I'm doing a design in which I am using a Cypress SL811HS as an embedded
host driven by an '877, to talk to a USB Memkey. The design must be rugged,
and the USB Memory Keys are certainly that. Normal large memory schemes
like the little square camera thingeys just won't cut it in heavy snow and
rain.

I have the remainder of the design properly working in pieces, but the USB
is going to be a bear, bUT its something that we developers are gonna have
to conquer. Yes, its
an awesome task. But I think the 877 can handle it for USB MEMKEY purposes
(not for any heavy lifting), but taking small bites. Our app is to read
small files and write larger ones, assembling the data stream as it goes out.

But to make the job easier to manage & troubleshoot, I have designed a
small PCB (standard 2-side w/copper poured both sides) with a bidirectional
parallel port interface, a USB-A connector, the SL811HS, and an HC14 to
drive the cable. I'm going to determine the routines by Turbo Pascal on a
DOS system. The reason I am doing it this way is that it almost matches the
action of the 877 8-bit synch port.

I am attempting to adapt USB4DOS, a fine USB DOS driver (written in TP7 for
the National USBN9602 by Dieter Pawelchek). Once I get this running, then I
can concentrate on how the MEMKEY is organized. My guess is that internally
its just memory organised like a harddisk, and I can locate the critical
record areas. But I don't actually have ANY info on how they are internally
organized.

Now, the pitch. Would anybody be interested in collaborating with me on
this? We'd share the knowledge and be ready as this area explodes all over.
I have ONE other populated SL811HS/USB/Parallel port breadboard, with
cables and power supply, to anyone that would like to share the wealth and
the pain. Any takers?

Just email me privately.

--Bob


>I just saw a thread in this list that discuss about "USB Memory Key".


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