I wish to learn how to develop a simple USB peripheral of HID type

[matrixofdynamism]

I wish to learn where to start from. What development board should I get in order to make this possible?

 

[joseMiguel]

Hi,

In this web site, lot of people did it with a PIC181F4550 (demo bord).
the SW is given (stack and a HID SW)
regards
Jose Miguel

 

[bigdogguru]

One possible option for a development board is the following:

**broken link removed**

You can regularly find the above board used on eBay for under $25 USB and of course there are plenty of clones available from various manufacturers.

As joseMiguel has indicated most are PIC18F4550 based although both PIC24s and PIC32s offer both USB host and device class capabilities, AVR also offers a similar line of AVRs with hardware USB module and there are various ARMs available as well.

Your choice should largely be based on your familiarity and comfort of coding a particular family of microcontrollers.

With what family of microcontrollers do you have the most experience and feel comfortable coding?

BigDog

 

[matrixofdynamism]

I have the most experience with using PIC micrcontroller.

Related to this question would be, what is a good board to get introduction to ARM class devices?

 

[bigdogguru]

I have the most experience with using PIC micrcontroller.

There are essentially two different USB "super classes", USB device and USB host.

Consider the analogy of a USB mouse plugged into a PC. The USB mouse is a USB device and the PC is a USB host.

A USB device can be implemented as several different classes: Communications Device (CDC), Human Interface Device (HID), Mass Storage Device (MSC or UMS), are some of the more common.

The Microchip USB development board previously posted, can implement the above device classes.

However, if you wish to implement a Host class device, you'll need to consider either PIC24 or PIC32, with the appropriate USB peripheral module, based board .

Related to this question would be, what is a good board to get introduction to ARM class devices?

There are numerous ARM development boards available with an ARM which offers a USB peripheral module.

Some of the more popular are the NXP LPC17xx, TI Stellaris and Atmel SAMx series ARMs.

You can find an NXP LPC1768 or LPC1769 based development board in the $20 to $80 USD range, depending on the desired extras.

Also search eBay for an abundance of Chinese clones of popular dev boards like the KEIL MCB1700.

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**


Based on your familiarity of PIC, I would recommend starting with a dev board based on that family and then migrating to an ARM based dev board.


BigDog

 

[matrixofdynamism]

I am looking to understand the USB peripheral (the slave device) bit. I would consider the host bit to be a lot more complex, frankly.
I once bought a PIC board from China/Hong Kong, it was a terrible experience. The board did not work and a lot of documentation was not even in English to begin with. I just thought, well, never again.

 

[bigdogguru]

I once bought a PIC board from China/Hong Kong, it was a terrible experience. The board did not work and a lot of documentation was not even in English to begin with. I just thought, well, never again.

I would tend to agree as I've had similar experiences as well.

Fortunately, I have found a few Chinese sources to be a better experience. Besides, breakout/dev boards like the one previously posted:

**broken link removed**

Only require an accurate schematic, other documentation and code examples can be obtained from NXP and KEIL.


An alternative is the European based company, Embedded Artists, which offers several LPC17xx based development boards:

LPC1769 LPCXpresso board

LPCXpresso Base board

AOAA Kit

I own several Embedded Artist products and I'm quite satisfied with them.


I recently saw a used Microchip PICDEM Full Speed USB board, sell for $15.95 buy-it-now on eBay.

Microchip also offers a 25% discount to students, which is nice if you happen to be one.

If your initial goals are to learn and master the USB device classes, then a PIC18F4550 based board like the PICDEM FS USB is a good choice.


BigDog