USB Host Shield prototypes
Making functional 5V version of a shield proved to be difficult. I was hoping to publish a release after building previous protos. However, it turned out that together with fixing old errors I managed to make several new ones and also missed a couple from previous prototyping cycle. So, in order to produce a proto containing less errors than a previous one, I spent a great amount of time checking everything I could think about, writing test code, running those tests against prototypes, and then repeating them on all possible mixes of available Arduinos and voltages.
Also, I found that USB-B connector on Duemilanove shorts GPIN contacts on a shield. Cover top of the connector with piece of Scotch tape, if you haven’t already.
Today I placed an order with BatchPCB to what I call “Release candidate 1”. I am hoping this is a design which will be released when I get it back in 3 weeks or earlier( BatchPCB is getting faster ). Also, I forked previous repo containing Arduino libraries, the current development is now contained in USB_Host_Shield. I removed Vbus power control support since it’s not implemented on a shield and added functions for GPIO pins read/write. I’m freezing previous repository to support old sketches.
While waiting for PCBs I will continue working on HID code for the shield and also write a library to control LCD/buttons via GPIO pins. Stay tuned.
Oleg.