Actually, the USB mouse port is only a standard USB port. It is the software
in the USB mouse that makes the difference. Windows talks and listens for
identification. The ID is in the mouse.

While you can hack a mouse for the USB, there isn't much point to it. The uC
in the mouse gets thrown away and then you write new code.

When you develop a USB product, you will need a USB ID from the people
below. If you want the USB logo on your product, you will pay more money. If
you want to be sure your product has full compliance; more money. Windows
driver is not quite right; more money to develop Windows driver for your
product. It isn't a bad thing, but just something you have to do to use
their standard.

http://www.usb.org/home

As PCs move away from the RS232 standard and embrace LAN, USB, Firewire,
etc., it is becoming harder to deal in RS232, but not impossible. The are
LAN-RS232 interfaces. I am playing with a Lantronix XPort. Very cool device!
There are Bluetooth-RS232 devices. A friend of mine is developing a product
with one.

You have a PIC with a USART: connect it to any of these devices and have
fun!

As far as data over RS232: I send ASCII and binary data. You are in control
over what you want to send. It you are sending data to Hyper Terminal [or
pick your favorite terminal product] then ASCII makes a lot of sense. But
sending data to a PC that is running a custom software package, then send
what you want.

A current project of mine sends ~350 bytes and all but the first three bytes
are binary. The first three are ASCII. I used them to locate the beginning
of the data packet before the custom code was done. I could have used USB
but I didn't want to waste the money on a ID for a 2-pc order. If the user
wants something different, they will get a LAN interface.

As long as I am going: the PDAs with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are excellent
interfaces. With a adapter/converter they become even easier. I am working
on a uC project that is using the new WiPort from Lantronix. One of the user
interfaces is a PDA. It can be either the PalmOS or PocketPC depending on
what the user likes.


Best regards,
Fred



-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Matthew Brush
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 6:14 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PIC:] Poor man's USB


> It's an interesting idea, but unfortunately, a mouse
> port has a bunch
> of disadvantages for this sort of application.  It
> tends to be
> unidirectional (as far as I know), and mostly, it's
> a MOUSE.  The
> system software will recognize it as a mouse and
> data will start moving
> the cursor around, making windows respond, and so
> on.  (most OSes seem
> to support an arbitary number of mice
> simultaneously.)  It's not like
> an application can say "I want to trap the keyclick
> info from "mouse3:"

Thanks, this is the type of reply I was trying to get.

As for the unidirectional thing, the PS2/USB aspect is
bidirectional, but in terms of what I'd be doing,
you're right, the mouse only sends coords to the PC
and not vice versa.

As for the moving of the mouse, I was thinking about
just not using a mouse in the program or something

But you're all right, my idea was stupid, and I just
save up some cash and do things properly.

End of post (can I do that? hehehe)


=====
MJ Brush
LeftClick.ca Internet Media Services
mbrush@[NOSPAM]leftclick.ca

______________________________________________________________________
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