USB Streaming Data

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I'm doing research for a project I'm about to begin which will involve streaming data through USB to a chip, and then having the chip process that data and send it elsewhere.

For instance, I'm going to have a user type in a message, say, "Hello". Upon hitting "Send", I'd like that message to be sent (in ASCII, although I guess I could convert it within the software. Ideally it would remain in ASCII though) to a chip, which would then perform the necessary calculations to make that display on an LCD screen, or perhaps on a segment display, or perhaps even tap out in morse code or something.

I read some posts on the various forums and did a quick search of the site for mentions of "USB", but I didn't find anything specifically tailored to what I'm trying to do. My question basically breaks down to:

  1. Is receiving information from a USB cable something that this device can do easily? Is it a built-in function?
  2. If not, how easy would it be to build such a function?
  3. Are there any alternative methods for getting information from a computer to this particular device that I have not explored, and should?

I appreciate any help you guys can give me. If I do end up working with this device, I definitely plan on joining the programming community in coming up with new things. It sounds like a really great device, I just want to know if it suits my particular requirements in this project. Thanks again.

2

Hello,

This is well within the capabilities of the Arduino. You can get several models that have USB ports on them. From the end user's standpoint it is a USB device, but in the PC/Mac a serial port is installed. This actually makes programming the computer side much easier, since serial ports are pretty straight forward and well documented on pretty much every development platform available.

1: Serial communication is a core feature of the device, and is very straight forward.

2: NA, see 1 :slight_smile:

3: You can also use a several other communication technologies that can easily be used: RF (ZigBee, etc), Ethernet (wired or wireless), Bluetooth (via serial) just to name a few.

You'll find a great group of people here, that I've found to be very welcoming and helpful, especially when it comes to helping those with far less skill and knowledge.

3

Thanks! That is very useful information. I can't wait to get mine!