Developing a simple USB driver

Hey all,

Some friends of mine are building a simple USB device for a class project.
They want to create a random number generator that interfaces with a Windows
machine via a USB connection. They asked for my help because I am the friendly
neighbourhood computer nerd, though I confess that I don't know much about USB.

They want to be able to use some existing USB drivers that are built into
relatively new versions of Windows. They figure that they could treat the
device as a mass storage device and "read" it like a file, but I suspect that
there is some easier interface that they could use just to send a sequence of
numbers for each request. So, if you can, please point us in the right direction.

Thanks.

Dave

USB Storage - FAQ for Driver and Hardware Developers
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...ge/usbfaq.mspx

Windows XP USB Guide
http://www.usbman.com/winxpusbguide.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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"Dave Rudolf" wrote:

| Hey all,
|
| Some friends of mine are building a simple USB device for a class project.
| They want to create a random number generator that interfaces with a Windows
| machine via a USB connection. They asked for my help because I am the friendly
| neighbourhood computer nerd, though I confess that I don't know much about USB.
|
| They want to be able to use some existing USB drivers that are built into
| relatively new versions of Windows. They figure that they could treat the
| device as a mass storage device and "read" it like a file, but I suspect that
| there is some easier interface that they could use just to send a sequence of
| numbers for each request. So, if you can, please point us in the right direction.
|
| Thanks.
|
| Dave

"Dave Rudolf" wrote:
> They want to be able to use some existing USB drivers that are built into
> relatively new versions of Windows. They figure that they could treat the
> device as a mass storage device and "read" it like a file, but I suspect that
> there is some easier interface that they could use just to send a sequence of
> numbers for each request. So, if you can, please point us in the right direction.

May be a HID type device (human interface - kbd, mice etc) will be easier to
do.
Read in MSDN on HID drivers.
Specific technical questions -> microsoft.public.development.device.drivers

Regards,
--PA

For driver building thiers 2 places to go.WHQL and http://www.osr.com
osr could/can be found at microsoft WHQL,also,one of thier recent projects
has been USB-FX2 you can find all kinds of info on usb at web site,you'll
need
to get registered first but thats easy.

"Dave Rudolf" wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> Some friends of mine are building a simple USB device for a class project.
> They want to create a random number generator that interfaces with a Windows
> machine via a USB connection. They asked for my help because I am the friendly
> neighbourhood computer nerd, though I confess that I don't know much about USB.
>
> They want to be able to use some existing USB drivers that are built into
> relatively new versions of Windows. They figure that they could treat the
> device as a mass storage device and "read" it like a file, but I suspect that
> there is some easier interface that they could use just to send a sequence of
> numbers for each request. So, if you can, please point us in the right direction.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dave
>