CUIduino, Arduino With True USB Support

cuiduinotop

The CREATE USB Interface (CUI) was a project that came out of UC Santa Barbara around the same time the Arduino was being developed. It has a USB port, a PIC18F4550, and a prototyping area. It was designed to enable easy interfacing with the real would through many A/D inputs and general I/O ports. It supports both OSC and MIDI-over-USB natively. The biggest difference between the CUI and the Arduino is its USB support. The Arduino uses an FTDI chip to create a serial interface to its onboard AVR. The CUI’s PIC has native support for USB. That means you can have the CUI appear to be any USB HID device you want: keyboard, mouse, game controller, etc.

The Arduino has a friendly development environment and a large following though. CUI create [Dan Overholt] decided to add an ATmega168 to his board to get the best of both worlds, the CUIduino (scroll down). It can be programmed just like any other Arduino compatible device, but the having the CUI parent means your Arduino project can behave like a native USB HID gadget.

[Thanks Peter]

11 thoughts on “CUIduino, Arduino With True USB Support

  1. @xsmurf – for the arduino/168 there certainly are *not*

    @dustin – the 8-bit PIC microcontrollers aren’t big enough to support the embedded host code, at least not with microchip’s own stack

  2. I’d guess the addiction to the AVR-8 series is primarily due to access to an entirely open-source tool chain as well as the arduino support. So the AVRs have a more attractive entry point resulting in the inevitable unnecessary hacking of the chips.

    imho

  3. Hi

    I have in a long time thought about starting some simple programming and pc interfacing, because i have made a CAR-PC.
    But whats the easiest thing to start with, if i wanna do these thing:
    About 10 inputs, buttons, A/D inputs, for lets say a temperature probe, or similiar.
    Control about 5-10 things, either digital,and or PWM.

    The programming langauge must be pretty simple, because i have only made some html and java script sites, and i would like to begin with a langauge with alot of free guides on the net.

    If you can help me with this, then add me on MSN, or send me a email at zee-REMOVE-cue@gma-SPAM-il.com

    Best Regards
    Morten

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