I think Olin is right on the mark. The problem in the past is that there 
were no REAL standards. $1500 is a lot of money to
small players, but $1500 to maintain a high standard seems reasonable to 
me; SONY Mem stick specs originally needed
a $10K USD investment in 1998.

Look at the mess that serial and parallel ports became. But yes, the 
protocol IS needlessly complex. I
don't have a binder large enough to hold my USB2.0 reference copy.

I think we can keep making RS232 tools that work well, then buy $19 
adaptors to convert them to USB.
Thats what I do and it works like a charm (It also allows me to use DOS 
machines, which are popular as
production test equipment across the border and all have 2 serial ports).

--Bob

Joe McCauley wrote:

>Olin,
>
>You come across to me as the kind of guy who would aim for 110%+ certainty
>that your product would work as advertised. Sadly many others are not so
>careful. In this situation bad products are inevitable and relativly few of
>these would 'taint' the standard. I'm always amazed at the way USB stuff
>works out of the box. It would be a pity if a flood of bad peripherals left
>people leery of the standard. 
>
>Incidently, does anyone know of a reliable USB to 16 bit ISA slot adapter? I
>have several old ISA PC acquisition cards I'd like to use in a new system.
>
>Joe
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
>Olin Lathrop
>Sent: 03 November 2004 12:51
>To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
>Subject: Re: [EE] 'C' PIC programmer from USB Port power
>
>
>  
>
>>    Charging less for Vendor IDs and making people "pay their own
>>    way" by charging more for testing would DISCOURAGE people from
>>    testing their devices.  That would be a bad thing.
>>    
>>
>
>Perhaps, but I strongly resent this holier than thou attitude and the fact
>that the decision is not up to me.  I'm not advocating bad products, but how
>much testing I chose to do is between me and my customers.
>
>
>
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>  
>


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