Re: [NTLK] Giving the Newton some USB lovin' (long'n'winded!) [Related topic, off in another direction]

From: Andrei Chichak <newton_at_chichak.ca>
Date: Thu Sep 28 2006 - 01:41:46 EDT

At 01:26 PM 9/27/2006, you wrote:
>This company, http://www.vinculum.com/prd_vnc1l.html , *specializes* in
>making USB Host Controller ICs which are designed to be adapted into
>existing serial environments.

This chip is made by the same FTDI (www.ftdichip.com) company that
makes the chip in my version of the USB bridge (black board). From
the data sheets that I have been reading it sounds just like what you
would need to graft a thumb drive port onto the Newt.

>All it takes is a couple
>of people to believe differently,

I believe.

The issues that I see are that the hole on the back of the newt is
too small for an A connector, and the documentation for the ISS on
the newt (J6) would need an external clock to go faster than 230.4K
baud. There isn't a clock pin input on the J6, so perhaps it will go
to 2M baud nicely. Much experimentation required.

The software to do the Flash drive communications, like read a
sector, erase a sector, write a sector, don't seem to be in the data
sheets though, and the schematics are listed as preliminary.

What can you expect with a chip that has only been out for a few weeks though?

Andrei

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Received on Thu Sep 28 02:25:32 2006

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