I have spent a while now sitting back watching the development of OpenWRT , and I believe it supports the Airlink101 ANAS350. While sitting back and wondering id I should take such a risk with my trusty NAS, I was looking for a solution for another idea. I post this here in the hardware forums because first I want to ascertain whether from a hardware perspective if one can "turn around" a USB port on this NAS and use it as a USB device. Specifically Use one of the USB interfaces as a USB "device" , and whether that device would be  "programmable" to emulate ANY USB device, such as a USB hard disk. I understand the software for this is a separate issue , however I would like to see what may or may not be feasible from the hardware side.

Any Takers?

I am interested in seeing replies.

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EDIT
I would prefer to keep this on track oand not have to explore irrelevant solutions. If it is not a way to hack a USB device port onto this NAS it is not relevant. I will further state that it is my intention to take this to the next step if possible and support this USB device port in OpenWRT. When I do this the community at large will benefit and see the logicalk reason why this should be a part of OpenWRT

(Last edited by markosjal on 12 May 2009, 18:23)

Strange... very similar question just came up on the Bifferboard yahoo group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bifferboard/).

Why would you want to do such a thing? Only reason that I can think of is Samba over 10/100 network is not fast enough
for you.  But with your hardware USB will probably not be any faster.

You can't make a USB host into a device, but you can get cables to connect two USB hosts.  You could also consider the
usbip project:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbip/, which I think is what you are looking for.

Since I do not know what thew bitterboard is nor  does it say in that Yahoo Group. I  would assume it is not relevant to my post.

As for the usb over etehrnet project that is like telling someone to buy a USB to ethernet adapter when they need something  to connect their USB drive to a Network

I think my post was clear and I asked from a hardware perspective only at this point, and assumed the poeple here were intelligent enough to keep the question in the context that I made it. I know thatr many USB chips will function in dev9ice OR host mode so the connector becomes less relevant.

I would appreciate it if we can keep this in the context I presented it.

The question is whether the ANAS350 can be forced into a USB device mode.

Only then can we begin to evaluate the rest of this question which I have not presenterd here in full

My response had more relevance to your post than your post has to OpenWrt.  Good luck with finding what you
need to know, especially with the 'attitude' thing going on...

Obviously your intention is to promote bifferos as your chosen nickname on thses forums clearly states.

My only attitude is against irrelevance and ignorance. Just because you do not understand WHY I want what I want does not mean that your reply is more relevant.  Clearly you ignored the intention of the post when posting your reply and this little board you are promoting looks like it does not have anything to do with my post at all.

BTW open WRT is OPEN, and therefore development of such a USB "device" driver would greatly benefit the community , when I reach that phase. Again , because you do not understand does not Make it irrelevant.
I ask the question I ask in order to begin exploring the possibility of using OpenWRT to support a USB poirt in such a way, if feasible by the hardware.  Irrelevant huh? Again, you simply do not understand my line of questioning.

I think iot is clear to sane and reasonable people that I want to know if the hardware can be used as a USB device port. Ig your reply does not address that question, it is in fact irrelevant, regardless of what solution you may think you have.  Now if this Biffboard were something to interface to the ANAs350 and offered a USB deviue port , yes it may be interesting, but I do not see that/

(Last edited by markosjal on 12 May 2009, 18:15)

Actually here I have to correct you - my use of the nickname is many years old.  Bifferboard appeared earlier this year.

Irrelevance?  Ignorance?

You failed to explain WHY you wanted what you wanted, in other words what practical purpose it served, therefore people were free to make their own assumptions, which I duly did.

I only mentioned the group as an aside, because it's not often that someone asks such a question.  I was not meaning you to chase up the details.  If I didn't post the URL it would sound stupid, because I'm saying I heard it on a forum, but I don't say which one.

When you reach that phase?  You don't seem to be able to even look up the datasheet for the CPU in your ANAS350, and to determine whether it uses the on-chip USB implementation or another external chip (at least you don't make that clear).  Not a very promising start.

I don't understand all of this sentence,  but there are already so many other programmable devices which can behave as endpoints that this would be a complete waste of time, even if it were possible.  That is unless you have some 'killer application', which you don't seem to want to share with the forum.  I still maintain that if you can flame me for posting irrelevancies, I can do the same to you in this instance.  Surely better not to start the flaming in the first place?

