Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: alexander on November 01, 2009, 10:59:25 AM

Title: Where to find a good USB solution?
Post by: alexander on November 01, 2009, 10:59:25 AM
Hi.

Excuse my English.

So, I'm used to make my projects using parallel port.

But, of course, pport is almost dead.

So, I don't have any idea about how to find/buy/use an I/O USB card that gives me exactly what a parallel port gaves me: really simple I/O signals.

Where can I find a good and simple USB card (to start with, for example 2 stepper motors and 5 or 6 sensors - I can make the drivers [despite I don't like it] - I just need the signals)?

I use Linux!! So it has to be a really standard card.

Do you have any indication?

I really don't like to make my own cards (despite I can make some and I've made my pport cards). It's just because I'm not good with that stuff (too much time and efforts to ridiculous results).

I'm a software developer and all I want to do is read/write signals, process into my software, and make the mechanical stuffs (it's really fun).

So, too much blah, blah.

Thanks for any help
Alexander
Brazil - Rio de Janeiro
Title: Re: Where to find a good USB solution?
Post by: GearMotion on November 01, 2009, 12:30:14 PM
(http://www.usbmicro.com/sitegraphics/u401r3.jpg)

www.usbmicro.com (http://www.usbmicro.com)

This is a USB interface device. It has stepper controls, general input/output, control of SPI devices, interface to LCD character displays, and interfacing to 1-wire devices (EEPROM, temperature, analog). No USB driver needed (the driver is part of the OS). Easy to interface to using languages in Linux, OSX, and Windows.

For people that use Windows the free RobotBASIC is a great and _simple_ way to control the device.
Title: Re: Where to find a good USB solution?
Post by: Starkannon on November 01, 2009, 01:39:45 PM
Can you interface that with high level Java programming? I think it might be the solution I am looking for, also can you turn individual pins on and off from a java high level program?
Title: Re: Where to find a good USB solution?
Post by: GearMotion on November 01, 2009, 02:12:51 PM
Can you interface that with high level Java programming? I think it might be the solution I am looking for, also can you turn individual pins on and off from a java high level program?

I don't do Java myself, but many people have controlled this with Java. On a PC Java calls the DLL (USBm.dll - downloadable) just like Visual Basic or C or RobotBASIC calls the routines. Individual lines can be set to input or output and can be controlled separately.

See the on-line information here: http://www.usbmicro.com/odn/index.html (http://www.usbmicro.com/odn/index.html) for more info.
Title: Re: Where to find a good USB solution?
Post by: GearMotion on November 01, 2009, 02:25:57 PM
Here is something (non robotic) that I made for myself:

(http://circuitgizmos.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mounted.jpg)

It is a box of lights driven by a USBmicro U421. A software program looks for available email in 4 accounts. When I have email in any of those accounts, the LED associated with that account will blink.

Project described in this blog: http://circuitgizmos.com/wordpress/?p=127 (http://circuitgizmos.com/wordpress/?p=127)

That program was written in REALbasic, which is a modern basic that will compile for Windows, OSX, and Linux.