USB Driver Strategy

Question

I am developing an embedded design where I need to communicate with PC (MAC/WinXP/Win7/Win8).

Part of product, I need to communicate back and forth with my device. I hope to do no driver development for this on PC side and piggyback on one of the existing drivers, something like Serial or HID and just focus on developing the APP. Does this make sense?

Alternative is to develop a super simple lightweight driver that only works on user mode so that I don't have to deal with WHQL etc.

Which way I should go?

Answer 1

If you are using USB then using HID would probably be your best bet. It has support across Windows and uses an inbox driver (no WHQL). You can interface with it on any of the OS' with hidapi (http://www.signal11.us/oss/hidapi/).

The next best bet would be libusb (and libusb-win32, or WinUSB). The problem here is that these drivers will need to be recertified if you customized them. They do pass all the WHQL test but there is time, resources and cost associated with this.

Serial is also a possibility, where you can communicate directly over RS232, or you can put a USB to UART bridge and communicate through serial over USB. But since USB is a more widely used technology these days it's probably best to stick with HID or a generic bulk device.