Writting to a USB FLASH storage device form a PIC???

Help,

I need to save data from a PIC onto a USB FLASH disk (one of those key-fob style ones) All the information I have found on PIC USB interface is for using the PIC as a slave device (ie. connecting it to a PC). I need to use it as a host.

Has anyone done this? how complex would it be for a newish PIC user?
I would appreciate any help as I'm striuggling to find anything on this topic.

Would there be an easier way? Basically I need to transfer around 16MB of data from the PIC onto a PC, without taking the PIC to the PC and preferable without the need of an additional program running on the PC.

Cheers Guys / Girls?

Chris

USB is a farily complicated interface. It might be a bit much for a beginner. Dealing with the file structure on the USB flash might be a bit tough too.

If you just want to store data to a flash Atmel makes some SPI flash IC's that are fairly easy to use. Or you could go with simple Parallel Flash.

If you need the memory to be on the USB device you need a USB host controller IC (the PC you connect the USB device to is the host and the Key fob is the device or the slave). Cypress makes a Host controller IC. I think National has one also.

Hope this helps
Brent

How are you gonna load 16 megabytes of information into the USB memory device, if you dont have anything to load the PIC with ???

There was one kind of PIC that already has the tools built in to it to allow this kind of communication. Something like a 16c75...I think

I would really try to avoid this for now as it is somewhat extremely complex. I can't stop you though..

Compact flash might be an easier solution. Compact flash uses a fairly simple parallel interface. You can buy readers for the computer side. I think I've seen schematics for this online.

Brent