I suspect a lot of 'reasonable people' might be put off attempting to answer your question in case you kick them in the teeth for posting irrelevancies. 

USBIP allows one to 'emulate' a USB device, and you appear to want your Airlink to emulate a USB device.  If you don't see that as being relevant to your post then you need to re-read it.  There are few reasons why you need real hardware.  One is to make a USB protocol analyser, another might be for testing host controller drivers but if you don't say why you want something then don't complain when people go (in your opinion) off-topic.

regards,
Biff.

My post stands, I am asking about a hardware perspective ONLY about the Ambit Nased NAS.

Look who is doing the flaiming , I mean really get a life, and when a post is made reply to the post , not some off the wall solution, when you apparently did not even try to understand the post before replying. I am sure there are dozens of silutions that one can integrate, however I want to know what this hardware is capable of as it is or with only slight modification, not try to make some frankenstein that hangs off the NAS box.

BTW, this thread may explain better about what I want to do sicce you are so insistent

http://www.macsat.com/macsat/component/ … 1/#msg5010

Look at the post with today's date.

Oh yea, but you have to READ and TRY to understand it before you start flaming me there too.

(Last edited by markosjal on 12 May 2009, 22:03)

Have given this some thought (in the light of the extended info you've given in the macsat posting which.. ahem... details the *real* requirement here),

I think the route I'd go is coupling a USB -> IDE converter to your DVD player, and then trying to make your NAS look like an IDE drive.  This will probably be a lot easier than making your NAS look like a USB device.  With IDE there are only 16 data lines and about 5 control lines, and plenty of info on the net.  Not sure if your NAS has this many GPIO pins available, but it's a thought.

uC interface to IDE controller I was thinking of:  http://www.pjrc.com/tech/8051/ide/wesley.html
You can possibly use this information to implement the 'device' side of the IDE interface.

If you think implementing the device side of USB without the proper (pre-designed) hardware is anything but hard, take a look at USBTiny http://www.xs4all.nl/~dicks/avr/usbtiny/  - very clever stuff, and that's only a 'low-speed' device, quite a different thing to the full or high speed you will be looking for.

My own experience is that even when presented with the correct hardware at both ends (host and device), and the spec sheets for the host, getting USB stuff working is a bit of a black art, and not for the faint hearted.  Far better to use an off-the-shelf solution to shift the problem domain to something more understandable IMHO.

Biff.

I understand your point about shifting into hardware, but I do not see that getting USB to IDE gets me any closer to the solution. It is not the physical interface that is the only issue here. Since I need a full blown NFS or Samba client (in my case Samba) , I will need a CPU, OS and the like. I have never seen an on chip Samba , nor NFS client.

I have considered something this as this and others seem to be one of the most promising solutions I have found
http://openpattern.org/OMRPv2_board_datasheet.pdf

I am sure that time will tell as it looks like it is not shipping yet.

I am reasonable sure the Linux USB Gadget modules will emulate a USB hard disk, such as being done on the Slug2 device side USB port.

As for your comment about USB 1.X vs 2.0 speeds . I think many of the SD DVD players only support USB 1.X and I am currently encoding a DIVX file at 1024x576 and is the highest suspected resolution that My DVD player will decode (I suspect at least) , This file is about 43 minutes in Length and fits nicely on a CD (will be under 700MB) So you can see the Data rate is about 2000Kb/sec, which I also believe is about the same limit that many NAS units will stream reliably. Sure you may get higher transfer rates but I am talking about a good steady stream here. USB 1.0 maxes out at 4Mb per second and my tests with 1.x USB to ethernet adapters to my NAS seem to confirm all of this. IN fact this also is almost attainable with a USB1.X  connection to an old 802.11b adapter. I tested a 960x540 video at about 2000Mb/s data rate to a computer from the NAS via a Pegasus II 1.x usb to ethernet  and it was promising. I will not say it was perfect but this Pegasus II adapter is one of the slowest in my opinion.

__________________________

It has been a while but I also recall that these PegasusII units were one of the few supported on some game consoles that were being used for SD playback as well.  I know HD is the thing now, but one step at a time!

Mark

(Last edited by markosjal on 19 May 2009, 00:35)

Bifferos Rules!   Great Post. Love the way you debate.