"universal" remote USB device IC ?

[Bob Scott]

Does anyone know of an inexpensive "universal" IC that can be used for talking to a computer's USB port? The computer runs (ugh) MS Windows. Pretend I'm trying to use the USB port for something other than a mouse.<p>I am planning to connect a remote linear sensor through an ADC to a computer's USB port. I need the computer to read that voltage value, and need to send a correction value from the computer back to a DAC in the remote device.<p>Software is another problem but I want to get the hardware challenges out of the way first.<p>Thanks in advance for any advice.<p>Bob

[rstofer]

Personally, I would use serial IO. First because I could debug it using a real serial port or a USB serial cable.<p>If I just wanted to add that same capability to a project, I would look at http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProducts.htm<p>Parallax carries these chips, as well. The chips use a virtual comm driver (VCOM) and this is easy to deal with in Visual Basic or Visual C++.<p>It's just a serial port with a high number like COM7 or whatever, depending on how many devices you have connected.

[ezpcb]

there're countless uC in cypress and microchip has built-in USB, and they provide sample codes, programming is not a problem. some of these chips has built-in ADC, so you can do all the jobs you want to do with only one chip.<p>have a look at www.cypress.com and www.microchip.com<p>Mike