How can I do bi-directional communication with a custom USB device?

Question

I'm planning to build a USB device that has buttons that some software needs to respond to, and indicators that the software needs to control. I'm new to USB, so I'm looking for any pointers that will get me started.

Answer 1

When I did some USB development a while ago, I found the information at USB Central extremely valuable.

For low bandwidth requirements, you can use something like the FT232R which is a single-chip USB serial implementation. The FTDI drivers are readily available and make the device appear as a regular serial port to the host computer. This is orders of magnitude easier than rolling your own USB implementation (for either end!).

Answer 2

Kinda vague, but in the past I've done a little bit of USB development. The easiest stuff tends to be HID related device as the subset of USB used to commincate is very to implement on both sides. There are hardware devices which are essentially stubbed out to work with HID, you just customize some circuity and go.

Answer 3

The USB standard is actually quite readable. Though it might be a bit overkill if you just want to create a simple device. You could probably get something like this, which is basically an 8051 controller with a USB connector together with firmware and a DLL.

Answer 4

Checkout WinDriver, which is a commercial multiplatform tool what give you easy way to implement usb drivers in user mode, source code compatible between Linux and Windows.