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Using a USB Flash Drive with the Stamp? — Parallax Forums

Using a USB Flash Drive with the Stamp?

Michael WilliamsMichael Williams Posts: 2
edited 2005-08-19 20:39 in BASIC Stamp
Hi all,

I did a search in the forums and did not stumble across anyone mentioning this.· If I missed it, please feel free to smack me and point me to the thread.· :-)

I am thinking that for projects that require a lot of logging, it would be nice to write directly to a USB Flash Drive.· If you could write to a .txt format, then you could easily just unplug the Flash Drive and then go to a PC somewhere and download the file.· This would give you enormous amounts of memory space for logging files.· It might also allow for a great amount of r/w information since Flash Drives are cheep!

Any thoughts or ideas?· I saw there is a USB to stamp(TTL) interface, but know nothing beyond that.· Am I wasting my time trying to go down this path?

Thanks!

-Michael

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2005-08-19 14:22
    Michael,

    ·· This topic comes up at least once a month.· However I did do a quick search and found the following threads dealing with this subject.· You may have to scroll up on some of these.

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=515633

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=519419

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=524411

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=525840

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=546665





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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2005-08-19 14:25
    Yup, wasting your time.

    USB requires a 'master' and 'slave' device. Easy to build a 'slave' device with FTDI. 'Master' device requires a hard drive, to load the drivers to talk to each 'slave'. Thus a BS2 can't be a 'master' device. Thus a BS2 can't talk to 'slave' hard drives, mice, keyboards, other BS2 slaves, 'slave' USB to RS-232 converters.

    Somebody IS trying to build a small 'master' device, but I don't think it exists quite yet.

    There IS a small unit which will interface a BS2 with Flash Drives, I believe, but it's not USB based.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2005-08-19 14:30
    Hah!

    ·· Allan got me!· I saw Flash Drive, but didn't notice the USB part...My post related to searches for Flash Drives, not USB drives.· =)· Thanks Allan!· BTW, Michael, when I see your Avatar, I hear this little voice in my head going, "Prepare for immediate disintigration!"


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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • Michael WilliamsMichael Williams Posts: 2
    edited 2005-08-19 15:05
    Chris Savage (Parallax) said...· Michael, when I see your Avatar, I hear this little voice in my head going, "Prepare for immediate disintigration!"
    He is without a doubt my favorite cartoon character.··smile.gif··

    I did some sifting through the archives some more and skimmed the threads you sent.· Thank you.· It would appear that maybe the USBwiz from ghielectronics.com might do what I want.· I will have to read the manual more carefully, but it appears that I can interface my stamps to their chip and write files to a USB Flash Drive.

    Thanks for the responses.· Now I just need to go read (luckily since it's·company business I can educate myself on company time!).·confused.gif
  • Tim-MTim-M Posts: 522
    edited 2005-08-19 15:44
    Michael,

    · If you don't have to have the USB flash drive format, Rogue Robotics has a data storage module that uses SD cards.· You can find that module here: http://www.roguerobotics.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=5&MMN_position=6:2:5· Hope that helps.

    Tim
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2005-08-19 15:49
    Thanks Tim! Note that it's around $100 for the interface, which doesn't include the SD card. However, you should be aware that is not an outrageous price point for this sort of thing.
  • OakGraphicsOakGraphics Posts: 202
    edited 2005-08-19 16:11
    not to mention the fact you get a stamp controllable mp3 player out of the deal. smile.gif
  • Tim-MTim-M Posts: 522
    edited 2005-08-19 20:39
    You bet! I thought that the Rogue Robotics products were a 'find' too.

    Tim

    EDIT - I should have mentioned in the original post that the uMP3 Player module is also SD card based, and can be used for data storage as well.· Just so it's clear there are two seperate products, the Data Storage module and the uMP3 Player module which can also be used for storage.· Both are SD card based.· Tim

    Post Edited (Tim-M) : 8/19/2005 8:40:58 PM GMT
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