Ok i have had for a while now the need to be able to transfer files between two flashdrives without the ability to get to a computer.
finally i decided to see if anyone else had the idea and made something out of it.

Unfortunately yes.
Good news id, the only one i can find... well absolutely sucks....



I would like too understand what i would need to learn to get started in making something like this (but better)

What would i need to learn/know hardware wise?
What programing language would i need to know for this hardware (asm, arm7, arm9, z80)?

Note: It would be nice to have not only usb, but also micro sd. although that can be done through a transflash so.. i guess not necessary.

Here is kind of what i would like for it to look something like:

^
||
best mp3 ever Razz


any help would be appreciated, thanks



Note: How can i tell if Belkin's patent on this devise is expired yet?
...why would you want to do this?

Also, you'll be dead before the patent expires Smile
It seems to me you could use your trusty neighborhood calculator as an intermediary if you wanted, but you could only transfer about 1MB of files at a time at an absolute maximum with a TI-84+SE. Building something to do this would be extremely non-trivial, especially from the software end.
I don't think it would be that difficult (though, yes, a fair amount of work!) You'd need a device that can act as a USB host and some FAT routines. One way to make this easier would be to use something like the uALFAT, which supports USB/SD/MMC/SDHC. However, as someone's done a lot of the work for you you have to pay a premium, which isn't much good for your wallet if you have to buy two (I presume you wouldn't want to have to keep swapping the drives back and forth).
A link on the uALFAT forum in a thread from someone wanting to copy files from one uALFAT to another brought up FEZ, which looks like an interesting device. It's based on the .NET micro framework, is powered by a beefy ARM microprocessor and natively supports USB and FAT. I have no experience with this device, but my curiosity is certainly piqued...
You are likely to have to spend hefty chunk of wonga (and/or time) on such a project; it may be a good plan to think of a simpler project first to give you a taste of microcontroller development, from which point you should be better-equipped to make decisions yourself!
So happybobjr, did you have any thoughts on all the information presented to you in this thread?
This type of thing is crazy! Why would you want to copy files from one drive to another? You could just use the one drive with the files you want. But there might be uses if you distributed things off a flash drive... Anyway though, not really a normal consumer type item. I would start by reading the 600 page USB standard book thing. It's a lot to take in, but it will tell you how it works. Probably has something to do with crossing the D+ and D- by my experience with USB. Don't take my word for it though.
adept wrote:
This type of thing is crazy! Why would you want to copy files from one drive to another? You could just use the one drive with the files you want. But there might be uses if you distributed things off a flash drive... Anyway though, not really a normal consumer type item. I would start by reading the 600 page USB standard book thing. It's a lot to take in, but it will tell you how it works. Probably has something to do with crossing the D+ and D- by my experience with USB. Don't take my word for it though.
Hahahahaha no, that wouldn't work. I can't even begin to list all the different reasons that wouldn't work, although I understand your intuition (like a crossover network cable, which would work for a similar case with two networked computers). You'd need something like would pretend to be a host for both devices and actively access, read, and write.
You wouldn't need to copy the data to the calculator first. All you'd have to do is implement USB hub support. Then all the calculator would need is to buffer small sectors between transfers. Also, if the hub was externally powered, you wouldn't need to worry about power issues. Of course, implementing hub support might not be trivial.
KermMartian wrote:
It seems to me you could use your trusty neighborhood calculator as an intermediary if you wanted, but you could only transfer about 1MB of files at a time at an absolute maximum with a TI-84+SE. Building something to do this would be extremely non-trivial, especially from the software end.


If he implemented USB hubs, then it would transfer as much data as you like.
DrDnar wrote:
You wouldn't need to copy the data to the calculator first. All you'd have to do is implement USB hub support. Then all the calculator would need is to buffer small sectors between transfers. Also, if the hub was externally powered, you wouldn't need to worry about power issues. Of course, implementing hub support might not be trivial.
Well sure, but BrandonW's dabbled in hub support for years with no success. Sad
I remember BrandonW mentioning someone else had gotten it working, and he just didn't understand it enough to work it into USB8X.
SirCmpwn wrote:
I remember BrandonW mentioning someone else had gotten it working, and he just didn't understand it enough to work it into USB8X.
Oooh, I'd love to read about that; do you happen to remember if it was on IRC or in a post somewhere?
It was on IRC several months ago, ask Brandon about it.
He has successfully emulated a hub in peripheral mode but afaik he hasn't gotten hubs to work in host mode.
TheStorm wrote:
He has successfully emulated a hub in peripheral mode but afaik he hasn't gotten hubs to work in host mode.
He had to emulate a hub for the PS3 jailbreak thing, right? SirCmpwn, thanks, I'll ask him about it the next time I see him, as well as about that Bluetooth issue you were sharing with me.
KermMartian wrote:
TheStorm wrote:
He has successfully emulated a hub in peripheral mode but afaik he hasn't gotten hubs to work in host mode.
He had to emulate a hub for the PS3 jailbreak thing, right? SirCmpwn, thanks, I'll ask him about it the next time I see him, as well as about that Bluetooth issue you were sharing with me.
Yes, PS3JB uses hub emulation. He also ended up buying a USB analyzer for that project so he should be able to get more devices working now.
Yeah, he had been wanting to get that for a while to advance several of his projects, so as you say it should help him get quite a few other stalled USB-based projects back in motion, probably after he finishes writing his book.
KermMartian wrote:
So happybobjr, did you have any thoughts on all the information presented to you in this thread?


I'll wait till i learn more about hareware to do anything liek this.

thanks for info everyone
KermMartian wrote:
. . . it should help him get quite a few other stalled USB-based projects back in motion.

Haha, punny! (Brandon has encountered many issues with stalls, NAKs, and the like.)
DrDnar wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
. . . it should help him get quite a few other stalled USB-based projects back in motion.

Haha, punny! (Brandon has encountered many issues with stalls, NAKs, and the like.)
*facepalm* Sad

@happybobjr: Sounds good, as long as you mean *hardware and *like. This is stuff that runs on electrons, not stuff that runs on rabbits. What was your application of this idea, anyway?
  
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