Re: USB Missile launcher

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:43:09 -0700 (PDT), kadrickhenderson008@yahoo.com
wrote:

> I have a group project for a senior course at my University. We were
> assigned to choose a language and create something meaningful. The
> language we chose was Ada. Ada was a language developed for the Department
> of Defense, so we felt it would be nice to program a USB missile launcher:
> http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/8a0f/ using Ada.

Firing at the prof? (:-))

> Can anyone guide me
> through the necessary steps to achieve this. We have the hex codes to send
> to the device. The device connects to the pc via USB. I have done some
> research and found that there is a library for serial port communication
> but have yet to find one for usb.

USB communication is very different from RS-232 one.

> Any advice would be helpful.

You need a USB driver for the device and additionally, if exists, the
vendor library that talks to the device. 

It is possible to develop a USB driver if you have the device
specification, device class etc. Windows driver developing kit (DDK) is a
part of the MSDN subscription. I would not go into it.

When the device class is HID you could directly talk to it, e.g. see:

http://www.edn.com/design/communications-networking/4336292/Using-the-HID-class-eases-the-job-of-writing-USB-device-drivers 

P.S. Win32Ada is Ada bindings to Windows API. It comes with GNAT.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de