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Write to USB Port

 Keywords: Control Device Port USB USB001 USB002 FileCopy  

Question:

Has anyone written scripts to control vending machines and if so what kind of controller board was used? This is just like a standard candy vending machine except we dispense tooling and it’s controlled by computer with a touch screen. One of the boards I found uses the USB port. I have never written something to use the USB for communications before. When you plug in each board to a USB the computer will identify each so I will have to write something that can to different USB ports.

Answer:

Never tried automating vending machines, but I've seen scripts to control perimeter gates, gasoline pumps, and other such devices. Most of them used a standard RS-232 interface.

You don't actually write directly to a USB port. Many devices that perform basic I/O functions of a serial nature while plugged into a USB port actually have a device driver that loads and presents the device as a COM port that can be interacted with just like any other RS232 COM port. If your particular device doesn't present such an interface, and if it doesn't provide some sort of Active Control, COM server or API library to interact with it, then it is highly unlikely that you will be able to interact with it at all from within a WinBatch script.


Article ID:   W17952
Filename:   Write to USB Port.txt
File Created: 2010:03:18:08:42:30
Last Updated: 2010:03:18:08:42:30