We have to evaluate the SPI bus implementation and drivers on one of our devices. For that we are looking for the possibility to connect the device with a PC, e.g. via a SPI to USB converter. Can any one tell where to find these comverters and if there are other types of converters available
When I needed to do the same, I built an SPI sniffer out of a processor eval board I had in the lab. A small amount of C code captured the SPI data and repackaged it to a RS-232 stream and sent it to a PC. A couple of short test clips let me look at either side (MISO/MOSI) of the data. The ability of RS-232 to handle the data depends on the speed of the SPI data in bytes per second. Even though the SPI speed was a couple of megabits per second, our byte xfer speed was low enough for 115K to work for the serial port. A utility we wrote on the PC decoded and displayed the data for us.
The biggest problem with the approach is that SPI is extremely noise sensitive. Our connections were very short and done with twisted pair to improve noise immunity.
If I thought there was any interest I'd package it up and offer it for sale.
You may be on to a business opportunity. Most microcontroller peripheral chips today are either SPI or I2C, so it seems like the need for tools like these will only grow.
I am doing this with a FT2232 in MPSSE Mode right now.
SPI is meant for board interconnect. If you think about using ribbon cable for the bus, you have to care for reflections. Resistors (100-200Ohm) at the driver sources help me with that.
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