USB Driver Development - Windows

There are many low cost controllers/ development boards  have USB support

1. STM32f4_discovery  

2. TM4c123

     

3.PSOC5 

They have buildin pheripherals like I2C, SPI, UART , CAN ... Making a protocol converter/ other controllers using these devices makes the price compatative ..

There are 4 ways one can write driver to these devices

1. Libusb 

2.WinUSB

3.Custom Drivers

4.CDC /Serial Driver

Libusb 

             Libusb is best for devices which requires support to other OS like Linux , MAC OS , BSD ..

It maintains common calling conventions & data structures across defferent platforms .. 

Application 

       |

User Mode Driver (dll)

       |

Kernel Mode Driver (Sys)

       |

USB Host Driver (Comes along with OS)

WinUSB 

            WinUSB only work with Windows platform .. 

Application 

       |

User Mode Driver (dll)

       |

Kernel Mode Driver (Sys)

       |

USB Host Driver (Comes along with OS)

Custom Drivers :

              Instead of using the above two drivers one can prefer to write a custom driver & maintain proprietary  issues , avoid exposing the data transfer format/ protocol .. [Still some one can hook a  USB analyser & see whats happening ]

Application 

       |

User Mode Driver (dll)

       |

Kernel Mode Driver (Sys)

       |

USB Host Driver (Comes along with OS)

Virtual Serial Driver :

              This way one can avoid supplying a driver for the device & use the pre-supplied windows USB class drivers ..

Application 

       |

Serial Port Accessing Interface 

Red Color Shows work required to do... Green - driver /Software already available ..