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Anyone for USB?
Posted by Chris
on
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Still struggling on with toner-transfer PCBs (i.e. I still can't get a consistent finish!) so I decided to use the ruined boards to practice my drag soldering. Even with copious amounts of flux, I found that I was rubbish at it. All the pins got gummed up and I spent that much time applying, removing and re-applying the solder that I burned out some of the fine tracks.
So I reckon that messing about with these tiny FT232RL chips might just be more hassle that it's worth - so it's off to microchip.com to learn a bit more about their 18F range of chips, many of which include integrated USB. Apparently, using USB and creating a HID (human interface device) is not quite as daunting as other device types: so perhaps that's the way to go - cut out the USB-to-serial translator, send data to the micro via USB directly, then use the microchip itself and any onboard UART to send data on to other devices by serial comms.
It's a shame, because I've just spent about twenty quid on usb-to-serial chips and hours and hours building a PCB layout that could be re-used in other projects!
So I reckon that messing about with these tiny FT232RL chips might just be more hassle that it's worth - so it's off to microchip.com to learn a bit more about their 18F range of chips, many of which include integrated USB. Apparently, using USB and creating a HID (human interface device) is not quite as daunting as other device types: so perhaps that's the way to go - cut out the USB-to-serial translator, send data to the micro via USB directly, then use the microchip itself and any onboard UART to send data on to other devices by serial comms.
It's a shame, because I've just spent about twenty quid on usb-to-serial chips and hours and hours building a PCB layout that could be re-used in other projects!
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