gnusb – open source usb sensor box

The gnusb is built around an ATMEL atmega16 microprocessor and the firmware-only usb driver from Objective Development. It can read sensors, digital inputs and it control stuff, connected to the computer via USB.

The gnusb requires very little parts and is very easy and cheap to build.

Unlike familiar boards like the Arduino, the gnusb is more like a starting-point to build custom input devices (almost) from scratch, and on one board.

You start with the gnusb-core projet, which provides basic I/O facilities and USB communications, around which you build your very own thing (VOT).

The gnusb provides templates to build your own Max/MSP or PureData externals that communicate directly with the device (and not through the unreliable “serial” or the crappy “hi” objects, as far as MaxMSP is concerned…)

Basic I/O

In the basic configuration the gnusb and its Max/MSP external provide

  • 8 analog inputs
  • 16 digital inputs/outputs


But from there, the gnusb adapts easily. Our newest VideoBass is built around the gnusb, you can build a virtual mixing console like the vMix, and with some multiplexers anyaffair uses a gnusb to poll 128 sensors for their new installation Trickstr, for example…

Documentation

The official gnusb web site is now on SourceForge: http://gnusb.sourceforge.net/

License

gnusb is © 2007 [ a n y m a ] – Michael Egger
AVR-USB – firmware-Only USB driver is © Objective Development

Schematics and software are licensed under GNU GPL 2.0;
you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

gnusb is released in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this document; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
http://www.gnu.org

Download

The official gnusb web site is now on SourceForge: http://gnusb.sourceforge.net/