USBee ZX
Toolbuilder Source Code
The USBee ZX Digital Test Pod is customizable using the USBee ZX Toolbuilder software source code libraries. You can write your own Visual Basic or Visual C++ code to control the USBee ZX Pod to create your own control systems. For complete details on the Toolbuilder, please read the Users Manual here.
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USBee
ZX Tool Builder Users Manual version 1.0.
(117K
.pdf file) |
Complete
documentation for the USBee ZX Toolbuilder Source Code. Using the USBee
Toolbuilder software source code, you can build your
own USBee Digital Test Tools using our USBee Tool Builder library and
Visual Basic or Visual C. Also combine multiple pods to build a single tool with
up to 512 signals. |
The USBee ZX Digital Test
Pod is ideal for students or designer's that need to get up and running with
High Speed USB immediately. With a mini-B USB connector on one end and
signal pin headers on the other, this simple pod will instantly USB 2.0
High-Speed enable your design. Then using the source code libraries, drivers
and DLL's that are included here you can write your own Visual Basic or C PC
application to control and monitor the signal pins on the pod.
The USBee ZX has headers
that are the interface to your circuits.
The signals on these headers represent an 8 bit data bus, a Read/Write#/TRG
signal and a clock line. Using the
libraries and source code provided you can do byte-wide reads and writes to
these signals. The USBee ZX acts as the master, driving the Read/Write#/TRG
signals and Clock lines to your circuit.
There are four modes of data transfers
that you can use depending on your system needs. You can use the Logic Analyzer or Signal
Generator capabilities of the pod, or one of two “bit-bang” modes. The first offers complete flexibility of the
8 signal lines, while the other gives you very high transfer rates.
In the first mode, Bi-Directional Mode,
each of the 8
data signals can be independently setup as inputs or outputs. When sending data to the pod, only the lines
that are specified as outputs will be driven.
When reading data from the pod, all 8 signals lines will return the
actual value on the signal (whether it is an input or an output)
In the second mode, High-Speed Mode, all of the 8 data signal
lines are setup in the same direction (as inputs or outputs) at the same time. When sending data to the pod, all signals
become outputs. When reading data from
the pod, all signals become inputs.
Also in High Speed
mode, you can specify the CLK rate.
Available CLK rates are 24MHz, 12MHz, 6MHz, 3MHz, and 1MHz. For slower rates you can use the bi-directional
mode
In each of the
modes you can specify the polarity of the CLK line. You can set the CLK line to change data on
the falling edge and sample on the rising edge, or visa versa.
The routines used
to read and write the data to the pod are the same for both modes. You call the SetMode function to specify the
mode you want to use. All subsequent
calls for data transfers will then use that mode of transfer.
The following table
shows the possible transfer rates for the various modes. This assumes that your USB 2.0 host
controller can achieve these rates. USB
2.0 Host controllers can vary greatly.
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Mode
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Transfer
Type
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Burst Rate
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Sustained Average Rate
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Bi-Directional
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Data Write (SetSignals)
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300k Bytes/sec
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~300k Bytes/sec
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Bi-Directional
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Data Read (GetSignals)
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175k Bytes/sec
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~175k Bytes/sec
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High-Speed
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Data Write (SetSignals)
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24M Bytes/sec
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~20M Bytes/sec
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High-Speed
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Data Read (GetSignals)
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16M Bytes/sec
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~13M Bytes/sec
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Unique to the USBee ZX Toolbuilder is a huge buffer depth Logic Analyzer and Signal Generator module that lets your embedded application access the same powerful features of the USBee ZX Logic Analyzer and Signal Generator modules.
So creating a signal generator is as simple as this in Visual C++:
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