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Vinculum II with Prop1 — Parallax Forums

Vinculum II with Prop1

RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
edited 2012-10-06 12:48 in Propeller 1
I've been trying out the Vinculum II a bit.... I'm pretty excited about the possibilities here....

Things I'd like to do:
Wireless keyboard and mouse
flash drive
camera

Keyboard and mouse look to be not too hard.
I've got a V2DIP-32 plugged into the breadboard of a Propeller Demo board and have it talking to the Prop using 9600 baud serial connection using just 2 pins.
Was able to get it working with a vanilla USB keyboard and also a USB mouse.

But, that was just one of the two USB ports at a time. Controlling 2 simultaneous USB ports over a single serial connection will require a bit of work...
Might not be too hard though because it looks like the "reports" from the keyboard are longer than from the mouse...

Comments

  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2011-11-10 16:44
    That sounds clever. Could you use this to trick the PC into thinking that you have a USB flashdrive connected, where in actual fact you have an SD card connected with data going via the propeller and vinculum II?

    (I'm thinking of ways of speeding up downloads to an sd card).
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2011-11-10 17:10
    Well, that sounds like "slave" mode and I'm mainly interested in "host" mode.

    But, the VNC2 can actually do what you describe all by itself (I think)... It has a SPI master bus and code to talk to a FAT SD card. Also, it can act as a slave. I'm not quite sure if there is existing code for the VNC2 to act like a flashdrive slave to a PC, but I'd guess there is...
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2011-11-10 17:58
    Sounds great. And a chip that can be both a host and a slave would be great. Makes you think about new ways to use the propeller. Instead of devoting two pins to keyboard, two to mouse, two to a second serial port, four to an SD card (yikes - there goes 10 pins!), could you use your little vinculum chip and add a whole lot of generic USB sockets to your board? If you want serial, plug in a USB to serial adaptor. Ditto a keyboard, mouse and even external flash memory.

    As for camera, well if you can do that, you would gain *respect*.
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,620
    edited 2011-11-10 18:54
    I agree there is a lot to like about the vnc2.

    There is an application note for getting a video stream from a logitech webcam.

    Also one of its family is backwards pin compatible with the Vnc1, so in theory it should be possible to take say the Parallax Serial Datalogger and upgrade it...

    cheers
    tubular
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,160
    edited 2011-11-11 09:11
    Tubular wrote: »
    I agree there is a lot to like about the vnc2.

    There is an application note for getting a video stream from a logitech webcam.

    Also one of its family is backwards pin compatible with the Vnc1, so in theory it should be possible to take say the Parallax Serial Datalogger and upgrade it...

    cheers
    tubular

    Hello!
    Not exactly. But well stated. I've been involved with these gadgets since June, (I actually saw it mentioned on Linux For Devices in May:
    http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/FTDI-Vinco-and-Microchip-starter-kit/ )
    According to FTDI the VNC2 is indeed backward compatible with the VNC1. But only just. The V2DIP32 is the next generation device to the V1 design. Incidentally people over on the other side of things, the A*********** one, were meeting with limited success to talk to the VNC1 based device.

    The device described in that site is basically one of several designer kits that FTDI released earlier on, November last year as it happens.

    Rayman how did you get your unit to talk to the Prop board? Reason being is that a chap over in the UK came up with the ideas to confuse a Palm based device to pose as a Matrox Orbital display via emulation. And that's here http://palmorb.sf.net I've gotten the BS2 to talk to the serial based Palms, but now I want figure out an easier method of sending stuff to a USB based Palm Z device, without detailing an embedded PC to work between the Prop and the Palm.....

    Reason why I got involved incidentally is described in that site. Of course now that I also know that the Prop boards can discuss USB with a android, its an even spread.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2011-11-11 11:58
    Buck, it wasn't too hard... Just used one of their examples and changed the flow control to none and it worked...
    I'm just using 2 Prop pins RX,TX to talk to the VNC2...

    But, this was an HID class example. Other types of devices might be a lot harder...
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2011-11-14 06:18
    Here's a photo of my simple setup.
    I'm actually just using one prop pin to receive serial data.
    The other wire is ground.

    (Ignore the wires on the right side, those are my hotwired +5VDC from the Demo board's USB connector...).
    DemoSetupVNC2_small.JPG


    You also need the VNC2 programmer module that you see attached to the V2DIP2-32 module.
    587 x 459 - 93K
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2011-11-14 06:34
    I just tested with a 2.4GHz wireless mouse and it works.

    Also tried a Bluetooth combo keyboard and mouse. The keyboard works, but the mouse part doesn't, not sure what's going on there...
  • cgervasicgervasi Posts: 7
    edited 2012-09-29 16:50
    Rayman wrote: »
    Here's a photo of my simple setup.
    I'm actually just using one prop pin to receive serial data.
    The other wire is ground.

    (Ignore the wires on the right side, those are my hotwired +5VDC from the Demo board's USB connector...).
    DemoSetupVNC2_small.JPG


    You also need the VNC2 programmer module that you see attached to the V2DIP2-32 module.

    Rayman:
    Which firmware did you use? We are using the HIDUart.zip firmware with the only modification of disabling UART flow control.

    If you plug an HID-compatible keyboard into a V2DIP2-32 board running this firmware, does it recognize a keyboard immediately and begin sending keystrokes out the VNC2 board's UART immediately without any configuration? I plug my key board in, but I can't get any lights like caps lock to come on, and the UART output stays in the high idle state-- no activity at all. Did you have to do any other modifications to the firmware or hardware?
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2012-09-29 16:57
    I did at first modify the code to disable flow control.
    But, later I learned that it works just fine with the stock code (maybe due to weak pullups on control signals). I think it's called HID1 demo or something...

    Sadly, it does not light the caps lock LED. That's something I think we need to program ourselves... Haven't tried doing that yet...
    But, it does connect and transmit "reports" automatically when you hit keyboard key or move mouse.
    The size and format of the "reports" depends on the type of device connected...

    Note that the HID1 example only works with one of the two USB ports, so you need to figure out which one...
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2012-09-29 17:03
    Hi.

    All LED's on PC-Keyboards are controlled by HOST with special control codes.


    Rayman wrote: »
    I did at first modify the code to disable flow control.
    But, later I learned that it works just fine with the stock code (maybe due to weak pullups on control signals). I think it's called HID1 demo or something...

    Sadly, it does not light the caps lock LED. That's something I think we need to program ourselves... Haven't tried doing that yet...
    But, it does connect and transmit "reports" automatically when you hit keyboard key or move mouse.
    The size and format of the "reports" depends on the type of device connected...

    Note that the HID1 example only works with one of the two USB ports, so you need to figure out which one...
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,140
    edited 2012-09-29 21:00
    On the VNC2 front, I see FTDI have released a FT311D, which is an Android Host, based on the VNC2 pro programmed.

    http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT311D.html

    We also considered a VNC2 for a touch-screen with USB connector - even tho PS/2 is probably the best uC link, USB seems to be the 'Chinese default'.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,797
    edited 2012-10-06 12:48
    I've put some notes on how I got the VNC2 to work with a keyboard here:
    http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/Programming/VNC2/VNC2.htm
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