Domino as a USB device

The title says it all. Is this possible?

The chip supports it but how to do this is not documented anywhere. The USBIzi chipset says host/device is supported.

It’s possible, but only if you are using the beta SDK, which is only available if you have enough “Experience”

Back to Microchip for me then. Their USB stack has worked well for me in the past.

I was looking at using the USBizi on a custom board. I was planning on using the domino to prototype. This is a major peice of missing functionality. It’s kind of a toy without this. Of course, I bought the domino based on the USBizi sell sheet. Silly me!

Please do not compare usbizi to microchip or anything else :frowning:
You will know why after you use visual studio instead of the very buggy MPLAB. I did use pics professionally for years so I have clear idea of what you get :wink:

Well Gus,

I clearly cannot compare USBizi to any of the Microchip products I have used and am likely going to use again. Why? Because I can actually create a USB device, unlike USBizi.

Given the choice of being able to meet the requirement for a USB device and using a supposedly buggy IDE, or failing to meet the requirement for USB what should I do?

Gus, you have already made the choice for me haven’t you? Today, USBizi cannot meet the hardware requirement. Ergo it is not even in the running.

As for sharing your experience with me I have over 20 years in the business and I can assure you that I am not unfamiliar with Visual Studio. In fact I use it, and more recently team foundation server, every day to support a CMMI level 3 development process.

I am also very familar with MPLAB and the Microchip USB stack. It has its flaws but is none the less a perfectly usable development environment, although showing its age.

Your post added nothing of substance to my question. Indeed, it portrays GHI in a very poor light. You are out of hand rejecting that might actually have a real need to produce a USB device. Sir, you appear to think this is a game. What attracted me to GHI is the fact I can buy off the shelf which works well for small runs. Other .Net micro framework suppliers have more complex arrangements which do not suit my immediate need. May I also remind you that small production runs are where savings in development time have the largest payoff.

Perhaps you would like to take this chance to reset the relationship I appear not to be having with GHI and post something that is actually constructive, such as the the roadmap and timeline for release of the beta SDK that Chris alluded to. For the record I am not interested in being part of this particular Beta program. The .NET micro framewrk is new to me and I wish to limit the variables that will influence my selection of platform.

I have used MPLAB for at least 8-hours/day for 5 years and had horrible stories so I was posting out of personal experience. This was sometime ago so maybe MPLAB got much better by now…I hope. Defiantly everyone is free to use what fits their application best…not sure if I got you upset somehow! You sound really angry in your response :slight_smile:

Like Chris said, this feature is already complete and it is out for testing to select experienced users but should be available to everyone very shortly. No set date yet but you need couple weeks to get familiar with FEZ anyway so by then this feature will be public.

The documentation is available if you wanted to see examples on how USB device work on GHI devices. See the USB Clinet namespace on this page http://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads/NETMF_Beta/Library/Index.html

Gus,

not angry. Just incredulous and shocked that the first official post from a GHI rep was not to actually help answer the question but to post “Not Fair” on the boards.

A comment from co-worker of mine was “I can’t believe a company rep actually posted that!” That fact you didn’t mention the ongoing work on the SDK, or the link to the documentation is nothing short of stunning. In the mind of that worker the image of GHI is now set as a hobby only company.

At work the .NET micro framework is seen a joke, not ready for prime time and part of the seemingly desparately fragmented approach MS have to the embedded market.

Arguments otherwise are falling on deaf ears. Unlike many, I am at least willing to buy some.NET hardware to evaluate (on my own dime, I might add, with is way I went with the domino not the Tahoe II) Unhelpful posts don’t improve that impression.

So far I’m down 2 strikes. How you answer the next question might make it three strikes. Code portability.

I see you have, as an example, a class called GHIElectronics.NETMF.USBClient.USBClientController.

How does this related to Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.UsbClient.UsbController?

WIth the new SDK will I have full use of all the Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.UsbClient Namespace?

Does the new SDK use the porting kit USB API and the HAL/PAL layers, or is the only way to use USB a custom assembly that is not open source, therefore killing any chance of writing code portable between different chip and .NET framework vendors?

Much as I like the domino for playing around with I get the impression my collegues may be right.

Thank you for your time.

Again, the response was on my own experience with MPLAB vs VisualStudio. This is a more relaxed forum. Everyone helps everyone and we like to think of it as a community forum. My own opinions doesn’t reflect GHI views.

[quote]At work the .NET micro framework is seen a joke, not ready for prime time and part of the seemingly desparately fragmented approach MS have to the embedded market.
[/quote]

C compiler were seen as jokes when people were used to assembly :slight_smile: This is new technology and I understand some may find it skeptical. It is a matter of time for the skeptical developers to realize that managed programming is now a good option for embedded devices, just like it is for PCs.
There are thousands and thousands of GHI NETMF devices in field already used commercially by hundreds of customers around the world.

About the libraries questions, yes if you use the GHI libraries then this is only work on GHI devices. It is up to you to what libraries to use so if you are using NETMF from other vendors then do not use the GHI specific libraries.

Jeremy,

Nobody is trying to argue anything here. Look around, 99.999% of the posts on this forum are relaxed posts from people chatting amongst themselves.

The reason why Gus didn’t link the beta SDK is because you haven’t spent enough time on the forums, which means you have probably not spent a lot of time with the device and may just end up getting confused and frustrated when something doesn’t work with the BETA SDK. If you stick around a little more then you will eventually get the required post count to get access to the beta SDK and can do whatever you want with it.

Keep in mind this is a BETA. The reason why it isn’t out for everyone is because it is in testing. GHI is making sure the SDK works correctly with a select number of users that have had a good amount of experience with the device. GHI has said that the SDK will be released to the public soon.

Nobody is going to answer your questions if you keep talking in such an arrogant, condescending manner, so please, improve your tone and people will respond. :slight_smile:

As for NETMF being “scatterbrained”. Yeah, some select parts of it are. You will find in most of NETMF that it closely replicates .NET. There are a few parts of NETMF that are still being improved. As Gus said, this is very new technology. Don’t expect it to be completely perfect just yet, not that I’m saying it’s in any way unstable or unusable.

My experiences with NETMF have been really wonderful and I can’t recommend the TinyCLR products enough. They’re just great! :slight_smile:

Jeremy,

Choosing the right technology/product is not that easy and I understand your requests. But if you’re already in the embedded world, you probably also know that some PICs can also be seen as toys, even though they have power and many features.

So, to me, Domino is one choice amongst others and its features are elements of a choice. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Also, you could see the TInyClr “branch” as a cheap starting point in the NetMF world, with more than minimal features for the price.

FYI, the Domino will be used “as is” in an industrial project on my side. I don’t need much processing power, don’t have real-time constraints and the board will be kind of standalone in a bigger machine. As you can see, I also don’t need USB client or graphical interface. This board just fits my needs and still leaves room for future improvements.

My 2 cents :wink:

You can also have a look at some SBC like the Phidget’s one : SBC Products at Phidgets

Not NetMF here but pure C or Java. But many very good features. I’ve got one, personnally and was very happy with it. My only “problem” was the programming language. I had to learn Java (I hate C) which was too much time consuming for what I had to do. Right now, I use it as a simple networked hub for other Phidgets board, which is also a good use for it.

You see, each use case has its board (or vice-versa) :wink: