possibility to write on the USB some data that
I'll
>pass by SPI and not more. I guess this device should not be plug and
play,
>so, what is your opinion about the effort required to get my goal?
>
>I don't have a particular bond with Maxim, so, any hints that you have
are
>more than welcome.
>Best regards
>Liste11
>
I am working with this same chip in a product.  When you talk to a low
speed device through a hub,  you need to set the LOWSPEED bit in addition
to the HUBPRE bit.  this tells the MAX3421 to send the full speed preamble
to the hub and then send the message at lowspeed.

Dave
>
>

I am supposed to be getting a sample of this chip in a few days, which
I hope to use to hack usb onto a router that doesn't support it. The
datasheet for this product is available online from alldatasheet.com,
and Maxim has a programing guide describing the registers and their
functions.  Communications can be done over SPI, with the option to
bit-bang GPIOs to implement this SPI interface.  The chip has 8 GPINs
and 8 GPOUTs, allowing it to replace and add to the GPIOs that the SPI
interface consumes.

I think the learning curve on a project like writing a driver for this
is a little steep for the amount of time I have right now, but I would
be willing to test anything written, and willing to learn and help as
much as I can.  Its been mentioned that it will take a lot of work to
get a USB host driver for this chip, and I have no experience in low
level programing, but I am familiar with C, and I can compile a
kernel.  If anyone is willing to put in the work, I think this would
be a useful contribution to the kernel codebase.