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Thumb Drive Interface — Parallax Forums

Thumb Drive Interface

solarradsolarrad Posts: 2
edited 2006-12-29 17:35 in BASIC Stamp
I am interested in developing a data acquisition and logging system.· In particular I would like to save measurements on a "thumb drive" (USB connected flash memory).· I hope to use my Board Of Education to collect measurements and then save them on a "thumb drive" for subsequent downloading to a PC.· Any help in making this happen will be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2006-12-22 23:49
    A number of us are experimenting with GHI Electronics' USBwiz and FTDI's Vinculum. Both will allow access to a USB flash memory via either a serial or SPI connection. It's not hard to get the hardware connection to work with either a Stamp or a Parallax processor. Just follow the instructions from the manufacturer. The hard part is handling error conditions from a program. The Vinculum, in particular, produces various unsolicitied messages when you insert or remove a USB device. Parallax is looking into the use of a Vinculum with the Stamp, but probably won't have much information for several weeks. If you could use an SD/MMC card interface meant for logging, look into Bean's (Hitt Consulting) data logger. It's simple, has some restrictions on the size of the card it can use and the number of files it can handle. It can't delete files or overwrite them, but, for data logging, it may be all you need.
  • solarradsolarrad Posts: 2
    edited 2006-12-27 22:46
    Mike,

    Thanks for your response. I hope you (along with Parallax?) can step up to provide an easy to use USB memory interface as part of the cannonical Parallax offering. There is a plethora of fixed, expensive data acquistion and logging systems, and a dearth of flexible low cost solutions. I think there is a significant demand for data acquistion and logging in the educational as well as the professional domain.

    I have contacted Bean to inquire about using SD/MMC. Everyday Practical Electronics has just run some articles on using SD/MMC with PIC.

    By the way I hoping to develop a data acquistion and logging system for a course in renewable energy systems I am creating.

    Kurt (a.k.a solarrad)
  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2006-12-28 01:29
    Kurt,
    I didn't get an e-mail if you sent one ? Maybe the server is just a little slow ???
    Anyway you can ask questions in this thread if you want.
    The SD Data Logger is designed to work easily with the Basic Stamp.

    The SD Data Logger manual can be downloaded from www.sddatalogger.com

    Bean.

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    Low power SD Data Logger www.sddatalogger.com
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  • KatyBriKatyBri Posts: 171
    edited 2006-12-28 03:16
    I too would like a simple add-on memory solution such as the "thumb drive" (USB connected flash memory).

    Sounds like a great idea and a great topic for a Nuts & Volts article.
  • sam_sam_samsam_sam_sam Posts: 2,286
    edited 2006-12-29 17:21
    Bean

    I look at your SD Data Logger web page

    and do not understand what you have here can you please explane this line in red

    Allows up to 32MB SD/MMC memory cards

    64MB to 1GB memory cards can be used up to 32MB

    Thanks for your time and help in this matter

    Sam
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2006-12-29 17:33
    It means that 64MB and 1GB cards can be used but they will only read/write 32MB of data, the rest is wasted (not usable)

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  • sam_sam_samsam_sam_sam Posts: 2,286
    edited 2006-12-29 17:35
    Franklin


    Thanks for your reply

    Sam
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