Get a USB serial port adapter and talk to your project via RS232. Radio Shark sells them for $15 with cables and the works. You need one for any computer less than two years old anyway, unless you specially ordered RS232 with it, or put in an add-on serail board. In a "real" project you could buy the RS232 chip, but the cable is really really easy. -- Lawrence Lile Senior Project Engineer Toastmaster, Inc. Division of Salton, Inc. 573-446-5661 voice 573-446-5676 fax Matthew Brush Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list 06/12/2004 03:23 PM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: Subject: [PIC:] Poor man's USB Something occurred to me the other day when looking into what a pain USB is to implement in/with a PIC. I just do electronics stuff for fun, so I'm always looking for ways to do things free/cheap. To that end, what about using a hacked up USB Mouse or Joystick as a way to get data into VB or whatever thru USB. I'm not sure about the joysticks, but I don't imagine it would be very difficult to fake the mouses encoders with a signal from a pic. I know for a fact that it is simple to get mouse coordinates in visual basic, and I'm sure it's not dificult to do in other languages. One could use the mouse buttons and the mouse position as a way to send data over USB and let the mouse's controller do all the hard work. You could easily trim down a mouse's pcb to fit into a small enclusre or whatever. The only major problem I can see is that you would lose use of your mouse or possibly may need two (maybe PS2 for real mouse and USB for faker). Can anyone else think of another USB device that would provide an even simpler interface to the computer like this? What's everybody think of this idea for people who don't have money and don't use surface mount (ie. half-assers)? ===== MJ Brush LeftClick.ca Internet Media Services mbrush@[NOSPAM]leftclick.ca ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu