Control up to three devices from a PC with FT232 IC (USB to Serial UART) from Future Technology Devices International FTDI. Circuit is simple and does not require external microcontroller or any type of firmware programming. PC control software written in VB6 is included.

The UBW board is a small board that contains a Microchip PIC USB-capable microcontroller such as PIC18F2455, PIC18F2550, PIC18F4455 or PIC18F4550 and headers to bring out all of the PICs signal lines and board is powered from the USB connection. I designed this board to be a simple parallel port replacement tool for Bruce Shapiro for use in his bits-to-bytes-to-bots class. Apologies to all other 'Whacker' projects like EDTP's Packet Whacker for stealing a great name . All tools used to design this project are free, and the design is open to anyone to use for whatever they wish.

The USB to Serial adapter (converter) lets you use a serial PDA, GPS, cell, etc. with a standard USB port. This adapter is the easiest way to add a serial port to your computer. Many PDAs, digital cameras, GPS units, barcode scanners, and other equipment require a serial connection, and many newer computers don't come equipped with serial ports anymore.

This article contains information about getting a USB interface working between an 18F4550 PIC and a PC using C# .NET 2.0, using the Microchip-supplied driver mpusbapi.dll. In this article, the PIC is configured using some (slightly modified) demo code originally for the PICDEM FS USB demo board, in which it is configured as a generic class device, with one IN + OUT interrupt endpoint. The device is set up with a bootloader, allowing the PIC to be programmed through software after the initial programming.

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