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Spark Fun has a handy (so it seems) PIC dev board that can be bootloaded and then shows up as an RS232 com port - "This is a spectacular little development board featuring the PIC18F2455. Based on the work of Brian Schmalz, the UBW is a small board with a command intrepreter for basic input and output control. When attached to a Windows computer, the UBW will show up as an RS232 Com port! You control the individual I/O pins on the PIC through simple serial commands. Board comes fully tested, preprogrammed, and assembled as shown." - Link.
USB Bit Wacker
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jun 30, 2006 07:50 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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Or you could do the same thing for much cheaper:
http://pic18fusb.online.fr/wiki/
samples.microchip.com has free samples
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cheesy - yup, the _only_ expensive part is the PIC, and it is easily available for free from Microchip. Breadboarding one of these yourself, or even etching your own board is super easy. Not quite as easy as shelling out $25 to SparkFun, however. :) But definately cheaper. See the schematics on SparkFun and/or my site for details on how to make your own. http://greta.dhs.org/UBW
*Brian
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I've noticed that sparkfun has been offering less and less value for more and more money lately.
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Ummm, big deal. Silicon Labs has a USB-to-RS232 bridge, as does FTDI.
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Andy - very true, as do a bunch of others. They are much better at emulating a true RS-232 serial port. However, that is not the point of the UBW at all. There is no 'real' RS-232 port on the UBW - it is purely a virtual thing. When plugged into a computer, your computer automatically gets an extra 'com' port, which you can use almost any language to 'talk' to. On the UBW side, you can write code for the processor that receives the messages from the PC and sends messages back, as well as run arbitrary code. This is what makes the UBW different from the RS-232 converters - you get to run your own arbitray code on it.
*Brian
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