USB Complete [With CDROM]

The USB protocol is a completely different animal than the simple protocol of yore, the serial port, that it is designed to replace. Why? Becasue it is orders of magnitude more complicated. The idea that you will know and understand USB completely by just reading a book of this size is simply laughable. But the complete in the book's title doesn't even really claim to make a USB master out of you anyway: it simply refers to the fact that following the information in this book, you will succeed in building a USB enabled peripheral and access it using VB and device drivers supplied by Windows 98. The book first imparts upon you a basic knowledge of USB and once you are fairly knowledgeable about that, it then ventures to show you how to use commercially available off-the-shelf USB controller chips, available from Cypress and other manufacturers, and how to program them for use in your own USB peripheral. At this stage in your USB career, it would be nearly impossible for you to build a USB enabled peripheral without the help of these USB controllers, since it'll take you at least a year to fully absorb all of USB before you could be in a situation to even attempt doing so. USB is really that complicated my friend, trust me. Using these specialized USB controllers in your design, shields you from the complexities of USB's intricacies and having bypassed them, you can focus on getting the job done i.e. building your USB peripheral. Now, once you have successfully built your first USB enabled peripheral, using USB controllers, as taught to you in this book, you can then take all the time in the world that you need and incrementally learn more and more about USB using for example, a tool like a USB protocol analyzer to really get to know USB intimately, inside and out.

With the help of this book, I went from knowing virtually nothing about USB to having a device programmed and communicating with a PC. The book covers everything from what's important to know in the USB specification, to selecting a controller chip for a device, to writing the device firmware and application programs to communicate with the device. About the only area not covered is how to write a Windows device driver (this is probably a book-length topic in itself), but Jan explains why this is often not necessary and describes tools that make the job easier when needed. Highly recommended

I teach a USB class, so I've had occasion to review every book on the subject. I've chosen Jan's book for my class text because it is, by a wide margin, the best single book on the Universal Serial Bus I've seen. Jan has the unique talent of talking directly to the user in a very friendly, clear, and easy to read style, while losing absolutely nothing in scope or detail. The chapter on how to coerce Visual Basic into making the Windows API calls necessary to support the USB HID class got me over major hurdles while preparing lecture materials. Instead of the usual kitchen sink approach, Jan zeros in on exactly what you need to know to do the job and covers it completely. And her examples actually work!If you're looking for a book that spans basic USB principles to advanced topics, all clearly explained, you can't go wrong with this book.

I used information from Axelson's ealier edtion in a project that employed a USB magstripe reader in a Windows application that demanded no operator intervention. This is quite tricky, because HID devices often require that focus be set to a text or edit window -- and this was not possible in my system. The Windows HID interface API data thar Jan provided were vital. This edition adds new information for application programming use the Microsoft Visual Studio (.NET) programming environment, and also details on USB OTG (ON THE GO) which is designed to allow USB communication between "client" devices -- capability that is missing from non-OTG enabled devices. Anyone with a serious interest in USB needs to have this book on their shelf; they also need to do what I plan to do, that is to take it down and to review it from time to time. The following is what I wrote for USB Complete, 1st Edition, and it still applies. >>> <br /> <br />I was sceptical. I no longer am. This book shows you how to get started implementing USB in Windows based programs. Visual Basic may be used on the PC side, and Jan shows examples that do just this. While USB design is usually thought to require C/C++ programming, this isn't necessarily true. Of course, actual design and/or performance requirements may dictate that VB not be used, still it may be a viable way to implement specific USB designs. Jan also shows that USB design involves the firmware that is implemented in the USB hardware itself. She covers these details well.

Jan has really done an impressive job on explaining USB and how to create applications for it. This is by far the best USB resource that you can get - included with the book is a CD-ROM with Visual C++, Visual Basic and example Tools that you can work with to develop your own USB applications.