USB Development board?

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Rombus

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Oct 12, 2001
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Ok, im looking for something that will give me 10+ Digital I/O from my USB port. all the good solutions ive found online are overseas. Cheep is good too! any suggestions?
 
Makingthings.com has a decent USB digital I/O board, but its freaking expensive. If you're willing to roll your own PIC/AVR solution, you might be able to build something yourself. Downside is, you'll have to invest about $200 to get started. Upside is, you can manufacture as many as you want once you do the circuit schematics and write the code for the microcontroller..
 
I've seen cheap USB-based data acquisition systems (~$100) that have digital ports... Depending on how much speed you need, you could just multiplex those ports to get however many digital lines you needed.
 
Check it out:

http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/cbiproduct_new.asp?dept_ID=367&pf_id=1537

I haven't used this particular device before, but I have used the A-to-D version and it works incredibly well. MCC is the poor man's National Instruments. They even sell a "Universal Library" that gives you APIs for C/C++, Visual Studio.net, and Labview. I highly recommend this company as the ONLY source for analog/digital interface devices.

P.S. Its $99 and has 24 digital I/O ports
 
Rombus said:
Ok, im looking for something that will give me 10+ Digital I/O from my USB port. all the good solutions ive found online are overseas. Cheep is good too! any suggestions?
Click to expand...

16 in and 16 out
for almost $80.00
 
Don't sacrifice conveniece for cost. While there may be cheaper alternatives, I promise you that the MCC will be a joy to work with due to their software support. Also, the MCC device has configurable in/out ports. Each of the 24 ports are fully configurable for either in or out. Also, it has a frequency counter...which could come in handy.
 
That MCC looks intresting (infact bookmarked for future reference), but i should have specified: This will be intergrated into a circuit. i was orginally turned off to figuring out a programmable chip solution, but im thinking now it may not be such a bad thing to learn, that way i could program my own USB devices when they start getting more complex.

hmmmm
:adds Learn how USB works and Learn eveything about pic/avr to his projects to do list:

Thanks for the input everyone!
 
it's simply not worth, USB is a giant pain in the.... cost alot for the development tools, and to release a product for it that is USB certified or whatever.. costs major $$$

if it's for personal or limited use, you might consider just using serial.


oh, and PIC's use a simple assembly language with about 36 instructions... AVR's have over 100 assembly instructions as well as some powerfull chips. (i'd recommend AVR's), but here's a site with easy tutorials that will make learning a PIC alot easier: http://www.winpicprog.co.uk/pic_tutorial.htm
 
plot said:
it's simply not worth, USB is a giant pain in the.... cost alot for the development tools, and to release a product for it that is USB certified or whatever.. costs major $$$

if it's for personal or limited use, you might consider just using serial.


oh, and PIC's use a simple assembly language with about 36 instructions... AVR's have over 100 assembly instructions as well as some powerfull chips. (i'd recommend AVR's), but here's a site with easy tutorials that will make learning a PIC alot easier: http://www.winpicprog.co.uk/pic_tutorial.htm
Click to expand...
I only said PIC because i know what they are, but AVR might win out once i do some research. I know USB is alot more complicated but since none of my computers have native serial i figured i would save a step of using a usb to serial adaptor and just do straight USB. Serial still has a chace (Actually, a much bigger one if im going to be doing my own chip solution). Any good AVR Tutorials anyone knows about before i go hitting up google?
 
For USB connectivity I'd reccomend one of FTDI's many chips: http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProducts.htm. (exact choice depends on what you need). I think the previous posters were dead on about PICs/AVRs. These 8 bit uCs are very easy to use and should be a good economical solution for you. I personally prefer AVRs - but many prefer the PIC. Either can do what you want with ease. If you choose to go the AVR route I'd reccomend getting an Atmel AVRISP ($30 from digikey - it allows you to program AVRs) along with a couple AVRs - the ATMEGA8 is very popular. I personally have recently started to really like the ATMEGA48. You can get everything you need for about $75 or so. You could get an STK-500 (a popular AVR development board) - but I personally think those are kinda unnecessary as long as you have a decent breadboard and an AVRISP. You can program AVRs in assembler, C, and a couple others.
 
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