I just discovered a pdf of a couple of articles about my SuperKim
published in the fall 1980  and 1981 Robotics Age magazine.
The title of the articls is SuperKim Meets ET-2
Here are a few screen captures.

Here too is a pdf of the second version of the article
published in 1981.

I intend to implement some of this advanced interrupt handling technology
with an Atmel single board computer to translate the serial data out
of Tracy's EC to USB hopefully working on an android tablet.

Atmel processors are currently replacing dedicated RS232 to USB hardware
chips. I think it is  a matter of cost. The single chip Atmel is cheaper.

Paul Lamar


Paul,

USB is widely used. A pain in the rear to debug unless you have some debug
tools, like Total Phase Beagle480 protocol analyzer. Most common use for USB
of an Atmel processor is datalogging either to thumb drives, or with a
bridge chip to SD cards.

FTDI makes USB to RS232 bridge chips. You need to run the driver software on
the host system, but those FTDI devices are widely used in the industry.


Biggest cost factor for an IC is the number of pins.

Tom

I have one of those FTDI devices on the large ZBasic board. Works great.

The RS232 to USB adapters work by merely plugging them in. How do they do that?
do they download the driver and dynamically install it? Kind of what we used
to call self modifying code :)

This simple circuit is all I need to get Tracy's EC to talk to an RS232.
I was thinking of using the RS232 to USB adapter cable from there.

I'll probably eventually do a custom breakout board with a DB9 RS232 connector
so people can connect their current EC2 to an android using a serial terminal
program for now. You will have to send a manual Hex Fx to stimulate the EC2 to
send out the data. Perhaps a batch file will work to do this over and over.
This will be tested shortly,


Paul Lamar


The FTDI drivers will auto load on some PC's.  Windows will recognize the attached FTDI RS232 chips USB
VID and PID (vendor ID, Product ID) and load the correct driver automatically.

FTDI Application Note:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN_107_AdvancedDriverOptions_AN_000073.pdf

You can get the drivers off this page:
http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm

Note they now list an Android Driver - so you are set to go!

Tom

That is great news Tom. One step closer to our goal. Thanks.

Paul Lamar