Universal Serial Bus

Michael Hetherington's USB Keyboard demo and his the EXCELLENT Atapchi: World's Smallest Low-speed USB Analyzer

Making a USB A Male connection from PCB stock only.

RLC-3 USB to TTL serial converter

When using a generic USB serial adapter, the only reliable way to identify the device is to look for the new port to show up when the device is connected.

HTML 5 Web Apps can access the USB port.

USB FLASH Memory

USB OTG (making a USB perhiperal, such as a cell phone or tablet, into USB host)

USB Power

Device Identification

USB devices are identified by a VID (Vendor ID) and then by a PID (Product ID) under that VID. No other information about the device is transmitted to the computer from the device.

VID (Vender ID)

VID's are $5500
https://www.usb.org/getting-vendor-id

It MIGHT be possible to get a unique PID under someone elses VID. For example,
http://pid.codes/
https://hackaday.com/2015/04/03/usb-pids-for-all/
offers PIDs, under their VID for nothing, if your project qualifies. All hardware and software must be open source and present with a specific license file.

In the past, companies who have purchased a VID and then tried to re-sell PID's under it, have had the VID revoked by the usb.org. It's specifically prohibited without prior written approval. However, this pid.codes outfit seems to have been getting away with it for a long time, probably because they are open source and giving them out.

It also appears that SiLabs, the mfgr of the CP2104 has started selling PIDs under their VID!
https://www.silabs.com/products/interface/request-product-id

But the key point is this: The VID PID tell the OS which driver to install. With a custom VID or even just a new PID under SiLabs, the driver no longer matches. SiLabs has a tool to make a custom version of the driver, but then you must distribute that with the product, and the user must pre-install the driver before Dexter is connected. And... and this is a really important issue... your driver is no longer certified by the OS vendor. E.g. it's an unsigned driver which Windows 8 and 10 will NOT let you install without disabling protection on the computer, which many large organizations will not allow. Adafruit users run into this all the time.

Debug / Sniffing

Xiaofan says:

USB sniffers:

1. sniffusb 0.12 and 0.13. http://www.wingmanteam.com/usbsnoopy/
   • + logs in text format (for easy perl processing).
   • - does not work with windows xp
   • - chokes sometimes on large USB bulk transfers.
      
     Most perl scripts were made to parse the format of the logs created by this program.
      
2. usb snoopy pro. http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbsnoop/
   • - logs in binary format (-> no further discussion necessary)
      
3. sniff-bin . http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/usbsnoop/  This program looks similar to sniffusb
   • + logs in plain text (although slightly different format from sniffusb)
   • + works under windows xp
      
4. Try DebugView as well. It is very useful for USB debugging.
    
5. Under Linux, http://people.redhat.com/zaitcev/linux/ there are some work as well but it is quite new.

USB sniff log parser:

1. usb snoopy pro

   http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~tuukkat/quickcam/xmlintr.c
    

2. usbsnoopy or sniff-bin

   There is a perl-script to generate the corresponding libusb call. I just read this recently in the Linux libusb mailing list.
   http://iki.fi/lindi/usb/usbsnoop2libusb.pl
    
   There are some other tools to read usbsnoop log file as well. Here is one of them.
   http://www.aracnet.com/~seagull/NJB/tools/

See also:

• https://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/usb2.shtml
• https://www.technovelty.org/linux/what-actually-happens-when-you-plug-in-a-usb-device.html What actually happens when you plug a USB device into a Linux computer?+
• http://hackaday.com/2014/01/18/usb-datalogging-with-arduino-using-v-usb/ Low speed USB on common uC's without a USB interface chip.+
• http://www.analog.com/en/interface/digital-isolators/adum4160/products/product.html Optoisolation for USB.+
• http://www.ibhdoran.com/usb_link.html
• USB Central has information, tools, and links for USB developers. From Jan Axelson's Lakeview Research.
• http://www.microchipc.com/sourcecode/#pic18f4550usb
• http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~dano/CUI/#Sec3
• http://www.scanlogic.com/ USB to IDE/ATAPI
• http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en024394 USB Mass Storage Devices using a PIC
• http://www.gigatechnology.com/usbmodprod.html USBMOD2 USB > 8bit Parallel Data Module. The USBMOD2 will transfer data to and from your PC at over 1MByte per second for fast data transfer. Based on
  http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDriver.htm FT8U245AM chip "FTDI’s Virtual COM port and Direct drivers eliminate the need for USB driver development in most cases." "...allow application software to interface to FT8U232AM and FT8U245AM devices via a Windows DLL"
• shiv@spam@ at KILLspamvinchip.com from www.vinchip.com says:

  Hi I am Shiv N.Shankar from VinChip Systems. We are an IP provider in USB, PCI and also an ASIC design provider. We also provide device driver services.We have a design centre in India. We have been operating between India and San Jose for the past 7 years providing onsite & offshore services for our clients, verifying and assissting them in their multimillion gate designs. We have got USB IF Certification for our High Speed USB2.0 Generic Device core which can be configured to many number of end points as required. We have silicon proven design for USB 1.1 and USB2.0 device controllers. Our engineers have developed Open Host Controller(USB compliant 1.1) and Enhanced Host controller (EHCI - USB2.0 compliant) they are currently involved in the finish of USB 2.0 Hub. We are also designing 802.11b wireless ethernet. We have prototyped our IPs and cores in Altera Apex FPGAs. We have 20 engineers in India and we are ready to take up ASIC design services for you at lower costs. We can build models for the existing designs, frame additional test cases for the existing design, write device driver for windows as well as linux platforms, do application boards, take up and execute turnkey designs for our client etc., Rgds., Shiv N. Shankar VinChip Systems shiv@vinchip.com 408-777-2922 #109 www.vinchip.com

  Hi...Its Shiv again!!! We have completed EHCI (USB2.0 High Speed Host) Design and it is available now along with RTL, test environment and Driver support.... We also have now..USB IF certified cores for USB Host, Device and Hub for both 1.1 and 2.0 version and they can be interfaced with any user's backend interface.... Cheers!!!...Any one interested...?+

  www.vinchip.com USB cores available for High speed and Full Speed from US...for the HOST, HUB and Device.... Interested...???" +
   

Interested:

Test of the WebUSB system for access to USB devices from the browser. +

  .