> Any thoughts of providing a USB Programming Cable...serial,
> 12c....??? With all the machines
> out there that have USB ports and no serial..it would seem like a
> logical step...
The problem I have run into is that, in an attempt to "simplify" my
life for me, vendors are starting to put USB on their controller
boards (Parallax comes to mind here). This is just fine ... if you
have the driver for the USB-to-Serial converter that they have chosen
to use. Since every vendor then chooses a different USB-to-Serial
converter chip, I end up having to load a bunch of different drivers.
On Mac and Linux this is bad but at least one driver usually works for
a whole family of USB-to-Serial converters. For Windows you have to
have a separate driver for each and every vendor and product. (This
sucks big-time.)
The simplest solution is to get one USB_to_async-RS-232 adaptor and
then continue to use RS-232 on the device being programmed. In that
case I only need to install one USB_to_serial driver for all my devices.
BTW, I am using OOPic, Basic Stamp 2, and Propeller in my uC and 'bot
lab at school. I ended up standardizing on the USB-to-serial interface
that Parallax sells (FTDI chip) so I only need one driver.
I guess what I am saying (long way around) is, "MANUFACTURERS: PLEASE
DO NOT PUT USB ON YOUR CONTROLLER BOARDS!"
Thoughts behind this -- this is a network layering issue. We treat
RS-232 at the application layer but the transport is USB. It is much
simpler to disconnect these two and allow the end-user to select how
he/she wants to bind the layers together. If given my 'druthers I
would go to a full IP stack and allow physical transport to be RS-232,
USB, FireWire, Ethernet, WiFi, T1, T3, Sonet, i.e. whatever you have
just lying around. :-)
(As one of the authors of PPP, I tend to be a bit biased here.)
--
Brian Lloyd Granite Bay Montessori
brian AT gbmontessori DOT com 9330 Sierra College Blvd.
+1.916.367.2131 (voice) Roseville, CA 95661, USA
I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . .
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
PGP key ID: 12095C52A32A1B6C
PGP key fingerprint: 3B1D BA11 4913 3254 B6E0 CC09 1209 5C52 A32A 1B6C
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