> -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Kraig Jones > > Tom Marble wrote: > > >Steven N. Trapp wrote: > > > > > >>Anyone play with PIC microcontrollers in the T.C. area? > >> > >> > >I've got a lot of the development stuff, but just haven't > >had (made?) the cycles to hack it much... > > > >I'm actually very interested in the Atmel AVR line... > >In any case it would interesting to find if there is > >any intersection of folks in the Twin Cities that > >use Linux, like hacking hardware like microcontrollers, and > >want to share best practices, etc. > > > >Regards, > > > >--Tom > > > > > I have been interested in PICs too, for some projects, but > never quite > get around to doing anything. I got the Myke Predko book and > built the > programmer, and I have one of the TI MSP430 USB evaluation > kits. Just > don't know what to do with it. > > Kraig Jones I'm interestd too and have a couple of suggestions to look into. The USB 2.0 spec is 650 pages long, so easy to get things confused. There are three data rates, 1.5, 12 and 480 MHz. Some old "legacy things" like mice may not work at even 1.5 MHz, and sometimes it's desireable to operate at a low data rate so the signal can get through a "narrow band medium" such as a very flexible cord or very low powered wireless link. How to limit the controller's rate is not clear: it polls to identify the connection, and whether the polling rate clock can be limited to say 100 kHz is not clear. Some legacy stuff supposedly operates at low rates like that however. Another application I'd like to explore is to make the data connection to my smartphone when used for data-only so I can set the equivalent of a modem's DTE rate to be say 1.5MHz. The dumb serial driver I have under WinXP emulates a sreial link (but it's actually USB) and limits that DTE rate to the 115kbaud max UART rate. There are interesting things to do at the 480MHz end, but that gets real tricky for sustained dataflow from a PIC processor, etc. Anybody need links to the spec and some apps? Chuck