I have a similar project and requirement and so far I have worked with the GHIelectronics uALFAT and new PIC24 with USBOTG (VNC1L is on the way). So far I can say that both work out of the box but I am leaning towards the uALFAT right now. The reason being that I can simply treat the interface as a black box and just send commands to it. Having the USB stack code sitting in front of me on the PIC24 is overwhelming and I really don't ever want to have to get into it. That said, the VNC1L should be similar to the uALFAT but a single chip solution. Good luck!
adding USB Flash feature to existing product (Vinculum? experience?)
Started by ●May 14, 2008
Reply by ●May 19, 20082008-05-19
Reply by ●May 19, 20082008-05-19
"greginfinity" <gjohnston@ximedica.com> wrote in message news:WsmdnbRcxdJ6H6zVnZ2dnUVZ_vednZ2d@giganews.com...>I have a similar project and requirement and so far I have worked with the > GHIelectronics uALFAT and new PIC24 with USBOTG (VNC1L is on the way). So > far I can say that both work out of the box but I am leaning towards the > uALFAT right now. The reason being that I can simply treat the interface > as a black box and just send commands to it. Having the USB stack code > sitting in front of me on the PIC24 is overwhelming and I really don't > ever > want to have to get into it. That said, the VNC1L should be similar to > the > uALFAT but a single chip solution. Good luck!I shall look at the GHI stuff but it would need to cost less than the $8 that I think that I can do this for. Peter
Reply by ●May 20, 20082008-05-20
"Peter Dickerson" <firstname.lastname@REMOVE.tesco.net> skrev i meddelandet news:sTxWj.3100$ie5.1219@newsfe05.ams2...> I'm looking into adding support for USB Flash sticks to a current design, > perhaps even for retrofit. The product volumes are in the small thousands > a year. The product has an expansion connector that has power, a few GPIOs > and a UART or SPI. Currently this connector is used to add a serial > printer or a few other things. Now I'd like to add USB flash. Actually, no > I wouldn't, but thats what I've been asked to add - one of the expansion > devices is already an SD card interface but thats not what the customer > wants... > > The hardware is ARM7TDMI based with a few hundred Kbytes of spare flash > for code/data. RAM is much tighter because the product is already > developed. I might be able to squeeze 16K. > > My first thought was the Vinculum VNC1L to take most of the design work > away and because the SPI interface would allow it to bolt on. Has anyone > here had experience of this chip that they would be willing to share (good > or bad) ? > > My second thought was to use a host controller chip on the bus (16-bit > SRAM-like) which would would not allow retrofit but would give more > flexibility and hopefully be cheaper and faster. The problem is developing > the software - the thing is OS-less but knows about file system for SD > cards (and SDHC). Anyone have experience of this approach with suggestions > for a host controller chip and the difficulty of driving it? > > Performance doesn't have to be great. The current SD Card incarnation can > do file copy at ~70Kbyte/sec. > > TIA > Peter >There are several controllers with a built in host. AT91SAM9XE would be closest to your needs if you did a redesign. This part has an OpenHCI interface. AT32UC3B would be OK for an SPI<->USB bridge. This has a USB host stack from Atmel. -- Best Regards, Ulf Samuelsson This is intended to be my personal opinion which may, or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB
Reply by ●May 21, 20082008-05-21
"Ulf Samuelsson" <ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com> wrote in message news:g0va6r$g75$2@aioe.org...> > "Peter Dickerson" <firstname.lastname@REMOVE.tesco.net> skrev i > meddelandet news:sTxWj.3100$ie5.1219@newsfe05.ams2... >> I'm looking into adding support for USB Flash sticks to a current design, >> perhaps even for retrofit. The product volumes are in the small thousands >> a year. The product has an expansion connector that has power, a few >> GPIOs and a UART or SPI. Currently this connector is used to add a serial >> printer or a few other things. Now I'd like to add USB flash. Actually, >> no I wouldn't, but thats what I've been asked to add - one of the >> expansion devices is already an SD card interface but thats not what the >> customer wants... >> >> The hardware is ARM7TDMI based with a few hundred Kbytes of spare flash >> for code/data. RAM is much tighter because the product is already >> developed. I might be able to squeeze 16K. >> >> My first thought was the Vinculum VNC1L to take most of the design work >> away and because the SPI interface would allow it to bolt on. Has anyone >> here had experience of this chip that they would be willing to share >> (good or bad) ? >> >> My second thought was to use a host controller chip on the bus (16-bit >> SRAM-like) which would would not allow retrofit but would give more >> flexibility and hopefully be cheaper and faster. The problem is >> developing the software - the thing is OS-less but knows about file >> system for SD cards (and SDHC). Anyone have experience of this approach >> with suggestions for a host controller chip and the difficulty of driving >> it? >> >> Performance doesn't have to be great. The current SD Card incarnation can >> do file copy at ~70Kbyte/sec. >> >> TIA >> Peter >> > There are several controllers with a built in host. > AT91SAM9XE would be closest to your needs if you did a redesign. > This part has an OpenHCI interface.Thanks, Ulf. It looks like we will be doing a redesign in the sense of adding components to the main PCB but using a different processor, even an ARM based one is probably out of the question for now. The main reason for this is that we want to keep the same software base. There are fifteen products based on this hardware to date and new ones on the (close) horizon that require USB Flash cababilities as standard. Its likely that we'll just add this feature to the current products and detect the presence of the USB chip so that field upgrades of old machines still works. We're looking at using the ISP1160 for now because this fits well with the current hardware, which has a 16-bit bus a spare chip select and spare interrupt input. The biggest problem is where to get 0.5A @ 5V from :-(.> AT32UC3B would be OK for an SPI<->USB bridge. > This has a USB host stack from Atmel.I will look into that for future reference. The problem comes that as soon as one product range can do something the powers that be want it on everything however inappropriate. Peter
