PIC 18f14k50 USB Interface Board: Part 2

This is the second episode about the PIC 18f14k50 USB Interface Board. This time I want to take about the usage of the JALLIB USB-Serial library and how it can be used in conjuction with the interface board.

Introduction
USB is a fairly complex interface, besides the basic interface, there are defined a couple of higher level "protocols" which are target for specific "device" functions. Commonly used interfaces are the Human Interface Device(s) types, to support devices like keyboards, joysticks and other devices, another commenly used interace is the Communication Device Class (CDC), which is developped for a broad range of (serial) communication devices, like modems, RS-232 converters etc. HID devices will be discussed in another blog, today we're looking a bit closer on the CDC interface and how to talk to the PIC device with a terminal application via the USB interface.

In order to reduce the USB learning curve, we've devevlopped a special library (USB-Serial) to easily create firmware that behaves like a RS-232 port on the Host side (virtual COM port). The big advantage is that you can still use the good old terminal application(s) to talk with your PIC device via the USB interface (both on Windows and Linux and probably other Host operating systems)

As an example we use the 18f14k50_board_test.jal, we start of simple and show step by step how to use the usb_serial library.

USB Serial example code
We start of with a basic application, the code is listed below:

include 18f14k50                    -- target PICmicro

--
-- This program assumes a 12 MHz resonator or crystal
-- is connected to pins OSC1 and OSC2.
-- Configuration bits may cause a different frequency!
pragma target clock 48_000_000     -- oscillator frequency

-- include libraries
include usb_serial
include print

-- initialize the USB serial library
usb_serial_init()


-- main loop
forever loop
   
    var byte ch

    -- Service USB, call on a regular base to keep communcaiton going
    usb_serial_flush()

    -- check for input character
    if usb_serial_read( ch ) then
        -- nothing spectecular, echo ch + 1
        if ch == "?" then
            const byte str1[] = "Hi there \r\n"
            print_string( usb_serial_data, str1 )
        else
            usb_serial_data = ch
        end if
    end if
end loop
--

The code is pretty straight forward, first the device file is included and the target clock speed is set. Then the usb_serial and print JALLIB libraries are included. The next step is to initalize the USB serial library by calling the usb_serial_init() procedure. Within the main loop, the usb_serial_flush() is called, so the USB serial Interface Enginge (SIE) is serviced on a regular base (the USB libraries are not interrupt driven, therefore this procedure must be called regulary.
The call towards usb_serial_read will check if there are character recieved from the USB Host, if a character has been received it will be echoed, unless the "?" character is send, then it will use print the "Hi there" string. Notice that the usb_serial library can be used in conjuction with the print and serial libraries, if the usb_serial_data argument is passed along (as the first argument) with the print related procedure calls.

Get it running
The code is compiled with jalv2 using the -loader18 -no-fuse. After compilation one can reset the PIC 18f14k50 USB Interface Board and holding down the program button. Now the PDFSUSB application can be used to download the HEX file file, after download reset the board. If everything went OK, it should recognize the USB-CDC device and ask for drivers (Windows only), select the driver (which can be downloaded from
http://groups.google.com/group/jallib/files, file usb_cdc_drivers.zip), by selecting the win2k_xp_vista32_64 directory. After installtion of the drivers, the host operating system will create a new (virtual) serial port.
After the (virtual) serial port is created, open the serial port with your favorite terminal appliction. The actual serial port settings does not really matter, once the serial port is opened, you can any send character, the character will be echoed unless the "?" mark character is sent, the it will respond by the "Hi There" sentence.

Wrap Up
So far about the usb_serial library, it shows how easy it is to create an PIC firmware application using which can comminicate with a Host PC via the USB interface. Upcoming blog will address more advanced usage of the USB interface by creating a HID device,.