Hi Guys,

My Name is Kyle, and I would like to offer whatever help or insight I can into the issue of PC communication over a single USB Cable. Sorry for the long post, hopefully it is worthwhile

 I am a software developer with 15 years experience writing software that interacts with HID/Serial devices that act as remote controls for my software.  Although I am a newbie to Hardware/Firmware development, I recently got into the NetDuino/Arduino so that I could learn to build these HID/Serial remote control devices myself. 

I believe I might be able to help work out some of the HID issues in the UsbClient stuff (someone mentioned instablility), but I am unclear as to whether the hardware will support HID communication and .Net Micro debugging.  Since there would be a learning curve for me with writing firmware, I wanted to aske these questions before I invested too much time...

Do you guys already know if HID + .Net Micro is not possible with existing hardware, or is it worth me poking around a bit in the firmware?

Most commercial "Custom HID" devices I have worked with don't really use the Read/Write Report mechanisms. I use the HID Api to enumerate and open a handle to the device, but then I use ReadFile/WriteFile functions to communicate with device as if it were a normal Serial device.  I believe this may be the key to more stable HID communication.  Did you guys see this possibility when developing the UsbHidEchoNetduinoApp, or is it worth some investigation?

Another issue with the UsbHidEchoNetduinoApp solution is that it seems that the NetDuino needs power before being plugged into the computer (the program needs to be running).  If I intend to use the single usb connection for power, does that mean I have to have whatever HID code built into the firmware?  If that is true, is it possible to set up the firmware to communicate with the NetDuino program to customize what data is sent back and forth?

Thanks guys. Sorry for the long post, but making a single cable device is the whole ball game for me (and probably others), and I just want to offer whatever help I can.

Kyle