USB Wire Diagram

[thedude]

I Googled "USB wire diagram" and got some resualts I want to double check on. On the image side of the search I ran into a site that had this box:

Pin |Name |Cable Clr |Description

1 |VCC |Red | +5 VDC

2 |D- |White | Data -

3 |D+ |Green | Data +

4 |GND |Black | Ground

I want to double check this to make sure this is correct. I visted 3 other sites and they said the same. It will make me all warm inside if somone here can tell me if this is legit.

[Deveant]

Yep, looks right to me.

[H@L0_F00]

Next time, include the word "pinout" in your search and you might have better, agreeing results.

[thedude]

awsome you guys rule. thanks for answering my question.

[thedude]

Using the USB pinout I put above. I am going to TRY to setup a rc pc car. Where I will run a program on my computer and be able to drive my rc car. I am going to use 2 usb printer cables. One for up down and another cable for left and right.

The rc controller has 2 sticks for each pair. (Up Down, Left Right).

Will I be ok with using Transistors ? ( I got like 4 transistors)

I can send a image of my diagram if anyone wants to see it.

[moonlit]

I'm not sure what you're planning as far as wiring but I don't think what you intend to do will work. USB is a bit more complicated than your average RS232 port and needs drivers, USB controllers and other extra crap to make it do anything. If you intend to control the car via USB, you're going to need a lot more time, energy, knowledge and probably money.

If, however, you just want to slice off the plugs and only use the wires in them (that is, without connecting them to a PC) to use as an extension to a wired controller, that would work.

If you have one, I'd recommend using a serial port because they're much easier to program for and interface with. You can use a USB to serial adapter if you don't, sometimes you can cut these from old cell phone data cables, otherwise you can pick them up for a few bucks on Amazon.

You can also use the same apps, code and tools over Bluetooth if you need it wireless, you just need a Bluetooth dongle on the PC and a Bluetooth receiver of some kind on the other. The car end can either be a Bluetooth serial port or a Bluetooth module with serial pins on it, but those can both be kinda pricey. If you can code and you feel like getting fancy, you may be able to repurpose an old cell phone that has Bluetooth, but you'd likely have to pick the phone carefully. It needs to support RFCOMM (Bluetooth serial) and it also needs some form of digital output of some sort (unless you use an analog output like a speaker, and some way to decode it on the car).

Raw USB though, a couple of transistors and such won't cut it I'm afraid.

You could, however, use some other device which has outputs. For example, a useful output might be a gamepad with rumble motors, if you disconnect the motors then you have a USB-capable output device which you can hijack for your own purposes. Another example might be a wireless keyboard with Caps/Num/Scroll Lock lights (not the most practical, but use what you have).

You might also use IR, you can pick up IR blasters which work either over serial, USB or via a sound card output (or make your own), the downside is that you'd still need something on the car end to make sense of the pulses, and it'd only be line of sight.

If the car's big enough, you could use something like an old PDA or an old laptop with wifi and some sort of serial port, as long as you can write an appropriate app for either of them to receive instructions over wifi and send them out via a port the car can interface with.

There's lots of ways of doing stuff like this, it all just depends on what you know and what you have to hand. Some methods are better than others but that's half the fun, hacking together whatever makes it work. If you want to use IR or Bluetooth (or even wifi, or other wireless stuff like 315/434MHz transceivers or XBee) then you might find a cheap Arduino (or similar) quite helpful, though bear in mind that you will have to write the code for it to run on yourself.

[thedude]

I did try using old school Printer parrele plug but couldnt get the plastic off to where I can use the right wires. Any thoughts on ripping off one?

[BlueWyvern]

Whenever I needed a DB25 I would just slip down to my local electronics store and buy a new one..

something like this

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz...IwAw#ps-sellers

I couldn't find it on radioshack.com but I believe they have them. I would try to find a "Mom & Pop" Local electronics store as they would probably be cheaper and might could give you some guidance as to other things you may need.

[thedude]

Thanks BlueWyvern, I do have a couple on hand with me. I just cant figure how to strip it apart while keeping the wires. I did google a pinout to see if I can find a color wired chart.

[thedude]

Found DB25 pinout color wires. Im good yo. Peace easy