Can SpaceNavigator be used in embedded application?

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ghova
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Can SpaceNavigator be used in embedded application?

Post by ghova »

Interested in using SpaceNavigator in an experimental electronic musical instrument. Host is Xilinx FPGA board with USB facilities. Is there an interfacing manual (theory, timing, USB messages, etc)?
jwick
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Post by jwick »

That sounds interesting. It is a standard HID Multi-axis Controller. If the USB facilities are low level enough, you should be able to detect it and read it. What you do with the data will be up to you. I'd start off by just trying to get woken up when you press one of the buttons or move the cap. After that we have code on the ftp-us site that shows how to parse it.
ghova
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Post by ghova »

Servicing the device is no problem -- the incoming bytes can be observed without human-detectable delays. In principle, your device could provide a supple and expressive musical instrument controller. But a critical issue is update rate and latency: any perceptible delay or jerkiness in response works against this application. Can you tell me anything about this issue?
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Post by jwick »

The device sends you data at a little over 60Hz. Other things on your USB bus could affect the rate at which your code can sample the bus.
Oppie
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Re: Can SpaceNavigator be used in embedded application?

Post by Oppie »

We recently did an embedded application using a Microchip PIC32 which serves as the USB host. Got it working in an afternoon and talking to the SpaceNavigator. Used largely the canned functions in the PIC32 libraries. Our software maven said he used a diagnostic tool on a PC to determine the USB data packets. Examining the Linux driver also gave some insight.
ghova
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Re: Can SpaceNavigator be used in embedded application?

Post by ghova »

Thanks, Oppie. I wonder if you would share the name of the PC diagnostic tool?
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