Rating: 
Summary: Who should read this book?
Review: "How can I access USB peripherals from the applications I write?" "What's involved in designing and programming the hardware for a USB peripheral?"Over the past couple of years these have been two of the most frequently asked questions in my email. My previous books, Parallel Port Complete and Serial Port Complete, showed how to design peripherals and write applications for the PC's original ports. So USB was a natural choice for the next book. When I began to look into what USB was all about, one of the first things I learned was that it's designed from the ground up to be easy to use. No more manual configuring, no more running out expansion slots or interrupt lines. Plus, USB is suitable for all but the fastest peripherals. And there's just one interface to master, not something different for every peripheral type. In a word, it sounded great. But it's not all good news. The price of simplicity for users is increased complexity for developers. And because USB is new, documentation and application notes are often incomplete or just plain not there. No matter what your background, USB will present you with challenges. But my book will enable you to skip some of the digging around and trial and error and take advantage of what I learned over fifteen months of research and experiments. The trials and tribulations (and there were some) were fresh in my mind as I wrote. Although the book's title is USB Complete, please don't expect it to contain every possible fact about USB. That would take a library. The "Complete" in the title means that the book will guide you from knowing nothing about USB to developing all of the application code and firmware required to get a USB peripheral up and communicating. I assume a basic familiarity with digital electronics and Windows application programming. The focus is on communicating with Windows 98 PCs. For the most part, the material also applies to Windows 2000. I show how to use existing device drivers, including those provided with Windows, to access your devices. I also cover the basics of the device driver's responsibilities, what's involved in writing a driver, and when you need to do so. This book isn't a guide to driver writing, however. For this, there are other excellent books. (See Walter Oney, Karen Hazzah, Chris Cant, Peter Viscarola, Art Baker, Edward Dekker.) My examples use Visual Basic. Although the process is similar for other languages, I don't include code in C, C++, Delphi, or other languages. I do try, however, to include enough commentary to enable you to translate to another language as easily as possible. The Table of Contents on this site has more detail about what the book includes. Thanks for your interest. Comments invited! Jan Axelson (jan@lvr.com)
Rating: 
Summary: What is USB
Review: After reading this book, USB is still a mystery. USB was not explained in detail and there did not seem any logical organization. The chapters on writing machine code were bizarre since this had minimal relevance to USB. A top-down approach starting with an overview or a bottom-up appproach starting from the hardware would have been better. Overall, this book does not really touch on the issues of USB and one wonders whether the author has a good grasp of the fundamentals of USB.
Rating: 
Summary: You need this book and the online examples
Review: Depending on what USB component you are using and what language you are writing your PC software with, this book may be the ultimate compilation of know-how.
The online samples are very efficient, but require you to use a Cypress USB controller which unfortunately comes a little short of a real µprocessor and only supports slow USB.
The samples get you up and running very fast, but only access the device through the HID, which may not be convenient for all the applications.
Bravo for this book. Let's hope that the next edition has good samples for bulk and isochronous transfers, as well as a guide on custom USB driver development.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmm, I'm not quite sure about this book...
Review: I can't quite put my finger on WHY. All I know is that I DIDN'T like this book at all. This is one of those books that has a lot of "filler" material. You know, historical, or arcane information - of absolutely no use to the subject at hand: but it does make the book look bigger. Also, I thought it was too technical. Admittedly, there is not too much information available about USB. Fortunately nowadays - you can just go out and purchase a ready made solution; anything not to have to wade through this book...
Rating:
Summary: Maybe not 'complete' but the best available.
Review: I couldn't believe the negative comments on this excellent book, especially the ones that harp on it not being 'complete'. I've read the other USB books (and hate several), but Axelson's book is by far the best. It's not an idiots or dummys guide, but I'm not sure that idiots or dummys have what it takes to do USB develoment anyway. You want 'complete', get the unbelievably dense specification from the USB.org folks, thumb thru that for a couple of minutes and you'll love Axelson's book. Lighten up on the gal, she did an exceptional job on a difficult subject.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn¿t have any information about USB .
Review: I didn't have any information about USB .So I have started my studies with this book and I have studied several chapter of it. I can say that this book is simple and of course It's very complete.
I am sure that this book will be helpful for my project.
Rating:
Summary: Up and running thanks to this book!
Review: I had a device I needed to control via computer and just couldn't get the serial port to do the job. Bought this book and was up and running in no time with very little starting knowledge of using USB. This book was awesome and went all the way from the basics to the in depth info I needed to complete my project. Buy the hardcopy and save yourself the headache of trying to get an ebook to work.
Rating:
Summary: Up and running thanks to this book!
Review: I had a device I needed to control via computer and just couldn't get the serial port to do the job. Bought this book and was up and running in no time with very little starting knowledge of using USB. This book was awesome and went all the way from the basics to the in depth info I needed to complete my project. Buy the hardcopy and save yourself the headache of trying to get an ebook to work.
Rating: 
Summary: Indirect & Realiant on 3rd party products.
Review: I purchased this book with the intention of learning how to communicate with USB peripherals from the PC perspective. What I later found after reading this book is that the author is heavily reliant upon 3rd party products to do the work, which simply means you'll need to pay more money for evaluation modules, and more software rather than being able to make the end product yourself. For someone who is at the hobbiest level, this book would be great perhapse, but the ultimate problem is it lets others do the work which IMO defeats the purpose of a book. If I am going to use 3rd party tools, I'll read their documentation-- not pay for a book to tell me what else I need to use. On another note, this book is an EXCELLENT reference book when you need a little refresher about other things, but you can also find this info online
Rating:
Summary: A rare combination: easy to read, complete, and accurate
Review: I teach a USB class, so I've had occasion to review every book on the subject. I've chosen Jan's book for my class text because it is, by a wide margin, the best single book on the Universal Serial Bus I've seen. Jan has the unique talent of talking directly to the user in a very friendly, clear, and easy to read style, while losing absolutely nothing in scope or detail. The chapter on how to coerce Visual Basic into making the Windows API calls necessary to support the USB HID class got me over major hurdles while preparing lecture materials. Instead of the usual kitchen sink approach, Jan zeros in on exactly what you need to know to do the job and covers it completely. And her examples actually work! If you're looking for a book that spans basic USB principles to advanced topics, all clearly explained, you can't go wrong with this book.
| 
