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Author Topic: VNC2 as a keyboard host - Some keyboards not detected?  (Read 7624 times)

AndersG

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VNC2 as a keyboard host - Some keyboards not detected?
« on: April 03, 2021, 06:48:15 PM »

Wondering how one would go about troubleshooting this. The device is a keyboard adapter for legacy systems. It uses a VNC2 for USB and I modified the SPI sample so that it passes on keyboard and mouse data to the main processor, over SPI.

It has worked well with the Mice and Keyboards I have tested with. Someone else is betatesting the device and had problems with the following keyboards:

WK-610 a Mini USB keyboard
Keyboardio

I have three leds connected to the VNC2. One lights when there is a device on the bus:

if (usbhost_connect_state(hUsb) == PORT_STATE_ENUMERATED)

The other two flashes when it sees activity. With the abovementioned keyboards there is no activity

What could cause this?
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/AndersG

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Re: VNC2 as a keyboard host - Some keyboards not detected?
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2021, 04:37:32 PM »

Hello,

One of the keyboards in question is an Arduino which may differ from standard USB keyboards.

If there is no traffic then maybe the set idle didn't work. More likely is that there are more than one endpoint or interface on the keyboard. The example code is the simplest one which assumes that the first interface and the first endpoint in that interface is the one to use.

                                // user ioctl to find interrupt endpoint information
                                hc_iocb.ioctl_code = VOS_IOCTL_USBHOST_DEVICE_GET_ENDPOINT_INFO;
                                hc_iocb.handle.ep = epInt;
                                hc_iocb.get = &epInfo;

It might not be of course so an examination of the config descriptor would be needed.
The USBDescriptors example code will tell you on VNC2.

The USBDescriptors program will dump the report descriptors as well. This could be helpful in debugging what's wrong.

Please note, VNC2 is a very mature product which is no longer supported by R&D. It was developed over 10 years ago.

Please note the Vinculum / Vinculum-II may not work with some USB peripheral designs, due to specific design implementations.
We have only tested with particular USB peripherals when the firmware was written many years ago.
The workaround is to use USB peripherals that are working, and disregard ones that are not working.

Another alternative is to use FT90x from our sister company Bridgetek:

https://brtchip.com/ft900/

There are significant benefits of FT9xx:

-Eclipse based IDE
-Source code for API drivers is provided
-Significant performance improvement
-Actively in development by R&D
-Improved documentation and software examples

Example code can be found in AN_360 FT9xx Example Applications.

We provide FT9xx Development Modules and a free FT9xx Toolchain for custom application development.

Best Regards,
FTDI Community
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AndersG

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Re: VNC2 as a keyboard host - Some keyboards not detected?
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2021, 07:31:58 PM »

OK. Thanks. Problem is that I do not have these keyboards here to test, but ordinary keyboards seem to work just fine. Redesigning to use somehing else than VNC2 is not an option at this point.
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/AndersG

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Re: VNC2 as a keyboard host - Some keyboards not detected?
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2021, 04:52:00 PM »

Hello,

If you can get whoever has that keyboard to run the USBDescriptors sample code and log the response then we may be able to help.

Best Regards,
FTDI Community
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