USB Support - K3, K2?

[charles allison-2]

John,

I think that is a very small fee per device or may be per some sort of
assignment ID codes to be kept unique.

Primarily the USB standards cater to the mass production market.  Most of
the options for a design expect thousands of units to be produced in a
production run.  The USB interface is a nasty little complicated thing and
requires a large investment in study time to get familar with it.  Also,
there's no telling for just how long a time it will remain valid.  It is a
product of the modern PC age.  The serial interface is slow and cumbersome
and lacks many standards which tend to constrain things rather than help
sometimes.  It predates personal computers and to some extent, predates
computers, going back to the days of the teletype.  While not offering high
speed and not being suitable for transferring large amounts of information
quickly, it can be superior to the USB in some ways - specifically - wired
interfaces for distances longer than 10 or 20 feet.  For some 'secondary'
hardware  standards like RS485 instead of RS232, it can provide interfaces
in excess of 1000 feet.

Although USB style to RS232 interface devices may eventually become
specialty products not found at the local computer store due to a lack of
need from most users, they should remain around as specialty items.  If
RS232 is suitable for the job, then it might even be a safer bet than USB to
use for a product that should be expected to be around for a decade or more
rather than the typical life expectancy of 10 weeks for the usual computer
junk.  Most of my USB/serial ports were from the office supply place and
labeled as USB interfaces for PDAs.  I'm sure there are better suited ones
for RF environments and probably cheaper ones too.  But as long as USB
survives, they should provide me with the ability to connect to real devices
I need, such as radios, telescopes, TNCs, and gizmos that I can build and
program PCs to operate without having to read several hundred pages of barf
just to do something simple - like a dual azimuth antenna rotator
controller.  Such a homebrew project is impractical with USB, if not
virtually impossible, with most options having development kits that would
cost more than buying a commerical rotator in the first place.

As for USB, it's the best thing that's happened to RS232 serial ports since
willard  gates succeeded in getting the native ones banned because now
there's no seriously low limit as to how many you can stick on your PC and
they are the size of a pigtail cable with a long connector housing on the
end.  What's more, they are finally well supported as serial port devices by
the OS.

best regards,

Charles
wb5izd

Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:23:26 -0400
From: John Huggins <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] USB Support - K3, K2?
To: Richard Kent <[hidden email]>
Cc: [hidden email]
Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I am not sure, but can point to one example that does include a USB
"chip" in its design that takes care of the conversion from USB to
serial.  It is the WinKeyUSB interface from K1EL.  It is quite possible
the purchase of the chip might pay such fees indirectly.  If it does the
fees must be low as the cost of the kit is under $50.

Richard Kent wrote:

>I thought I heard or read that including an USB controller into a piece of
>equipment requires one to pay a licensing fee to the organization that
>maintains the USB definition. If this is true that could be why many
devices
>do not include USB compatibility. The cost may be too much for the number
of
>devices to be sold. Anyone know for sure??
>
>Rick Kent WD8AJG
>


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[Simon (HB9DRV)]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Allison" <[hidden email]>

>  While not offering high
> speed and not being suitable for transferring large amounts of information
> quickly, it can be superior to the USB in some ways - specifically - wired
> interfaces for distances longer than 10 or 20 feet.

200ft is easy (as you mention), and I don't see the need for USB speed with
Elecraft's offerings except *maybe* the 2008 panoramic adapter - but this
could easily use WiFi.

I have no doubt that serial cards etc. will be available for a very long
time to come, it's a simple rock-solid solution. I would rather the K4 had
bluetooth or Ethernet than USB.

Simon HB9DRV

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[Julian, G4ILO]

On 8/8/07, Simon Brown (HB9DRV) <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> I have no doubt that serial cards etc. will be available for a very long
> time to come, it's a simple rock-solid solution. I would rather the K4 had
> bluetooth or Ethernet than USB.
>

Heck, the K3 hasn't shipped and we're talking about the K4 already!

Given the likely level of environmental concern in 2015, I think that
the K4 should be solar powered and constructed of only recycled
components! :)

--
Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392  K3 s/n: ???
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
Ham-Directory: www.ham-directory.com
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[Will-69]

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007, Julian G4ILO wrote:

> Heck, the K3 hasn't shipped and we're talking about the K4 already!
>
> Given the likely level of environmental concern in 2015, I think that
> the K4 should be solar powered and constructed of only recycled
> components! :)

Ha!  Once I haev my K2 working and it gets to be 2015, I'll definitely
keep recycling its use with solar power. ;-)

Will
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[Thom LaCosta]

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007, Julian G4ILO wrote:

>
> Heck, the K3 hasn't shipped and we're talking about the K4 already!
>

That was the secret ordering option for K3 round 1....if you missed the first
batchm you could make a deposit to reserve a space in the K4 first run.

73 k3hrn
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